Viaje a la semilla: La ruta ibérica de Bigas Luna

The ‘Iberian Portraits’ trilogy is arguably Bigas Luna’s most personal work. After the four-year adventure in an unfamiliar and even hostile environment while working in the United States, the director carefully crafted what would become his bestknown work, especially the first film in the trilogy: Jamón, jamón (1992). The trilogy memorably establishes a link between the feminine and the senses, while implicitly connecting femininity to the earth. All three films also explore a new kind of subjectivity where intimacy is associated with sensuality and is best represented by the consumption of food (and the rituals surrounding it), and the visual attention paid to the different shades of the earth. The trilogy also establishes a contrast between individuality (perhaps bets illustrated in the figure of the unscrupulous social climber of Huevos de oro/Golden Balls [1993]) and collectivity (sublimely exemplified in the castellers that open La teta y la luna/Tit and the Moon [1994]). It is an emotional – rather than geographical – journey that inevitably leads to the nostalgia that taints the lost candour of childhood.