Speaking Up / Coming Out: Regions of Authenticity in Juan Pinzás's Gay Galician Dogma Trilogy

While Dogme 95 is often associated exclusively with Scandinavia, its manifesto and Vow of Chastity were taken up by filmmakers from across Europe as well as in North and South America. The three films made according to the format in Spain are the work of director Juan Pinzás (b. Vigo, 1955) and comprise the 'Trilogía de la vida, de amor, y de sexo': Era outra vez (2000), Días de voda (2002), and El desenlace (2005). The last film in the Spanish trilogy was also the final film to receive official certification from the Dogme 95 movement. The article argues that Pinzás exploits the strait-jacket of Dogme, in particular its rules about the use of sound, to focus attention on diglossia in Galicia and in order to portray as naturalistic the use of the Galician language on screen and between younger speakers. It also contends that the trilogy explores in parallel two coming-out processes: one which would affirm a gay man's true sexual identity and another which authenticates the Galician-speaking status of young middle class characters. The article finds that this parallel reading is complicated by the third instalment of the trilogy, in which key roles are played by new actors speaking in Spanish.