The Spanish Earth

Poster for The Spanish Earth
MOVIE

The Spanish Earth

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.

Release Date

1937-07-10

Year

1937

Duration

53m

Status

Released

Score

6.50

#spanish-civil-war-(1936-39)

Cast

No Image

Manuel Azaña

Himself (President of Spain)

No Image

José Díaz

Himself (Parliamentarian)

Dolores Ibárruri

Dolores Ibárruri

No Image

Enrique Lister

Himself (Republican Army)

No Image

Commander Martinez de Aragón

Himself (Republican Army)

No Image

Gustav Regler

Himself (German writer)

Orson Welles

Orson Welles

Narrator (voice)

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Narrator (voice)

Jean Renoir

Jean Renoir

Narrator (voice)