Catalan cinema, in Catalan, has, thanks to the feat of Badalona director Carla Simón this Wednesday, shut the mouths of all those who want to see the Catalan language - both its use and its international prestige - reduced to ashes. In a globalized world like ours, it is possible to shoot a film in Catalan and make history at the Berlin Film Festival by winning the Golden Bear, the highest award of this prestigious festival. And it is possible and necessary to defend from political power all that can be done from the private world through cultural initiatives such as the movie Alcarràs. Because when separated from interest-serving speeches made against Catalan, the language of our small country has a road on which to travel and it must be preserved, tooth and nail, in schools. And policymakers should step out of their current comfort zone, because this is what's at stake.
That an unquestioned international success for Catalan cinema in Catalan has occurred on the same day that José María Aznar, at Barcelona's Círculo Equestre, has once again shown his teeth in the debate on the Spanish language in Catalonia, is almost an exercise in poetic justice. "There is a wish to exterminate Spanish," said Aznar at a leisure club that is the social heart of the Catalan right, gladdening many of those present, most of them rather elderly and some of them always fearful of the former prime minister's finger. Because in Catalonia, unlike other areas of Spain, the Catalan right prefers Mariano Rajoy and the earlier PM is more feared than unloved. But there we have it, while Aznar attacks everything that in Catalonia is supported by the majority and detects non-existent linguistic exterminations in generations of schoolchildren who, if affected by any linguistic deficit it is in Catalan as well as this syndrome of using Spanish as the main social language.
That is why the award of the Golden Bear, the award for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival, to a Catalan film, shot in Catalan, in a small town in Catalonia, made with non-professional actors chosen in a casting that lasted a year and a half between 9,000 candidates, is so very important, transcendental. That this success has taken place amidst a continuing debate on the Spanish audiovisual law and the presence of Catalan on platforms such as Neflix, HBOMax and so many others, is an excellent letter of presentation for mounting a rigorous defence of Catalan language quotas more energetically than up till now.
Talent exists and is constantly renewed. In Catalonia this is what has always happened. Individual abilities have paved the way for many moments in history and have placed Catalonia and Catalan at the centre of the world. Now, Carla Simón has constructed a wonderful story of a farming family who come together for the last peach harvest as the solar panels are arriving. A drastic change in way of life and a heartfelt homage to the people who are on the land. A normal story about a Catalonia that is so real and, in part, so unknown to Catalans, as it is in the process of disappearing. To make the most of this international success, the push that it gives to Catalan cinema and the Catalan language; to reinforce the self-esteem for a language that is persecuted, restricted and denied recognition and respect by Spain; to construct a springboard to denounce the real linguistic extermination that is being attempted: that is the only possible strategy.