Just as fans of Sapkowski's prose and games from CD Projekt Red could tremble
with, as it turned out, right fears when the first rumors about the seriesadaptation of The Witcher appeared, people associated with anarchism could beafraid of another movie project of the streaming platform. The matter is soserious that it is about an authentic, flesh and blood character with anextremely rich biography, namely the Spanish anarchist Lucio Urtubia. ---- Tryingto contain my pessimism, I waited for the premiere of a film called Un hombre deacción - translated as Man of Action. The director was Javier Ruiz Caldera -known mainly from light and comedy productions, but I checked it only after thescreening. ---- As I mentioned before, Lucio is a very colorful character and hisbiography is definitely suitable for a movie. And we already had a sample of thisin the form of a 2007 documentary with the telling title Lucio - a fraudster, abricklayer, an anarchist. I mention this film not by chance, and not only tohighly recommend it. I have the impression that the writer and director of thefeature film Man of Action also watched this documentary. The first act of thefilm is a well fictionalized biography, bringing associations with what we havealready heard about Lucio. And very well, because thanks to this we meet a youngboy who grows up in a poor family in Francoist Spain. The narrative allows us tounderstand what prompts Lucia to break the law for the first time - a nobledesire to help her sick father. We see how fate forces him to emigrate and settlein Paris. We get to know, to some extent, the realities of the Spanish politicalemigration of that time. We learn how the young Spanish bricklayer Lucio isgradually introduced to the world of political anarchist activity. The viewer canhear about Bakunin, Kropotkin or Proudhon, and even about Louise Michel. Ofcourse, these are only hints, but it's still nice that Urtubia's political pathis decently depicted. Unfortunately, with the appearance of another famousSpanish anarchist, Quico Sabaté (Francesc Sabaté Llopart), the film moves moreand more into a story about robbers and counterfeiters. Of course, Urtubiia andSabate committed several bank robberies together in order to raise funds forpolitical activities. Unfortunately, their activities are depicted in such a way,that the political aspect and reasons for these activities gradually disappearsomewhere. There is a light tone in the narration. On the one hand, it certainlyallows you to gain some sympathy for the main character, but on the other hand,it increasingly marginalizes his motivations and the entire political context. From the film we will not learn what repression the Spanish immigrants werepolitically subjected to in France, and only in passing do we learn that deathawaits them in their homeland. This is the fate of Sabate and it seems to be thelast dramatic moment in the film. From now on, Lucio's story is more and morelike a story about a nice, sympathetic thief - a cheater whom we root for,although we understand his motivation less and less. The meeting between abricklayer and his future wife during the student protests in May 1968 certainlyhas such a narrative style. Here we can still hear something about themotivations behind these protests, get to know a bit about Ann, his chosen one.Unfortunately, their feeling allows for a well-known scenario in which love isopposed to ideas and actions, which must also lead to dramatic, but clichédchoices: family or revolution.We are still presented with the authentic fate of the hero, his spectacularactivities consisting in organizing a network dealing with the printing of bothcounterfeit documents, as well as money and traveller's checks. The historicalcontext is gradually evaporating from this story. Historical figures and eventsdo appear, but rather in anecdotal form. We will not learn that in FrancoistSpain, death sentences were carried out against oppositionists at that time - inaddition, using the barbaric method of suffocation with a hot rod, we will notlearn how the actions of military juntas in South America, e.g. in Argentina. Theworld's indifference to Franco's dictatorial actions and the normalization ofrelations with that country or consent to the criminal actions of other regimesfueled and motivated Urtubiie and his companion to act. We will not understandwhat the increased activity of groups such as Action Direct, RAF or Euskadi TaAskatasuna, but also of extreme right-wing groups meant in Europe at that time.The atmosphere and context of historical events in Europe and the world wereessential to the actions of Urtubia and his companions, but there was not enoughspace for that in the film.The story begins to focus on what is actually the most spectacular scam, i.e. thecounterfeiting of City Bank traveller's checks - then the largest bank in the world.This action was intended to allow the group to raise the necessary fundsconstantly divided according to the pattern, one part for living, one part forpolitical activities and one part to support prisoners. Standing up to thecapitalist giant from the US unfortunately causes trouble for Lucio. Not only arethere problems with the law and the police, to which he has already becomeaccustomed, but also suggestions that there have also been more dirty tricks onthe part of bank representatives wanting to end the activities of the gang.Eventually, just like in real life, a deal was made with the devil and the checkcounterfeiting stencils were sold to a City Bank emissary. An ordinary bricklayerforced a large corporation to negotiate with each other and pay a ransom to stopoperating. We basically have a happy ending here. Unfortunately, this is a happyending to a film mainly about a thief-swindler, not an anarchist active until hislast life. At least that's the impression that the further we go into the story,the more we stray from the motivation and the idea, so that we have to remindthem with the credits at the end.https://federacja-anarchistyczna.pl/2022/12/12/anarchista-znetflixowany/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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