The City

This film is composed of revealing snippets from the life of a Moroccan immigrant whom the director filmed over a period of many years in his new homeland of Spain. The immigrant traveled to another land, another sea, certain that he had found a better place to live. But what he didn't know ahead of time was that he would be accompanied by his homeland, that it would always be within him. At first he is lively and optimistic, but later on this increasingly bedraggled man's wild eyes betray an entirely different frame of mind. He very much wants to take part in Spanish society, but it is all he can do to survive. The greatest struggle, however, is an internal one. We can see in his intense expression that a sense of loss and desperation has taken control. Gonzalo Ballaster, who occasionally interviews the man to find out how he is doing, has made other films about illegal immigration, including (2006).