Rethinking integration in contemporary Spanish film:convivenciaand the cosmopolitan outlook in Chus Gutiérrez'sRetorno a Hansala(2008)

Abstract

Integration is often, implicitly or otherwise, posited as a social good to be aspired to in contemporary Spanish films about immigration and wider European debates on this topic. Integration, however, can be a problematic notion which tends to insist more on the adjustments of the incoming "others" to a pre-existing common culture than on the necessity of the "host" to adapt. This article explores the extent to which Chus Gutiérrez's 2008 film, Retorno a Hansala, proffers a new paradigm for integration by having the action focus on a white Spanish male's "migration" to North Africa which places him in a "contact zone" outside Spanish borders. It reads this border crossing in the light of current politics shaping the representations of North African Muslim immigrants and also with attention to Spain's historical ties with, and ambivalent stance towards, its Arab and Islamic heritage. Understanding this web of connections as encapsulated within the film's overarching metaphor of "return," this article dwells on the term's multiple resonances and their relationship to present-day issues of integration, including historical convivencia and contemporary ideas of cosmopolitanism that stress solidarity with others regardless of borders and other divisive distinctions.