El Sopar is a 1974 documentary film, in Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 and Spanish, by experimental filmmaker Pere Portabella

Pere Portabella

Pere Portabella i Ràfols is a Catalan experimental filmmaker, artist and politician.-Career as a Filmmaker:...

. The film takes place on the night of the execution of militant anarchist Salvador Puig Antich

Salvador Puig Antich

Salvador Puig Antich was a Spanish anarchist, born in Barcelona, and active during the 1960s. A member of the Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación , he was executed by the Francoist regime after being tried by a military tribunal and found guilty of the death of a Guardia Civil policeman...

 by Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

's regime. Using simple cinematic conventions, Portabella's documentary involves five former political prisoners gathered in a farmhouse to prepare dinner and discuss the problems with long prison terms.

To protect the film's subjects from further persecution by Franco's regime, the film's production was coordinated in secrecy, with notices of the secret shooting location sent to technicians and participants at staggered times.

Sources

• Clandesti: Forbidden Catalan Cinema Under Franco at Pragda
• Forbidden Catalan Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center