While at War

July 1936, Spain. Nationalist troops march to Salamanca, declaring a state of war against the elected government. Miguel de Unamuno, one of Spain’s leading intellectuals and former rector of Salamanca’s University, remains skeptical and reluctant, hesitating to publicly condemn the onset of fascism. Driven by a combination of intellectual arrogance and senile stubbornness, he refuses to directly stare at the monster, until it breathes heavily on his back. A firm warning against passivity and naïveté in times of unrest, and a painful reminder that tyrants who are initially a bit of a joke, often end up wiping the smile off people’s faces.