Madrid at The Spanish Civil War.

 Imagine Madrid today. Imagine that the site of the Prado Museum is an esplanade, a shopping centre car park. Or an office building.

Imagine that the art gallery is only the memory of a great building that disappeared like many others, burning with its treasures or collapsed, in a brutal war, like all wars, but more cruel, as it was a war between brothers. 

The Spanish Civil War.

That came very close to happening.

From the outbreak of the war, the most coveted prey was Madrid, which agonisingly resisted fascism, and the latter did not hesitate to use the air force to indiscriminately bomb the civilian population. The shells became a horrible routine, which also damaged the city’s heritage.

Save the Prado! is a thrilling adventure story that tells for the first time on film, how a group of people chosen by the Republic, painters, intellectuals, activists and museum technicians, with the help of many men and women volunteers, most of them illiterate, understood the importance of the mission they had been entrusted with. To preserve the artistic treasure for future Spaniards.

To remove from danger the paintings transported in heavy, slow lorries, travelling thousands of kilometres on leaky roads, crossing rivers by hand, stored as best they could in cellars, dodging accidents like the ruins that fell on Goya’s paintings of 2 and 3 May, a premonition. 

As the Republic crumbles, the paintings travel along the Mediterranean coast into the heart of Europe.

Save the Prado! It has the pace of a war film, to keep you gripped, it is a flight forward, with a latent enemy lurking. But it is also a story full of humanity. Of feelings that begin with an idealistic naivety, and that reality gradually sours.

This is the story of Josep Renau, a young and impetuous poster painter, director of Fine Arts during the war. Of his wife, Manuela Ballester, also a painter and activist, a couple with a strong character, who often clash, but remain united in their mission. It is the story of Timoteo Pérez, the painter in charge of the transfer, a hero with the appearance of an oficinist; and of his wife, the poet Rosa Chacel. Of Azaña. It is the story of many anonymous characters with whom we end up becoming familiar; and who we see how they wear themselves out in this agonising mission.

This is a little known story, because the fascist dictatorship was in charge of hiding it for forty years, for not recognising the merit of the enemy, for not recognising that they were the cause of the barbarity; and that I use as the first propaganda of the regime, appearing as the saviours in many European newspapers.

 

Most of those who made this mission possible crossed the frozen Pyrenees amidst the human flood, ending up in a concentration camp. While the cadres returned to a grey, fascist-subdued country, travelling by night, crossing Europe at war under Stukas, in a train that caught fire and almost derailed, dodging danger until the very last moment.

None of the protagonists of this story returned to their homeland. They went into exile and most of them we do not even remember their names. But we are grateful to them. They lost the war, but they won their battle.

Save the Prado! is a story that must be told. And animation is the perfect tool to do so. With a direct graphic language that allows to cover so many scenarios and protagonists.

After watching ¡Salvad el Prado! the viewer will never see Las Meninas with the same eyes again.