"Biutiful – Reading between the lines

Alejandro González Iñárritu once said: ‘I think that in order to be a film director, one has to be a warrior who shouldn't be defeated by the daily onslaught of problems.’ (IMDb) Indeed, when you watch his 2010 film Biutiful starring Javier Bardem as Uxbal, you know that this drama is everything but a defeat.

The story follows Uxbal through his last months and days, as he struggles to conciliate his love for his two children with a suppressed fear of leaving them with their bipolar mother Marambra, guilt from his illegal activities in the underworld of Barcelona, and deep spirituality touching one’s ineluctable mortality. Superb acting and a thought-through script make Uxbal´s struggle, emotions and pain feel uniquely genuine, credible.

Biutiful is, however, not merely a narrative of a father dying from cancer who is willing to trade clear conscience for a little extra income to provide for his dearest son and daughter; it is foremost a veiled portrait of conflicting European realities, or, should you prefer, keynotes of Europeanness.

First, the movie touches upon the motive of inclusion and exclusion: The us and them divide, ‘us’ being either relatively wealthy, unsuspecting – practically careless - bystanders, or shady characters like Uxbal engaged in human trafficking, ‘them’ being our ‘customers’, illegal immigrants. Repeatedly are we confronted with dire poverty and shameful conditions these ‘clients’ reside in as they fled to Europe in search of a better life; regrettably, mirroring reality, this search does not always have a happy ending. (Spiegel, 2012)

In our complacent reality, people from poor countries risk their lives on the borders; some dying of exhaustion in process, others drowning or being murdered by the traffickers when they refuse to pay immoderate amounts for a new passport, a new identity. But ‘we’ do not care. We dine with our precious children, ignorant of the horrors nearby. A generous bribe suffices (how easily do we sell our conscience!), even the policemen are gone for tonight. Uxbal´s companions have free reign.

Second, just like ‘Europeanness’ is a mosaic of motives and identities, so is the character of the main protagonist: At one moment he is mystical, talking to the souls of dead; at another times, he is a criminal capable of commiserating, providing illegal aliens with heating; finally, he is foremost a loving dad, gently holding his daughter´s hand."