La isla mínima [Marshland] (2014): Revisiting post-Franco Spain with a Neo-Noir Film
Location
University at Albany, Humanities 290
Start Date
6-10-2017 1:00 PM
End Date
6-10-2017 1:30 PM
Description
La isla mínima is a Spanish thriller directed by Alberto Rodríguez. Set in Andalusia’s wetlands in 1980 at the start of Spain’s transition to democracy, the plot centers around two teenage girls who go missing in a remote and forgotten town, bringing together two troubled homicide detectives. With contrasting approaches, the cops must put aside their differences to hunt a predator who for years has terrorized a community rooted in misogyny and machismo. Combining elements of traditional film noir with modern themes and visuals Marshlands offers a superb example to study the tensions that were seen in Spain during this period known as The Spanish transition to democracy. It began shortly after Franco’s death in 1975, while its completion has been said to be marked by the failure of an attempted coup on 23 February 1981. The transition proved challenging, as the specter of the Civil War (1936–1939) still haunted Spain. The script uses the thriller format to lock together the personal, social and political in what adds up to not only a darkly ambiguous thriller but a portrait of an isolated community, and a whole society, in flux: a marshland. Here nothing is solid and everything is slippery—not least the distinction between cop and criminal.
La isla mínima [Marshland] (2014): Revisiting post-Franco Spain with a Neo-Noir Film
University at Albany, Humanities 290
La isla mínima is a Spanish thriller directed by Alberto Rodríguez. Set in Andalusia’s wetlands in 1980 at the start of Spain’s transition to democracy, the plot centers around two teenage girls who go missing in a remote and forgotten town, bringing together two troubled homicide detectives. With contrasting approaches, the cops must put aside their differences to hunt a predator who for years has terrorized a community rooted in misogyny and machismo. Combining elements of traditional film noir with modern themes and visuals Marshlands offers a superb example to study the tensions that were seen in Spain during this period known as The Spanish transition to democracy. It began shortly after Franco’s death in 1975, while its completion has been said to be marked by the failure of an attempted coup on 23 February 1981. The transition proved challenging, as the specter of the Civil War (1936–1939) still haunted Spain. The script uses the thriller format to lock together the personal, social and political in what adds up to not only a darkly ambiguous thriller but a portrait of an isolated community, and a whole society, in flux: a marshland. Here nothing is solid and everything is slippery—not least the distinction between cop and criminal.
Speaker Information
Luis Cuesta is a Lecturer at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University at Albany, SUNY. In his teaching and research he focuses on 20th-21st century Spanish literature, culture and film. His book project “The Stadium and the Word: Sport and Literature in the Spanish Silver Age (1898-1936)” examines how the concurrent modernization of the Spanish nation and the professionalization of sports are mirrored in the country’s literature.