At the start of 1939 an exodus of nearly 500,000 Spanish Republicans, soldiers and civilians together, fleeing Franco's troops crossed the border to France. Louis Llech, a Perpignan based shopkeeper and enlightened amateur cineaste, owned a 16mm camera. Together with his friend Isambert, he filmed this extraordinary migration. Fascinated by the military aspect of this Retirada, he favoured shots of parades, of crowds, like those showing military equipment. He nonetheless also showed civilian distress, without insisting on its picturesque aspects, focussing more on images of the uninterrupted flow of refugees.
