Weekend Read: How Sugar Man Moved Spain

It’s true that the total number of viewers of “Searching for sugar man” has been of 120,000 people, representing slightly less than one million euros. It’s approximately a third of what this film about Sixto Rodriguez raised in the United States. Far from the “blockbusters” that Hollywood imposes in Europe any season, featuring either Clooney with Bullock, Jolie with Pitt, or just Pitt.

Actually, the same weekend that “Searching for a sugar man” is leaving the Spanish billboard, several films ‘made in Hollywood’ are making their debut in Madrid: Tom Hanks and his ‘Captain Phillips’, ‘Turbo’ the incredible story of a snail that achieves a super speed that allows him to fulfill his dream of winning the 500 miles of Indianapolis… that is the well-known American cinema (70% of the movies in Spain) around the world.

How can one describe a movie that has not raised a million euros as a success? A strange Sweden-UK co-production about the life of a Hispanic artist who he earns his living demolishing buildings in a city sunk and broken as Detroit? Maybe so.

“It’s time for miracles and amazement,” as says the trailer for this odd documentary film which leaves many unanswered questions in the air: on the world of art and media, copyright, and life.

Sixto Rodriguez recorded an album in the mid-1960s in the United States. He sold six copies. But – without knowing it – he sold hundreds of thousands of copies in… South Africa. In that country Sixto Rodriguez was as famous as the Beatles or the Rollling Stones. An incredible story. In a moment of the film, sincere, Sixto Rodriguez explains why he never tried to record a second album, why he did not continue fighting in pursuit of fame, or media attention nor glory. “I knew I was not going to do anything better,” he said.