Amparo Climent pays tribute in ‘Las Cartas Perdidas’ [The Lost Letters] to all the women repressed by Franco’s dictatorship

The Time of History section at the 66th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) screened today Thursday 28th October 2021 the feature film Las Cartas Perdidas [The Lost Letters], by Amparo Climent. The film, which is participating out of competition, is a tribute to all the republican women who suffered the repression of Franco’s regime after the coup d’état and value “the great work they did,” as the director explained.

Las Cartas Perdidas arose from the fact that there is a great lack of knowledge about women and their experiences during and after the coup. Climent, present during the presentation, explained that they “suffered double oppression and extreme violence just because they were women,” said the filmmaker, who was accompanied by María Isasi, Ana Gracia, Gloria Vega, Chupi Llorente, Natalia Huarte, Miriam Tejedor and Teresa del Olmo, as well as producers Pilar Sancho, Néstor López and Giovanna Ribes.

After the coup, over 250,000 Spaniards were imprisoned in concentration camps and jails. Women suffered harsher repression. Many of them wrote letters to their relatives or friends during their experience.

Before the screening of the feature film, Zorrilla Theatre screened the short film Un Memorial Contra la Injusticia y la Barbarie [A memorial Against Injustice and Barbarism], by Diego Morán. The short film has a double function: to remember the victims and to bear witness to injustice and barbarism. Its presentation was attended by Julio del Olmo, who said “it’s a wound that, after 80 years, is still open.”

Las Cartas Perdidas and Un Memorial Contra la Injusticia y la Barbarie will be screened again on Saturday 30th October at 12:00 noon at Cervantes Theatre.