Las 13 Rosas - Overview

Overview

The film is based on real-life events. It tells the story of 13 young women who were sentenced to death by a military court for a crime they had not committed: an attack on a military official during the first years of Franco's dictatorship in which three people died. The women were already in jail when the assault took place.

Arrested a month after the end of the Spanish Civil War, the women were sympathizers of the socialist Spanish Republic which was overthrown by the fascist Nationalist forces. They suffered harsh interrogations and were jailed at Las Ventas in Madrid. The women, known as the 13 roses were executed at dawn on August 5, 1939. Director Emilio Martinez-Lazaros opted to focus the film on fewer than half of the 13 women, however the plot follows several story lines.