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Melchor Rodríguez, el ángel rojo (Melchor Rodríguez, the red angel)

Alfonso Domingo
84' / 2016 / Spain
Web: www.documentales.org
Spanish
English subtitled

Melchor Rodríguez García, a native of Seville, a former bullfighter, an anarchist of the CNT-FAI, saved the lives of thousands of right-wing people during the Spanish Civil War. However, his humane stature -a model in the middle of that fratricide conflict- is little known of the public.
Melchor Rodríguez, who was imprisoned more than thirty times during his life, was appointed Especial Delegate of Prisons during the mandate of anarchist García Oliver as Minister of Justice. In the exercise of his functions, at the end of 1936, he stopped the “sacas”, the illegal removal of prisoners from the prisons in Madrid and the “paseos”, the kidnappings of people to be executed, putting his life in danger many times, as when he faced a mob at the entrance of the prison in Alcalá de Henares. Later, as Town Councillor and last republican Mayor of Madrid, after the coup of colonel Casado, he was in charge of handling Madrid to the Francoist troops. Despite his humanitarian acts, he was judged by the victors and condemned to 20 year imprisonment, though he just served five. His funeral in 1972 brought together anarchists and members of Franco’s Regime, a unique case in Spanish history. His life seems a fiction film. As he put it, “you can die for your ideals, but never kill for them.”

Main Festivals & Awards

2º premio concurso Imaginera centro estudios andaluces

Director's Biography

Alfonso Domingo (Turégano, Segovia, 1955) has a University Degree in Journalism and in Political Science, specializing in Latin American studies. A Journalist specialized in international information and a war reporter, he is the director of documentaries (more than a hundred works, 20 series, four national and international awards), and writer. Several of his books have won awards.
Lastest Filmography:
Recovered Memory (5x60', Argonauta Producciones and TVE, 2006), a documentary series of five chapters on the Spanish civil war; Souls Without Borders, the History of the Lincoln Brigade, (56´, Diagrama Productions and TVE, 2006). Sahel, our bank (3x60', Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso, Argonauta Producciones, 2009). Under All flags (118'), Spaniards in World War II (TVE and History Channel). Co-director We Were Sleeping, We Woke Up (90', 2012), on the movement 15-M. Co-director Invisible Heroes, Afro-Americans in the Spanish Civil War (Argonauta and Duende Pictures, 75'). Melchor Rodríguez, the Red Angel (83', Argonauta, 2015).
Bibliography (Fiction and non fiction):
La madre de la voz en el oído (The Mother of the Voice in the Ear) (1992); El canto del búho (The Singing of the Owl) (2002); La estrella solitaria (Lonely Star), (2003); The Flight of “Cuatro Vientos” (2003); Retaguardia (Rear) (2004); La serpiente líquida (The Liquid Snake) (2005); El ángel rojo (The Red Angel) and Historia de los españoles en la II Guerra mundial (History of Spanish in World War II) (2009).El espejo negro (The black mirror) (2011); El enigma de Tina (Tina's crux) (2013); Ballad of the Billy the Kid (2014).