Born 1923 in Madrid, Semprùn's family left Spain at the onset of the Spanish Civil War; his father would serve as the Republican ambassador to the Netherlands. At school in France in 1941, he placed second in the national philosophy competititon, but soon traded in scholarly papers for a gun, joining the Communist Resistance in France.
Caught by the Gestapo in 1943, he survived Buchenwald. After the war, he was an activist member of the Spanish Communist party, and in 1954 joined the anti-Franco underground, moving back and forth under the name of Federico Sanchez on missions between France and Spain, rising to membership of the Politburo. But growing increasingly anti-Stalinist, he went legal in 1963, as well as publishing his first, award-winning novel, about his experiences in the Resistance and in prison. Around this time he became close friends with Yves Montand.
His first screenplay, La Guerre est finie, closely based on his own experiences, was directed by Alain Resnais and starred Montand; an international hit, it garnered Semprùn an Oscar nomination. His next was Z, also Oscar-nominated for screenplay. He also wrote The Confession and Special Section for Costa-Gavras, Stavisky for Resnais, and Les Routes du sud for Joseph Losey, as well as an acclaimed TV series on the Dreyfus Case, among his relatively few other scripts; he wrote mainly novels, plays, and essays in French, until finally writing his first novel in his native tongue Spanish in 2003 at the age of 79. He also served as Spain's Minister of Culture from 1988 to1991.
Rialto Pictures
