Three generations of women face a secret kept for years. A grandfather shot in 1940 will be the starting point of an investigation that narrates a personal journey and reflects on the loss of family and collective memory. In a few words,the search for one’s own identity.

This personal documentary – or a documentary disguised as fiction? – is a sublime attempt by Subirana to give her own family memories. The starting point is the mysterious execution of her grandfather in 1940. About the fragility of life and the cruel secondary effects of age. The personal identity and the reconstruction of memories and the past are the theme of Carla Subirana’s intimate film Nadar. In her first full-length film, the filmmaker succeeds in giving her personal quest amoving universal meaning. Subirana grew up in a world of women. Her anti-Franco grandfather was executed in 1940 after the Spanish Civil War for committing three armed raids. When Subirana embarks on her quest for truth in this issue that has always been surrounded by silence, her grandmother already has Alzheimer’s disease and her mother is suffering from the same ailment. In her film, Subirana compares the creative process, that lasts for years, with swimming underwater in danger of drowning.

All families keep a secret

“The film is necessary because this memory exercise constitutes the search for a truth (historical and personal), for an origin and for a path that can offer as a legacy”.

Fran Benavente – Caimán Cuadernos de cine.