A war to talk about another war: Francoist’s censorship of "Los que no fuimos a la guerra"

Abstract

The ideological division between Alliedophiles and Germanophiles due to the outbreak of the First World War was one of the most significant episodes of polarisation in Spain in the first third of the 20th century. Los que no fuimos a la guerra, based on the novel by Wenceslao Fernández Flórez, brought this discussion to the viewer in the Spain of «Desarrollismo». Its director, Julio Diamante Stihl, understood that with his adaptation he could win the permissiveness of the authorities and critically reflect two opposing Spains. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the content of the film was not directly critical of the Franco’s regime, nor did it explicitly allude to the Civil War, the censorship authorities hindered and demeaned the film, possibly because they considered Julio Diamante’s militancy to be more important than other artistic considerations.