Destabilizing Gender and Genre: Queering the Body in Libertarias and Land and Freedom

Libertarias (1996) and Land and Freedom (1995) explore the complex situation

of women militia during the Spanish Civil War. A queer reading of the female

body in these films highlights wartime female masculinity (Halberstam) and

female solidarity. In renegotiating worn expectations of sexuality and gender,

the films question and ultimately redefine the wartime docudrama genre. The

queering of gender and genre leads to alternative versions of history that upend

the very idea of historical accuracy. The female bodies in the films transgress

entrenched binary gender norms, thus creating a uniquely queer representation

of female solidarity in the docudrama genre.