Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
aizkomendi
The documentary dates from the late sixties and has now been made into a DVD and retrieved from the cold limbo. It highlights the special features of the Basque people, customs, work and the ties to land and sea, as well as the Basque cultural and sociological dawn taking place at that moment, when the rural Basque tradition starts to mingle with the raw industrial reality, where immigrants that have flocked to the Basque Country cram in new urban sprawls along with natives, resulting in fresh ideas and views that have come to make up the current Basque society.The beginning is quite striking when Basque characters of history are highlighted, such as kings from Navarre, prominent Spanish writers of Basque origin, people that have contributed to the discovery of the world or the Spanish colonization, echoing the kind of views and pretentious voice intonation typical of the No-Dos or Francoist newsreels. That way of telling and the very content conjuring up old glory and imperialistic days would have not been very appreciated today.If we are to go by the images, religion is widely spread, the Basque being traditionally a very catholic people. However, the footage portrays a turning point in Basque history: while Basques keep attending processions, the new generations are embracing a secular view of reality, more in step with today's society. In addition, one is taken aback on seeing all those Spanish flags at the balconies on a traditional fiesta, reminding us that some decades have gone by since (can anyone picture that kind of ornamentation today?).The narrative is told in quite a poetic manner, altogether the pace is somewhat slow. Anyway, well worth seeing it to look back on a key moment for the development of the values of the current Basque society.
