From neorealism to neoruralism. Rural migration through comparative analysis of La piel quemada (Josep Maria Forn, 1967) and Suro (Mikel Gurrea, 2022)

Abstract

Cinematographic fiction functions as an effective epistemological device to interpret and understand a specific time and space that acquires a more symbolic and narrative dimension than a strictly historical and geographical one. The comparative analysis of the films La piel quemada (Josep Maria Forn, 1967) and Suro (Mikel Gurrea, 2022) offers a diachronic and synchronic perspective on the chronotopic representation of the late Franco migratory flow of «charnegos» and more recently of urbanites and Maghrebs. Both feature films, classified as rural cinema due to its spatial and thematic context, are located in the province of Girona and show, on the one hand, the depopulation of Granada villages in search of job opportunities on the tourist coast of the Costa Brava during developmentalism; and, on the other, the repopulation carried out by Barcelona neo-rurals and foreign day laborers in the interior region of Alt Empordà. The chronotopic qualitative methodology addresses the argumentative and axiological dimension to organize the results into four decisive factors that influence the causes and motivations, as well as the identity consequences, individual or collective, and the xenophobic conflicts caused by these displacements.