Basque Ball [2003] [DVD]

I agree this complex film is confusing if you don't know much about the Basque Country. So many speakers and so much to say leaves you feeling battered. But this is one of those rare occasions where the option to view the film with commentary shouold definitely be chosen. It's not by Medem, but by a film scholar and expert on Medem called Rob Stone and a journalist expert on the politics and history of the Basque Country called Paddy Woodworth. Together they tell you everything you could ever want to know and are never boring. On the contrary, their dialogue is full of anecdotes and intelligent criticism. I even prefer to watch this film with their commentary and read the subtitles of the speakers at the same time. A bit of information overload is risked, but it adds up to a fascinating education in Basque politics and film.

At the time of its release 'pelota vasca' or 'Basque ball' caused a storm of contoversy in Spain. The government of the time (the PP lead my Jose Maria Aznar) actually discussed banning the film. One of their objections was that it interviews extreme Basque nationalists such as the party leader of the banned political arm of ETA, Batasuna. Having said this it also interviews many moderate Basque and Spanish people as well as victims of ETA's terrorism. The director, Julio Medem, even prompts the film by saying that it is an attempt to encourage dialogue between the different parties. However, the government of the time has no representatives because they refused to comment. Unfortunatly, the attempt to cover every point of view is, from the point of view of an outsider, one of the documentaries weaknesses. There are actually so many people interviewed you begin to forget who each one is.

This one weakness aside Medem has tackled the complex subject admirably. It shows the depth of feeling felt by many Basque speaking individuals about their language - which is thought to be amongst the oldest in Europe, with an unknown origin. The film also reveals the contradictions of an area in which the majority of the population are Spanish born, not Basque.

People with a knowledge or interest of the Basque problem should see this film so they realise that it is not simply a Spanish equivalent of Northern Ireland but is in fact far, far more complicated than that.

Medem was born in Basque San Sebastion in 1958 and has made several films,Vacas,Red Squirrel, Sex and Lucia amongst them.He had a creative block when coming to make a film about hate centred on the Basque country as he had become insular,he decided to make Basque Ball:The Skin Against the Stone. He reconciled his creative energy with the subject of hate and would allow his complete immersion in the conflict that still tied him to his birthplace,to confront aspects of the Basque country that he knew was blocking political negotiations and his own creativity.This is his 1st documentary:his aim to interview as many people and then to edit them together.He
creates a dialogue or `polyphony' of voices from about a 100 people interviewed,journalists,academics, Basque Nationalists, politicians,victims,victims'families, imprisoned terrorists's families.He maintained his objectivity by staying at `a fearful distance',flying through it all like a bird. Missing are members of the ruling Partido Popular and ETA.The controversy that followed the film's release at the 2004 San Sebastian Film Festival that was stirred in the Spanish media, distrustful about the content and supposed bias,saying it was unbalanced and PP saying it was suspicious,without having seen it.Medem's political stance is invisible, in the diversity of dialogue he may show an inclination to the left in the prominence awarded the Ibarretxe Plan and the presentation of certain historical events.There is a greater humanist context for the local,national and universal questions posed by the speakers.Medem has edited down from 7 hours(also exists) of film and his technique has one speaker intercut rapidly with other speakers or bits of documentary or fiction(usually from his own films) and this can lead to confusion for the audience not acquainted with this subject or these speakers,who are often opposed to each other. You don't often know who is speaking as it goes through a rapid series of talking heads.Also there is a question of taste when he cuts from news footage of a bomb blast where a victim has lost their legs to a scene in a fictional film or he alternates the wife of an ETA prisoner with the victim's wife of an ETA bomb.That aside this is a remarkable achievement by a commercial Spanish film director who has risked a lot to make it.In the film he explores the fact that the Basque people can be traced all the way back into prehistory.The Basque language(like Etruscan) is not in the Indo-European group of languages.The Basque region of the Western Pyrenees is in southern France and northern Spain.The Basque people have a lot of traditions of sport which include cracking a hard rubber ball against a concrete wall using a scooped curved basket on the end of a hand;there is rams butting or oxen made to drag heavy pieces of stone or there is stone-lifting.The Basque people have a tendency to atavism and a love of the rural: a country of rugged beauty They want there own province to be independent of the Spanish state.Like the IRA, extremists have been running a bomb campaign in mainland Spain due to intransigence.Medem's achievement is to open up a dialogue of information in a taboo subject open to bans and that is a great trust builder.A unique film.Their most famous writer says the Basque country should become a city open to all comers.