This thesis explores shifts in Spanish cinematic expressions of the racialised (immigrant) other and considers the impact of the financial crisis (2008-2012) in these portrayals. It argues that the crisis heightened anxieties over globalisation, identity, and the standing of Spain in the world. It posits that these concerns are expressed in Spanish film with depictions of increased precarity in society, ambivalent portrayals of inclusion of the Latin American and African immigrant in Spanish society, and an articulation of power connected to international intervention and supranational collaboration. These cinematic trends contribute to redefinitions of the nation in terms of significance and Europeanness, where the previous markers of wealth and opportunity lose relevance against notions such as cooperation and conviviality. The financial crisis has incited discourses of solidarity that create points of affinity based on a shared precarious experience.
The thesis engages with theoretical work on Spanish film and social sciences to reveal trends in contemporary Spanish cinema in relation to responses to the financial crisis and globalisation. It interrogates how the selected Spanish films express nation through the portrayals of its community, displays of power and influence, or notions of otherness that are challenged or encouraged through representation. A selection of fourteen films from the period 2005-2015 conforms the case studies, which illuminate changes in the depictions of the (immigrant) other and their contribution to notions of nation. While the thesis underscores trends in Spanish fiction film arising from a shift in anxieties derived from the financial crash (2008-2012), the period of study expands to 2005-2015 to better identify the transformations.
This is the first study to illustrate a shift in anxieties from, on the one hand, the control of the border and Spain’s readiness to accept a multicultural society to, on the other hand, concerns derived from globalisation, increasing precarity, and Spain’s position in the world. The thesis contributes to scholarship on Spanish and European cinema, giving visibility to many films underrepresented in academic work. The thesis manifests that these films project ideas of nation that reassert Spain’s Europeanness and its value as a global ally, construct Spain as a place of multicultural co-existence, and present globalisation as the cause of precarity
