Quartier Lacan

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.

Documentary stems from 1945, when infantryman Sam Fuller, member of the U.S. Army's "Big Red One," helped liberate the Nazis' Falkenau death camp. Fuller shot footage of his commanding officer's marching Czech locals, who denied knowing of the genocide, out from town to view the horrors of the death house. 40 years later, French documentary filmmaker Emil Weiss brought Fuller, who became a famous film director after World War II, back to the death camp to tell the story of the camp's liberation. Fuller's original footage is incorporated in the film.