Abstract
This chapter focuses on the representation of motherhood in Barcelona in Biutiful (2010). The places that women occupy reinforce Doreen Massey’s idea of gendered space. The women in the film are seen inside, reinforcing the idea that women inhabit the domestic sphere while men are free to roam. Through his use of lighting, costumes, and setting, the director Iñárritu portrays mothers as women who provide care, but who do so outside of the traditional family structure while still inhabiting the traditional domestic space of women. Through the urban, gendered spaces the characters inhabit, this film problematizes the position of mother in the cultural context of twenty-first-century Spain.
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Ross, C.B. (2017). Defining Mother’s Place in Barcelona: Women in Biutiful (2010). In: DiFrancesco, M., Ochoa, D. (eds) Gender in Spanish Urban Spaces. Hispanic Urban Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47325-3_8
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