Part of a series in which foreign filmmakers portray a region or town in France. Otar Iosselani looks at the Basque region and its inhabitants.
Social & External
An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes violently, in the Basque Country, in northern Spain.
At just 17 years old, Eduardo Madina and Borja Semper decided to enter politics to defend freedom of thought in the Basque Country. This made them a target of the ETA terrorist group for almost two decades.
Departing from peripheral details of some paintings of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, a female narrator unravels several stories related to the economic, social and psychological conditions of past and current artists.
The film follows five people from different origins as they move anonymously around the streets of Berlin. Each of them with another life somewhere else, trying to ascertain where to go.
Euritan is a review of the narrative 'Klara eta biok', written by Itxaro Borda in 1985. Putting the author against the words of her past, it updates her view on the peripheral relationship around the Basque character.
The abject crimes of the terrorist gang ETA have marked the lives of many Spaniards; men, women and children who were silenced, harassed, persecuted, finally murdered. Thirteen stories, thirteen tragedies, just thirteen among thousands.
Basque Country, Spain. No one seems to know them. Some glances avoid theirs. Their social circle becomes smaller and smaller. They live under escort, watched by those who protect them and by those who threaten them: it is the experience of living in the shadow of ETA, a savage terrorist gang of unscrupulous criminals… of merely existing under the yoke of those who tomorrow could be their executioners.
The personal stories lived by the Uncle, the Father and the Son, respectively, form a tragic experience that is drawn along a line in time. This line is comparable to a crease in the pages of the family album, but also to a crack in the walls of the paternal house. It resembles the open wound created when drilling into a mountain, but also a scar in the collective imaginary of a society, where the idea of salvation finds its tragic destiny in the political struggle. What is at the end of that line? Will old war songs be enough to circumvent that destiny?
An in-depth interview with José Antonio Urrutikoetxea, known as Josu Ternera, one of the most relevant leaders of the terrorist gang ETA.
In the north of the Iberian Peninsula, we find two regions that will provide us with great moments. These are the Basque Country and Navarre, two territories that are home to a high percentage of Europe's biodiversity. At Natura Bizia, we will reveal the best-preserved corners, the most spectacular biodiversity, and animal fauna in its wildest state. Vertical cliffs, an endless sea, magical forests, and enormous limestone mountains will provide us with unforgettable experiences. We will swim among the largest cetaceans on the planet, enjoy the first steps of the brown bear after its winter hibernation, witness the daily struggle of wolves to conquer new territory, and fly alongside the most powerful of our eagles.
The history of the citizens' movement that for thirty years worked hard to overcome fear, fight hatred and eradicate the violence exercised by the savage terrorist gang ETA, both in the Basque Country and in the rest of Spain.
Pilot chapter of the film series 'Ikuska', a compilation of shorts on the Basque Country’s culture and politics. A documentary about the referendum on the Spanish constitution.
The story of how a humble Basque rural sport called zesta punta —or jai alai— was successfully exported from the Basque Country to nations as different as Egypt, China, the Philippines, Cuba, Mexico or the United States. In these places, the pelotaris were considered true artists at the fronton. But the splendour of the jai alai, the happy feast, could not last forever.
The chronicle of the process, ten long years, that led to the end of ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna), a Basque terrorist gang that perpetrated robberies, kidnappings and murders in Spain and the French Basque Country for more than fifty years. Almost 1,000 people died, but others are still alive to tell the story of how the nightmare finally ended.
'Ama Lur' is a documentary, directed by Nestor Basterretxea and Fernando Larruquert, that premiered in San Sebastián in 1968, and it is considered the foundation of Basque cinema.
The first film of the 'Ikuska' series, on the situation of schools in Basque language.
Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain, 2011. Maider, a filmmaker, moves to the very same flat where pedadogist Elbira Zipitria Irastorza (1906-1982) clandestinely established the first ikastola, a Basque school, under the harsh regime of dictator Francisco Franco. Despite of her pioneering work, developed throughout thirty years, her story is not well known, so Maider, intrigued, begins to research…
Through interviews with different people linked to the work and life of the Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza (1908-2003), this documentary aims to unravel fundamental aspects of his work.
The Basque Country, one of the richest regions in Europe with only two million inhabitants, is considered a small paradise by those who visit it. But behind the mild climate, beautiful landscapes, and high standard of living lies a terrible reality: for thirty years, more than two hundred thousand of its citizens have had to go into exile to save their lives, escape extortion, social isolation, or nationalist impositions.
