A series of documents about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) are used to offer different points of view about this period in history. It is also a chronicle of Franco’s regime. The death of Federico García Lorca, the bombing of Guernica, the defence of Madrid and the international brigades are just a few of the episodes that make up this documentary. The film was shown with a revival of the 1956 Henri-Georges Clouzot Documentary THE PICASSO MYSTERY to celebrate Picasso’s 85th birthday.
The poster art is by Peter Strausfeld. Strausfeld was interned in the Isle of Man at the Onchan Internment Camp during the War where he met the Austrian producer George Hoellering. In 1947 Hoellering opened the Academy Cinema on Oxford Street and invited Strausfeld to produce some posters for the cinema which he did in wood and lino-cuts till his death in 1980.
The Academy Cinema, built in 1913, was saved from conversion to a shopping arcade in 1928 by Elsie Cohen of the original Film Society, who proceeded to run it as an arthouse which is how it was ran till it's closure in 1986.
The posters became a London landmark, in fact very few were used outside of London, resulting in very small print runs of 3-500. Most of these posters were printed at the prestigious Westminster Press and Ward & Foxlow.
The poster is in very good unfolded (rolled) condition.