Grossraum: Ceuta

Lonnie van Brummelen, Netherlands, The, 2004

Synopsis

Ceuta is a Spanish enclave on the northern tip of the African continent; a rocky peninsula on the Strait of Gibraltar. During the Franco regime, Ceuta was the only place free to trade with Spain. After the dictatorship, its economy collapsed. With a new marketplace next to the Moroccan border, the people of Ceuta try to stimulate trade with their neighbors. While the exportation of goods is encouraged, enhanced border patrol and a barbed-wire fence are preventing illegal migration. Ceuta is part of the film triptych Grossraum, which explores the composition of the landscape along the current margins of Europe. The boundaries between Poland and Ukraine, between Spain and Morocco, and between the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot parts of Cyprus are crossed by means of visual journeys. Divided landscapes are guarded by the military and photography is forbidden without the permission of the proper authorities. The film triptych is complemented with the publication of The Formal Trajectory, which expresses the often curious procedures and conflicting protocols that preceded filming.