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One of the witnesses, the writer Antonio Muñoz Molina, remembers how the entire process of integrating soldiers was normalized by stripping very young boys of their identity, dehumanizing them and standardizing their behavior. The violence that existed in military service was popular knowledge and that is why there were so many men who did not want to go there, so many others who were afraid of going to be soldiers and so many families who suffered before the arrival of this useless stage . The documentary puts words, faces and terrible details to a collective secret that was a kind of national heritage. This ultra-masculinity was sold as the maximum gallantry of the Spanish army, but all this had another side. And faran a home he teaches it, explains it and, most important of all, removes this patina of tradition, of military culture, with which violence was disguised. Another type of sexist violence, because it is also based on gratuitousness, the law of the strongest and the desire to harm the people who were detected as the most vulnerable.
The documentary recovers archival images of the practices and training of the military service, the spaces they occupied and the routines. These are sequences that, observed from today’s perspective, are perceived as ridiculous. On the other hand, the images of the exercises of“evasion and escape” of the COEs should cause a major political and media upheaval at the state level.
Since most of the story is built on the testimony of former soldiers who suffered abuse and harassment, the narrative incorporates symbolic images that represent the terror they endured. Perhaps in some cases there is an excess of repetitions of this resource and the use of dolls to make the violence more graphic.
The stories of the protagonists are striking and distressing and the pain they still carry becomes evident. The testimony of film critic Àlex Gorina is extremely shocking when he reveals the gang rape he suffered. “I can’t believe I’m the only one,” he says perplexed. He is right. And the email that appears at the end of the documentary to collect more victims of such cruelty makes us think that And faran a home it is only the tip of the iceberg of a scandal that should deserve, at the very least, an institutional response.
Mònica Planas Callol is a journalist and television critic
