While at War

While at War (Mientras dure la guerra, 2019) is a Spanish historical drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Alejandro Amenábar. Karra Elejalde plays Miguel de Unamuno — philosopher, rector of the University of Salamanca, and the most prominent intellectual voice in Spain — who, in the opening weeks of the 1936 military uprising, sides with the rebels. He expects order. He gets Franco.

The film tracks how quickly that initial judgment becomes impossible to walk back. By autumn, Unamuno's endorsement has been folded into nationalist propaganda, and the men he helped into power are executing people in the streets of Salamanca. The script doesn't let him off easily — this is a study in how a brilliant mind can rationalise its way into complicity, and how long pride can hold out against conscience. The confrontation between Unamuno and General Millán-Astray at the university's annual ceremony — the scene the entire film is built toward — is written and played with a precision that makes it hit harder for how quietly it arrives.

Amenábar's first return to Spanish-language material in years, the film claimed fifteen Goya Awards including Best Film and Best Director. A precise, unsentimental piece of work about the cost of choosing the wrong side and then discovering too late what that side actually was. Stream While at War online on iFILM.