Alex Trelinski
A leading film director is developing a movie which will depict some of the atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s.
J.A. Bayona, who directed ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ and helmed two episodes of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV series for Amazon, will shoot Manuel Chaves Nogales’ short story collection ‘A sangre y fuego'(Blood and Fire) which is regarded is one of the best fiction books about the Civil War.
He’s working with writer-director Agustín Díaz Yanes to develop a script.
Speaking at the Sevilla European Film Festival on Friday, Bayona said he had been developing the project for several years and is ‘especially interested in the humanist vision’ that Chaves Nogales showed in his novel.
‘A sangre y fuego’ features nine stories ranging from an account of Republican executions in a Madrid bombarded by Franco’s forces through to an Andalucian marquess who sets out to hunt communists with his personal death squad.
Though fictional, Nogales- who died in London exile in 1944- said the stories were based on true events and highlighted cruelties committed by people on the extreme left and extreme right during the conflict.
J.A. Bayona said that he has been in contact with the writer’s family for some time, and that he got to know the writer’s daughter, Pilar, who died in 2021 at the age of 101.
She gave him some important information to help his project become a reality.
READ MORE:
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- Spain’s Prado Museum pledges to return artworks that were stolen during the Civil War and Franco dictatorship
