The Affective Turn in Arraianos (Eloy Enciso, 2012): Toward an Exploratory Ethnographic Cinema

The Affective Turn highlights the limitations of the structuralist discourse when applied to visual hermeneutics, and instead foregrounds affect as a critical tool emphasizing the emotional and sensory atmosphere that film can convey. This framework will guide the analysis of Arraianos (2012), a film by Galician director Eloy Enciso Cachafeiro. Inspired by O Bosque (1977), a dramatic work by Jenaro Marinhas del Valle, Arraianos immerses us in the culture of the inhabitants of A Raia Seca, a border region between Ourense in Galicia, Spain, and the Couto Mixto in Portugal. The film does more than document a geographically, historically, politically, and economically situated community; it also captures the inner life of its people—their dreams, emotional worlds, and collective psyche. In this article, I argue that by immersing the viewer in a world shaped by affect and thus aligning with the tradition of exploratory ethnographic cinema, Arraianos succeeds in evoking the ethos of a culture beyond the limits of objective and representational documentary filmmaking.