Permanent Crisis and Exile in the Cinematic Gaze of Alberto Morais

Abstract

The Spanish Civil War continues to be a popular subject in film productions, as well as in literature, theatre and academic studies. As a historical event, it has marked the individual and collective lives of millions of people. Internal exile for reasons of politics or mere physical survival gave way to another, apparently lesser form of exile. The social, economic and cultural ostracism of the Franco years is perpetuated as a product of policies based on the capitalist system. This article examines the idea of internal exile and neglect as a state of permanent crisis that is explored in the films of Alberto Morais, whose main characters are the Spaniards who were on the losing side in the Civil War. A short but consistent filmography positions Morais’s work in an innovative place in Spanish cinema in relation to this issue. The frequent invisibility of the consequences of the Civil War in terms of government policies—particularly exile and neglect—finds expression in Morais’s films, which focus on the oblivion to which the victims of the war have been relegated.