Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15480 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-08-23
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Synopsis
SEX AND LUCIA director Julio Medem has created a documentary on the Basque region. He explores the language and traditions and their political situation. Using archive footage and numerous talking heads interviews, ranging from musicians to terrorists. This was the highest-grossing Spanish documentary ever.

Customer Reviews

Watch This With the Commentary
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.

Complicated but highly reccommended
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.

basque is kosova
this is an outstanding documentary about a basque country. more less is just as Kosovo's problem in the Ballkans, without the right approach of the war. Basque as an nation who haven't got what they need "freedom and independence".
this book it will change your point of view.
strongly recommended.