Introduction

Sex, lies, and the handkerchief: Immigration and sexploitation in Catalan Otel·lo (2012)

“…5 As Sarah Hatchuel and Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin argue, cinematic adaptations of Othello tend to 'dramatise the power that words have to transform our gaze but also to engender mental images'. 6 This is especially true in this meta-cinematic Othello, which queries the boundaries that delimit the categories of fiction and reality in order to show the importance of discursive practice in the construction of identity. Onscreen representation both reflects and refracts the world, simultaneously reifying and obfuscating identities, as the very word 'screen' implies.…”

“…8 Similarly, my reading of the film contributes to ongoing research on contemporary Othello adaptations, in which the play's cinematic afterlives often fluctuate between 'racial alterity', 9 which emphasises the racial issues at work in the play, and 'deracialisation', which downplays the racial politics of the play in order to engage with other aspects of identity politics. 10 With Spain and Catalonia having experienced an upsurge in immigration particularly from Northern Africa in the last decade, OtelÁlo shows how the presence of the Moroccan immigrant in Europe reveals crucial anxieties in the construction of nationhood at regional, national and supranational levels. As Daniela Flesler notes, 'the immigrants' presence, specifically Moroccan immigrants' presence becomes particularly relevant due to Spain's relationship with Morocco, Europe, and the historical regions within Spain.…”