The reel-life struggles of Spain's footloose millennials

Hugo and Braulio are twenty-something Spaniards caught up in their country's post-recession malaise. Both are determined to make their way - but realise that the crisis has made a mockery of their fancy degrees and professional hopes. Hugo, a business graduate, cannot find a job (and, when he finally does, the company collapses amid financial scandal on the first day). Braulio, with degrees in biology and chemistry, is told his research grant has run out just as he stands on the brink of a great scientific discovery.

Increasingly desperate, they decide that, if Spain cannot offer them a future, the only way out is the way out. And where better to start a new life than Berlin, the capital of Europe's economic powerhouse, where jobs and opportunities abound? They book a flight straightaway, confident that employers will welcome them with open arms. "Germany needs me as much as I need Germany," says Hugo.

So begins Perdiendo el Norte , a Spanish comedy that has drawn more than 1.3m viewers since opening in cinemas last month. The title literally means "losing the north", but is better translated as "losing one's bearings". For that is precisely what happens to Hugo and Braulio after arriving in Berlin. They find an all-Spanish flat-share, they are mocked and pitied by the natives, fight a losing battle with the language, and end up cleaning a kebab shop kitchen.

The film is no cinematic masterpiece. It piles stereotype upon stereotype, and soon descends into the kind of slapstick where actors fall over, have food flung in their faces or both. Strangely, for a comedy set in Berlin, there are hardly any German characters. The locals that do appear are mostly cold, strict, unsmiling and - above all - blond.

Yet the movie hits a nerve. As the poster points out, it is "sadly based on thousands of real-life stories" . And the theme itself is becoming ever more deeply embedded in conversation and popular culture. In the past couple of years, Spaniards have been confronted with television ads, theatre productions and entire social movements built around the issue of the new exiles. Most political speeches include at least a nod to the problem. In the movie, Hugo laments bitterly that he is part of the "best-prepared generation that Spain has ever had". It is a phrase repeated endlessly in real life, usually followed by complaints that the country has invested heavily in the education of youngsters that it now seems incapable of putting to work.

But the film also highlights another, more subtle, trend: the deepening fascination with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Germany. For the past seven years, Spaniards have been constantly forced to measure themselves against the European superpower. To this day, many news bulletins end with an update on the risk premium - the spread between Spanish and German government bonds. When it is high, things are bad. When it is low, things are getting better. Either way, Germany is the new standard, the unflattering yardstick against which the nation is compelled to measure itself.

In the political arena, the divide today is between those who want to turn Spain into a little Germany - competitive, austere, obsessed with exports - and those who blame Berlin for all the nation's economic ills. Ordinary Spaniards, meanwhile, are preparing for the new era by striving to master the Teutonic tongue: the number of students at Germany's official language institutes in Spain has jumped by more than 50 per cent since the start of the crisis.

Towards the end of the movie, there is a final twist. Love persuades Hugo to stay in Berlin but Braulio decides to pursue his scientific career in China. As the credits roll, he sits in a Chinese class, his face contorted in frustration, as he struggles once again to prepare for a new language and a new future.

There is, perhaps, a salutary lesson for Spaniards and Germans alike. Before the crisis, tens of thousands of Chinese migrants flocked to Spain to profit from the boom. Now it is Spaniards who are leaving their country - today to Germany, maybe tomorrow to China.

Sooner or later, surely, it will be Spain's turn to ride high once again. Countries rise and fall. Even Senora Merkel's economic empire will not last for ever.

[email protected]

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation