Cesar Franco

Spain 1960, the dawn of the country's economic development. Industrial "reorganization" means that many workers have lost their jobs and are forced to emigrate. Martin is one of them. Martin, his wife Pilar and their son Pablito live with Mart'n's parents in a basement apartment that comes with their job as superintendents of the building. Encouraged by Marcos, his friend and co-worker, Martin…

The war of 1870-1871, largely forgotten and eclipsed by the two World Wars, was nonetheless a decisive conflict that changed the balance of power in Europe.

The war of 1870-1871, largely forgotten and eclipsed by the two World Wars, was nonetheless a decisive conflict that changed the balance of power in Europe.

Jonathan Meades looks at the architectural legacy of one of Europe’s most notorious dictators - Francisco Franco. He reveals that Franco’s lasting contribution to Spanish architecture wasn’t in the dull official buildings he commissioned, but in the tower blocks of tourist towns like Benidorm.

The war of 1870-1871, largely forgotten and eclipsed by the two World Wars, was nonetheless a decisive conflict that changed the balance of power in Europe.

At the end of a bloody civil war, Francisco Franco seized power and ruled Spain with an iron hand for nearly four decades. Under his leadership the conservative, monarchist armed forces staged a coup against Spain's democratically elected republican government. The insurrection was supported by Italy and Germany. Three years of bitter fighting followed and by April 1939, Spain had become a different country. The hostilities and political purges cost half a million lives.

With the recent exhumation and removal of Franco's remains from a public mausoleum for the fallen - a symbolic gesture by the current socialist government to give the 500,000 victims of the Spanish Civil War their rightful recognition - this Storyville documentary is a timely reminder of Spain's traumatic past. Filmed over six years, it reveals the epic struggle of the victims of Spain's 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, as they organise a groundbreaking international lawsuit and fight a government-sanctioned 'pact of forgetting' the crimes that they suffered. A cautionary tale about fascism and the dangers of forgetting the past.