The politics of place in two early films by Borau

Borau’s refusal to accept the ghettoization of Spanish film through the imposition of ‘national’ cinema is one of the hallmarks of his career. He is the first in his generation of Spanish directors to develop an aesthetic strategy to reframe Spanish cultural identity through a series of international co-productions. This article looks at two films and two decisive moments in Borau’s career when that transnational aesthetic first emerges. Hay que matar a B/B Must Die (1974) and La Sabina (1979) elaborate counter-narratives of the nation that interrogate the relationship between place and power and the identity shaped by the politics of location.