This is a great, absorbing, thought-provoking film-length documentary about the political and social conflict in the Basque Country. Directed by the famous Basque director Julio Medem (Vacas, Tierra, Los Amantes del Círculo Polar, Lucía y el Sexo), it is intended to be a window for various people involved with the Basque conflict to put forward, freely, their own opinions. Witnesses include people as varied as Felipe González, former Spanish Prime Minister, the widow of a murdered police officer, the wife of an imprisoned ETA member, a girl who was tortured in a police cell, various Basque politicians, sociologists, singers, writers and historians and more.

All the film intends is to show the varied opinions and views there are about the conflict and its possible solution. The overarching idea is the need for a dialogue between the different confronted sides.

Witnesses also discuss about the origins and reasons for the appearance of Basque nationalism, its variants and its evolution, as well as about the importance of the language, patriotism, and the history of the relationship with Spain.

The way the film is structured, photographed and edited is excellent, with short clips in between blocks of five or six witnesses. The short clips show various aspects of the culture, history and landscape of the Basques, with an impressive soundtrack by the composer Mikel Laboa (a cross between Carl Orff and traditional Basque folk). The relation between film and music is excellent. An interesting clip is a piece of a documentary shot by Orson Welles about the Basque people. Traditional games and sport are also portrayed, sports which are all about strength, perseverance, raw stubbornness and primal relations with the elements. Lusciously green wild landscapes, white fog and blue seas and rivers, all are component parts of the Basque character. These are all unsettling, uncomfortable images that leave you restless, just to be made worse by images from the fascist bombing in Gernika during the civil war and from the destruction left behind by ETA bombs.

Each of the interviewees is sitting down in the same chair in different, carefully sought backgrounds, from the inner city to a river in the mountains, and seems to be in perfect conjunction with the surrounding elements. And all seem to be free to give their opinions, which range from the one claiming that the fight for independence is a waste of time, to one arguing that it is the only way forward for the preservation of the Basque Country. It is worth pointing out the intervention by Alec Reid, criticising the attitude of the Spanish government, which refuses to acknowledge the conflict itself and the need for dialogue.

The film opened in the San Sebastian Film Festival in late September, surrounded by an unprecedented and unexpected polemic. Reason being, the government cannot approve of a film made by a reputed filmmaker which deals with political issues, worst of all of the Basque conflict, and which claims to give voice to everyone. This is just anathema to the government. Ironically, there are only two organisations that do not give their opinions in the film: ETA and the PP (the Spanish governing party). Apparently the PP gave strict orders to its members not to accept to participate in the film. Only to then attack Medem for giving a one-sided view and not taking everyone into consideration. In fact, the film opens with the words "this film will always feel the absence of those who have not wanted to participate". Then again the PP and its supporters have always been very uncomfortable with any proposal for dialogue with Basque nationalists, let alone separatists.

For the sake of ethics and good faith we must point out that one of the co-producers of the film is Mireia Lluch, daughter of a prominent Catalan socialist who always claimed the need for dialogue and who was recently murdered by ETA. The fact that she, and many like her in the film, from all sides of the conflict, can overcome their natural feelings and persevere in the claim for the need for dialogue, with no revenge, should be an example to everyone in the Basque Country, Spain and the world.

Roger Suàrez