Review of Anatomia de um Instante, based on a book by Javier Cercas that dissects 23F

November 20th will mark 50 years since the death of dictator Francisco Franco and it is the relevant date chosen by Movistar Plus+ to launch Anatomy of a momentthe series based on the book of the same name by Javier Cercas in which he dissects failure 23F 1981 coup d’état which left the nation in suspense.

There are many virtues in a four-part miniseries titled A Falangist from the provinces, A revolutionary against the coup, A coup plotter against the coup and All the blows of the coup each of them focused on a key figure from those images we saw again and again.

The first in Adolfo Suárez, the second in Santiago Carrillo, the third in General Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado and the last in the recidivist Antonio Tejero and in the military trial that took place approximately a year later.

Fiction is based on meticulous recreation “from the inside” of the events that we were able to see thanks to the recordings of the RTVE Congress of Deputies that documented the tension of a decisive moment in the history of our country.

The interesting thing is that, instead of literally repeating the interpretation that has always been given to the gestures of those involved and sticking to a simple explanation of the facts, it investigates them in depth, analyzing the political climate, ideological positions and, ultimately, the chessboard on which a country in full transition to a true democracy has become, with a swamp of conflicts of interests.

Also humanizes and demystifies figures who were part of our collective imagination as heroes, examining their loyalties and betrayals and showing that everything was hanging by a thread and could have been wasted extremely easily.. This atmosphere of threat is extraordinarily well conveyed by the soundtrack composed by Julio de la Rosa.

Travel to the past to understand the present

If you’ve been to the Congress of Deputies, you may have been impressed by the solemnity, size or even the smell of the Chamber, but what’s impressive is seeing the bullet impact holes in the ceiling. This takes us back to the moment when they tried to take power by force. It brings to mind the figure of Civil Guard lieutenant colonel Tejero with a tricorn hat and raised revolver, of Gutiérrez Mellado facing the coup plotters and refusing to kneel, of Suárez and Carrillo petrified, with confusion, stupefaction and fear.

This is the starting point: the curiosity, the ambiguity, the arcane in full light that surrounds an event known to everyone as the military coup of Tejero, Milans and Armada that almost returned us to the starting box, but which continues to preserve an aura of unfathomable mystery.

To understand the picture it is necessary to remove many things by traveling to the past, reconstructing ambitions, projects and changes, tons of changes for a regime in deconstruction, like the Franco regime, from which we still cannot completely escape despite five decades since his death.

Anatomy of a moment It has been described as “One of the main works of Spanish-language literature of our time” why and how. The narrator’s voice does not die in its translation to the small screen and guides the story, examines and judges the characters and even reflects on the reverse path they took from reality to fiction in a brilliant metalinguistic echo.

Everything about this production is brilliant: the careful artistic direction, the narrative tension, the photography, the characterizations and, above all, the interpretations with Eduard Fernández, Manolo Solo, David Lorente and Álvaro Morte in the main roles. Alberto Rodríguez (The tigers) acts as a masterful director of actors, but also has an exquisite and dedicated cast that works like a fable. He was undoubtedly the perfect director to tell this story, if we take into account his previous filmography, with films such as The man with a thousand faces any Model 77with which he had already faced the challenge of telling us fictionalized real events.

Movistar Plus+ is crowned once again with one of the best fictions of this year and shows his chest showing that it is an overwhelming original production factory.