Basque talent emerging from the EQZE

Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola is a temporary experience, often as intense, ever-changing and elusive as cinema itself. It is a space inhabited by rough drafts, fragmented footage, tentative edits and endless rewrites. For this reason, if we were to take a snapshot of the films currently in the process of being created, the image would, inevitably, be blurred and incomplete. And yet, this is a snapshot of those films: an overview of the films currently being created by former Basque students at the school. Because their tireless activity deserves our attention. The most advanced projects are Y así serán las cosas, by Marina Palacio, Terra dei ciclopi, by Julen Etxebarria, and Gaubela, by Iker Reyes.

Marina Palacio, a student from the first intake year, has just finished shooting her first feature film. And the process was an arduous one: she spent six years working on the film Y así serán las cosas, filming for six Augusts with the same children in a village in Palencia. The film chronicles the childhood of a local boy, summer after summer, in a setting that is gradually losing its population and, consequently, its children. She worked with a ‘versatile’ script: ‘It had a solid yet open structure. We rewrote it every year, as we got to know the children and the characters better, in order to adapt it to them.’

Palacio started this new project shortly after premièring her short film Ya no duermo (2020) in the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section, working initially with a small team, and eventually scaling up to a professional level, thanks to the support of the production company Gariza Films. ‘The details have changed, but the essence of the film is the same as I imagined it six years ago; we’re happy with that.’ It is scheduled for release next year and will be distributed by Elastica Films.

Julen Etxebarria spent several summers in Sicily, where Luchino Visconti filmed La terra trema (1948). Today, Aci Trezza is more of a tourist destination than the fishing village depicted in Visconti’s film. The descendants of those fishermen who once acted as extras now take tourists in their boats to visit the stunning Cyclopean Islands. According to legend, these islands are the rocks that Polyphemus hurled at Odysseus in The Odyssey. ‘This coexistence of the landscape’s mythical dimension, the memory of the film and a modern-day situation shaped by tourism sparked my interest in exploring how the past and the present interact in the same place,’ he explains.

The short film Terra dei ciclopi will chronicle a summer in three parts: the preliminary preparations, the sea voyages to the rocks, and the everyday life that follows. Etxebarria is currently in the editing phase and hopes to complete the film next year. He participated in the Nest section with his previous work El tercer paisaje (2024).

Iker Reyes arrived at the school with a clear project in mind and left with a feature film. He used the course to refine the script and shoot the film: ‘I wanted to work in my own way, at my own pace, without having to rely on funding.’ Gaubela was shot last summer. It is a story set during the Spanish Civil War, in May 1937, near Mount Askuren, where numerous battles were fought until, at the height of Franco’s offensive, the German and Italian air forces bombed the area. Against this backdrop, Reyes portrays three sisters in a farmhouse: ‘We can imagine what happens on the battlefield, but what about the people who can do nothing? The film explores the relationship between those living within the confines of their home and the violence raging outside.’

The film was shot on 16 mm and featured three actresses and two locations: at home and on the mountainside, with very little dialogue. It currently runs to over an hour and a half, and the next step is to work on the sound.

There are also a number of other projects underway. Daniel Alegrete, who is currently developing the feature film High, a fictional story set in the High gay club in Bilbao, has also made a short called High River, which was featured at the Cannes Film Festival market, promoted by the ICAA, and has been selected for the Kimuak programme. For her part, Laura Ibañez will shoot the experimental film Una vez fui piedra this autumn, in collaboration with the production company Atekaleun.

Following their participation in the Ikusmira Berriak programme over recent years, Mikele Landa and Ekain Albite are now developing the feature films Senda and Akira, respectively. They are working to secure funding and prepare for filming. In Senda, three people united by their migratory experiences find that their worldviews align rather than clash. Meanwhile, Akira takes us on a night-time journey through the ruins of the Lemoiz nuclear power station all the way to Georgia. Finally, Saioa Miguel is currently writing the film Leize, having previously taken part in the Noka Sorkuntza, D’A Lab and Apika Lab programmes.

Andoni Imaz