SIERRA DE TERUEL (DAYS OF HOPE) © Restauration CNC - Les ACACIAS
Sierra de Teruel (Days of Hope): the epic tale of a film shaped by history
André Malraux’s film Sierra de Teruel (Days of Hope) presented in the Cannes Classics section is a film about war, shot during a war, and shaped by war. Because of the war, the writer-director would never see this adaptation of his novel L’Espoir (Man’s Hope) as he had imagined it on the big screen. Today, the CNC has restored the film to be as close as possible to Malraux’s vision.
When Malraux shot Sierra de Teruel (Days of Hope) in 1938–1939, he was not operating as a conventional filmmaker. He was someone who was deeply involved in the Spanish Civil War and a former pilot leading the España Squadron. Filming began in Spain in 1938. The crew filmed in Barcelona, Tarragona, and Montserrat, but the war caused difficulties. The Montjuïc studios in Barcelona were regularly bombed, and filming was hampered by power outages, etc.
The film was banned by Franco in Spain, censored in France before the war, and then largely destroyed by the Germans during the Occupation, yet Sierra de Teruel (Days of Hope) survived thanks to a copy hidden under a fake title (Drôle de drame (Bizarre, Bizarre)) and a second negative that was sent to the United States. After the Liberation in 1945, the film was finally re-released under the title Espoir (Man’s Hope), but it was not exactly the same. The editing had been altered and an opening speech by Maurice Schumann was added to ensure the film’s importance in the history of the Resistance.
People were unaware for a long time that another version existed. And yet, an original copy has survived: it was sent to the United States and is now preserved at the Library of Congress. Today, the restored version is the result of a partnership between the CNC, the Cinémathèque française, Les Grands Films Classiques, André Malraux’s family, and the Library of Congress. The original edit and the music by Darius Milhaud have both been restored.
In 1939, Jean Zay wanted to show it at the Festival de Cannes, out of competition. But the war prevented the screening from going ahead. Nearly nine decades later, Sierra de Teruel (Days of Hope) is finally returning to the place where it should perhaps have been screened all along.
