Los jinetes del alba

Gritty drama about a Spa in Asturias region of Spain before and during the Spanish Civil War. Great screenplay which develops the characters and slowly reveals the complexities of a community plunged into a civil war where all have to choose a side. Historically was very accurate and portrayed both sides with incredible realism. Shame this has not been broadcast as much as it warranted as it is a worthy classic drama series.

Historical as well as spectacular television series formed by 5 episodes , concerning Spanish Civil War , including good cast , nice production design , sensitive as well as evocative musical score by Jose Nieto and acceptable filmmaking by Vicente Aranda . Wartime drama about a spa , its owners and political idealism centered on a group of revolutionary people , being perfectly played by an all-Spanish-star-cast . Set in a spa hotel of fresh water called ¨Las Caldas¨ during the Asturias revolution (1934) and subsequent Spanish Civil War . Located in Las Caldas (LLanes) where lives Marian (Victoria Abril) , she is daughter of Adamina (Gloria Muñoz) and niece of the Spa proprietress (Graciela Borges) . When her mother and Doña Amalia passed away , her hopes of owning the spa are fulfilled . During Asturias revolution in October 1934, her boyfriend Martin (Jorge Sanz) joins some revolutionaries but he is forced to escape . At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936) Martin joins the Frente Popular group and unites the Republican troops who are fighting the Nationalists and against the General Franco army . Meanwhile , Marian goes to Oviedo where attends a brothel whose owner is a Madame called Doña Elvira Rossi (Claudia Gravy) . Revolutionaries (Maribel Verdu , Carlos Tristancho , among others) take on the problems of battling not only the nationalists, but also factions on the left seeking to impose a more traditional military structure . Then occurs confrontation between FAI, CNT , AIT , anarchists followers of the leader Durruti , regular troops of the Republican government, Stalinists and Troskists.

This interesting historical story is a passionate retelling and a touching warlike drama . "Riders of the dawn¨, being adapted by the same director along with Joaquim Jordà from a story by Jesús Fernández Santos . This moving as well as strong story is an emotive recounting and a stirring melodrama , including nudism and strong as well as ordinary sex scenes . The TV series originated an intense discussion in Spain about its principal theme , the Spanish Civil War . The series has some powerful , rousing images as when a crowded train filled with revolutionaries arrives in Las Caldas and when the horse flock go downing from mountains , Picos de Europa, to the village . These horses are called ¨Asturcones¨ and their origin results to be Celtic . ¨Jinetes Del Alba¨ or ¨¨Riders of the Dawn¨results to be other of the innumerable stories to deal with dramatic deeds regarding the Civil War background . A familiar theme about the global horrors of a fratricide war , impossible to forget to Spanish Cinema and TV . Vicente Aranda also writes the script and being filmed in his usual formal and stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the thought-provoking issues , in terms of dramatic and narrative excitement . The main problem has to face "Jinetes Del Alba", beyond not being able to avoid falling into the politic pamphlet is precisely derived from the coldness of its staging, which eventually become monotonous over 250 minutes of footage . This is a Spanish big budget production and obtained limited success in the Spanish television . Excellent main cast forming an enjoyable human group of players and giving excellent interpretations . Very good support cast playing villagers , Franquistas or revolutionaries such as Pedro Diaz Del Corral , Antonio Iranzo , Conrado San Martin , Manuel De Blas , Nacho Martínez , Jordi Dauder , El Gran Wyoming and many others . Perceptible as well as evocative musical score by Jose Nieto , Aranda's usual . Including a spotless pictorial cinematography by Juan Amoros , he carries out a photography with juicy atmosphere , being filmed on location in Llanes , Vidago , Gijon , Oviedo , Asturias ,Gijon . Cameraman Juan Amoros is deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameraman with a long artistic career . Furthermore , a willingness , almost perfect of the elements of each shot , every sequence, every space .

The motion picture was lavishly produced by TVE , being professionally directed by veteran filmmaker Vicente Aranda ; however , the series doesn't work at all and packs sluggish scenes , flaws , gaps and many images reveal nothing . Aranda directed a series of award-winning movies firmly establishing him as one of the best Spanish filmmakers . His usual film editor is own wife , Teresa Font . Vicente is an expert on literary adaptations , as he has adapted four novels written by Juan Marsé Canciones Amor en Lolita's Club (2007), El Amante Bilingüe (1993), Si Te Dicen Que Caí (1989) and La Muchacha De Las Bragas De Oro (1980). Vicente often shoots strong erotic scenes , being ¨jealousy¨, a customary issue in his films . Vicente has been working from the 60s with ¨Fata Morgana¨ , ¨Las Crueles¨ , ¨Novia Ensangrentada¨ , ¨Clara es el Precio¨ , among others . His greatest successes were intense dramas with plenty of sex such as ¨Pasion Turca¨ , ¨Intruso¨ , ¨Tiempo De Silencio¨ , ¨Carmen¨ , along with a delinquency tale : ¨El Lute¨ I and II starred by Imanol Arias , his fetish actor along with Victoria Abril (They have worked together 12 times) . His biggest hit was ¨Amantes¨ , although originally intended to be produced as an episode of the TV crime anthology series 'La Huella Del Crimen 2' (1991), before producer Pedro Costa decided to rewrite the script as a theatrical film . And specially the historical story titled ¨Juana La Loca¨ also dealing with jealousy .

this plays like a Spanish 'Jewel in the Crown', in which the lives, loves, hopes, fears, hates, mysteries of a small group of people are played out against, and fatally influenced by, a defining period of unrest in the history of a once great empire, in this case the Civil War of 1936-39. Like the British series, the key historical moments are played off-screen, reported in concise intertitles or through the hackneyed medium of radio, but their effects pervade the film's varied, but connected, narrative.

i don't know if the original novel here has the same status as Paul Scott's tetralogy, but you can always tell the film is based on a novel: the structure, the symbols, the narrative momentum, the interplay of characters etc., are all very literary. Unlike 'Jewel', however, which seemed to record every dialogue in the four books in a series of static tableaux, 'riders of the dawn' presents the skeleton of each episode, so that obviously crucial relationships (eg Rachel and Marian) are sketchily presented and lack dramatic impact.

The benefit, however, is immediately apparent: whereas 'Jewel' ground to a halt through inert narrative movement, every scene so interminable by the end you'd forgotten how it started, 'Riders' moves fleetly, using plot-friendly stereotypes rather than getting bogged down in historical complexities. The film even tries to be cinematic, the camera is constantly prowling, there is an early, undeveloped self-reflexive interest in voyeurism, and even the odd attempt at meaningful composition.

The film is, rightly, aimed specifically at a Spanish audience who will readily understand the resonance of names, dates, pictures featured; the film doesn't try to explain the Civil War, its causes, just its impact. There is an admirable cynicism in the treatment of both sides - the Fascists are either doddery old buffers or sadistic killers; the left are trigger-happy, proto-hippy thugs. There is no narrative of initial rapturous idealism and humanitarianism here - the film suggest that any doctrine is incompatible with human endeavour (how easy it is to think so now). So even an impromptu outburst of the Internationale, which always brings a lump to my throat, is quashed by murderous caprice.

The film centres around Marian, whose mother is housekeeper for the local spa-owner Amalia. Marian, for some reason, seems to believe the spa, where the local elite congregate, is hers, and spends the whole movie manoeuvring to control it, leading her to make Faustian decisions that compromise her humanity.

There are the usual historical epic plots - a love story with a revolutionary that turns sour; families divided by rival ideologies, and, especially, a complex interlinking of sex, as desire and commodity, and power, both personal and political.

Although the Civil War is usually seen as a site for modernity's two totalitarian ideologies, Aranda insists on the Spanish context, a religious background that goes through perverse superstitions to the Gothic - a subplot involves a web-fingered child born to Marian's mother and a crazed hermit, locked underground like Kaspar Hauser. The hatreds and obsessions brought to a head by the war are shown to have deep, rotting roots, all linked to the soil.

The film is also about Marian's growth to (sexual) maturity, which allows for many loving sequences of Victoria Abril uninhibitedly 'finding' herself, part of the film's misogynistic dialectic, which reduces women to sexual bargaining tools, putting the series on the same level as the powers it would castigate.