Land and Freedom

1995 1h 49m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

★7.3TMDB · 310

WarDramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Summer 1936: young unemployed communist David Carr leaves Liverpool to join the fight against fascism in Spain. He joins an international group of Militia-men and women, the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista). After being wounded, he goes to Barcelona, where he joins another group of fighters.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Ian Hart
David Carr
Rosana Pastor
Blanca
Frédéric Pierrot
Bernard
Icíar Bollaín
Maite
Tom Gilroy
Lawrence
Angela Clarke
Kitty
Eoin McCarthy
Connor
Suzanne Maddock
Kim

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ken Loach
Writers: Jim Allen
Languages: Catalan, English, Spanish
Countries: United Kingdom, Spain, Germany

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 8% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

31 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Catalan, English, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: United Kingdom, Spain, Germany.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ken Loach, shot by Barry Ackroyd. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by George Fenton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jonathan Morris shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ken Loach directs. Barry Ackroyd behind the camera. George Fenton scores. Jonathan Morris cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United Kingdom, Spain, Germany. Dialogue in Catalan, English, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 8% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
331 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Catalan, English, Spanish.
5International production across 3 countries: United Kingdom, Spain, Germany.
6Directed by Ken Loach, shot by Barry Ackroyd. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by George Fenton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Jonathan Morris shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Ian Hart and Rosana Pastor and Frédéric Pierrot carry the top of the cast.
10IMDB entry: tt0114671 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 10 themes, including "worker", "spain", "solidarity", "revolution".

The technical file

Cinematography: Barry Ackroyd
Original score: George Fenton
Editing: Jonathan Morris
Production design: Martin Johnson
Costume design: Ana Alvargonzález
Makeup / hair: Annie McEwan
Runtime: 109 min · 1h 49m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,000,000
Box office: $228,800
Return: 8% of budget
Original language: EN
IMDB: Land and Freedom (1995)

Awards

Sant Jordi Prize
César Award for Best Foreign Film
European Film Award for Best Film
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Cannes
Turia Awards

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Ken Loach

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-07-24
★ 6/10
“David” (Ian Hart) is stuck in Liverpool in the late 1930s with little by way of prospects, so he decides to go and fight for the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. He readily makes friends and is soon joined up with POUM, a collection of Marxists where he encounters “Bianca” (Rosana Pastor) and discovers quickly that this is a brutal conflict. His ‘side’ are united in their intellectual detestation of fascism, but thereafter he soon discovers that there is little else that glues this disparate group of communists together and after he is wounded, he heads to Barcelona where he finds even less satisfaction amongst an urban militia whose agenda is just as pragmatically conflicted as it is dogmatically joined up. What else to do but to return to his original group, but with the war rapidly coming to a conclusion and him realising that uncomfortable compromises are having to be made, is there any future for him here or might he just try to make it back home? Though this film is undoubtedly trying to make a statement, I found it to be completely devoid of nuance or characterisations. The theory of the friend of my enemy is my friend seems to be the mortar that underpins their battle plan, and yet it becomes clear that these people soon stop fighting for “the” cause and start fighting for “a” cause, In fact, it could be “any” cause that suits their generalised opposition to anything that isn’t to the left of Stalin. Indeed, the Soviet lack of commitment to their cause would suggest they might have been too extreme, or out of control, or possibly it was their total inability to contemplate compromise or conciliation that might have deterred them and just about anyone else from supplying them with arms or victuals. The message here labours the solidarity of the “left” as though it is some sort of unified holy grail of human existence, but just like that fabled object it is never going to be found by “David” or anyone else. The film despises the rise of the right in parts of Spain, but makes no effort to address why it was succeeding - beyond unsubstantiated rhetoric that somehow makes their own cause every bit as militaristic and oppressive as the one it was fighting so valiantly to resist. It presupposes a worthiness amongst these socialists to be judge and jury and depicts the contrary institutions, especially the church, as limbs of a extremist government - but it relies on the viewer’s own convictions about that to make it’s point rather then use these characters to prove they are better, or fairer or more honest and decent. The behaviour of Tom Gilroy’s “Lawrence” epitomises some of those attitudes effectively. Many of the local population viscerally affected by these years of relentless bullets and bombs were desperate for it all to end but that is the last thing these freedom fighters want and by the conclusion, well I felt that they came across more as war tourists who would fight where there was a fight to fight rather than people who actually cared about the fabric of the nation they were in. It is a provocative subject that had huge opportunities to shine a light on the unstoppable rise of nationalism from the Apennines to the Pyrenees in this turbulent decade, but instead it uses a really quite mediocre cast to score some lacklustre points and then just fizzle out. Pity.

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