DVD Review - The Stolen Years

This movie, which takes place in Spain in 1947, is based on a true story. Jaime (Ernersto Alterio) and Tomas (Jordi Molla) are students who are part of an anti-Franco group. They decide to paint the campus with graffiti but are caught before they can get away. In order to set an example they are sentenced to eight years of hard labor. While this may seem extremely harsh you have to remember this was carried out under a Fascist regime.

A few of the young men's comrades plan an elaborate escape from the prison. Things don't go exactly as planned and they wind up being helped by two young women (one is an American and one is a Canadian). The film turns into a road trip comedy where the four people get much closer (if you know what I mean). But all the while there is the undercurrent that these two men might get caught and be sent back to prison for an even longer time.

While the film is far from a masterpiece I enjoyed it for what it was (one of the best films on the Spanish Civil War is Ken Loach's Land and Freedom). Fernando Colomo does a nice job of directing his actors and the two male leads are particularly good (I am a big fan of Molla's). At the end of the film we are shown a picture of the real men who actually left Spain in 1948 and could not return for thirty years. I wonder how the people of Spain survived all of those years with the dictator Franco in charge and I greatly admire them for now making their country one of the most progressive nations in Europe and the world.