Julie (Eili Harboe) works as an intern at an architecture firm. She should not. She has a degree but, because of the competitive job market, she must make do with serving coffees to her professional colleagues. Since her salary is ridiculous compared to the housing prices in Oslo (Norway), she finds herself in an unexpected situation: renting a parking space with a curtain to serve as her home. She a prestigious career to end up in an abandoned building that is sold to her as a "brutalist".
The plot of The architect, the series that Filmin premiered this summer, is presented as a dystopia. Bank customers must practically request a loan to have customer service that is not automated responses through a machine on the street; the viewer soon discovers that, according to the new Norwegian law, a house does not even need a single window or natural light; and, in this context, it is also soon discovered what people are willing to do to have the down payment for an apartment.
Seeing some of these situations, and then looking around us and the brutalities that are heard from those who are looking for a flat in cities like Barcelona or Madrid, it is impossible that, even though it has the aroma of dystopia, this fictitious present is actually already here. : the requirements of the system can be met (a good education, the right title, the right talent) and it fails the subjects when it comes to providing them with such a basic right as having a roof under which to subsist (and with, nor whatever, a window or a kitchen that is not next to the bed).
The government of the Popular Party and Vox, for example, has just eliminated the requirement of Catalan for healthcare in the Balearic Islands due to Catalanophobia when, in reality, the language of Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa and Formentera is not a problem: the There are obstacles to finding housing on the islands, with both young people and those who want to settle there for more than a vacation finding themselves expelled. And, while tourism and cycling ruin Girona's barri vell, tourist apartments, expats with international salaries and the brick mentality so traditional to the Iberian Peninsula make it impossible for singles, couples or families to have any option of renting an apartment in Barcelona.
These, of course, are just a few examples that come to mind, but any reader will be able to put this problem into context. It is for this reason that it would be tremendously convenient if there were a remake of The architect in a Catalan key. One could even indulge in the whim of offering a more generous footage and justifiably (the Norwegian series only has four episodes of 20 minutes each), adapting its starting point to the social, political and cultural fabric of the country and with the dystopian point from the screenplay by Kristian Kilde, Nora Landsrød, Kerren Lumer-Klabbers
Let's imagine the hypothetical Júlia having to occupy a parking lot while the streets are full of places with brunch signs where indigenous people can't even afford coffee. Imagine the bars and cafeterias of a lifetime with sandwiches with pa amb tomàquet and beers thrown at a reasonable price (and without signature beers) converted into directly underground venues. Let the real tricks of citizens not to stay on the street be seen and the arrival of police brigades to evict entire blocks to allocate them to tourists and expats with their suitcases waiting at the door.
An episode could even be dedicated to summer towns: authentic post-apocalyptic areas in the winter months due to the thousands of deserted houses, lowered blinds and unpainted facades. And let us think of the jovial conversations about honeycomb flats among developers, builders and lovers of capital, arguing that they are a necessity due to the lack of land in the city, while luxury flats with communal pools and gyms and prohibitively expensive prices proliferate, often with posters for sale in English because it is assumed that the natives could not afford the outrageous amount they are asking for.
Not even the dissonant elements, the eccentricities and the ideas taken to the limit could move that dystopia away from our present, because we are already at that point. Perhaps it is time, therefore, to represent it.
