The Rock

(La Roca)

Raúl Santos / Spain / 2011 / 70 min
❮
❯

  • Seville European Film Festival

    Golden Giraldillo for Best European Documentary

  • Atlántida Film Festival

    Special Mention from the Jury

  • Saratov Sufferings International Film Festival, Russia

    Special Audience Award

  • Andalusian Cinema Awards

  • Brooklyn Film Festival

  • Festival de Cine Español de Málaga

Pricing
PRAGDA STREAM: STREAMING LICENSES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS ❯
3 year DSL license with PPR$449Buy Now
Life of file DSL license with PPR$549Buy Now
K-12, Public Libraries, Community Groups 3 year DSL license$200Buy Now
INQUIRE ABOUT OTHER LICENSES AND/OR DVD AVAILABILITY ❯
Related Films
Clandestine Filmmaking in Franco’s Spain, 1960-1975Clandestine Filmmaking in Franco’s Spain, 1960-1975(Cronica D'Una Mirada)Manuel BarriosHighly Recommended by EMRO. Read the review. Now available in North America for the first time, this award-winning, six-part documentary series uncovers ...Black BreadBlack Bread(Pa Negre)Agustí VillarongaThe Spanish selection for the 89th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, Black Bread is set in the war-ravaged Catalan countryside of the early 1940s ...The Island InsideThe Island Inside(La Isla Interior)Dunia Ayaso & Félix SabrosoA dark-hued family drama set in Spain’s Canary Islands, The Island Inside relates the story of three siblings on the run from themselves. Martin wants ...I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love YouI Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You(Viajo Porque Preciso, Volto Porque te Amo)Karim Aïnouz, Marcelo GomesIn this award-winning and hauntingly melancholic film, geologist José Renato travels to Sertão, an isolated region in Northeastern Brazil, to assess ...BertsolariBertsolariAsier AltunaBertsolaritza is an ancestral, completely improvised, form of Basque poetry. Anachronistic? Not at all: the bertsolari, with their spontaneous creation ...
Synopsis

Spanish with English subtitles

In 1969, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, closed the entrance to the British territory of Gibraltar, isolating 30,000 people without food, water, or telephone lines. In his words, “The Rock will fall like ripe fruit.”

La Roca is an epic Romeo & Juliet-type love story between the massive Rock of Gibraltar and its neighboring Spanish city of La Linea. Despite being declared enemies by their countries, the people of both cities depended on each other, got married and lived happily with their bilingual children. They used to be inseparable.

Eventually, indoctrination on both sides and Franco’s sudden decision forced the separation of thousands of mixed families. Over 13 years families met at the border every Sunday to look through binoculars at their estranged lovers, brothers, parents, and babies – screaming, “Daddy loves you” from a distance.

How could this happen? What is the story behind this tragedy?

Franco is now dead but the pain caused by the closing of the gates scarred the population for life. Gibraltar and La Linea have never gone back to their initial love and the area still seethes with tension.

Related Subjects
About the Director
Raúl Santos started his career in Advertising in Madrid as a creative director and creating his own company. He lived in London, Paris, and Berlin working for Dior, Loewe, Fnac, British Airways, etc. He jumped into film in 2009 enrolling in the MFA Social Documentary program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He graduated in 2011 and received the Paula Rhodes Award “for deeming his work exceptional.” He has produced, written, edited, and directed five shorts, awarded in international film festivals. The New York Times mentioned him as a “rising Spanish director.” La Roca is his first feature-length film.
Press

“La Roca examines the relationship between the British territory of Gibraltar and the nearby Spanish community of La Linea...A sad, thought-provoking film, this is recommended.” – M. Puffer-Rothenberg, video librarian

“This film has gone beyond all expectations of the audience and critics… an excellent cinematographic piece… a load of conflicting emotions that lead to laughter, sadness and yearning.” – Juan José González, EUROPA SUR

“Thrilling, very thrilling… if there is anything we can learn from this documentary it’s that the people should not pay for the mistakes of their rulers. Our children should watch this.” – Carmen González, CADENA SER

“The lucky viewers of La Roca enjoyed filmmaking in bold letters thanks to this magnificent documentary…” – Miguel Olid, ABC

“I fell in love with Pepa, the old lady who serves as the backbone of this choral story about forced uprootedness. Although real and human, she looks like a character of good magical realism.” – Juan Carlos Soriano, DOCUMENTOS RNE

Download
❌