Sunday Night at the Movies - a Multicultural Experience

Of course when you are in another country you expect to have many different cultural experiences! And of course, these experiences are even more profound if they combine the cultures of more than one country.

Last night was an example of this. My landlady (Let's call her Sophie), invited me to go with her and a friend to a film at the German Film Festival that evening. The film festival was being held in the cinema in the main building of the University of Guadalajara. As I had spent most of the weekend, studying and reading for classes, I jumped at the chance of a diversion.

Around 5.00pm we headed off in Sophie's car. (This is an experience in itself). She often misses turns, or turns at the last minute!! And here they never use blinkers!! And sometimes I don’t think she is watching what the other cars are doing!!! We picked up her friend and headed to the main building of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), not far from the centre of town. The main administration building of UdeG is in a beautiful Street called Vallarte (lots of lovely old colonial house from bygone days). The campus, that I attend is quite a way from here and the surroundings not so inviting.

We bought our tickets (40.00 pesos (around 4 dollars)) and took our seats in the theatre. The movie was called “Solino”. It was made in 2002 by a director from Turkey (Fatih Akins). A great film. It was about an Italian Family who moved to a mining town in Germany and opened up a Restaurant and tells the story of the family over a period of about 25 years. Some bits that make you laugh and others that make you want to cry. It reminded me a little of “Cinema Parasido” (loved that movie!).

Besides really enjoying the ups and downs of the film, the amazing thing for me was, that there I was, sitting in a theatre in Mexico, watching a German film, directed by a Turk, with German and Italian dialogue and Spanish subtitles!!