Secular Re-symbolisation of the Santiago Pilgrimage in Spanish Cinema: the Case of The Way and Road to Santiago

Abstract

Durkheim’s study of the social function of religion interprets pilgrimage and tourism as forms of travel that involve a transition from the profane/routine to the sacred/religious. Tourism along the Camino de Santiago today is based on Christian pilgrimage routes dating back to the 9th century leading to the tomb of the Apostle Saint James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Since the late 20th century, institutional policies aimed at promoting the Camino de Santiago have fostered a secularised image of the Santiago pilgrimage that has resulted in a spectacular rise in tourism in recent decades. Thanks to the ability of cinema to create and disseminate powerful imaginaries related to a place or a culture, depictions of the Camino in film, among other media, have contributed to the development of this image. This article focuses on an aspect that has not received much attention in explorations of the Camino in either film studies or tourist studies, with a textual analysis of two films about the Santiago pilgrimage, Roberto de Santiago’s Road to Santiago (Al final del camino, 2009), and The Way (2010), directed by American filmmaker Emilio Estevez. Although both are Spanish productions, these films target very different audiences. This textual analysis reveals the use of different discursive strategies in the representation of the Camino, while nevertheless maintaining a similar spiritual dimension of the religious pilgrimage through unique experiences of tourism of the sacred.