A Place to Finally Rest: Reading National Shame in Spanish Crisis Cinema

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article argues that economic crisis and austerity ruptured how many young Spaniards understand their place in the world by disrupting their sense of what makes home home. It analyses two Spanish films in the emergent subgenre of crisis cinema, Techo y comida (2015) and Hermosa juventud (2014) and argues that crisis cinema not only viscerally depicts the Spanish economic crisis as a failure of late capitalism, but it also challenges us to think about what Spanish pop star Marta Sanchez called “a place to finally rest” may mean during times of economic crisis. The article argues that both films articulate narratives of shame that can be read on a national and individual level, suggesting that the emotional resonance of shame is a potent emotion that weakens the individual connection with the nation-state during times of economic crisis.