Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
Lasa eta Zabala, the film about the kidnapping, torture and murder of two suspected members of ETA by the Spanish Guardia Civil waseagerly expected at the Festival. Its director Pablo Malo recalled that, “We were quite clear about the fact that we were handling some really sensitive material and that they were going to put us under the microscope. When I accepted the job of directingit and told people about it, they offered me their condolences. This gave me a certain idea of the mess we were getting ourselves into.”
Malo complained yesterday that he had been talking about politics for weeks, something that he didn’t feel like doing at all, and very little about cinema, and went on to say, “I can’t stand violence and I’m on the side of the people that suffer. We’re not taking it out on the Guardia Civil here, as they have said, and we’re not picking on the Spanish Socialist Party either. We are just telling the story of certain things that certain specific people did at a certain time in a certain context. If the film gets used as a political football, then it’s out of our hands.”