Books: Alantansi`s Legacy
Books: The Legacy of Alantansí (2024) is a film that blends documentary with dramatic reenactment to reconstruct the story of this pioneer of Hebrew printing and the extraordinary incunabula produced in his workshop between 1485 and 1490. These books—including the Tur Orach Chaim, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, and the Yoreh De'ah—stand out not only for their religious and legal content but also for their material beauty and the stories of their readers, copyists, censors, and collectors.
The documentary is structured around two interwoven narrative lines:
🔹 A strand of historical fiction, which takes us through the life of Alantansí—from his childhood in the Jewish quarter of Huesca to the founding of the press in Híjar and his eventual flight.
Still: Rubén Martínez as Eliezer Alantansí 
Still: Lucía Conte in an interview at the National Library of IsraelThrough interviews with experts such as Marjorie Lehman, Avriel Bar-Levav, Shimon Iakerson, Javier Castaño, and Asunción Blasco, the film delves into the implications of the birth of Hebrew printing in Sepharad and the intellectual heritage of a persecuted community. The books speak for themselves: many copies preserve handwritten notes in their margins, ownership marks, and signs of censorship—traces that reveal the life paths of their owners, the hardships of exile, and the struggle to preserve Jewish identity.
Project teaser
The main language of the documentary is Spanish, though it also includes interviews in English, excerpts in Hebrew, and passages in medieval Aragonese. Many segments were filmed in the very locations where the Híjar incunabula are preserved today, allowing for detailed views of their typography, colophons, and identifying marks—such as the rampant lion, the first known printer’s mark in the history of Hebrew printed books.
With meticulous audiovisual craftsmanship and a narrative that blends emotion, historical accuracy, and visual beauty, Books: The Legacy of Alantansí offers a reflection on the fragility and strength of the printed word—on the book as a tool of resistance and a vessel of memory.
The documentary is available with subtitles in Spanish and English, and also features dubbed versions in both languages to support international distribution.
