The Basque lights
Unfairly overlooked by international audiences, the region's cinema is nonetheless brimming with talent, starting with screenwriter Rafael Azcona, a native of the Rioja region who has written no fewer than 90 films, including Placido (1961), El Verdugo (1963), El Bosque animado (1988), Belle Époque (1992) and La Lengua de las mariposas (1999). Azcona received five Goyas (the Spanish equivalent of the Césars in France or the Oscars in the United States) for his screenwriting, as well as an honorary Goya in 1997 for his entire career. Other celebrities of the Basque 7th art include Julio Medem (from San Sebastian), who owes his fame to his successful short films Patas en la cabeza (1985, winner of the Bilbao Documentary and Short Film Competition), Las seis en punta (1987) and feature films such as Vacas (1992, set in the Basque Country of the 1970s) and Ma ma (2015, starring Penélope Cruz). Finally, let's not forget Bilbao-born Álex de la Iglesia, known for Action mutante (1992, first feature film financed by Pedro Almodóvar), Crimen ferpecto (2004), Las brujas des Zuggaramurdi (2013) and, most recently, the Argentine-Spanish co-production El Bar (2017) and Veneciafrenia (2021).
Nowadays
Starting in 2017, the Netflix platform stepped in to shine a spotlight on the Basque country, first producing the documentary El fin de ETA (by Justin Webster), tracing the end of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a Basque terrorist group responsible for several robberies, kidnappings and murders in the Basque country over more than 50 years. In the same year and on the same subject, Netflix also produced Fe de etarras (Borja Cobeaga), a dark comedy about four members of the organization, waiting for the green light from their leaders to carry out their terrorist act. Also worth mentioning are Paul Urkijo's horror film Errementari and Fernando González's thriller El Guardián Invisible , setting its plot in the village of Elizondo. 2017 also saw the release of the highly acclaimed Handia, directed by Jon Garaño and Mikel Arregi. Based on the story of Migel Joakin, also known as the Altzo Giant (famous for his impressive height of 2.42 m), Handia won acclaim at numerous film festivals around the world, and especially at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize and the Irizar Award for Best Basque Film. In 2019, Garaño returns with La trinchera infinita, also selected at the San Sebastian Festival, where the director wins the Silver Shell for Best Director and the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay. Other Basque films released the same year included Oreina (Koldo Almandoz), Black is beltza (Fermin Muguruza) and Dantza (Telmo Esnal).
