Fresh from its premier in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at this year’s rain-soaked Cannes, Sueño y silencio was originally going to be a very different film. Or rather, a very traditional one. Catalan filmmaker Jaime Rosales planned to shoot in colour, with professional actors and a conventional script. But as he prepared the film, all that fell away, leaving us with grungy, grainy black and white, non-actors, no script and a series of fragmentary scenes that sketch out, with aching and rare authenticity, a family in terrible crisis. Oriol, an architect, and his wife Yolanda, a Spanish teacher, live in Paris with their two daughters. Their lives are comfortable and unremarkable. In … [Read more...] about Rosales paints a masterpiece of family grief
catalan
The solution to the Catalan problem?
Catalan separatism has two anchor points, the traditional one is of a cultural nature (with the Catalan language at its core), the other one, of more recent creation and which has built up a new group of pragmatic followers making inroads even among Spanish speakers, is based on money: the fiscal deficit of Catalonia with the central state has over the past year or so evolved into the main argument for secession. This makes one feel that to get rid of the problem of Catalan separatism, Madrid only has to throw money at the region. And that it had better do, because this new group has the potential to grow into a serious problem, unlike the ethnocentrists, whose numbers remain basically … [Read more...] about The solution to the Catalan problem?
How did an independence vote become such a headache for Catalan nationalists?
Two very different interpretations can be made of the referendum organised on April 10 in Barcelona by a Catalan nationalist group. With just over 90 percent of votes backing the motion of an independent Catalonia, it could be argued this was an overwhelming success. But only one in five voters took part and the ballot is not legally binding, instead it is an attempt to promote separatism and the profile of those who want to break away from Spain. The organisers insisted that a 20-percent turnout was in fact a victory in itself, given that the series of similar referendums held in previous months across the region saw lower participation. Given the merely symbolic nature of this vote, … [Read more...] about How did an independence vote become such a headache for Catalan nationalists?
It’s Real Mourinho vs. Spain FC as La Liga begins
Nobody can accuse Spain’s top teams of lacking stars. Real Madrid has Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Iker Casillas and now Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira. Barcelona, meanwhile, has eight players from Spain’s World Cup-winning squad, including Xavi Hernández, David Villa and Pedro Rodríguez. And yet, as the Spanish league season gets underway, the eye is drawn not to midfielder Andrés Iniesta, a football genius in an accountant’s body, or the stepovers and hair gel of Ronaldo, but rather the two sharply dressed men overseeing these players at the side of the pitch. This season, perhaps more than any other, is a battle between two managerial auteurs: Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola and Madrid’s José … [Read more...] about It’s Real Mourinho vs. Spain FC as La Liga begins
Catalan statute furore makes nearly everyone a loser
While sport lovers have admired the Spanish football team’s advance towards the World Cup final in South Africa, political and social observers have just as much reason to be impressed. This football team has managed to unite representatives of every corner of the country more effectively than any politician has ever done. Andalusians, Asturians, Madrileños, Basques, and -most notably- Catalans, all contribute to a squad that plays like a seamless whole. All of which makes it all the more ironic, therefore, that while the Catalan-led Roja has worked together to such devastating effect, back in Spain, political relations between Catalonia and Madrid have hit a low. On June 28, while the … [Read more...] about Catalan statute furore makes nearly everyone a loser
Bullfighting’s Catalan accent
It was meant to be a reasoned, informed debate about the pros and cons of bullfighting. Politicians, philosophers, writers, scientists and even a bullfighter were all due to give their views on the fiesta nacional and whether or not it should be banned in Catalonia. And yet, in one session alone, crucifixion, Colombian kidnappings and female circumcision were all invoked, insults such as “intellectual pigmy” and “hypocrite” were used and at one point, the scientist Jorge Wagensberg pulled out a sword to illustrate how much spearing the weapon into a bull’s back would hurt the animal. This passionate and often fractious debate was the result of a petition by anti-bullfighting … [Read more...] about Bullfighting’s Catalan accent