23/05/2003 - David Trueba's film is about a little-known chapter of recent Spanish history, and the scars left by the Civil War, and he asks that we never forget the past

This last-minute addition to the “Un Certain Regard”, Soldados de Salamina (The Soldiers of Salamina) by Iberian David Trueba, explores the wounds left by the Spanish Civil War. Set in the present, it is about a woman journalist experiencing a life and professional crisis while investigating a little-known event that took place towards the end of the Spanish Civil War when a young soldier saved a fascist ideologist from being executed.
Trueba’s film is based on the Iberian best-seller by Javier Cercas, only Trueba’s protagonist is a woman called Lola, played by a troubled Adriana Gil (winner of a Goya in 1993). The journalist’s search for the history of her native land allows the director to give us his message about the importance of preserving and remembering recent history, and just how difficult that can be. Lola is searching for an accidental hero and ends up finding herself again, after meeting the now very old former solder.
“I don’t believe that books should be made into films,” said Trueba. “Adaptations only work when looked at from another perspective that is totally distinct from the original work.”
Produced by Lolafilms and by Fernando Trueba P.C., with support form Spanish pubcaster TVE and Vìa Digital, Soldados de Salamina is Trueba’s third feature. His most acclaimed film to date being the 1997 La buena vida.

(Translated from Italian)