Four awnings, some signs in Arabic, a little more sand in some streets and? voilà: in the heart of the city of Arrecife, a war scenario from any Middle Eastern city appears. The magic of cinema? Maybe, in part. ...
Four awnings, some signs in Arabic, a little more sand in some streets and? voilà: in the heart of the city of Arrecife, a war scenario from any Middle Eastern city appears. The magic of cinema? Maybe, in part. But obviously, those responsible for the film "Invader" knew where they were coming when they chose the capital of Lanzarote to shoot the scenes that, in the original script, were intended for the context of the Iraq war
In the end, as explained to La Voz from the production company, the country will not be named in the film. It will be any Arab city, without specifying, in full conflict. It will only be a few seconds within the film, which will actually take place in Galicia, where the protagonist returns after suffering an attack while participating in an international mission.
In the film, Galicia will be Galicia, but Arrecife could be Iraq, Afghanistan or any other semi-destroyed country. Coincidence? Undoubtedly, not. Rather, the result of years, and even decades, of neglect. It would be a shame if they were wasted and only served to outrage the neighbors, so at least we should celebrate that the seventh art has managed to immortalize them and take advantage of them.
Other islands will have auditoriums and trams, but few cities in Spain can boast of hardly needing any retouching to become an authentic war scenario. And in the face of that, one can be offended with the production company, rail against the City Council for allowing the filming and even think that there is a conspiracy to sink the image of the island. But a much more pragmatic vision is also possible: have a laugh seeing how easy it is to pass Arrecife off as an Arab city in the midst of a war conflict, with its semi-collapsed buildings, its twisted iron, its abandoned plots full of earth and its abandoned and destroyed cars as if they had suffered an explosion, and above all learn the lesson.
Of course, the film is not going to bring precisely tourist promotion to the island but, in addition to the money that these few days of filming can leave, other practical conclusions should also be drawn. And the most important thing is that we cannot be upset because what we have is reflected. In any case, we have to fight to change it.
Most of the viewers who see "Invader" at the time will not even know that a minute of the film was shot in Lanzarote. That is the magic of cinema. And we cannot tear our clothes because a location is chosen for a film that, by the way, due to the background of the last one shot by the production company, Celda 211, could be a new blockbuster of Spanish cinema, or at least a box office success.
Cinema does its job, just as in so many professions, including journalism, they do theirs. And you cannot prevent a television program from coming to the Canary Islands, as already happened in Maspalomas, to show the worst face of a beach, nor can you expect media and filmmakers from around the world to come to Lanzarote to show only what we are interested in showing.
Getting angry about the image that is transmitted of the island is nothing more than a symptom of the complexes that can be dragged along. Anyone, both inside and especially outside of Lanzarote, is clear that this island is much more than the abandonment of some of its streets. In fact, probably that in the Peninsula is not even known, nor will it be known now, and the image they continue to have of Lanzarote is that of an island blessed by the climate and by nature, full of beautiful beaches and landscapes.
However, that does not mean that, at the same time, a national newspaper can compare Lanzarote with Marbella, due to the scandals of urban corruption, or that a filmmaker has set his eyes on several streets of Arrecife because of their resemblance to an Iraqi war scenario. Unfortunately, that's what there is. And if instead of facing them and solving them, one hides the complexes under the rug, the only thing that will be achieved is to increase the problem.