ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on transnationality as the concept that critics and filmmakers invoke to question the concept of national cinema. A type of genre filmmaking that could be competitive both at the box office and in the national award gala is, in fact, the latest addition to the extensive repository of cultural benchmarks to measure Spain’s alleged belatedness vis-à-vis its Western counterparts. Among the transnational genres that function in that fashion, the action thriller is the one I cover in this chapter through a study of El desconocido (de la Torre, 2015) and Cien años de perdón (Calparsoro, 2016). Both films deal with the disastrous effects of the 2008 financial crisis in the country. That circumstance plays an essential part in my appreciation of their global/local appeal.
