In this thesis I present a case study of the Spanish civil war in cinema. I examine how this period has been represented in cinema through time, in different countries and in various cinematic forms. I reject the postmodern prognosis that the past is a chaotic mass, made sense of through the subjective narrativisation choices of historians working in the present. On the contrary, I argue that there are referential limits on what histories can be legitimately written about the past. I argue that there are different, often contradictory, representations of the Spanish civil war in cinema which indicates a diversity of uses for the past. But there are also referential limits on what can be legitimately represented cinematically. I argue that the civil war setting will continue to be one which filmmakers turn to as the battle for the future of Spain is partially played out in the cinematically recreated battles of the pas