Spanish Civil War

Filmmaker Profile: Antonio Perez Molero, END OF WAITING TIME

During the long dictatorship of Spanish General Francisco Franco, hundreds of people were arrested, executed or disappeared. In END OF WAITING TIME, filmmaker Antonio Perez Molero talks with the families of those who vanished and have begun to search for answers about their relatives. The film will air at 10:00 PM on September 20 on Global Voices on PBS WORLD (check local listings). Learn more about the film and the challenges he faced.

Filmmaker Antonio Perez Molero

What has the reaction to the film been like?
In general, despite the delicate subject, the documentary has been well received.

The Spanish Civil War and its aftermath is still going on 70 years after it ended. It’s a continuous cause of debate amongst the Spanish people. We can’t agree about the causes, the events or those who are responsible. Now, however, these differences, happily, are fought through talking and writing—or making films and documentaries.

Perhaps the only thing that the vast majority of Spanish people have agreed on is the right of the families of war prisoners to recuperate the remains and memories of their loved ones. That may seem obvious today, but it has required a transformation of several years for Spanish public opinion to acknowledge that the moral right of family members should prevail over the long held fear in Spain that any kind of investigation of our civil war, even with a humanitarian objective, might lead the country to open old, painful and dangerous wounds.

This is the main theme of our documentary—the family members and their struggle to recover the remains and memories of the disappeared. And in fact, the majority of the people who have seen the documentary appreciated it, independently of their political inclinations.