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A family holidaying near Barcelona during the summer of 1936 is caught by the outbreak of civil war The conflict is seen from the viewpoint of the Catalan family, which decides to wait for the end of the fighting in the relative safety of the summer resort which is on Republican territory Their friends from their own leisured class endure the war with increasing discomfort, but their attitudes remain largely apolitical Little of the actual fighting is seen in the film, rather, its effects are shown indirectly as the life of the bourgeois holiday-makers becomes increasingly restricted.
Small incidents are depicted two high class Nationalist sympathisers hide from the Republicans, the son in the family has a romance with an Andalusian maid, a doctor passes his time by conducting biological experiments rather than helping the wounded in Barcelona, a red' schoolmaster has to beg food from his pupils to keep from starving.
For Spain, some of the scenes are startling several shots show Republican flags (till now, banned in Spanish films), and one scene shows a banner reading, 'Down with the Fascist Killers'
Although the film is not a political polemic the sympathies of its Catalan director are clear.