Francisco Franco is the most important and most controversial figure in the emergence of modern Spain. How did Franco rise to power and what use did he make of it? The film examines the formative influences on Franco. The film traces his vision for Spain and his success or failure at realizing it. In December 2003, Spain marked the 25th anniversary of democratic transition. The 20 November 2005 was the 30th anniversary of General Francisco Franco’s death. The time is ripe for a fresh overview of the personality of Franco. The Caudillo has remained an enigma for many. Our documentary is an attempt to observe him more accurately and in more detail than ever before. Unlike many reportages and documentaries on Franco, our film will not be solely a history of twentieth-century Spain but an analysis of the various aspects of Franco’s reign as well as a study of the man. Franco’s legacy had been an unprecedented era of peace and order, undergirded by his authoritarian grip on the country. While forced political stability enabled Spain to share in the remarkable period of economic development experienced by Europe in the 1960s, it suppressed, but did not eliminate, longstanding sources of conflict in Spanish society. The economic and social transformation that Spain experienced in the last decades of Francoist rule complicated these tensions, which were exacerbated as the regime drew to a close. At the time of Franco’s death, change appeared inevitable. The form that the change would take and the extent to which it could be controlled were less certain. The general died after having ruled with a strong hand in an authoritarian dictatorship that had begun in 1939. Surprisingly, Franco’s death marked the start or acceleration of the process of democratization that managed in only a few years to completely tear down a regime created after the victory of the Nationals in the Civil War. The Spanish people managed to find compromise following a Civil War during which both parties inflicted high levels of damage upon the other. Indeed, after Franco’s death, instead of dwelling on the past, the Spanish opted to dedicate themselves to the salvation of their collective future. Franco, who had spent his childhood during the turbulent first half of the twentieth century and who thought of himself as a military officer in every conceivable respect, thought the Spanish to be a society prone to anarchy, chaos, and violence — all factors resulting in poverty, which, in his mind, demanded their reigning in through a short and taut leash. Yet, following his death, the moderate, pacifist and tolerant nature of Spanish society was allowed to flourish. This lucid account provides an excellent introduction to Franco’s rise to power and his four decades as autocratic head of state in Spain. We seek the answer to Franco’s enduring career in the social, economic and political evolution of twentieth-century Spain, and in the personal characteristics which enabled the General to take advantage of those circumstances. Our film documentary will examine Franco’s formative influences, and the use he made of power once he had achieved it. View the trailer Go to the pressroom Directed by: Philip Selkirk