Keyword Spanish Literature

A look at the life and work of Spanish filmmaker and film critic Fernando Méndez-Leite, as he writes his memoirs and a novel with autobiographical resonances.

Spain, April 14, 1931. The Second Republic is born. From the beginning, the writer Miguel de Unamuno is considered one of the ethical pillars of the new regime. Five years later, on December 31, 1936, a few months after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Unamuno dies at his home in Salamanca, capital of the rebel side, led by General Francisco Franco, and main center of dissemination of its propaganda apparatus.

An account of the life and work of genius Spanish writer Francisco Umbral (1932-2007), author of almost 200 books and more than 1000 articles; as well as an analysis of his both hieratic and strambotic public figure and certain unresolved personal enigmas in order to find an answer to what a real dandy is in this modern and convoluted times.

Fernando Fernán Gómez (1921-2007), actor, writer, playwright and film director, was for decades one of the most important figures in Spanish culture. His close friends and relatives reveal another facet in which he stood out above all: that of being an excellent conversationalist, capable of hypnotizing and seducing those who listened to him.

The life story of Vicente Miguel Carceller (1890-1940), a Spanish editor committed to freedom who, through his weekly magazine La Traca, connected with the common people while maintaining a dangerous pulse with the powerful.

An account of the life and work of the Spanish poet Luis García Montero; a journey through his experiences, his mentors, his influences and his contact with other artists, both from the literary world and from other disciplines.

A young woman, who has inherited her grandparents' huge house, a fascinating place full of amazing objects, feels overwhelmed by the weight of memories and her new responsibilities. Fortunately, the former inhabitants of the house soon come to her aid. (An account of the life and work of Fernando Fernán Gómez [1921-2007] and his wife Emma Cohen [1946-2016], two singular artists and fundamental figures of contemporary Spanish culture.)

The incredible life of Jorge Semprún (1923-2011): son of a republican intellectual; exiled in the early days of the Spanish Civil War; survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II; clandestine communist in Spain during Franco's dictatorship; controversial socialist politician; acclaimed writer, screenwriter and filmmaker.

An account of the life and work of the charismatic Spanish writer Terenci Moix (1942-2003).

The usually absent father of a chubby kid shows up to take him on a road trip.

Logroño, 1959. The death of a local authority creates a double expectation in his family, the coming of the TV set the deceased bought and the mayor to attend the funeral. His grandson (Airas Brispo) will witness the grotesque situations.

An account of the childhood and youth of the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010, and how the hard experiences he lived during these formative years led him to write and publish his first major work when he was only 26 years old.

On the occasion of awarding the Cervantes Prize to the Catalan writer Juan Marsé on 23 April 2009, family members, friends and writers offer a sincere portrait of the best chronicler of life in Barcelona, Catalonia, during the post-war period and the worst days of the General Franco dictatorship, in the forties and fifties, and during the economic development and the hard conquest of freedom, in the sixties and seventies.

A journey through the fantastic and mysterious Barcelona that the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1964-2020) loved so much, the city of myth and legend, the city that was before it became one of the main European tourist destinations.

How Don Quixote de la Mancha, the immortal character created by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605, has been depicted in cinema, television, cartoons, theater, opera, ballet and other artistic disciplines. An adventure that began more than four hundred years ago in the pages of a book and is far from coming to an end.

2015 marks the 20th the anniversary of the film "Stories of Kronen" by Montxo Armendariz, based on the novel written by José Ángel Mañas. As a result of the success of that novel, a great number of writers bursted onto the Spanish literary scene: The Kronen Generation. In those years, Luis Mancha wrote a book called "Kronen Generation", made up with interviews of those writers. Now he tries to reconnect them to recall what happened with them in the forgotten 90 years and what is going on now.

The poet and playwright Lope de Vega is already a priest officially. The love affairs of the Spanish writer and actress Lucía Salcedo, whom he nicknamed as "La loca", are publicly known. Cervantes dies. Lope falls madly in love with Marta de Nevares. She is an intelligent and delicate woman, interested in literature and music. The two attract and live a romantic story.

From his office in Barcelona, where he usually works, Spanish writer Juan Marsé speaks of his novels, the movies that have been made from them, their relations with the classic American cinema and its influence on his narrative.

A portrait of Spanish comic book author Paco Plaza.