In hindsight, it is hard to fathom that happened more than three decades after Singapore was able to directly vote for legislative representatives in 1948. After all, Spain, with more than 45 million people, has a long, rich history, culture and industry perhaps most represented by Seat cars of old — earning it the second largest carmaker of Europe title. Its overall economy of US$1.4 trillion ($1.89 trillion) is more than three times larger than Singapore’s and is ranked the 14th largest in the world and fourth in the EU.
For several years in the early 1990s, Latin passion was on full display on silver screens across the world. Pedro Almodovar Caballero got the ball rolling with his dark comedy, Tie me up! Tie me down! The fever was further reinforced by Bigas Luna’s “Trilogía Ibérica”, a trilogy of films presenting the juxtaposition of old and new in Spain together with the odyssey of emotional contrasts of erotic desire and food. Along the way, the directors picked up numerous industry honours, and the stars of these films, Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz, won international fame and made the successful crossover to Hollywood.
In a way, the stories told by the films are a release of Spain’s own imagination, creativity and desire following the death of dictator Francisco Franco Bahamonde in 1975. A democratic system took its tentative steps and was only consolidated in 1982 when a transfer of power took place.
