Alberto Rodríguez’s miniseries “Anatomy of a Moment,” now airing on Arte, examines the attempted coup of February 23, 1981, which threatened to interrupt Spain’s process of democratization. The series is based on Javier Cercas’s 2009 book, which traces the coup’s origins, execution and failure.
Rodríguez has returned to Spain’s transition from Francoism in several earlier films, including the crime drama “Marshland,” the prison film “Prison 77” and the espionage thriller “The Man with a Thousand Faces.” In those works, he approached the period indirectly; the miniseries takes the subject on directly.
The project began when Domingo Corral, then an executive at Spanish broadcaster and platform Movistar, and producer José Manuel Lorenzo proposed adapting Cercas’s book. Rodríguez initially declined, saying he had already made films about the same period. After reading the book over the weekend, he changed his mind and agreed to direct the series.
During its broadcast in Spain, the miniseries prompted renewed discussion about the country’s history. Rodríguez has described the coup as a subject on which Spaniards have their own theories about what happened.
Sources: Le Monde Culture.