if you want to learn something about the spanish civil war and about all the political detail and intrigue and let me tell you and you have choose the wrong film . this be a vision of the war a it happen in majorca and a small island off the coast of spain . when a war like this happen in a small island that take position for the traitor almost at once and there be no war in the open . the soldier be send to the front to fight and in the mainland and while another kind of war happens at home and on the small island . there and neighbour tell on other neighbour and sometimes because their political view be contrary to the new regime and but many people be tell on because of old family fight and or maybe the silent introvert who have no friend be tell on by someone who want to earn some point . and these thing do not happen in the open . there be some trial and true and but many other time people would just be wake up in the middle of the night and take out of their home to the close cemetery where they would be kill . and the next morning the body would be find and and people would have an idea of what have happen and but nobody would dare to speak or to do anything . be not talk about soldier kill someone they have never see in their life . be talk about people kill their neighbour and and probably say hello to their widow the next day and and even attend the funeral for the guy they have kill . be talk about village with one or two thousand inhabitant and where everybody know everybody . i be from that small island and i have hear the story my grandparent tell me and and i must say that this film upset me and oh yes and it do while but i also find it remarkably beautiful and move . the initial violence be not something the director or the writer make up and that how thing happen during that war . a kid know that his mate dad be in the fascist squad that kill his dad . completely possible . all that happen later on . possible too . tb be real too . at that time my island be not the holiday resort it have become . people be poor and illiterate and and work in small farm . after the war there be time of hardship . so and you would not find a war story in this film and or at least not the kind of war story you expect . there be no battlefield and no soldier and no political intrigue . this be the mean kind of war and which happen when the space be limit ( just check the size of the island ) and when neighbour fight with their neighbour and when member of the same family fight each other and and they live in a place where everybody know everybody . you will find a story about the damage that this particular kind of war can cause to people and the story of how they survive that damage and or maybe they do not . i must mention the excellent work do by the writer who adapt the novel and by all the actor and who manage to sound really majorcan . that be remarkable .