The documentary Books: Alantansí’s Legacy, directed by the Aragonese filmmaker José Ángel Guimerá, restores the forgotten figure of Eliezer ben Abraham Alantansí, a pioneer of Hebrew printing in the Iberian Peninsula. Born in Huesca in the mid-15th century, he later moved to the town of Ixar (today Híjar, Teruel), where in 1482 he founded a printing workshop that became a milestone in the cultural history of Sepharad. There he produced foundational works of Sephardic Judaism, such as the Tur Orah Hayim and the Hebrew Bible with the Five Megillot—true incunabula now preserved in major libraries in Madrid, Jerusalem, Oxford, New York, and Turin.

The film follows the career of this scholar with entrepreneurial spirit, who worked under the protection of the first Duke of Híjar. His books, of exceptional typographic and aesthetic quality, attest to the refinement of a printer ahead of his time. The narrative blends docu-fiction scenes recreating his native Huesca, the synagogue, the workshop, and the Híjar printing press, with the research journey of historian Lucía Conte, who has tracked surviving copies in universities and archives worldwide. Filming locations include the old synagogue of Híjar—the only one in Spain that retains medieval painted decoration—the Four Sephardic Synagogues of Jerusalem, the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

On September 25, Books: Alantansí’s Legacy will be screened in Huesca at the Diputación Provincial de Huesca, in an event organized by the Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses (DPH) as part of its Documental Altoaragonés section. This special screening holds a profound meaning: Eliezer ben Abraham Alantansí was himself born in Huesca, making this return of his story to his birthplace especially significant for the cultural identity of Alto Aragón.

The Huesca screening is part of the special tour of Books: Alantansí’s Legacy organized on the occasion of the European Days of Jewish Culture 2025. This itinerary also includes Casa Sefarad (Madrid), the Synagogue of El Tránsito (Toledo), the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (Barcelona), Cinema Truffaut (Girona), and the Auditorium of the University of Zaragoza. A journey that invites audiences to rediscover, from Aragon to the world, the universal legacy of a Sephardic printer born in Huesca and established in Híjar.