6.4 /10 1 Votes
6.8/10 Music by Darius Milhaud Initial release 13 June 1945 (France) | 2.8/5 AlloCine 3.5/5 Cinematography Louis Page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Directed by André Malraux
Boris Peskine Produced by Roland Tual
Edouard Corniglion-Molinier Written by Max Aub
André Malraux (novel: L'Espoir
Antonio del Amo Starring Andrés Mejuto
Nicolás Rodríguez Directors André Malraux, Boris Peskine Characters Attignies, Commandant Pena, Pilot Marquez, Schreiner, Saidi, Capitan Munoz, González, Peasant Producers Édouard Corniglion-Molinier, Roland Tual Screenplay André Malraux, Max Aub, Boris Peskine, Denis Marion, Antonio del Amo Cast Andrés Mejuto, José María Lado, Pedro Codina, Julio Peña, Serafín Ferro Similar Mollenard, Love Cavalcade, The Spanish Earth, Madame Bovary, To Die in Madrid |
Espoir: Sierra de Teruel (English title: Days of Hope or Man's Hope) is a 1938-39 Spanish-French black and white war film, directed by Boris Peskine and André Malraux. It was not commercially released until 1945. Malraux wrote the novel L'Espoir, or Man's Hope, published in 1937, which was basis for the film. The director won the 1945 Prix Louis Delluc award.
Contents

The crash of a Spanish Republican Air Force Potez 540 plane near Valdelinares inspired André Malraux to write the novel.

Different years are given for the film's completion. The novel was published in French in 1937 and in English in 1938. The film uses war footage from 1938 and was edited, and other scenes shot, during 1938-1939. It was finished in July 1939 and shown twice in Paris, but the Francoist regime applied pressure to censor it. All known copies were destroyed during World War II, since both Spain and France were ruled by Fascist regimes sympathetic to the forces that shot down the plane. A copy was found and the film was released again in 1945. In Spain, it was banned and was not screened until 1977, after the death of dictator Franco.
Plot

Spanish Republican forces fight against the better-equipped Francoist armies in the desolate Sistema Ibérico mountains of the Province of Teruel in 1937.