Conversion and colonial history in Icíar Bollaín's También la lluvia (2010)
Abstract
This study concerns the representation of colonial Latin American history and the characterisation of Daniel/Hatuey in the 2010 film-about-a-film También la lluvia. A metacinematic work comprising historical study and political commentary, También la lluvia has received mixed critical reactions regarding its portrayal of the historical and social inequalities it analyses. This article examines the ambiguous nature of the work by analysing the motif of conversion. It argues that, by foregrounding the contemporary conversion story of Costa, the film sacrifices both nuanced historical attention to the colonial past it dramatises and sustained development of one of its apparently central characters: Daniel/Hatuey, who is repeatedly converted into narrative and symbolic figures of secondary prominence, despite their importance to the development and legibility of the work as a whole.
Citation
Lennon , P J & Egan , C 2019 , ' Conversion and colonial history in Icíar Bollaín's También la lluvia (2010) ' , Bulletin of Hispanic Studies , vol. 96 , no. 9 , pp. 935-952 . https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2019.56
Publication
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1475-3839Type
Journal article
Rights
©2020 Liverpool University Press. This article was published open access under a CC BY license.
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