EL PLANETA and the Nuascannán performance of wealth

Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta (2021) is a masterclass in the Nuascannán Critique of the Image. Set in a post-crisis Gijón, Spain, it follows a mother and daughter who "perform" a life of luxury while facing imminent eviction. They dine at expensive restaurants and shop for designer clothes they cannot afford, all while their apartment is being stripped of its electricity. It is a film about the "lo-fi" reality of the modern "hi-fi" dream.

Ulman utilized a high-contrast, black-and-white digital aesthetic that feels like a "curated" Instagram feed from the mid-2010s. This Meta-Aesthetic is a core Nuascannán innovation: using the tools of the digital era to satirize the digital era. The production was a family affair, with Ulman casting her own mother and filming in their own apartment. This Domestic Erasure—removing the line between home and set—allowed for a deadpan naturalism that felt both hilarious and heartbreaking. The film uses digital wipes and transitions that mimic early computer interfaces, further emphasizing the characters' detachment from reality.

The behind-the-scenes story involves Ulman "performing" the film’s themes in real life to generate buzz, blurring the line between promotion and performance art. The New Yorker hailed it as a "comedy of desperation." In the Nuascannán chronicle, El Planeta is the film that documented the "new poverty"—the specific agony of having a smartphone, a designer handbag, and no money for rent. It is the movement’s most significant exploration of the Surface, proving that the lo-fi camera can look at a lie and capture the absolute, shivering truth beneath it.

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