Soldados de Salamina

In late January 1939, barely two months before the end of the Spanish Civil War, a group of Francoist prisoners were executed near the French border by Republican soldiers fleeing into exile. Among these prisoners was Rafael Sánchez Mazas, founder and ideologue of the Falange, poet, and future minister under Franco, who miraculously managed to escape and hide in the woods while the Republicans pursued him. A soldier eventually discovered him, pointed his gun at him, and, looking him in the eye, spared his life. Sixty years later, a struggling novelist stumbles upon this buried wartime episode and, fascinated by it, embarks on an investigation to clarify its circumstances and unravel its meaning. Who was Rafael Sánchez Mazas, really? What was his true wartime story? Who was the soldier who let him escape? And why did he do it? What secret did his gaze hold?