The Spanish Earth

The Spanish Earth

6.5

Jul 10 1937

1h 53m

Documentary

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.

Manuel Azaña

Manuel Azaña

Himself (President of Spain)

José Díaz

José Díaz

Himself (Parliamentarian)

Dolores Ibárruri

Dolores Ibárruri

Herself

Enrique Lister

Enrique Lister

Himself (Republican Army)