Dual Identity

Dual Identity is a short film that responds to the family and literary Archive of Arturo and Ilsa Barea, made on the occasion of the archive’s acquisition by the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Commissioned by Christian Ravina of IC Communications and supported by the Instituto Cervantes, London, it was made at the home of Uli Rushby Smith, niece of Ilsa and Arturo, and keeper of the archive. Boué was invited to document and respond to the archive in Uli's family home, leading to an intimate portrait of the Bareas’ exile in the village of Farringdon. A poetic treatment of the objects, photographs, and stories told by Uli is framed by the family's kitchen table — the site of so much shared history and cohabitation. Home and the domestic as metaphors for exile and displacement are core concerns in Boué’s work.

The film was made for a commemorative event at the Weston Library, Oxford, where it was shown on the heritage screen.

The film’s intersection with Boué's own family history of Spanish republican exile in England, and with Uli’s deep attachment to the archive and to Arturo and Ilsa themselves, lends it a particular emotional charge. It is now held in the Arturo and Ilsa Barea Archive at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Read more about Arturo and Ilsa Barea and their Archive here.