{"id":6602,"date":"2020-01-17T09:10:34","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T09:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/allegories-cinematografiques-per-pensar-europa\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T07:44:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T07:44:40","slug":"allegories-cinematografiques-per-pensar-europa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/allegories-cinematografiques-per-pensar-europa\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegories in Film to Think about Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Money moves in the shadows.
Le Havre<\/em>, Aki Kaurismaki<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the law isn\u2019t just, justice must come before the law.
Film Socialisme<\/em>, Jean-Luc Godard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent years have seen the release of films that take an allegorical look at present-day Europe [1]<\/a>1 \u2014 The films selected are the author\u2019s own personal choice and do not represent any general or potential agreed narrative regarding Europe. There are multiple converging narratives about Europe, and this is one of the possible ones. Nevertheless, all the films chosen are significant, be this due to their director\u2019s track record, to their presence at leading film festivals, or to the awards or public recognition they have received.\n<\/span><\/span>. Alice Rohrwacher\u2019s Lazzaro Felice (2018)<\/em> <\/a>deals with a community of sharecropping peasants who work for a Marquesa under a form of voluntary serfdom. This isolated community is easily controllable: indeed, they have become so used to their condition that they have forgotten their enslavement. ‘Set them free and they realise they are slaves’, as the Marquesa puts it. The second element keeping them isolated is the fear instilled within them. Their worldview is that given to them by the Marquesa, who sets the boundaries of their existence. Managing fear and ignorance are an extremely useful means of control. The appearance of the Marquesa\u2019s son, however, leads to the discovery of the deceit. The police end up freeing them, but they have spent so long as slaves that they are unable to imagine any other way of life. In their pilgrimage to who knows where they come across a seedy businessman who recruits workers using a Dutch auction-based form of labour exploitation. Together with migrants, refugees, and others, they form part of the flotsam of society, a pool of cheap labour that will, in exchange for a bed of straw, sacrifice their lives in the name of work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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