Life of last Catalan Ravensbrück camp survivor, Neus Català, reaches cinemas

The life of the last Catalan Ravensbrück concentration camp survivor, Neus Català, will reach cinemas this Friday.

'Un cel de plom', or 'A lead sky', its literal English translation, will be screened in around 60 cinemas, as the actor who plays Català, Nausicaa Bonnín, confirmed on public broadcaster TV3 on Tuesday.

Bonnín leads the cast, along with Raquel Lascar, Roger Batalla, Iria del Rio, Natalia Barrientos, Paula Vélez and Laura Conejero.

The movie tells the story of Neus Català, a young Republican and feminist woman, upon returning to France after being a prisoner of the Nazis. Throughout the film, she remembers her experiences working in a factory producing weapons for Adolf Hitler's regime during World War 2.

The film, directed by Miquel Romans, is based on a book written by Carme Martí also called 'Un cel de plom.'

Neus Català, involved in the French Resistance

Neus Català went into exile in France after the Spanish Civil War, taking 180 refugee children with her. When the country was occupied in 1940, she joined the Resistance with her husband.

She was captured by Nazis three years later and taken to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. She was then sent to Czechoslovakia to make weapons and freed by the Allies in 1945.

When the war ended, she returned to France, where she was active against the Franco dictatorship and kept alive the memory of those who lost their lives in the Nazi camps, especially women.

She died in Els Guiamets in 2019 at the age of 103, the last Ravensbrück survivor from Catalonia and across Spain.