Twenty-one films (seventeen feature films, one medium-length film and three shorts) make up the Basque production selected for the 67th edition of the San Sebastian Festival, distributed between the Official Selection, New Directors, Zabaltegi - Tabakalera, Perlak, Culinary Zinema, Zinemira sections and the Basque film and EiTB galas. Nine of these, feature films having their world premiere at the Festival, will compete for the Irizar Basque Film Award.
Zinemira, the section specifically dedicated to Basque cinema, contains ten productions including fiction and non-fiction, debut films and films by directors with an extensive career.
The latest film from Helena Taberna (Alsasua, Navarre), Varados (Stranded), will open the section. Several of Taberna’s films have been programmed in previous years at the Festival, such as Yoyes (Made in Spain, 2000), La buena nueva (The Good News,Made in Spain, 2009) and Acantilado (The Cliff,Zinemira, 2016). Varados portrays the everyday lives of long-term refugees in Greece.
Glittering Misfits is the first feature film by Iban del Campo (Arrasate, Gipuzkoa, 1971), whose short films Dirty Martini and Espedizio Handia were previously selected for Kimuak and screened at the Festival. In Glittering Misfits he explores the subject of burlesque outlined in Dirty Martini, in an expedition to the night clubs and cabarets of New York’s Off-Off-Broadway.
Hiru uhinak - Les trois vagues / The Three Waves too marks his feature debut for its director, Loïc Legrand, in which three filmmakers tackle the challenge of telling an old legend in images.
Taberna, Del Campo and Legrand will compete for the Irizar Basque Film Award. Furthermore, Zinemira will act as a showcase for seven of the year’s most outstanding Basque productions.
El doble más quince (Double plus Fifteen), the new film from Mikel Rueda (Bilbao, 1980) will participate in the section out of competition. It was one of the projects selected for the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2017 and had its premiere at the last Malaga Festival. Rueda, who competed with his first feature film (Izarren argia / Estrellas que alcanzar / Stars to Wish Upon, 2010) in New Directors, narrates in El doble más quince the relationship between a 45-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy, played by Maribel Verdú and Germán Alcarazu.
Also programmed is Muga deitzen da pausoa / Stepping into the Boundary by Maider Oleaga (Bilbao, 1976), a project developed at the first edition of the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme and premiered at the Gijon Festival.
Based on the novel of the same name by Bernardo Atxaga, Soinujolearen semea (The Accordionist’s Son) was selected for the Huelva and Nantes festivals. Its director, Fernando Bernués (San Sebastian, 1961), competed in New Directors with Kutsidazu bidea, Ixabel (Show Me the Way, Ixabel, 2006), co-directed with Mireia Gabilondo, and presented Mugaldekoak (2010) in Zinemira.
Zinemira will also screen the last film made by Juanmi Gutiérrez (Errenteria, 1945), who passed away in February this year, Paseko Txoriak / Birds of Passage. Gutiérrez, to whom the Festival will pay tribute at its 67th edition, presented ten of his films in Zinemira.
70 Binlandens is the third film from Koldo Serra (Bilbao, 1975), producer of The Backwoods and Gernika. The Movie. Emma Suárez, Nathalie Poza and Hugo Silva star in this thriller which had its premiere at the Sitges Festival.
La pequeña Suiza (The Little Switzerland) is the second feature film from Kepa Sojo (Llodio, Álava, 1968), after El síndrome de Svensson (2006). La pequeña Suiza narrates the adventures of a Castilian town in the heart of the Basque Country.
Lastly, also to be presented in Zinemira is the animated film Elcano y Magallanes: la primera vuelta al mundo (Elcano & Magallan: The First Voyage Around the World), the second film directed by Ángel Alonso (Pasaia, Gipuzkoa, 1967) following El ladrón de sueños (The Thief of Dreams,2000), Goya nominee for best animated film.
‘Agur Etxebeste!’ at the Basque Film Gala
Fourteen years ago, Asier Altuna (Bergara, Gipuzkoa, 1969) and Telmo Esnal (Zarautz, Gipuzkoa, 1967) presented Aupa Etxebeste! (2005) in the New Directors section, landing the Youth Award. Since then, they have presented their films in different Festival sections, including the Official Selection. This year will see the screening at the Basque Film Gala of Agur Etxebeste!, the latest instalment in the adventures of Patrizio Etxebeste and his wife María Luisa, which will also compete for the Irizar Basque Film Award.
Miguel Ángel Jiménez (Madrid, 1979), who competed in New Directors with Chaika (2012), will premiere at the EiTB Gala Una ventana al mar / Window to the Sea, also a contender for the accolade going to the best Basque production at the Festival. Emma Suárez will play a woman diagnosed with cancer who sets off on a journey to Greece with her friends.
Also in the running for the Irizar Basque Film Award are La trinchera infinita (The Infinite Trench), directed by Aitor Arregi (Oñati, Gipuzkoa, 1977), Jon Garaño (San Sebastian, 1974) and Josemari Goenaga (Ordizia, Gipuzkoa, 1976), selected for the Official Selection; and Las letras de Jordi (Jordi’s Letters,Ikusmira Berriak 2017), the debut film from Maider Fernández Iriarte (San Sebastián, 1988) participating in the New Directors section. Other contestants are two features having their premiere in Culinary Zinema: the film by Iñaki Arteta (Bilbao, 1959) Bittor Arginzoniz. Vivir en el silencio / Bittor Arginzoniz. Living in Silence, about the personality of the chef at the Etxebarri steakhouse, and Gazta, by Mikel Urretabizkaia, bringing a series of testimonies about the universe of Idiazabal cheese.
Other Basque productions not competing for the Irizar Award will also screen at the Festival: Leyenda dorada (The Golden Legend) by Ion de Sosa (Urnieta, Gipuzkoa, 1981) and Chema García Ibarra (Elche, Alicante, 1980) and Lursaguak (Scenes of Life) by Izibene Oñederra (Azkoitia, Gipuzkoa, 1979), two short films in the Kimuak programme selected for Zabaltegi - Tabakalera; the medium-length Urpean lurra by Maddi Barber (Lakabe, Navarre, 1988), also in Zabaltegi - Tabakalera, in which she participated last year with 592 metroz goiti (Above 592 Metres); O que arde (Fire Will Come), the film by Oliver Laxe (Paris, 1982) premiered and recipient of an award in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Festival, to be programmed in Perlak; and the short film Zer jan hura izan by Igor Arabaolaza, belonging to the Culinary Zinema section.
Two projects at the Co-Production Forum and Ikusmira Berriak
Furthermore, two projects of Basque production will be present at the Festival: Karmele, by Asier Altuna, is part of the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum selection, and, in the framework of the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme, Aitziber Olaskoaga (Getxo, Bizkaia, 1980) develops Jo ta ke.
BASQUE FILM GALA
Patrizio Etxebeste decides to resign from the office of mayor for health problems, but few know the real reason: the recent corruption scandals uncovered in nearby towns lead him to believe that his may be the next head to roll. Who better to take up the reins and maintain the control than Mª Luisa, his faithful wife? But it won’t all be quite as simple as it once might have been. His decorative wife decides not to be quite so decorative and starts taking action. The controlling man doesn’t control things quite as much as he thought he did or would like to and he has to adapt, to evolve. All crises, whether in the family, politics or social spheres, bring tensions and problems. But they also bring change and important opportunities. Sequel to Aupa Etxebeste! (2005).
EITB GALA
Faced with life changing news, María, a fifty-five-year-old Spanish woman from Bilbao, chooses to take a trip to Greece with her closest girlfriends against the advice of her son and doctors. A spontaneous decision leads her to the island of Nisyros, a tiny haven of peace and calm that immediately feels like home. While exploring the beautiful island and soaking in its hidden treasures, she meets Stefanos and finds herself falling in love against all odds.
ZINEMIRA
Section dedicated to Basque film organised by the San Sebastian Festival and the Basque Government Department of Culture, with the sponsorship of Irizar and EITB; and the collaboration of the Filmoteca Vasca, EPE/AVE, IBAIA and Zineuskadi.
In the Mediterranean, the sea around which our civilisation took shape, thousands of refugees wait for Europe to take them in. At the doors of the old continent, they struggle to keep their hope alive despite the precarious conditions under which they survive every day. Varados (Stranded) looks at the everyday life of these long-term refugees. In Athens squats or in refugee camps spread across the country, these men and women still wait for the documents that will allow them to continue with their lives.
Raquel is a desperate woman. Her personal situation has driven her to the point where she needs 35,000 euros (colloquially known as '70 binladens'), and she needs them in the next 24 hours. Her last hope is a bank loan. When two armed robber burst into the place just as she’s about to seal the transaction the situation will become complicated for Raquel, who has no choice: time’s running out and she has to leave there with the money, no matter what the cost.
The first round-the-world trip. A voyage into the unknown which began in the command of Magellan and was completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano. Storms, hunger, tribes... Five ships set sail from Seville. Three years later, only one made it back. An incredible adventure around a planet whose round shape was finally demonstrated.
Imagine a woman. Around 45 years old. Slender, attractive, but somewhat ravaged by age. Can you see her? Now put her in a stretch of wasteland. Alone. Sitting on the bonnet of her saloon car. Waiting. She’s waiting for someone. She’s nervous. Someone’s coming towards her from the distance. It looks like a boy. Yes, it’s a boy, a 16-year-old kid pedalling his bike. He stops in front of her. They look at one another. Uncomfortable. They don’t know what to say. They don’t know what to do. He sees her smoking. “You told me you’d stopped”, he says to her. “And you told me you were older”, she answers, half-nervous, half-angry. “So what now?” he insists, nervous, very nervous. That’s exactly the question. What now? What would happen if a 45-year-old woman and a boy of 16 were to get to know one another online and arrange to meet for sex? That’s the basic premise of El doble más quince.
Dirty Martini and Tigger!, stars of the New York underground scene, reveal some of the secrets of their provocative and remonstrative forms of artistic expression in New York’s Off-Off-Broadway. Meanwhile, they will help us to understand from their everyday intimacy the reasons, the struggles and the keys that keep them in their place as the figures and references of the burlesque revival, more than 20 years after the phenomenon exploded in the New York of the 90s.
I thought the legend was marvellous and outrageous. But what meaning could we give it today? I publish an announcement offering to make a film based on that old story. Lili, Aña and Ekaitz reply with curiosity and an eagerness for cinema. Together they address the tale of the three waves to make it their own.
The film follows the eventful tale of the inhabitants of a fictional Castilian village nestling in the heart of the Basque Country called Tellería, which, after 700 years of history, wants to become part of the Basque territory. When the Basque government refuses their request to join the region, an intriguing discovery in the local shrine leads the intrepid villagers to seek annexation to one of the world’s most highly developed nations: Switzerland.
Two women meet at an old apartment in San Sebastian (in the Basque Country). One is alive and a filmmaker; the other is called Elvira Zipitria Irastorza, who died in 1982. The filmmaker discovers that she’s living in a place heavy with an invisible presence, with myriad barely audible echoes. Some ring out from the Franco dictatorship, when Elvira created a clandestine school in the Basque language. The former tenant of the house was an important figure in 20th century Basque culture and politics. But she remains in the shadows. The filmmaker, driven by the need to find out more about the woman, starts to investigate. An anything but easy quest will soon take the shape of performances. Making the film represents the ultimate way to approach Elvira.
It all started in July 2018. Groups of migrants coming from Africa endeavouring to cross the border with France started arriving at Irun train station. They would sleep in the street. The charities working in the town succeeded in convincing the squatters’ movements to take a hand in the matter by letting them use their places. The wave of generosity spread to the people of Irun.
David Imaz had to flee from the Basque Country in the mid-seventies, repudiated by his people, accused of betrayal. Despite having found happiness in California, his past still weighs heavily on him and the feeling of guilt prevents him from being able to peacefully enjoy the last days of his life. Joseba Altuna, his childhood friend, comes to say goodbye and to settle the score while he's at it. It's been a long time since they saw one another, but the time has come to face the truth. Based on the novel of the same name by Bernardo Atxaga.
The Zinemira Award will recognise the career of the producer Jose María 'Txepe' Lara
At the Basque Film Gala, to take place on Tuesday, September 24 at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre, as well as the premiere of Agur Etxebeste!, the honorary Zinemira Award will be presented, conferred by the Festival and the producers associations Ibaia and EPE/APV to acknowledge the career of an outstanding personality from the world of Basque cinema. Until now, the award has gone to Imanol Uribe (2009), Álex Angulo (2010), Elías Querejeta (2011), Michel Gaztambide (2012), Juanba Berasategi (2013), Pedro Olea (2014), Karmele Soler (2015), Ramón Barea (2016), Julia Juaniz (2017) and Ramón Agirre (2018). In 2019 it will honour the career of the producer José María Lara, Txepe.
Txepe Lara (Madrid, 1948) began his relationship with the cinema in 1985, performing tasks related to still photography and working as an assistant cameraman on films like Hamaseigarrenean aidanez (Anjel Lertxundi, 1985), Zergatik panpox (Xabier Elorriaga, 1986), Adiós, pequeña (Imanol Uribe, 1986) and Ander eta Yul (New Directors, 1988), directed by Ana Díez.
Together with other technicians, he created the Association of Basque Film Technicians between 1985 and 1986.
In 1987 he founded the production company José María Lara P.C., where the career of this pioneer who has been a key figure in the Basque cinematography of the last three decades began taking shape. In 1988 he produced No estamos, by Lourdes Bañuelos, the first of the almost 40 short films he has produced with different companies: the aforementioned José Mª Lara PC, Alokatu SL, Shangri-la PC, Primero izquierda, Toca.Sons Produccions, Lumiere Produkzioak and Xerifa Producciones.
In El anónimo… ¡vaya papelón! (1990), Alfonso Arandia's directorial debut, starring Martxelo Rubio and Miguel Molina, he actively participated as associate producer, executive producer and assistant cameraman. In 1993 he produced, with the participation of Euskal Media, Urteilunak (The Dark Years, New Directors) by Arantxa Lazkano, winner of awards at different festivals all over Spain.
In 1994, as well as Alsasua, 1936, by Helena Taberna, with Flavio Martínez Laviano he produced Justino, un asesino de la tercera edad, the first film signed by the self-proclaimed La Cuadrilla (Santiago Aguilar and Luis Guridi). The film received two Goya awards, the best film accolade at Sitges and the same number of recognitions at international festivals. Four years later he would also produce the film by Aguilar and Guridi Atilano, presidente, one of the first works by the actor Luis Tosar, with a soundtrack written by the composer Alexandre Desplat.
He also struck up a successful collaboration with Ramón Barea, producing his short films Adiós, Toby, adiós (Goodbye, Toby, Goodbye,1995) and Muerto de amor (Dead for Love,Zabaltegi, 1996), as well as his two features as a director, Pecata Minuta (New Directors, 1999) and El coche de pedales (The Pedal Push Car,Basque Film Day, 2004).
Another long-term relationship was the one he enjoyed with Asier Altuna and Telmo Esnal, for whom he produced short films including Txotx (1997), 40ezetz (1999), Topeka (2002) and Sarean (2008), also accompanying them on their first feature film, Aupa Etxebeste! (New Directors, 2005), thanks to which they won the Audience Award in San Sebastian and were nominated for the Goya for best new director.
He also lent his support in his early days to Daniel Calparsoro, with whom he competed in the Official Selection at Venice (A ciegas, 1997) as well as in Berlin's Panorama Section (Asfalto / Asphalt, 2000).
In addition, he accompanied the editor Julia Juaniz in her works as a producer: Sigan felices (1989), Traintime (Basque Film Grand Prix at the Bilbao Film Festival, 1991) and El magnolio (1997), the non-fiction works El vuelo de Dora Salazar (2011), El lenguaje de los objetos (2013) and Kamarada (2018) as well as several video works.
For Mercedes Álvarez he produced the short film El viento africano (1997), and the successful creative documentary El cielo gira (2004), acknowledged at festivals including Buenos Aires, Rotterdam and Cinéma du Reel.
He was also the producer of La fabulosa historia de Diego Marín (The Fabulous Tale of Diego Marín,1997), directed by Fidel Cordero and starring Martxelo Rubio and Alicia Borrachero, winner of an award at the Miami Festival.
Lara has also participated in films with an international cast, in co-production with Morena Films, such as Cargo (2006), directed by Clive Gordon, written by Paul Laverty and starring Daniel Brühl, Luis Tosar and Peter Mullan, and 25 degrés en hiver (25 Degrees in Winter) directed by Stéphane Vuillet and starring Jacques Gamblin and Carmen Maura, which he co-produced with Marion Hänsel and which won the Audience Award at the Berlinale. He also participated in the Mexican, German and Spanish production by Eva Lopez Sanchez, Francisca, selected for Berlin's Panorama section.
In the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes he presented La influencia (The Influence,2007) by Pedro Aguilera, for whom he also produced Naufragio (Shipwreck,Zinemira, 2011).
As well as those mentioned above, many other films have been selected for San Sebastian, such as Time's Up, by Cecilia Barriga (New Directors, 2000); Cosmos, by Diego Fandos (New Directors, 2007), Zigortzaileak (The Punishers)by Arantza Ibarra and Alfonso Arandia (Movies for Kids, 2010) and Arriya (The Stone, Zinemira, 2011), by Alberto Gorritiberea, acknowledged with five awards at the Malaga Festival and which also participated in Karlovy Vary.
In 2011 he produced Miguel Curiel's feature film La niña de Maracaibo (The Girl from Maracaibo). In 2013 he presented in Toronto Los chicos del puerto (The Kids from the Port), by Alberto Morais, with whom he had already worked on his debut, Un lugar en el cine (A Place in the Cinema,Basque Film Day, 2008), selected for Rotterdam and Buenos Aires, and last year produced the short film Duerme Negrita (Sleep, Little Black Girl) directed by Ainara Porrón Arratibel and starring Itsaso Arana. In 2015 he produced Relaxing Cup of Coffee, directed by José Semprún.
Worthy of note among the non-fiction films produced are The Devil's Apprentice (Willy Huismann, 2006), Mi carrera en la Iglesia (My Career in the Church,Catherine Ulmer, 2011), La guerra del golf (La guerre du golf,Lucía Sánchez, 2013), La cañada de Andrea (Ekain Irigoyen, 2013), La memoria rota (Broken Memory,Jorge Amat, 2018) and the multi award-winning Los caminos de la memoria (Paths of Memory,José Luis Peñafuerte, 2009), winner of accolades at Valladolid, Mérida, Montpellier, Biarritz, Ismailia (Egypt), Palermo and honoured with the Magritte Award for best documentary film.
For ten years he directed the FICI (International Children's and Youth Film Festival in Madrid).
OFFICIAL SELECTION - In competition
Higinio and Rosa have only been married for a few months when the Civil War breaks out, representing a serious threat to his life. Helped by his wife, they decide to use a hole dug into their own home as a provisional hiding place. The fear of potential reprisals and the love they feel for one another will condemn them to an imprisonment that will last for more than 30 years.
NEW DIRECTORS
Jordi was born 51 years ago with cerebral palsy. Although he can’t speak, he tries to communicate using his letter chart. That’s how he tells Maider, the director of the film, that at the age of 21 he felt God talking to him for the first time. But today, now that he has moved out of his parent’s house into a home, he no longer feels God. Once a year, Jordi makes a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, where he searches for his connection with God, despite not knowing if God will come back one day. Debut film. Project developed at the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme. REC Grabaketa Estudioa Post-Production Award.
ZABALTEGI-TABAKALERA
A summer day in the municipal swimming pool: heat, teenagers, families, couples, dips, beers and sandwiches in the bar. An adolescent medium tries to locate someone by moving a pendulum over a map of Spain. In the midst of the ordinary goings on something extraordinary happens: a boy on the verge of drowning is saved by a person who walks on the water of the pool to get to him. The miracle is accepted naturally by the other bathers and the summer afternoon continues as if nothing had happened.
As Hélène Cixous would say, we precisely live in this time when the conceptual basis of an age-old culture is being undermined by millions of moles of a species never seen before.
Almost two decades ago, the Itoiz dam flooded seven villages and three natural reserves on the Pyrenean hillside in Navarra. The ecologist group Solidari@s con Itoiz registered the fight against its construction. Today, those who were there dream of the land lying beneath the water on video. Their voices and gestures come together to tell the tale of an individual and collective mourning still suffered today.
HORIZONTES LATINOS
Cuba, summer 1994. In full swing of the Special Period, one of the biggest crises in the country’s history, thousands of Cuban rafters try to make the illegal crossing to the United States, not knowing if they’ll survive. With the start of the holidays, Carlos sets about enjoying a carefree August, kicking around with his friends and falling in love for the first time. He knows very little about his country’s uncertain future, until, one at a time, his neighbours and friends leave in search of a better life as friendships break and families separate. In this hot summer, Carlos’s world will turn upside down.
PERLAK
Nobody's waiting for Amador on his release from jail after serving time for having caused a fire. He returns home to an isolated hamlet in the mountains of Lugo, where he will once again live with his mother, Benedict, his dog Luna and their three cows. Their lives pass to the pace of nature, until everything changes when a violent fire razes the area to the ground.
"In Chile, when the sun rises, it must climb hills, walls and mountain tops before reaching the last stone of the Cordillera. In my country, the Cordillera is everywhere. But for the Chilean citizens, it is an unknown territory. After going North to make Nostalgia for the Light and South for The Pearl Button, I now feel ready to film this immense backbone and to explore its mysteries, its powerful revelations of Chile's history past and present" (Patricio Guzmán). L'Oeil d'Or Award for Best Documentary at the Cannes Festival.
CULINARY ZINEMA
The personality of Bittor Arginzoniz and the place where he lives make his cuisine unique. The possibilities of cooking with charcoal have not been exhausted, and a return to its roots may be admirable if executed with respect and vocation. Self-taught, Bittor has made his restaurant Etxebarri the third best in the world, and minimalism his trademark. The nature that saw his birth is its landscape; the grill and the finest products, the materials he works with. And the silence. Silence in its walks, in nature, in the coals, in the choice of adequate product and the exact point of its preparation.
A journey around the universe of Idiazabal cheese in the company of exceptional characters like Eli Arrillaga who, widowed at the age of 24 years, had to choose between following her husband’s trade of shepherding, or returning to her urban environment in Zarautz. Eli continued to work as a shepherd and is today one of the most important producers of this cheese. Exceptional characters like Juan Mari and Elena Arzak, Eneko Atxa, Joan Roca, Martín Berasategui, Pedro Subijana and Andoni Luis Aduriz, who have absolutely no doubts as to the importance of an artisan, high quality produce that fits perfectly into their demanding culinary procedure. On the Urbía, Aralar and Gorbea mountain ranges, in the highlands of Navarre, the shepherds lavish care on their herds, their prized latxa sheep, with a view to obtaining a product of fine quality, capable of winning the annual cheese competition in Ordizia.
The documentary analyses the relationship between producers and chefs based on their own testimonies. It touches on subjects such as the importance of the produce in the kitchen, sustainability, the generational takeover and promotion of the rural world.
The Green Wave narrates the struggle for legal abortion in Argentina, through a journey of more than 5,000 kilometres, accompanied by the victims’ brave testimonies and the key female voices of those who played the lead part in this memorable voyage. Special screening at the Cannes Festival.
ZINEMIRA KIMUAK
(FOR PROFESSIONALS AND ACCREDITED GUESTS ONLY)
The section will also include the selection of shorts in the Kimuak 2018 programme, an initiative of the Basque Government Department of Culture and Euskadiko Filmategia-Filmoteca Vasca with the objective of lending visibility to the best Basque shorts of the year. This year’s Kimuak selection includes seven short films.
Resting on the table is the map of my last trip to the Svalbard archipelago, at the North Pole. That map, crumpled and broken, has become a form of mental cartography, a territory of painting and drawing, a new and exciting space for the imagination.
Chennu committed his first crime when he was 15 years old: being a street kid. And then he entered hell: Pademba Road. The adult prison in Freetown. In hell, Mr. Sillah is in charge, and there is no hope. Chennu got out after four years. Now he wants to go back.
Labo is a stroll through the memory of the former Francisco Franco Labour University of Tarragona, not only through its buildings but also the remembrance of those who inhabited them. It is a journey into our past that will enable us to better understand the present and the future.
A summer day in the municipal swimming pool: heat, teenagers, families, couples, dips, beers and sandwiches in the bar. An adolescent medium tries to locate someone by moving a pendulum over a map of Spain. In the midst of the ordinary goings on something extraordinary happens: a boy on the verge of drowning is saved by a person who walks on the water of the pool to get to him. The miracle is accepted naturally by the other bathers and the summer afternoon continues as if nothing had happened.
As Hélène Cixous would say, we precisely live in this time when the conceptual basis of an age-old culture is being undermined by millions of moles of a species never seen before.
After a period of time without seeing his mother, Angel Mari plucks up the courage to visit her at the nursing home to which she has been admitted. He doesn’t like seeing how his mother has disappeared under the skin of a senile old woman who does not recognise her own children.
The arrival of two Slovenian bears in the Pyrenees of Navarre alters their balance. The bear has been a natural inhabitant of the Pyrenees for millions of years. However, its disappearance led to the transformation of the area. The presence of these new inhabitants brings old conflicts back to the fore.
Guatemala, 2018. The whole country hangs on the trials of the soldiers who started the Civil War as the victims make their statements one after the other. Ernesto, a young anthropologist working for the Forensic Foundation, works to identify those who disappeared during the conflict. One day while listening to an old woman tell her story, he thinks he’s found a clue which could take him to his father, a guerrilla fighter who also disappeared during that period. Against his mother’s wishes, he throws himself body and soul into the case with the aim of learning the truth.
Jury Members
The award will be decided by a jury of three people, composed by:
EUROPE-LATIN AMERICA CO-PRODUCTION FORUM
Ondarroa, the Basque Country, October 1936. Franco’s troops enter the town; the family of Karmele Aurresti, a young nurse aged 24, flee to France by boat. This film tells the tale of Karmele, first of all as a refugee in France, where she meets other young Basques in Paris and falls in love with Txomin, an idealistic and committed musician with whom she forms a family of exiles in Caracas (Venezuela). Later, the return to Spain under Franco, the conspiracies and struggle against the dictatorship, the secrecy and the reprisals; and the return to exile.
IKUSMIRA BERRIAK
In 1990, Negu Gorriak played their first concert outside Herrera de la Mancha prison and later sold a VHS recording of the event. The tape became a symbol for followers of the Abertzale nationalist left wing. Jo ta ke is a video essay which uses images from the video and the director’s own memories as its starting point. It opens up reflections on the construction of national identity and the links between fatherland, father and patriotism. The project relates the author's political awakening in the politicised and polarised context of the Basque Country.
Films spoken partially or totally in basque |
Children's films dubbed into Basque |
There will be six films for kids dubbed into Basque. Films will be announced in the first week of September.
Films in other sections with basque subtitles |
There will be three films with Basque subtitles in Culinary Zinema section. The content of the programme will be released next Monday, September the 2nd.