Qui t'estima, Babel? (1987)

Add a Plot »

Director:

Ignasi P. Ferré

Writer:

Mercè Company

Stars:

Mercedes Sampietro, Assumpta Serna, Mireia Tomàs

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mercedes Sampietro	...	Tia Cèlia
Assumpta Serna	...	Mare
Mireia Tomàs	...	Babel petita
Judit-Rosa Vidal	...	Babel adolescent
May Vives	...	Gavina (as Mai Vives)
Amparo Moreno	...	Assistenta social (as Empar Moreno)
Ferran Rañé	...	Doctor Roig
Carme Molina	...	Mestra de 3r
Blanca Martínez	...	Tutora de 6è
Rosana Pastor	...	Mestra de 6è
Martí Sales	...	Tonino
Ramon Teixidor	...	Guàrdia Urbà
Pep Cruz	...	Indigent borratxo
Josefa Tubau	...	Portera
Jossy Vallespín	...	Superiora

Storyline

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

Catalan

Release Date:

27 January 1988 (Spain)

Also Known As:

¿Quién te quiere, Babel?

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Let's pretend Babel doesn't exist.

This educative type of movie exposes a tricky subject: the impact on a child of her mother's mental illness. The plot focuses on two aspects: the defensive mechanisms used by an unloved girl -Babel- to have a glimpse of sanity and the 'see no evil, hear no evil' attitude of adults including relatives, school teachers and psychiatrists. Their failed attempts to tackle tragedy give us an idea of how naive is society at times. The mother is mad, the daughter is not, period.

Technically the movie is unimpressive, the same goes for the acting, but nonetheless it is effective enough to interest the viewer. But sadly, the 'based upon a true story' effectiveness is somewhat lost when the director sets the action in Barcelona, a Barcelona no one in Catalonia would recognize as real because the lack of Spanish speaking voices through-out the movie. Back then in 1987, Barcelona was still mostly labeled in 'Spanish', shopping malls and institutions were reluctant to give a chance to Catalan speakers. Even today Catalan is used in one out of 6 TV channels and on one out of 100 movie theaters so is unthinkable a monolingual scenario as seen in that movie. Thankfully, this anomaly has been overgrown with time and local movies and even foreign ones like "L'Auberge Espagnole" reflect a more likely scenario of our bilingual society matching more appropriately the Babel in the movie's tittle.