Bringing Your Opinions to the World

Political conflicts brought to the screen

by Ainara Flores

"when the Basque country resolves its problem, a great weight will be lifted off the shoulder of its people."
Koldo Zuazua, a writer interviewed by Medem

Orson Wells appears in one of the many trips to the Spanish geography. His ethnographic curiosity leads to ask himself who the Basque are, the only way he finds to answer this question is by ruling out similarities with Celts, Saxons or another kind of ethnic variety of the old Europe.
It is probably in these images where we can find the key of what the film wants to say in order to create an emotional and laboured documentary which has provoked controversial reactions, including censorious attitudes even before anyone had seen its content.

In "The Basque Ball: The skin against the stone" directed by the Basque filmmaker Julio Medem appears 70 politicians, intellectuals, artist, teachers and victims of violence on all sides of the Basque issue. However, the most important poles of the argument, the Spanish Government and E.T.A. (Basque terrorist group) declined to take part.

The documentary shows how a young Basque Socialist who had his leg blown off by a bomb calls for dialogue with those who attacked him, while the wife of an E.T.A member talks about the problems of having her husband in jail.
A woman accused of having links with Basque terrorists describes how she was tortured, how she suffered naked humiliation and threats of rape at the hands of the Spanish police. The widow of a politician killed by E.T.A. describes how their relationship changed when her husband was forced into exile, and how he was killed while on holiday back in his Basque home town.Many condemn the Spanish government and the press for their attitude towards Basque Nationalism. One of the critics is Alec Reid, a key participant in the Northern Ireland peace process. In the film he claimed that the government's ban on any sort of dialogue with the Nationalist was an insult to democracy.

A clear and controversial message

Through these 70 interviews he leaves a clear and for some, a controversial message: The need for dialogue and that only a referendum among the Basques could solve the region's problems, of course this is the question, most Spaniards would disagree.From the minute it was selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival, in September, the polemic raised. Basque filmaker's editing idiosyncracy of cross cutting between interviewees telling different aspects of the Basque conflict has drawn violent criticism from government ministers, none of which attended the films preview. They believe that"it puts the hangmen on the same level as the victims" a spokeman for the ruling party told Reuters, explaining why it had refused to take part.
Despite showing people from both sides of the conflict he has been accused of taking a pro-nationalist line and for not doing a balanced documentary. Anti E.T.A. groups say the film is disrespectful to those suffering from the violence, in spite of the fact that he included interviews with E.T.A. victims.

Two interviewees (professor Gotzone Mora and writer Inaki Ezquerra from "forum of Ermua)accused Medem of "exalting nationalism". As soon as they watched it they were horrified and asked the director to withdraw their participation. Medem refused to do it.

"It is a biased film which presents the Spanish state as the enemy of the Basque country, the Spanish Civil war(1936-39)as a war between Spain and the Basque country and the (Spanish) constitution and monarchy as being imposed upon the Basque people".

Proffesor Gotzone Mora

Fernando Savater Basque philosopher, declined to take part because it didn´t inspire too much confidence the idea of giving equal treatment to victims of terrorism and terrorists.The film and the reaction shows the huge tension the Basque country is facing, where the centre-right central government has taken an increasingly tough stance against ETA, while the group has continued its bombing and shooting. The Basque nationalist party which is opposed to E.T.A. methods, is the main political force in the region .
The question here is that Spanish government believes that Basque nationalism itself feeds ETA violence and anything related with Basque nationalism is compared to terrorism.

Demonstration against the illegalization of Herri Batasuna. San Sebastian , 11-1-2002

The Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar's government banned a political party Herri Batasuna last year and closed down a string of cultural organisations, including a newspaper, which it claimed were fronts for E.T.A activities, removing the possibility of true dialogue

The origin of the conflict

The conflict between Spanish and Basque nationalism dates back to fascist dictator Franco, under Franco's fascist rule the Basques were subjected to widespread social and cultural prejudices, He prohibited Euskera (Basque language) and their traditions and were often treated violently. As a consequence the Basque nationalism became more radical. In 1959 E.T.A was founded to fight against Franco, Eta's mandate was, and remains, complete autonomy for the Basques, and their methods of securing their aims have resulted in some 800 deaths over the last thirty five years.. Nowadays, Basque Country lives a constant confrontation and half of the two million population consider themselves nationalist and want more autonomy and independence. Some groups desire full independence for the Basque Country, more moderate groups are willing to achieve a greater level of regional autonomy. However, due to attacks by the more radical ones, the government in Madrid has been reluctant to make concessions without promise of an end of violence. The problem seems not to have a solution in a short time. Nobody wants to make any concessions.

Medem metaphorically represents The Basque conflict through the sport of Basque Ball. Players strike a hard ball against the wall, a form of dialogue and the ball is a point of union between to sides that are fighting one another.

While the film was rewarded at the San Sebastian film festival with a standing ovation, It has encountered some problems abroad .In London the Spanish embassy has pulled its traditional subsidy to the London film festival, which is used to pay the expenses of Spanish participants. According to Fernando Villalba, the Information Adviser from the Spanish embassy in London, "the small amount of money couldn't be donated due to financial problems".