L’ ATALANTE 20 JULY-DECEMBER 2015 46 reconcile. (From Latin: reconciliāre) 1. v.tr. To restore friendly relations, or to bring unrelated or estranged ele- ments into agreement. 2. v.tr. To bring a person who has stra- yed from church doctrine back into the community of the Church. 3. v.tr. To hear a brief or minor confession. 4. v.tr. To bless a sacred place, due to its having been violated. 5. v.tr. To confess certain offences that are minor or were forgotten in another confession recently made. 6. v.tr. Rel. To make a confession, especia- lly a brief one or one of minor offences. (REAL ACADEMIA DE LA LENGUA, 2001) Imagine an understanding On 30 September 1955, a première was held at Madrid’s Teatro Musical of a film that today is all but forgotten: La ciudad perdida (The Lost City, Marga- rita Alexandre and Rafael Torrecilla), an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Mercedes Fórmica (1951). The film tells the story of Rafa, a Spanish exile who secretly enters the country to take part in an attack organised by anti-Franco guerrilla forces. When the mission fails on his arrival in Madrid, the protagonist ignores his orders and gives in to an impulse to wander the streets of the city he had defended du- ring the Civil War and was forced to abandon after Franco’s troops arrived LA CIUDAD PERDIDA. SPACES OF RECONCILIATION AND DISSIDENCE IN 1950S SPANISH LITERATURE AND CINEMA* Sonia García López