Jorge Semprún

Writing

Jorge Semprún

Born — Died

1923-12-10 — 2011-06-07

Place of birth

Madrid, Spain

Known for

Writing

Credits

29 titles

Jorge Semprún Maura was a Spanish writer and politician. From 1953 to 1962, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Semprún lived clandestinely in Spain working as an organizer for the exiled Communist Party of Spain, but was expelled from the party in 1964. After Franco's death and the change to a democratic government, he was Spain's Minister of Culture from 1988 to 1991. He was screenwriter for two successive films by Greek director Costa-Gavras. In 1996 he became the first non-French author to be elected a member of the Académie Goncourt, which awards an annual literary prize.

Known for

Film credits

1970s · 3 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Z poster
7.8

A prominent politician is murdered during a demonstration. The government and army are trying to suppress the truth, but a tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.

Z

1969

The War Is Over poster
6.5

On his way from Madrid to Paris, Diego, a chief of the Spanish Communist Party, is arrested at the border for an ID check but manages to flee. When he arrives in Paris, he searches for one of his comrades to prevent him from going to Madrid where he could be arrested.

The War Is Over

1966

Stavisky... poster
5.9

Biarritz, 1933. Charm and talent assist small-time swindler Serge Alexandre, alias Stavisky, to bribe his way into the centre of French politics. But when his great scam involving millions is exposed, he brings the government to the verge of collapse and the country to the brink of civil war.

Stavisky...

1974

A Woman at Her Window poster
5.8

Greece, 1936. An aristocratic woman engages in a series of loveless affairs before finding herself falling for a political activist.

A Woman at Her Window

1976

The Confession poster
7.3

In 1950s communist Czechoslovakia, a government minister, a war veteran long a loyal party man, leads a relatively comfortable life with his wife. However, he soon finds himself under surveillance, then under arrest. Unclear what his offense is, agents for the totalitarian regime interrogate and torture him, aiming to use their unending power to gain a false confession for these supposed crimes against the state.

The Confession

1970

The Sidewalks of Saturn poster
6.0

Hugo Santiago and writers Juan José Saer and Jorge Semprún move back and forth between Paris and the city of Aquilea in a shadowy fable about exile. The frontier between one city and the other begins to blur after Bandoneonist Rodolfo Mederos is visited by his sister, a member of a guerrilla organization.

The Sidewalks of Saturn

1986

Roads to the South poster
4.5

France, 1975. Jean, an exiled Spanish Communist, is a successful screenwriter who, after a tragic event, struggles with his political commitment, his love for his country, under the boot of General Franco, whose death he and his comrades have waited for years, and his complicated relationship with his son. (A sequel to “The War Is Over,” 1966.)

Roads to the South

1978

Le Temps du silence poster
1.8

Manuel passes 18 months at Buchenwald before his return to Paris. He wonders even before his arrival who will have the patience and passion to listen to his narrative. He chooses silence.

Le Temps du silence

2011

Special Section poster
7.1

In Nazi-occupied France, a German officer is assassinated. The Germans demand justice, and the Vichy government is quick to capitulate. Unable to apprehend the actual culprits, Minister of Justice Joseph Barthélémy decides the execution of token Frenchmen will suffice, but the problem is finding judges and jurors eager to participate in a sham trial of innocent men. The solution is a Special Section, a court comprised of individuals handpicked for this exact purpose.

Special Section

1975

Les Deux mémoires poster
6.0

The Two Memories, “an investigation into Republican and Francoist memories”, in the words of Jorge Semprún, is based on interviews conducted in 1972 in France and Spain, archival footage of the Civil War and newsreels from the Franco period.

Les Deux mémoires

1974

Les Deux mémoires poster
6.0

The Two Memories, “an investigation into Republican and Francoist memories”, in the words of Jorge Semprún, is based on interviews conducted in 1972 in France and Spain, archival footage of the Civil War and newsreels from the Franco period.

Les Deux mémoires

1974

L'Affaire Dreyfus poster
5.9

In 1894, the French Army discovered the existence of a traitor Alsatian and Jewish, the French officer Alfred Dreyfus makes an ideal culprit. For lack of evidence, the War Ministry creates a damning document Dreyfus overwhelming. Judged and sentenced, Dreyfus is deported to Devil's Island. In 1896, the Army flushed out the real culprit. The truth broke out in 1898 thanks to the mobilization of intellectuals shaken by Zola's "J'accuse!"

L'Affaire Dreyfus

1995

K poster
6.0

In this French crime film, set during the time of the Gulf War, an elderly German tourist is murdered in Paris by junk dealer Joseph Katz (Pinkas Braun), a friend of Paris detective Sam Bellamy (singer Patrick Bruel). Romantically involved with the victim's daughter Emma Guter (Isabella Ferrari), Bellamy covers up the crime he witnessed. Joseph then mysteriously vanishes, and Bellamy heads for Berlin where the victim's possessions are auctioned. After Bellamy finds the source of the well-hidden traffic in art stolen by Nazis from French Jews, he discovers a Nazi war criminal is blackmailing past associates. Incorporating background from journalist Hector Feliciano's Lost Museum, the film is adapted from Guy Konopnicki's novel, Pas de Kaddish pour Sylberstein (No Kaddish for Sylberstein).

K

1997

Objective: 500 Million poster
5.9

Reichau, a former army captain, is back in France after serving three years in prison for belonging to the OAS (Secret Armed Organization), a dissident paramilitary group during the Algerian War. Marked by his past, he does not believe in the values of his country any more. At a loss to know what to do with his life, he agrees one day to take part in a heist set up by Pierre, a pilot, the very man who gave him away in Oran. The operation, in which Yo, a gorgeous woman, participates, consists in stealing a bag containing 55 million francs during a Paris-Bordeaux flight...

Objective: 500 Million

1966