Las cartas de Alou / Alou’s Letters

Montxo Armendáriz (1990)

Spain

Genre: Drama

Seminal film by a highly appreciated director. First film to portray the plight of Subsaharian African immigrants in contemporary Spain. Moving account of Alou’s journey from Southern to Northern Spain in search of a job and companionship, conveyed through Alou's perspective. The film gives access to Alou's subjectivity through his voice-over, as he reads some of the letters he writes home. In this, as in the fact that Alou becomes romantically involved with a local girl, Las cartas de Alou surprisingly remembles Pummarò, an Italian film released exactly in the same year.

Keywords: Spanish immigration film; Africans (Sub-Saharian) in Spain; racism; voice-over; journey; epistolary narrative; interracial romance.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 21 Mar 2006 •

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