Franco's Settlers

During the Franco dictatorship from 1939 to 1975, around 300 new model villages were founded throughout Spain. The aim was to settle impoverished farmers. On the one hand, this was intended to curb the increasing rural exodus, and on the other hand, the new settlers were supposed to increase the fertility of the barren Spanish landscape. Ideologically, the settlement program served to educate a new type of person—hard-working, God-fearing, and loyal to the regime. The documentary film Die Siedler Francos (Franco's Settlers), shot between 2008 and 2012 by Grimme Prize winners Lucía Palacios and Dietmar Post, paints a detailed portrait of the village of Llanos del Caudillo (The Plains of the Leader), founded in 1955. The development of the small community is embedded in the general context of Spanish history from Franco's seizure of power to the present day. Conversations with current residents, former teachers, administrators, engineers, politicians, historians, and sociologists alternate with archival material, some of which has never been shown before. The focus is on the question of how to deal with the legacy of the dictatorship. A legacy that continues to deeply divide Spanish society to this day.