Andrea Bronston

Spain, 1961. Life in the small village of Torrelobatón, in the province of Valladolid, was turned upside down when the cinematic magic circus of a future Hollywood blockbuster, produced by Samuel Bronston, the rogue mogul of his own film empire, came to town: its inhabitants became participants and witnesses of the shooting of “El Cid,” a film directed by Anthony Mann, starring mythical actors Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. Those days, legends came alive.

The epic story of a great man of cinema, Samuel Bronston, as recounted by those who knew him. Bronston created a parallel Hollywood in Spain that was much larger than the one in California, and this provoked the wrath of an industry that ultimately devoured him.