Money Heist — The Beauty of Resistance

“In this world everything is governed by balance. There’s what you stand to gain and what you stand to lose. And in this moment they think they have nothing to lose. And when you believe you’ve got nothing to lose, you’re overconfident. We will be the ones that are going to show them just how much they have to lose”-The Professor

Yup, Money Heist is a Netflix series consisting of 3 seasons (4 starting on April 2020) which tells you a story about a criminal mastermind whose nickname is “The Professor” and his team to pull-off the biggest heist in history-by printing billions of euro-from The Royal Mint of Spain. This series might be interpreted by many people as several evil geniuses that understand how to psychologically threaten the police’s and special force’s mind. However, this series embodies a greater extent than that. For me, this series is no other than telling me a prominent political meaning in our society nowadays, it is “Resistance”.

Why Resistance?

1. As the professor said, if we have nothing to lose, then we will be overconfident. That is when the professor strives to gather public sympathy by telling the public that they have to go “against” the police and the government because they are the real problem. Several scenes such as when the Inspector in Charge, Raquel Murillo, was offered to release British Ambassador’s daughter, Alison Parker, or another 8 spanish students who were held hostage. Instead, the Colonel ordered the inspector to release Alison Parker for the sake of “diplomatic relationship” (which eventually they terminate the deal because it drives public anger). Not only public, the media also labelled the spanish as “second class people” which enrages the public even more. Another example is in Season 3, the group deliberately deploys 140 million euro to people in Madrid as they are preparing for their second heist. From these two instances, the police might initially feel like they have nothing to lose because they will catch the “bad guys”. Instead, the public realize that the real enemy is the police, not the group, as they are being labelled as “Robin Hood” because they are giving away the money to the people. That is when the professor shows the police that they actually have more to lose.
2. When we are talking about heist, we are also talking about inseparable variable, hostages. In Season 1 & Season 2, there is one man named “Arturo Roman” who is the General Director of The Royal Mint of Spain. He hates the group so much that several times he tries to create an unrest. Arturo Roman is also a symbol of resistance, but in another way, he is a resistance against the bad ones. He alone, strives to be “the hero” amongst the other hostages by being the bravest one to coup against the group. In contrary with Arturo, one of the most beautiful hostage there, Monica Gaztambide, falls in love with one of the member of the group, Denver, and deliberately joins their movement eventhough initially she was unsure in joining them. These cases told us that sometimes we could not even decide whether or not to be a resistance, because we will surely be different with the society.
3. Love is complicated, yes it is. This movie will also psychologically threatens our critical thinking. Inspector Murillo does not know who the professor knows, but professor does. He comes to the cafe where Inspector Murillo comes daily and introducts himself as “Salvador Martin”. When he was discovered, the Inspector could not give him to the police because she falls in love with him. She also agrees with the reason why the professor had planned the heist so perfectly, it is a form of protest against the government and we can also be the “resistance” in every circumstances and eventually helps professor in executing the heist.
4. Lastly, the group wears Dali mask. Salvador Dali was a Spanish artist which was known because of his bizzare artworks. Dali, who was considered “highly imaginative” was also a resistance to the government as his political ideology were anarchism and communism and often writes anecdotes by making radical political statements.

Yes, this series teaches me a lot about resistance. That is why they use “Bella Ciao” or “Beautiful Goodbye” as one of their soundtrack. Bella Ciao is an Italian protest song which was sang by mondina women as a protest against the fascist regime. Through this all, I believe that being a resistance is difficult as only dead fish go with the flow and that is, mi amigos, the beauty of resistance. The question now is : which resistance do you prefer? The bad ones, or the good ones? Police’s side or Professor’s side? Well, I guess you find it hard also to define which one is bad and which one is good.

Una mattina mi son alzato,
o bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao!