Film Forum

A refugee in Paris after fleeing the Spanish Civil War, Jorge Semprún (1923-2011) would eventually join the French Resistance, be arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Buchenwald. After liberation, he worked as a clandestine Communist operative between Spain and France. Kicked out of the party in 1964, he wrote novels, memoirs, plays, and scripts for Joseph Losey, Costa-Gavras, and Alain Resnais, beginning with his own story, La Guerre est Finie. Semprún’s movie star looks and heroism made him a 20th century legend. Soledad Fox Maura’s Exile, Writer, Soldier, Spy (Arcade), the first in-depth biography of Semprún, will be on sale at our concession.

Reviews

“Jorge Semprún led one of the more interesting lives of the 20th century, and he has an oeuvre to match... Fox Maura’s impeccable biography expertly dissects the complex nuances of Semprún’s work and experiences, doing justice to a singular life.”
– Aaron Shulman, Los Angeles Review of Books (read the full interview with Soledad Fox Maura here)

Films in this Series