The read
A Balasaur Score of 69 out of 100, drawn from IMDb 6.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes 80%. Critics rate it 15 points higher than audiences do. It runs a compact 53m.
Synopsis
Joris Ivens’s advocacy documentary for the Republican cause intercuts a besieged Madrid with a nearby village digging an irrigation canal, linking the war to bread, land, and survival. Produced by the writers’ collective Contemporary Historians, edited by Helen van Dongen, scored by Marc Blitzstein, and narrated in its U.S. version by Ernest Hemingway (after an initial Orson Welles track), it blends frontline reportage with persuasion against Franco’s forces and their German–Italian backers.
Ratings
IMDb6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes80%
Critics rate it 15 points higher than audiences do.
22 audience votes
Key crew
- Prudencio de PeredaWriter
- John Dos PassosWriter
- Lillian HellmanWriter
- Archibald MacleishWriter
- Ernest HemingwayWriter
- Joris IvensDirector
- Joris IvensWriter
Cast
- Manuel AzañaHimself (President of Spain)
- José DíazHimself (Parliamentarian)
- Dolores IbárruriHerself
- Enrique ListerHimself (Republican Army)
- Commander Martinez de AragónHimself (Republican Army)
- Gustav ReglerHimself (German writer)
- Orson WellesNarrator (voice)
- Ernest HemingwayNarrator (voice)
- Jean RenoirNarrator (voice)
Themes
spanish civil war (1936-39)