Cinematic Depictions of the Guadalquivir Marshes. Social and Tourism Contexts for a Forgotten Place (1943-2014)

Abstract

This paper aims to confirm the long-lasting imaginary created by fiction films about the Guadalquivir marshes. In order to accomplish this goal, our argument revolves around three seemingly different films —Misterio en la marisma (Claudio de la Torre, 1943), La cólera del viento (La collera del vento, Mario Camus, 1971) and La isla mínima (Alberto Rodríguez, 2014)—, and focuses on their «implied authors» and their «implied spectators» (Casetti & Di Chio, 2007: 226). These three films have established the marshes as a bordering territory, an unexpected “no man’s land” where secrets and crime come together with the new appreciation of nature and the sense of unauthenticity which are inherent characteristics of the postmodern tourist.