In 1917, Franco is an up-and-coming army officer. He returns to northern Spain to assume command of a battalion. He starts attending Mass at 7AM every morning, as he begins a courtship with Carmen - a schoolgirl at a local convent. But before long, Franco is on the move once again. After an encounter with a charismatic army superior, Franco joins the Spanish Foreign Legion. Sent back to Africa as part of this new role, Franco manages to turn himself into a poster boy for colonial adventure - this despite his brutal treatment of the local Moroccan population. Meanwhile, separatist movements gather momentum across mainland Spain, as different regions reject the central government. The country lurches between wildly different political regimes. As Francisco Franco continues to climb the army’s ranks, Spain spirals towards civil war.
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