Katleho Ramaphakela

Best friends Dineo and Noni plan to take on the party scene together, but things change when Noni's boyfriend spontaneously proposes.

From a chance encounter of some ruins next to a train track, we discover one of the darkest episodes from Spain's past: the forced labour system implemented during Franco's dictatorship. ESTOS MUROS is an investigative documentary, which arises from the chance discovery of a poem written on the ruins of a building near a train track during filmmaker Alberto Pascual's childhood. From this lonely moorland in the Sierra de Madrid, we discover one of the darkest episodes in Spain's history, namely Penalty Redemption through Labour, a legal device that allowed, during the Franco regime, public and private companies to use republican prisoners as forced labour. In the film, we witness the filmmaker's research by delving into archives and libraries, listening to children of reprisal victims, meeting with childhood friends with whom he had played in those ruins, unaware of their origin and meaning, and interviewing experts who have studied the Penalty-Redemption system from their various disciplines. Throughout the research process, we discovered testimonies, publications and photographs, which explain how Penalty Redemption through Labour was used in virtually all economic sectors throughout the country. —Alberto Pascual Rodríguez