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Franco on Trial is a documentary film by Dietmar Post and Lucía Palacios. After the success of Franco's Settlers (PL 084DVD), their first exploration of Franco's dictatorship, now they investigate one of the darkest chapters of European history: the crimes committed in Spain during the 1936 coup, the subsequent civil war (1936-1939), and during Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975), which could only be established with the cooperation of Germany, Italy, and Portugal. After a Spanish judge's attempt to prosecute Franco and his generals for crimes against humanity failed in 2010, Franco's victims filed a case in Buenos Aires, known as "Querella Argentina". An Argentinian investigating judge, María Servini, has now issued 24 international arrest warrants for high-ranking representatives of the Franco dictatorship. The filmmakers accompany her as she tries to initiate court proceedings against the accused, proving that a reappraisal of Spain's darkest chapter is long overdue. Franco on Trial investigates specific cases presented in the "Argentinian Complaint". By interweaving never-before-seen archival material with current footage and contextualizing each case historically and juridically, the film reveals new evidence. In one of the key scenes, when one of the suspected perpetrators is confronted directly with the accusations by the plaintiff, the investigating judge and the plaintiff's lawyers, the film creates a sense of the impending lawsuit's significance. For more than twenty years Palacios and Post have been investigating Spanish "historical memory". Franco on Trial is the result of over ten years' work. During that time the directors managed to gain access to people from both sides of the conflict, including the daughter of a general in the 1936 coup, who still cherishes a silver-framed portrait of (and personal present from) the German Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Franco on Trial reveals an almost forgotten part of 20th century European history and considers whether the "Argentinian Complaint" will become a Spanish Nuremberg. DVD content: Germany, Spain 2018, DVD 9, NTSC, no regions. Film running time: 102 minutes; Total running time: 121 minutes. Includes 16-page booklet in German, English, and Spanish. Subtitles: English, German, Spanish.
