Jorge Amat

In july 1936, the civil war began in Spain, and it would last three years. Since then, it has constantly been a subject for fascination and controversy. What could have pushed leftists from all over the world to fight for a cause that their governments rejected? Why did young men leave their work, their family and their country, so they could join a fight that was somehow a rehearsal for World War II? Nearly 40.000 people enlisted to defend their ideals on a foreign territory. Chronicles Of Hope doesn't intend to describe the events of the civil war in a one-tracked political mould; the human dimension is here the center of interest.

Famed film director Luis Bunuel (1900-1983) is the subject of this French documentary, with anecdotal interviews edited thematically into sections highlighting Bunuel's contradictions --"Surrealist and Moralist," "Iconoclast and Traditionalist," "Sadist and Sentimentalist."

1974 saw the end of beans. The Halles were being destroyed. The extreme left was hesitating between the Molotof cocktail. The heirs of May '68 had not yet taken power, and desire was still in the streets. The characters seek an escape from their social alienation. We don't know whether they're living their desires or prisoners of hallucinations.