This is not paradise and the journey was not worth it : globalization, financial crisis and the portrayal of the sub-Saharan immigrant in two Spanish films

Suarez, Marta (2021) This is not paradise and the journey was not worth it : globalization, financial crisis and the portrayal of the sub-Saharan immigrant in two Spanish films. In: Migrants in Perspective, Migrants' Perspectives: Human Displacement in 21st Century Film. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. ISBN 9781474456760 (hardback); 9781474456791 (ebook); 9781474456784 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter explores the portrayal of sub-Saharan characters in two fi lms, 14 kilómetros/14 Kilometers (Gerardo Olivares, 2007) and Diamantes negros/ Black Diamonds (Miguel Alcantud, 2013). The fi rst is representative of “journeys of hope” and was released before the fi nancial crisis (2008–12), while the second looks at exploitative practices in a land of opportunity that has become less so. These two fi lms illustrate shifts in the fi ctional narratives of Spanish immigration cinema. While 14 kilómetros moves into African territory to explore the causes of migration, Diamantes negros examines illegal recruiting practices in Spain and the vulnerability of the immigrant in a neoliberal Europe. In the case of 14 kilómetros and against a backdrop of strengthening border controls, the fi lm emphasizes the dangers of the journey and the interrelations between the border measures and the immigrants’ precarity.1 In the case of Diamantes negros and following other narratives of the time, Spain is constructed no longer as a place of opportunity, but as one of disappointment that incites further mobility.