The inhabitants of the Pyrenees who helped hundreds of refugees escape from Nazism: the film based on the ‘Freedom Routes’

The projection of Frontera at the 70th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week (Seminci) has brought to the fore the urgency of recovering historical memory as a tool to understand current challenges.

The director Judith Colell He has defended that “reviewing the past and recovering memory are the only way to understand what is happening.” This conviction runs through both the narrative of the film and the speech of its team, which underlined, in the press conference that took place after the screening, the validity of the moral and social dilemmas that the film proposes.

Set in 1943, Frontera reconstructs the history of a small town in the Pyrenees where its inhabitants, defying the restrictions of the Franco regimehelped hundreds of refugees who fled from Nazism cross the border towards France.

The film is inspired by real facts: around 80,000 people crossed the Pyrenees between 1943 and 1945, risking their lives on the so-called “Freedom Routes”.

The feature film is a Spanish-Belgian co-production, and has a cast headed by Miki Esparbé, María Rodríguez Soto, Asier Etxeandía, Bruna Cousin, Jordi Sanchez y Kevin Janssens.

The documentation process has been one of the biggest challenges for Colell, who explained in the presentation that “there is not much written on the subject, but I did find articles and books that talk about pins. All that material was very interesting, I discovered fascinating stories of people, some even close to the Franco family, who They helped people escape from the Nazis”.

The director has also highlighted the importance of photographic and pictorial documentation, as well as consultation with specialists, to faithfully recreate the atmosphere of the time.

The film was shot in several languages ​​(Spanish, Catalan, French, German and the Pallarès dialect), which reinforces its choral chronicle and its vocation for collective portraiture.

The photography of Andrew Adam Rubiralta It turns the Pyrenean landscape into another character, with a light that contrasts the luminosity of the day and the darkness of the time.

Colell has pointed out that “the Pyrenees It is not only a stage, it is an emotional mirror”, and has highlighted the work of the artistic team in costumes, art direction, sound design and photography to achieve an atmosphere that transmits fear, constant alert and latent threat.

The script of Frontera explores the moral complexity of its characters, located in a microcosm where those who help without hesitation coexist and those who, after looking the other way, end up committing themselves despite the risk.

Miki Sparbéwho plays Manel Grau, a customs official with a Republican past, has explained in Seminci that “the characters live with a latent fearbut they understand that helping is not an option, but rather it is their nature, their way of understanding life.”

The actor added that “at a time when we all live paralyzed by barbarism, Frontera It is a call to action”, and has summarized the message of the film in one sentence: “The people save the people”.

The human dimension and moral ambiguity are also reflected in the character played by Asier Etxeandíawho has stated in Seminci that “the interesting thing about human beings, the most beautiful thing of all, is that nothing is what it seems. We are all victims of a warit doesn’t matter what side you’re on.”

For its part, Maria Rodriguez Sotowho gives life to Mercè, has highlighted that the film “tells what is not said, the silence, the people’s gossip and how you rebuild yourself”, and has defined the story as a construction “from the wound and from a peace so fragile that it is like glass.”

The production team, made up of Marta Ramirez, Jordi Frades y Gervasio Iglesiashas insisted on the function of cinema as a vehicle of memory and ‘collective healing’.

Frades has commented that “all therapies involve remembering.” Colell herself has defended the need for cinema and series to continue addressing historical memory: “We must continue doing memory recovery exercises, not only with films, but also with series. Only in this way can we understand this complicated and dark present that we have.”

Reflection on memory acquires special relevance in the current context, marked by conflicts and migration crisis.

Colell has stated that “this is so important now, in the midst of genocidelike three years ago with the migratory phenomenon.” Along the same lines, Rodríguez Soto has stressed that “memory is a political fact, a pending subject for the Spanish State and for humanity in general.”

Con FronteraJudith Colell proposes one historical thriller that transcends the reconstruction of a little-known episode of the Spanish postwar to challenge the viewer about individual and collective responsibility in the face of barbarism, the fragility of peace and the need not to forget.