City Country Culture

Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre fue un pintor simbolista y modernista. Era un canario cosmopolita y ajeno a modas y tendencias que, a principios del siglo XX, regresó a Canarias tras codearse con las vanguardias de su tiempo en París. En un canto al amor, a la naturaleza, al Atlántico y a su pueblo, reinventó su tierra en sus lienzos. (Disponible hasta el 22/08/2024).

Entre las islas de Ibiza y Formentera ha madurado un tesoro desde hace siglos: la sal. La excepcional pureza de estos cristales procede de las cristalinas aguas costeras, filtradas por una alfombra vegetal única en el mundo. Desde la antigüedad, la sal ha sido un bien indispensable que ha abierto el apetito, provocado guerras y conquistas, modelado paisajes y forjado el corazón de las personas del lugar. (Disponible hasta el 29/08/2024)

En 1939, refugiados españoles cruzaron los Pirineos huyendo de las tropas franquistas. Al escritor mexicano Jordi Soler, nacido lejos de la tierra de sus antepasados, le persigue este episodio de la Guerra Civil. Ha convertido su rompecabezas familiar en el armazón de una saga literaria. Su novela "La fiesta del oso", narra la investigación de un barcelonés (el propio Jordi) sobre la vida de su tío abuelo, desaparecido durante ese momento de la historia conocido como la Retirada. Recorremos esos lugares con el propio Soler, que nos cuenta qué significa este lugar para él, así como los entresijos de su proceso creativo. (Disponible hasta el 31/08/2024)

Writer Donna Leon immerses her hero, Commissioner Guido Brunetti, in a Venice plagued by vice, corruption and mass tourism. An American living in Doges, she wrote her crime novel Death at La Fenice with sharp wit and tenderness for this complicated city.

Moscow to the End of the Line, the novel by Venedict Erofeiev, is emblematic of the Brezhnev years. It was a time when Russians indulged in drunkenness to forget the hideous hypocrisy of the Soviet system. Written in 1969, the novel tells the journey of a lyrical drunk on a train. Both funny and tragic, it is considered a masterpiece.

Writer Diana Gabaldon harnessed the magic of the Highlands to bring her story to life. The Outlander series is part romance, part historical epic and part fantasy. The heroine, an English nurse during the Second World War, is transported two hundred years into the past, in the midst of the struggle for Scottish independence. She falls in love with a Highlander.

In the 1950s and 60s, Nina Simone was not only known as the high priestess of soul music, but also one of the leading musical figures of the US civil rights movement. The struggle of African Americans for equality in the southern states, from North Carolina through Mississippi to Alabama, influenced Simone's work. Until her death in 2003, she fought against all kinds of racial discrimination.

Ken Loach films are hard-hitting. Economic misery jumps out at us from the screen, and the tone is often raw. The cinematography mimics that of a documentary, and humour the only source of relief. The Angels' Share transports viewers to Glasgow. With what appears to be a common thug as the main hero, the film reveals the dark side of the city, but also the secret world of Scotch whisky.

In the middle of the night, a successful Italian director learns about the death of the projectionist in his Sicilian hometown and is devastated. The Sicilian director Giuseppe Tornatore tells the story of this director, the son of a poor family who lost his father early on, in Cinema Paradiso. To escape his miserable everyday life, the boy escapes to the cinema, which becomes a wonderful refuge for him. With humor and tenderness, the director films his homeland Sicily and its inhabitants who discover the world through the cinema.

Mayfair is one of the most chic areas of London. Its red brick buildings are home to luxury boutiques, and a paradise for tourists flush with cash. But during the Second World War, it was an area filled with French refugees. Among them, a fearless tennis champion...

In 1919, towards the end of Woodrow Wilson's second term in office, his health took a serious turn for the worse. Instead of turning to the vice president, his inner circle turned to his wife. Edith Wilson became the de facto unofficial leader of the United States. An extraordinary turn of events that went largely unnoticed by the US public.

Picture-perfect Klöntal in the Swiss canton of Glarus has deep blue lakes, snow-covered mountains and cows. But its pretty landscape belies its dark past. At the end of the 18th century, Anna Göldi was tortured and executed for being a witch. Her treatment was politically motivated, and her killing sparked outrage across Europe.

Sin sus frondosos bosques, playas de arena y pantanos llenos de cocodrilos, Florida no sería Florida. O ya no lo sería. Esta extraordinaria biodiversidad se ha salvado en parte gracias a la labor de las mujeres: varias generaciones de activistas se han levantado contra la destrucción del medio ambiente y se han convertido en guardianas de la naturaleza.

Danville, in the heart of Kentucky, encapsulates the spirit of the American Midwest. During the Great Depression at the end of the 1920s, women on horseback travelled to remote communities, bringing them books and teaching adults and children alike how to read.

As early as the 1920s, the southern French city of Antibes exerted an irresistible pull on Pablo Picasso with its Mediterranean light, simple pleasures, and archaic charm. It's no wonder that he returned there in 1946 after the dark years of the war. But in addition to the pure joy of swimming, his interest this time was mainly focused on the myths of antiquity and the origins of European civilisation.

Even before arriving in Toledo, the Alcazar - where royal power sat for centuries - can be seen in the distance. It has seen Roman troops, Visigoth invasions, Arab occupiers and a love affair between a Christian king and a Muslim noblewoman that could have changed the history of Spain...

Situada al este de Madrid, Alcalá de Henares es Patrimonio Mundial de la Unesco y fue la cuna de Cervantes, el creador de El Quijote. El corazón histórico de la ciudad universitaria fue también uno de los bastiones de la resistencia al régimen de Franco en 1936. Es aquí donde se desarrolla la increíble historia de Melchor Rodríguez, apodado el Schindler español.

Toda la ciudad de Madrid está marcada por la dictadura franquista: edificios monumentales, puertas solemnes, urbanizaciones obreras... Las personas que viven, trabajan o salen a pasear por Madrid casi ni se fijan o, sencillamente, no lo saben. Torres de vigilancia, grandes edificios, puertas reconstruidas de la ciudad heredadas del franquismo están por toda la ciudad.

Orihuela (Alicante) es la ciudad natal de Miguel Hernández, poeta mártir de la causa republicana, fallecido en las cárceles de Franco en 1942. Su poesía es objeto de un ardiente culto en su tierra natal. Hijo de un tratante de ganado, logró salir de su condición gracias a su talento antes de verse atrapado en la violencia de una España azotada por el franquismo. (Disponible hasta el 11/01/2025)

A look at the setting for Leonard Bernstein’s famous musical: Manhattan’s Upper West Side was a neighbourhood in transition in the 1950s when it was chosen for West Side Story, a tale of gangs, forbidden love, and social and racial tension. (Available until 04/05/2025)