L'Auberge Espagnole
Hi, My name is Mohammad , friends call me Blue!, and I’m from Jordan. I joined Mideast Youth after I had met Esra’a at a leadership conference in Morocco last month.
This is actually my first post here,after thinking much about what should my first post be about, how I should introduce myself to the rest of Mideast Youth members, I decided to write about a film I watched lastnight, as I’m very interested in filming so it should be a good introduction.
A friend of mine from Japan ( Noboaki!) recommended a French film for me to watch lastnight, it was called L’auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Appartment).
As an emerging independent film-maker, I tend to watch films with a critical eye, but this film really had me attached and thinking right from the beginning till the very end.
It’s about a French student Xavier, who joins Erasmus ( European Educational Exchange Programme) to go and study Spanish Economy for a year in Barcelona-Spain, as he’s promised a job by one of his father’s friends upon gaining a degree in the related field.
He leaves his mom, his girlfriend, his reality, and takes off to a different country and a different reality …
He arrives to Barcelona, he has trouble finding an appartment, until he meets an interesting group of people from different parts of Europe ( England, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and indeed Spain) so he decides to join them and share an appartment with them.
I won’t keep talking about the details of the film, as I really encourage you to watch it, it’s very interesting to see the interactions between those strangers who live different realities in their respective countries, and yet they are sharing a common reality in Spain, the conversations that take place in the film about identity, cultural diversity, racism and xenophobia, stereotypes, the way men and women look at each other, infidelity, among other interesting topics.
I will certainly start posting often here, so I look forward to receiving comments from yoursided about my posts.
Join the Conversation
Welcome to our own Spanish Apartment.
Hi Mohammed, welcome aboard! I am so glad you are posting here… you did a great job of introducing that film. No one really talks about film here which is a shame because I’m a huge fan of it (especially foreign ones.)
You made me want to watch that film now!
Anyways, welcome and I hope you start posting more often.
Welcome aboard Mohammed … this is the one place where everyone from the Middle East is forced to tolerate differences and maybe make a difference not just for themselves but also as an example for the rest of the Middle East
Ray Hanania
http://www.hanania.com
Good luck.
Yeah, mate. Sweet movie. Great plot, great idea and great soundtrack by Daft Punk and Radiohead. You should also mention the sequel: Les Poupées russes, which is set a couple years later.