Irati 2023
Western Pyrenees, year 778. When his land is threatened by the ruthless armies of the Frankish emperor, a Basque warlord asks for help from his ancestral gods.
Western Pyrenees, year 778. When his land is threatened by the ruthless armies of the Frankish emperor, a Basque warlord asks for help from his ancestral gods.
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.
In a non-existent town, five true stories based on oral testimonials and texts by writers take place between 1914 and 1982. Through them, we see the social changes experienced throughout the 20th century by a small town in the Northern Basque Country, the deep-rootedness and approximation of a language, and the struggle for survival.
A group of childhood friends has gone to a country house to celebrate the bachelor party of one of them. But the years do not pass in vain, and, although they feel a very strong bond between them, nothing is what it used to be; or yes...
Day after day, an elderly woman recalls the Spanish Basque country of her youth — while forgetting she is consigned to a retirement home in Chile.
Election night. Aimar, leader of the left-wing Basque nationalist movement, returns home more tired than ever. Itziar awaits him, exhausted. At the entrance, the remnants of a protest by the radical youth of their own party. Aimar has to make a decision: Does he want to continue dedicating his life to the nationalist cause, even in the worst of times?
Falling in love with your best friend is not easy. Avoiding the subject and feeding the fantasy is something which will take its toll. Knowing you are crossing a red line is not always a reason to stop. Sometimes, it's necessary to meet a harsh reality in order to believe it. Gentzane, a young girl settled in her inner world, justifies each one of her actions to be around the person she loves.
A Basque mythological creature struggles to regain her power after a man steals her egg.
Juan Martin, a young boy from San Sebastian, decides to spend the summer in a remote hillside farmhouse to improve his Basque. But there he discovers that the language they use has little in common with his classroom learnings.
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?
The six-decade transformation of a block of houses, shown by means of artfully featured archival shots, highlights the beauty and sadness of human-made decay. In the blink of an eye 66 years pass by and a savings bank replaces a church.
Lur and Amets’ parents have to go to a wedding this weekend. For this reason, they leave the twins at Grandma Andere’s. However, it’s not going to be a conventional weekend thanks to her magic powers and her cat Baltaxar. They will set out on an unforgettable journey travelling to different eras and having new adventures throughout the history of the Basque Country. Although they are the main characters of every story, Andere and Baltaxar will help them. Unfortunately, two evil men will always be hot on their heels.
A documentary view of the Basque ball-game in which a small hard leather ball is hit against a wall. The film gives an impression of the game itself and of those who play it, not only the star performers (and the myths that surround them), but also those who just play in the streets and alleyways. The film sees the game it its cultural context and conveys the emotions and stories that are peculiar to the Basque country.
'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.
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…
Is it possible to travel twice to the same memory? The filmmaker built a cabin on an isolated riverbank, just opposite his childhood island, which had disappeared under the water after the construction of a dam. The goal was to go back to that place, which had become invisible. Only the trees of the island where he’d played stood firm in the middle of the water, like the masts of a broken toy boat, so the air was the only space left, the only vestige of the past to be conquered. This film is a diary of a castaway in memories: four months of a Walden experience in a lost paradise with two hens, a small vegetable garden and a clock that stopped forever at 11.36 and 23 seconds.
It's the last night of the graduation trip. An excellent opportunity for a young boy to declare his love to Haizea, the girl he likes. But he doesn't know how to do it. Or yes. Yes, he does. He knows too many ways to do it.
Debate on the launch of Basque television (ETB, Euskal Telebista).
Interview and tribute to Jose Migel Barandiaran, researcher on Basque culture.
An asocial woman and her dog will have to survive in a world where living seems impossible.