Wales and Scotland in British Cinema

Wales and Scotland in British Cinema

Introduction

We know that the UK, is a nation state, by being a union of 4 nations and so, we could say it is already characterised by the presence of several identities, even without the foreigner presence from the rest of the world. In this essay, I would like to analyse the language and culture, through the example of cinema, in the UK, within devolution.

This form of nation-state could be easily confused with a federal state, but in federal states, all parliaments or assemblies are equal, on the contrary, Scottish parliament, Welsh, and Northern Ireland Assemblies depend on Westminster Parliament and a simple act of Parliament could dissolve each of these devolved powers. Beside this, a federal state implies the presence of a written constitution that in the UK, as we know, does not exist. I think probably, the UK as a whole, needs a change towards federalism in order to make a fairer balance between the different parts and stop the claim for independence. As in the case of Scotland in 2014 and again it is latest news that after the results of the Brexit referendum, where 62% of Scottish voted to stay in the EU, the Scottish National Party is preparing a new referendum for independence that will probably take place in 2018 or 2019.

The model of nation state implies that its population constitutes a nation, united by a common origin, a common language and many forms of shared culture. Sometimes this implied unity was absent and the nation state often tried to create it, promoting a national language. A good way to develop this common language was the creation of national systems of compulsory primary education and a related uniform curriculum in secondary schools. We can also mention the example of the creation of a Welsh TV channel in response to the Welsh Language Society.                                                                                                                                          The first school teaching Welsh national language were created in 1947, but yet in the 80s only one welsh child on four was learning his language at school. The number of children learning Welsh did increase not long time ago, in the 90s.

In the 70s, in Scotland and Wales was introduced the Moreno Question, where was asked to the citizens of both nations whether they felt more British, more Welsh/Scottish, or just British or Welsh or Scottish. The percentage of Scottish who defined as exclusively Scottish changed during the years: from 19% in 1992, to 36% in 2001 and again it reduced in 2012 with 23%.                                                                                                                                                                          In 1997 in Wales using the Moreno question, 17% of people defined themselves as “exclusively Welsh” and 12% as exclusively British. It is actually simple to decide whether a citizen is Scottish or Welsh, because in theory it depends from the place of birth, residence and lineage.

In the practice, British identity is an extremely profound concept. In 1990 the American professor Homi. K. Bhabha introduced the “conceptual indeterminacy” of the nation-state and its ‘two faced’ nature, having a different meaning to those within or outside it.

Politicians in order to celebrate this ‘unity in diversity’ often use the term “Britishness”.

Quoting David Cannadine, a British author and historian “Britishness is a complicated and enormous thing - what different people see as meaning different things. It can mean one island, a group of islands off the coast of Europe, or it can mean the British Empire - at times

it means all those things. Politicians, and the rest of us, define it in different ways at different times.”  

Influences of Devolution in Cinema.

Given the situation it could be possible to define and think about filmmaking in the UK just as “British”, even if was actually made in Scotland or Wales.

These two nations expressed their lack of a strong identity also in cinema production. There are films, which tend to nationalism, and make Scotland and Wales central point of their plot, but mainly we have other movies that aim to something more similar to internationalism. In fact, it was difficult in my research to find movies defined as Scottish, and not directly British, even if they were directed by a Scottish or Welsh director and shooted in these two nations.

A movie that captured my attention was Twin Town, made in 1997 and set in Swansea, Wales. This is a crime comedy, which looks with irony to the older cultural traditions of Wales. We can see the will of celebrating Welsh identity in this movie in several items. For example, we have the presence of national symbols such as the flag or the Welsh Language song Myfanwy.

We can find Scottish movies such as 24 Hours Party People (2002) and Blue Juice (1995) that put the accent on regional cultures underlining that the nation should respect the diversity of different regions, and most importantly, a nation should recognise the contribution of each region to the general identity and culture of the United Kingdom.

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