Last week, the D'A festival screened the film Don't Expect Too Much from the End of the World, by Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude. It is a satire on job insecurity with a protagonist who spends the entire film adding overtime, driving, chewing gum and posting dislocated videos on TikTok. From the title, the film conveys a feeling of cosmic impotence, but instead of adopting transcendent drama, it opts for delirious and subversive sarcasm.
Not expecting too much from the end of the world is good advice. It contrasts with the catastrophic sensationalism that circulates, we do not know if as emotional programming for imminent monstrosities or a prototype of collective enema. And speaking of dislocated videos: President Pere Aragonès posted one in which, following the delusions of his advisors, he explains “five things we didn't know about Pere Aragonès.” After seeing it, do you really think we will change our opinion of his mandate? Being bombarded at all hours with messages about things that in theory we should know is part of this end of the world dosed so that, when it arrives, we will not even notice it.
On La 2, Gemma Nierga interviews Gerardo Pisarello, who denounces the “war hysteria” that favors the great powers and the “arms lobby.” He declares himself a disciple of Arcadi Oliveras. Pisarello's opinions occupy the media space reserved for an almost institutional disagreement. He denounces that Europe continues to sell weapons to Israel, but, curiously, does not make any reference to Iran's drone attack. In the eternal discussion about the situation in Israel and Palestine, the great difficulty lies in finding a balance between information about the facts and a rational pedagogy about the factors (of unattainable complexity) that intervene in the area. That is why it is so common that it is easier to choose one of the trenches following an emotional criterion legitimized by the sense of justice. On Catalunya Ràdio, maestro Tomás Alcoverro remembers that Arafat, Sadat and Rabin were assassinated by their own followers and that the sign of the times in that area of the world is, sadly, intransigence.
Pisarello says that Salvador Illa's party is pushing too hard and defines Ada Colau as the most influential politician in Barcelona. Since I don't know if it is a compliment or a poisoned dart, I look for the definition of influential: "having influence, authority, ascendancy." Pujolear, on the other hand, was understood as kilometer zero populism, with many local references, great knowledge of the country and a certain paternalism in the relationship between administrators and administered. Could it be that what then seemed like a pathological derivative of the cult of personality is more necessary than ever? The evolution of the hand-to-hand demagoguery that Pujol practiced until Pere Aragonès' video confirms that the end of the world will force us to make an appointment or download an application or a QR.
