​Tuesday, February 14, 6:30pm

“I’ll Get You Out of Here, Abuelo!” (Armengou/Belis, Spain, 2013)

Q&A with Montse Armegou, Spring 2017 King Juan Carlos I of Spain Chair in Spanish Culture and Civilization

General Francisco Franco buried thousands of people in the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of The Fallen), a monumental memorial constructed in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial by his government. The place is a symbol of the dictatorship. The UN has suggested that the site be transformed into a museum.

“I’ll get you out of here, Abuelo!” (directed by Montse Armengou and Ricard Belis in 2013) invokes the solemn promise made by Joan Pinyol, the grandson of a Republican soldier whose body was disinterred from the grave where he was buried and forcibly transported to the Valle de los Caídos without the consent or even the knowledge of his relatives.

Today hundreds of families like the Pinyols, whose relatives are buried in the Valle de los Caídos, are fighting for the right to remove their loved ones and bury them near their homes. But there are many logistical and political obstacles involved in this reclamation. By telling this story, the filmmakers uncover intimate and public struggles over political memory in Spain.

Q&A with Montse Armengou to follow.

This endowed Chair was established thanks to a gift from Carroll and Milton Petrie.

With additional support from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA).

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