Changing Identity in Small or Minority Nations: Three Recent Catalan Films

Abstract

The article places three recent Catalan films in a framework of classificatory discussion of identity, change and small or ‘minority’ nationhood. It builds on previous work on Welsh and Basque film which proposes a system of classification designed to enhance the conceptualisation of links between film and identity in small or minority national cultures. That system uses three modal concepts: the Preserved, connected with patriarchy, rural landscape, collective rural identity and stereotypical representations; Reversal, connected with complexities and ambiguities of meaning as produced by representations of landscape or expressions of collective identity; and the postnational, connected to qualities of discordance, placelessness, and scepticism about the relevance or direction of collective history. Los últimos días (David and Álex Pastor, 2013), Segon origen (Carles Porta, 2015) and Estiu 1993 (Carla Simón, 2017) are analysed using the categorization in order to explore how crises and changes in individuals or communities link to wider processes of transition and regression. It draws on previous schematizations by Raymond Williams and Manuel Castells and places particular emphasis on nuancing the conceptualisation of the postnational in the small or minority cultural context.