This is a serious documentary that features many interviews and behind-the-door conversations, but seriously suffers from false equivalency and does little to illuminate the societal dynamics. The title "Two Catalonias" is a major unimaginative cop out. All we get is political points uttered from both "sides", without never getting any idea what the Catalan population is actually thinking. I came out more confused than enlightened. The filmmakers refuse to give the ethnic dimension in the struggle any attention or legitimacy: it's all about economics and political populism (whether in Barcelona or Madrid) with the public depicted as agent-less masses just going along with whoever manages to rouse them or push them. I simply can't buy it. It would have helped the viewers if the filmmakers had somehow indicated who speaks Spanish and who Catalan; are there some distinction between Castilian- and Catalan-speakers? What role does Spanish chauvinism play in the process and Catalan history under dictatorship? I understand that the Catalan pro-independence politicians try to promote themselves as tolerant progressive Europeans and pose themselves against the more backward Castilian chauvinism, but the filmmakers could have penetrated these public images and analyzed the societal dynamics more deeply. The few foreign reporters commenting on the affairs don't add anything illuminating and just offer the regular boring "balanced" analysis. I'm sure the filmmakers could have found more interesting observers. Though the film has some interesting features, in the end, it offers too little information for the viewer to decide which "side" of the story is more convincing and what are ordinary Catalans actually thinking.
Review of Two Catalonias
