.
This film is based on paintings, drawings and sculptures
made by Picasso between the y ears 1902 and 1949.
''Guernica,'' painted during the Spanish Civil War,
provided the main focus of this film.
We would like to thank...
...as well as the Museum of Modern Art and the Louis eLeiris Gallery
for providing us with all the necessary documents.
Guernica...
is a small town in the Bis caye region,
the traditional capital of the Basque Country.
That's where the oak tree be came the sacreds ymbol
of Basque freedom and traditions.
Guernica's relevance is mainly historic and s entimental.
On April 26th, 1 93 7, in the early afternoon hours,
a s eries of Nazi planes incessantly bombed Guernica
for three and a half hours.
The city was burnt to the ground.
2,000 people died-- all civilians.
The bombing was part of an experiment
to determine the combined effects of incendiary and explosive bombs
on civilian populations.
Friendly faces by the fire, friendly faces in the cold
Oppressed, humiliated, beaten, kept in the dark,
Friendly faces faced with nothing
Poor faces, sacrificed
Your death will be a warning to all
Death, an overthrown heart
The y made you pay for bread with your life
They made you pay for the sky, the earth,
Water and sleep, with your life
They made you pay for misery
Sweet actors,
So sad but so sweet,
Actors in perpetual drama,
You weren't expecting death.
The fear and courage to live and die
Death, so difficult and simple
Women and children have the same treasure in their eyes
Men safeguard it the way they can.
People in Guernica are simple people.
We've read it in the paper, over a cup of coffee:
somewhere in Europe, an army of killers is marching ov er humanity.
Somewhere in Europe... at our doorstep.
Bullets finish off the dying.
Bullets play with children, better than the wind...
Women and children have the same red roses in their eyes.
Their blood for all to see
Odd to think we were scared of lightning, scared of thunder.
How naive. Thunder's an angel and lighting its wings.
We'd never been to the basement, for fear of seeing nature's horrors.
Wearing helmets and boots-- polite and handsome men--
aviators drop their bombs. With such care.
Down on the ground, chaos.
Blood on the men. Blood on the beast
A harvest, repugnant and more disgusting
Than the butchers, so pure and clean.
Try to control a beast feeling impending death.
Try to tell the mother why her child died.
Try to bring comfort in destruction.
One night remains, that of war,
Sister of destitution and daughter of death, repugnant, frightening.
Monuments of distress
Beautiful ruins
Mines and fields
Brothers, here you are, rotting
And broken bones.
The earth turns in your orbits
You, rotting desolation
Death interrupted the comfort of time
You are now left to worms and ravens
When you were our most vibrant promise.
U nder the dead oak tree in Guernica,
to the ruins of Guernica,
under Guernica's pure skies,
a man came back, holding a bleating lamb
and a dove in his heart.
For all men, he's singing the pure song of rebellion,
grateful for love, rejecting oppression.
A man is singing.
The wasps of his pain rush into the broken horizon.
The bees of his songs made their nests in the heart of humanity.
Guernica
Innocence will overcome destruction.
Guernica.
THE E D