He has been depicted as primarily responsible for losing the civil war, leading with a dictatorial style, selling Spain out to the communist Soviet Union, and robbing the Spanish treasury.

[5][6] Since Juan had excelled in science subjects and had shown an interest in medicine, his father decided to send him, at the age of 15, to study in Germany in 1906, attracted by the enormous prestige of German universities at the time.

He already had a solid professional prestige guaranteed by his research on the adrenal glands and the central nervous system and by a remarkable series of articles published in the best scientific journals in Europe.

[11] Among the many students he inspired was Severo Ochoa, winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine:[12] Negrin opened wide, fascinating vistas to my imagination, not only through his lectures and laboratory teaching, but through his advice, encouragement, and stimulation to read scientific monographs and textbooks in languages other than Spanish.

These misfortunes would lead to the estrangement of the marriage and the entry into Negrín's life of Feliciana López de Dom Pablo, one of his laboratory assistants, who would become his companion in 1926 until his death.

[14] During his stay in Germany, Negrin had become very close to German social democracy, then at one of the moments of its maximum height and socio-political and cultural influence, but far removed from his conservative family tradition.

Negrín joined the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the spring of 1929, at the height of the crisis of the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera and the monarchy of Alfonso XIII.

[15] He aligned himself from the very beginning with the moderate and reformist faction headed by Indalecio Prieto – with whom he forged a close friendship that only broke down due to the civil war – and opposed to the one led by Francisco Largo Caballero, representing the left (Marxist and revolutionary) wing of the UGT trade union and the PSOE.

[5] Between April 1931 and July 1936, as political tension and social polarisation increased in Spain, Negrín identified in the socialist movement with Prieto's moderate positions and firmly opposed to the radical tendency led by Largo Caballero.

According to Prieto, Negrín and their supporters, this republican-socialist conjunction was essential to successfully promote the reforms and overcome the double opposition offered by the possible reaction of the right-wing defenders of the status quo with the help of the army and by the also possible revolution of the anarcho-syndicalist or communist-inspired workers' left.

From the first moment of the war, Negrin combined his activities as a deputy and, later, as a minister, with frequent visits in his private car to different places on the front line of Madrid to encourage the combatants and provide them with food and supplies.

[23] He only accepted the post out of party discipline, as he considered that Largo Caballero as Prime Minister gave an excessively radical image of the Republic to the outside world and was a serious political and diplomatic blunder that would make it impossible to obtain vital aid from France and Great Britain.

[26][27] With the approval of President Azaña, Largo Caballero and other influential ministers (including Prieto), he took the controversial decision to transfer the Spanish gold reserves to the Soviet Union in return for arms and equipment urgently needed to continue the war (October 1936).

[40] In the anarchist-controlled areas, Aragon and Catalonia, in addition to the temporary military success, there was a vast social revolution in which the workers and peasants collectivised land and industry, and set up councils parallel to the paralyzed Republican government.

[46] Eventually, the 'normalization' in Spain was intended to connect the Spanish conflict with Second World War, which he believed to be imminent, although the Munich Agreement between Hitler and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on 30 September 1938 definitively made all hope of outside aid vanish.

[47] Although Negrín had always been a centrist in the PSOE, he maintained links with the Communist Party of Spain (Spanish: Partido Comunista de España, PCE), whose policies at that point were in favour of a Popular Front alignment.

[49] The militias of the anarchists and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Spanish: Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM) were integrated into the regular army, albeit with resistance.

The military situation of the Spanish Republic deteriorated steadily under Negrín's government, largely because of the superior quality of the opposing generals and officers many of whom were veterans of the Rif War, and by 1938 the overwhelming advantage of the rebels in terms of men (20%), aircraft and artillery provided by Germany and Italy.

[40] Late 1938, the freezing and half starved civilian population in the Siege of Madrid was suffering from severe malnutrition due to the restricted daily ration of 100 grams of bread and lentils (nicknamed "Dr Negrín’s pills").

[54][55] Before the fall of Catalonia and the capture of Barcelona by the Nationalists on 26 January 1939, Negrín proposed, in the meeting of the Cortes in Figueres, capitulation with the sole condition of respecting the lives of the vanquished and the holding of a plebiscite so the Spanish people could decide the form of government, but Franco again rejected the new peace deal.

Prieto was removed from the Defence ministry for his defeatism and joined with Largo Caballero and Julián Besteiro (the leader of the PSOE right-wing faction) in denouncing the government's policy as favourable to the communists and opposed to the idea of international mediation.

Colonel Segismundo Casado, joined by Besteiro, general José Miaja, Cipriano Mera and disillusioned anarchist leaders – tired of fighting, which they regarded then as hopeless – planned a coup d'état.

[63] Seeking better surrender terms, they seized power in Madrid on 5 March 1939, created the National Defence Council (Consejo Nacional de Defensa), and deposed Negrín.

He resided there throughout the Second World War, repeatedly refusing to leave Europe and seek safe haven in Mexico, as did a large number of the Republican leadership.

[71] In Negrin's opinion, only such a united front would serve as a guarantee before Washington and London of the presence of a replacement alternative to the Franco regime that did not run the risk of resuming the horrors of civil war.

[84] The Francoist authorities accepted the documentation, but publicly hushed up its content so as not to have to negate the propaganda myth of the Spanish gold stolen and squandered by the Republicans in Moscow.

Franco's side considered him a "red traitor", while within the Republican camp, some of his former allies reproached him for the "useless" prolongation of the war and for having "served" the plans of the Soviet Union.

[86] According to Jackson: Negrín’s policy of resistance and constant diplomatic effort was the right one – he visited Paris secretly a number of times during the war, to get the French to realize that they themselves were going to be the next victims.

"Demonized or praised, Negrin has been considered both a faithful servant of the permanent communist conspiracy in the pay of Moscow, and the most loyal politician to the Republican cause because of his faith in the final triumph, or he has been defined as a kind of seer who knew how to predict the inexorability of the Second World War, so that his policy of resistance at all costs ("resistir es vencer", "to resist is to win") would have led to the victory of the Republic, if the Spanish war had lasted five more months," say Spanish historians Ángel Bahamonde Magro and Javier Cervera Gil.

With the help of historians such as Gabriel Jackson and Ángel Viñas, the film aims to give the protagonist a voice, using his writings, speeches and letters to construct the story.