Basque cinema is taking the spotlight at this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept. 19 – 27).
An astronomical 38 Basque features, documentaries and shorts are being presented at the global event this year. Thirteen titles are making their World Premiere at the festival and are in competition for the coveted Irizar Basque Film Award. There is also a specific section within the festival, Zinemira that focuses on films and talent from the Basque Country. Some projects are in the Basque language Euskara, some are not.
“The number of Basque productions this year is the highest ever, but above all, it is the quality and excellent reviews the films are receiving that is important,” said Ander Egiluz Beramendi, a Basque journalist who is covering the film festival for the Basque Tourism Agency.
Films such as “Maspalomas,” “Karmele,” and “Los Domingos (Sundays),” just to name three, are generating a lot of discussion due to their themes: a gay person returning to the closet in old age; the lives of activists in exile in post-war Spain; and the religiosity of a teenager today). Egiluz also noted that praise is also high for brilliant performances, the excellent quality of the productions (Karmele in particular), and some of the best film directors working today.
Actress Jone Laspiur of “Karmele,” courtesy of the San Sebastian Film Festival
Part of the jump in production of Basque films is due to efforts by the local Basque government to support filmmaking in the cultural region of northern Spain. In recent years, the government began offering a 60 percent tax credit on productions, which increases to 70 percent if the film is shot in Euskara.
As a result, local production has increased, but the rebates have also attracted production companies from outside of Spain. Earlier this year, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglass moved to a historic mansion in the wealthy Basque neighborhood of Neguri in Getxo. Her upcoming revenge thriller “Kill Jackie” was filmed in the area around Bilbao.
“Karmele,” by well-known filmmaker Asier Altuna is garnering a great deal of attention. It tells the true story of a Basque nurse who flees to France at the end of the Spanish Civil War and after marrying a jazz trumpet player, leaves for Venezuela. The diaspora love story about art as resistance is based on Kirmen Uribe’s 2016 novel “Elkarrekin Esnatzeko Ordua” (The Hour of Waking Together). The film, starring actors Jone Laspiur (“Ane Is Missing”) and Eneko Sagardoy (“Irati”) will be released Oct. 10.
In “She Walks in Darkness” (Un Fantasma en la Batalla), a young Guardia Civil officer jeopardizes everything to pose as a member of ETA, risking her life to uncover the group’s hideouts in the south of France. This film, starring Susana Gomez Abaitua, is set to screen on Netflix on Oct. 17.
Ander Egiluz Beramendi is also a board member of the Euskal Kazeta Foundation.
