Documentary
Five directors portray five Basque political prisoners. A young woman counts the days remaining before she is arrested. A man returns to society after 17 years in prison. A mother records every phone conversation she had with her imprisoned daughter on 125 cassette tapes. An…
No cast information available.
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 relatives of the victims of the terrorist gang ETA speak of their suffering, their fear, their loneliness; of the systematic oblivion to which they are subjected by Basque society, both by those who remain silent and look the other way and by those who, accomplices of the criminals, share their repugnant ideology and celebrate extortion, kidnapping and murder, thus contributing to perpetuating a bloody reign of terror.
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.
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?
Before she turned two, Haize's father, Mikel Goikoetxea, a member of ETA nicknamed 'Txapela', was killed by the GAL. With no recollection of the man whatsoever, 25 years down the line she starts asking questions. Piecing together the testimonies of those who knew him, Haize gradually discovers her father and his time.
Kristiane Etxaluz, from Soule, and Alfonso Etxegarai, from Bizkaia, are not your usual couple. Committed since their youth to the Basque independence struggle, they are condemned to living their love 7,000 km from one another due to the fact that Alfonso lives on the small African island to which he was deported several years ago. However, despite the banishment, their eyes always follow the country of the Bidasoa and their hearts at apple time; an apple time still to come.
Gonzalo Boye, a lawyer, businessman, and editor of Mongolia magazine, was convicted in the 1990s for allegedly collaborating with ETA in a kidnapping, a crime he denies. His story, told in a documentary by Sebastián Arabia, begins in Chile and continues in Spain, where he served 14 years in prison. During this time, he studied law and later handled significant cases like the 11M trials, the Bárcenas case, defending Edward Snowden, and suing the George W. Bush administration over Guantanamo.
