Hero, Martyr, or Saint? Rewriting Anti-Franco Resistance in Manuel Huerga's "Salvador"

Abstract

Summary: The execution of anarchist militant Salvador Puig Antich in 1974 was one of the most important events in the final years of Franco’s dictatorship. It gave rise to an enormous political mobilisation in Catalonia, and acquired a crucial symbolic status in Catalan democratic culture, with Puig Antich as a myth of anti-Franco resistance. Manuel Huerga’s biopic Salvador (2006) presents a deeply engaging narrative of these events. The film, a manifestation of the drive towards so-called “recuperació de la memòria històrica” in the last two decades, has been widely acclaimed by the critics but also attacked for its sentimental, depoliticised presentation of the figure of the anarchist militant. What is at stake in the fictional revision of Puig Antich? This article analyses the uses of the past in Huerga’s Salvador by examining the social antagonisms this film might be addressing and the kinds of consensus it tries to build. [Keywords: Historical memory; uses of the past; Catalan cinema; Huerga, Manuel; Puig Antich, Salvador; Salvador; Catalan culture; anti-Franco resistance]