Destabilizing Spanish National Cinema: Surcos/Furrows (1951) as a ‘Film of National Interest’

ABSTRACT Under Francoist Spain, the National Interest awards became the state strategy to determine the films which best mirrored the national spirit, as understood by the dictatorship. However, the flaws of this logic were evident when Surcos/Furrows managed to win in 1951. In this essay, I argue that José Antonio Nieves Condes’ film destabilized the concept of national cinema on two different fronts: formally and politically. First, Furrows presents a mix of aesthetics, genres and ideological discourses that is irreconcilable with the rigid mode of cinema proposed by the Francoist state. The interwoven discursive confluence in the film problematizes the narrow criteria set by the National Interest awards, something that can be seen in Furrows’ conservative but dissident ideology and its foreign cinematic influences. Second, the award reveals the internal tensions within the state – as it was the state film institute itself that heralded a film that undercut the nationalist discourses favored by Franco’s regime.