Gibraltar: My Rock

We can’t have been the only people scratching our heads during Gibraltar’s latest minor rumble with Spain. Like the Falklands, the island is very much a relic of empire – and yet it's a relic that seems to arouse incredibly strong feelings in anyone who goes anywhere near the subject of its sovereignty. This film represents a very personal view of the subject: director Ana Garcia is Gibraltarian and her take on the issue is doubtless filtered through family experience.

It’s a useful primer to Gibraltar’s contested history, although the Spanish case doesn’t get much of an airing so it’s hard not to suspect that one side of the argument is being glossed over. Still, whatever the historical rights and wrongs, it’s easy to see why Gibraltar didn’t want to be subsumed by Spain during the Franco years and equally obvious that the long period of border closure was a petty gesture that has left deep scars. Worth a look for an insight into the impact of wider geopolitics on a small nation, but this seems unlikely to represent the last word on the subject.