Spanish film pokes fun at Catalan independence crisis

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34859047

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This might not seem the wisest moment to release a comedy in Spain about a Catalan village where independence has apparently been declared.

Spain's government is in uproar over a Catalan parliament vote to launch a unilateral secession process, and the region's leader is being investigated by a Spanish judge for criminal disobedience.

But the filmmakers are looking to repeat the runaway success of their 2014 feature Spanish Affair, which became the domestic cinema industry's biggest-ever hit, attracting nine million people.

Known in Spanish as Ocho Apellidos Vascos (Eight Basque Surnames), its blend of wedding comedy and north-versus-south rivalry dared to poke fun at northern Basque culture and even the radical politics and street violence associated with the militant group Eta.

Eta's four-decade campaign of violence aimed at independence from Spain left more than 800 people dead before it declared a "definitive" ceasefire in 2011.

Laughing matter?

The Spanish title comes from a hilarious scene in which the Andalusian hero has to pretend he is 100% Basque by reciting the names of his grandparents.

The film critic at the Basque Country's pro-independence Gara newspaper turned his nose up at "non-Basque actors playing Basques with joke accents", but the film was a success in the northern region.

Now the Spain-wide release of Eight Catalan Surnames on Friday will show whether Catalans are also in the mood to laugh at the political crisis that has put the national government in Madrid and Barcelona's regional leadership on a collision course.

Director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro tries not to worry about any political crossfire.

"This is a 100-minute film full of the elements you would expect to find there, and the viewer will not be thinking about anything other than that during those 100 minutes. Then he will leave the cinema and go back to thinking about Mr Mas or whatever."

Artur Mas, the leader of Catalonia's government, and other Catalan nationalists won a majority in the regional parliament on 27 September with 48% of the vote, in elections that they had styled as a de facto referendum on independence.

Early this month, pro-independence parties approved a motion to start "the process to create a Catalan state in the form of a republic".

The Spanish government appealed against the move to the Constitutional Court, and leading Catalan officials have been warned that proceeding on the basis of the independence motion could see them suspended from their posts.

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The film's two Basque scriptwriters, Borja Cobeaga and Diego San Jose, have sought to poke fun at all nationalism, including the ultra-Spanish approach as personified by the civil guards who storm into the supposedly independent village as the farce approaches its climax.

What they say they really enjoyed creating in Eight Catalan Surnames was a comic rivalry between Basques and Catalans over the size of their opposition to Spanish rule in Madrid.

"Ten years ago Basque nationalism was on the front pages and Catalan nationalism was somewhat dormant," says Cobeaga. "Now, while the Basques are in the pit lane, the Catalans started overtaking everyone and are out in front."

In one of the film's funniest moments, a brutish Basque fisherman berates the Catalan mayor speaking to a square festooned with Catalan independence flags: "When it comes to independence, we're first in line!"

Basque and Catalan nationalism

Catalan push for independence from Spain

Spain pushed into unknown territory

Catalonia profile

What is Eta?

For Diego San Jose, the sequel remains more a comedy about the Basque character than the current reality of Catalonia. "The Catalan question is more about shades of grey, but the Basques are extreme in all aspects of life. Whatever we do, we go further than anyone else and that is great for comedy."

Director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro accepts that his portrayal of Catalan independence as a fantasy facade to please a dying old lady could prove controversial. But, he argues, "the film is a vague echo of reality in that there is a hot-headed adventure going on".

Toni Soler, who directs a successful political sketch show, Polonia, on Catalan television believes the ability to laugh at oneself is the "first rule of living together as a society".

"We have always thought that the best thing we can do to help is show that all ideologies and all leaders can be ridiculous," he says.

His programme came under attack for depicting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as Adolf Hitler in his bunker, when it showed him receiving news of last November's unofficial ballot on independence in Catalonia.

Asked whether Catalans will see the funny side now, Toni Soler is not so sure.

"It's much easier to laugh at yourself when you are the one poking fun. When your neighbour does it, it's harder to take."