'En Tiempos de las Ataduras (Historia et Consuetudines Francorum Feudorum)' by José Antonio “Fer” Fernández: Franco’s Death in Animation

Abstract

This paper presents the animated short film En tiempos de las ataduras (Historia et consuetudines francorum feudorum), made during the early years of the Spanish transition to democracy by the cartoonist José Antonio “Fer” Fernández, and included in Historias de amor y masacre (Jordi Amorós, 1978), the first animated feature film for adults in Spanish history, produced with the support of the satirical magazine El Papus. Inspired by a series that “Fer” published in El Papus, which made use of a medieval imaginary to talk about current events, the short film depicts Franco’s death in the form of a tale about a feudal lord with recognisable allusions to the Caudillo. This humorous satire forms part of a series of stories about Franco’s death created in the context of the Catalan counterculture of this period, taking a carnivalesque view of the event (“world upside down”).