San Sebastián is where Basque cinema’s strategy plays out at scale. This year’s bumper lineup – 13 Basque world premieres and 38 total projects across features, shorts, docs and retrospectives – showcases linguistic resilience and industrial range: Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi’s intimate Official Selection comeback “Maspalomas;” Asier Altuna’s historical epic “Karmele;” Koldo Almandoz’s noir-tinged “Mouths of Sky”; and Irati Gorostidi’s austere “Aro Berria.”
Documentaries include cultural portraits such as “Itoiz Summer Sessions,” “Ez gera alferrik pasako” and “Hombre Bala.”
In “Karmele,” one of the Basque films at this year’s festival, the Basque language itself comes under threat. For centuries, rulers sought to stamp out cultural difference, Franco banning Basque from being spoken, sung, or taught. An ancient tongue — believed to be Europe’s oldest still in use — Basque endures where Etruscan and Iberian have vanished.
Like Gaelic, Irish, and Breton, Basque has undergone revival, and…
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