Javier Rioyo Movies

While the Spanish Civil War had its roots in a series of internal political and economic crises, it was widely perceived as having serious implications in international affairs, and volunteers from a number of foreign nations arrived in Spain during the conflict -- some to fight alongside Franco's armies, others to join the Republican loyalists. Extranjeros De Si Mismos is a documentary centered around interviews with a number of veterans of the Spanish Civil War, including American and European freedom-fighters who aided the Republican cause as part of the International Brigade, Italians who arrived to defend Franco at the urging of Mussolini, and Spaniards who fought in the Franco-backed Blue Division -- which later went on to Russia to aid the German forces who helped defeat the Republicans. (The Blue Division veterans interviewed include Luis Ciges, later a noted actor, and Luis Berlanga, a respected director -- both of whom make clear that politics had little if anything to do with their decision to volunteer.) Narrated by actress Emma Suarez, Extranjeros De Si Mismos was shown in competition at Spain's Valladolid Film Festival in the fall of 2000. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This Spanish documentary film is like many detective stories in which the manner of the search itself is far more involving than any answers it reveals. Here, the filmmakers comb the world to try to discern how Ramon Mercader came to be the murderer of exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in 1940. Trotsky (1879-1940) was one of the original Bolshevik revolutionaries with Lenin in Russia and was a leading writer and theorist of that revolution. He served as that government's Commissar of War for six years. Trotsky had a falling-out with Lenin and was exiled in 1929. During his exile, he lived in Mexico City and continued writing. He was considered one of the main "heretics" of Russian Bolshevik Marxism, and was continually and loudly denounced by the Russian government. After bragging to friends that he would do so, Ramon Mercader stabbed Trotsky in the head with an ice pick. Mercader, who spent much of the rest of his life in prison, never revealed the planning behind his deed. On release from prison, he chose to live in Castro's Cuba, and he is believed to be buried in the Kremlin. The filmmakers traveled the world and interviewed over four dozen people in their gripping quest for answers. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi