And the military history (and film) aficionados...
In American high schools (or at least in mine) our history teachers usually make only a brief glissade over the events of the Spanish Civil War on the run-up to WWII; we hear about the communists fighting tooth and nail (the international brigades inevitably described with either the faintest tinge of pride or disdain depending perhaps on how well your teacher enjoyed reading Hemingway and Orwell, and their relative age circa 1969) against the forces of General Franco's army, buttressed in no small part with recruits from the Rif (the where? they may as well have said Mars, for all we knew of toponyms and geography of North Africa...we'd certainly seen more pictures of the former) before the fascists finally took Spain.
It's a history usually summarized in the space of an hour, and mostly seemed to be just a big 'setting-of-the-scene' for the inevitable weeks of coursework spent on the rise of European fascism, everyone's favorite doughtiest (and doughiest?) head of state, Churchill, and the Cold War*.
So in a much-delayed history lesson that greatly amplified the few minutes we spent covering this particular episode of world history, I've just finished watching The Moroccan Labyrinth, a well-researched and -presented Spanish documentary about the Spanish occupation of the Rif and northern Morocco, its battles against Abdelkrim's resistance movement, and the Spaniards' eventual victory that gave rise to the fascist party, Franco supporters, and the Spanish Civil War.
Through interviews with Spanish historians, soldiers, and Moroccan men who fought in or witnessed these battles, archival footage (including some shocking historical photographs), the filmmakers have pieced together an engrossing history of this period in European-Moroccan history. It covers over 40 years of history, including covering the guerrilla tactics of Abdelkrim's army, the Spanish policy (or rather, lack thereof) of occupying Melilla and its environs, the civilian Spanish population's distaste for "the African War".
Echoing JMG Le Clezio's novel Desert, one of the Moroccan combatants who fought under Abdelkrim mentions that when he attacked the French army (who by then had become the allies of the Spanish), they weren't ever fighting "Frenchmen" -- they fought an army corps composed of Senegalese and other west Africans.There are plenty of moments in the film that give pause for thought.
What might sound like a one-sided account of European brutality is really rather nuanced and presents an open telling of the complications, brutalities and immediate and long-term consequences of early twentieth-century colonial warfare. Particularly striking are the comments from the Moorish falangists who, driven by hunger and poverty, admit to their willingness to join the Spanish army that had bombed and killed their fathers just to have something to eat; praise for their fair treatment as soldiers comes bracketed with bitter words of being tossed out of Iberia following Franco's victory, left with only their false legs and the familiar knots of hunger and poverty in their stomachs.
While the final segment on contemporary clandestine immigration to Spain feels tacked on at the end, the comments from young Moroccan boys about their perspective of this period of their history makes for a fine ending. (Though one wonders if one 12-year-old wearing a well-worn Che Guevara shirt and eulogizing Abdelkrim was intentional or a coincidental irony lost on the boy...)
Personally, I think the film is worth watching simply for the first-hand testimony of this quickly-disappearing generation of Moroccans (many of them octo- and nono-genarians, forcément).
Icarus Films, by the way, distributes some first-rate documentaries on a full spectrum of subjects from independent filmmakers worldwide. Their films are really meant for schools or organizations etc. but are sure to interest most anyone. So if you don't have the institutional budget of say, a university (and a very compelling speech prepared to woo your acquisitions librarian) definitely look for these at your library or any organizations you might belong to. It's worth the time and money, and you'll be supporting independent artists, too. (The good karma will come back to you, eventually...)
Also see these films (among many, many others) from Icarus Films :
Bruly Bouabré's Alphabet (short and highly recommended); The Underground Orchestra (musicians in the Paris Metro); We Loved Each Other So Much (on Lebanese chanteuse Fairuz); The Perfumed Garden, and Home, or Maids in My Family.
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*(I can still envision my white-bearded and tie-dye-tshirt-wearing history teacher leaning heavily on his wobbly wooden podium, expounding at length about Stalin and Germany. We took copious notes. (Those of us who weren't asleep.) Mine were beautifully color-coded...I was so proud of them I actually kept them around for years...though I don't know that they particularly helped me ace the test...)
Images courtesy the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Kasama Project, and this forum, respectively.
