8 minute read
Icíar Bollaín discusses Maixa
Looking Violence in the Eye
Maixabel, Icíar Bollaín’s drama about a victim of terrorism, is showing at the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival. We talk with her about the delegitimisation of violence and second chances
Advertisement
Words: Fernando García
Political drama Maixabel, the latest film from Edinburgh-based Spanish director Icíar Bollaín, explores a dark episode in her nation’s recent history. In 2000, Juan María Jáuregui, a socialist politician, was assassinated by the Basque separatist group ETA. More than a decade later, his wife, Maixabel Lasa, accedes to take part in the restorative meetings, a controversial short-lived government initiative where the victims sit down to talk with repentant members of that terrorist organisation. “The producers suggested I make a film about Maixabel Lasa,” explains Bollaín. “I knew the story because years ago I read an interview with the victims who had met the perpetrators. I was startled.” She thought that making the film was a great opportunity to explore “the human complexity behind the idea of someone who is capable of sitting down and talking with the person who had hurt them the most.” She adds: “It was a very complicated film to make; it’s a very sensitive, painful subject. It’s still really controversial. There are so many people affected by ETA, and that pain is still there. Those meetings were debated at the time, and Lasa was criticised by some of the victims, who saw them as a betrayal to the murdered. This is a real story about real people – you are talking about a lot of victims. We had to be very careful not to open more wounds because the victims already had enough with what they went through to cause them more harm.” Maixabel is not only the story of the victims. A significant part of the film is about the terrorists, who are deeply ashamed of their past actions. Balancing this without minimising the victim’s pain is a challenge and something that worried Bollaín. “We know so little about the etarras [members of ETA] in general,” she says, “and specifically about those who distanced themselves from the band, which were very few. No one wants to know anything about the etarras and their world. They are people who have committed atrocious crimes, but Isa Campo [Bollaín’s co-writer] and I knew that we had to understand their story, know who they were and how they made the journey from ETA to talk to their victims. The film is about the delegitimation of violence. Violence is useless and it only causes more violence. These men represent that.”
Maixabel is always completely respectful to the victims, despite giving a human dimension to the ex-terrorists. “When you give space to characters who are publicly considered to have no right to anything, and no one wants to know anything about them, you risk criticism,” says Bollaín. “But we had a very clear idea that it was important to hear their voices. This is something that Maixabel Lasa said – ‘they [the repentant ETA members] are the biggest delegitimisers of violence because we can say whatever and it has no impact, but it’s incredibly powerful when they say it.” Watching the film, it feels almost inevitable to think that it’s about forgiveness, but Bollaín emphasises that “Maixabel doesn’t talk about forgiveness. If anything, she gives a second
Icíar Bollaín
chance. She said that these people are regretful, they’ve done a deep self-criticism exercise and she thinks everyone deserves a second chance. It’s something she believes is a human right. But she doesn’t talk about forgiveness.” Lasa agreed to the making of the film after the producers became interested in her story. “[Maixabel] confessed to me that she did not know the exposure that this was going to have,” says Bollaín. “What convinced her [to do the movie] is that she is an activist for coexistence in the Basque Country and that she saw the film as an opportunity to publicise some meetings that she thought were very positive – not only for her but for our society, for them [the etarras], for the dialogue that must be done.” Bollaín also remembers when Lasa realised that the project was bigger than what she had in mind: “The first time she came to the set she heard the conversation that Maixabel has in the film with her friend at the beach. They gave her headphones to listen to it and she started crying. She got very emotional, it was so beautiful.” For both Lasa and Bollaín, it’s vital to tell this story like it happened, without idealising ETA’s nationalist ideology. “I notice that among people closest to that ideology there is an idealisation of ETA, and there’s a certain surprise at how the etarras speak about ETA in the film. There’s an idea that they were like freedom fighters. There are people who think that what ETA did was somehow justified.” That’s why Maixabel is an important film: it reminds us to never forget the devastating consequences of terrorism.
Maixabel opens the Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival on 1 Oct at Glasgow Film Theatre and screens again at Filmhouse, Edinburgh on 7 Oct; Icíar Bollaín will give a Q&A at both screenings
ESFF, 1 Oct-4 Nov, various venues in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling
And the Nominees Are...
As the 2022 SAY Award gets ever closer, we take a look at this year’s longlist featuring nine newcomers and 11 returning names, including one past winner
Words: Tallah Brash
The eleventh annual Scottish Album of the Year Award (aka The SAY Award) is set to take place this autumn for the first time in Stirling, where it will take over the city’s beautiful Albert Halls on 20 October. On the night, one artist will be awarded the title of Scottish Album of the Year following a process that began on 1 July when album submissions opened. With 369 eligible albums put forward for the award this year, 100 impartial music industry nominators have now helped whittle that list down to just 20 albums which make up the longlist. Covering everything from folk and trad to jazz, R’n’B, hip-hop, chamber pop and more, this year’s longlist also features a good mix of old and new names; nine newcomers are up for the award this year, with 11 returning artists, including one former winner, back in the running for the £20,000 prize. Among the newcomers up for the 2022 award are Edinburgh singer-songwriter Annie Booth, for her stunning second album, Lazybody, released on the Last Night From Glasgow label on 19 November last year. Meanwhile, fellow Edinburgher Hamish Hawk has also been longlisted for his most assured record to date, Heavy Elevator, which topped our The Skinny’s Scottish Albums of 2021 writers’ poll. From solo singer-songwriters to a whole host of them, all-female and non-binary collective Hen Hoose are up for the award this year for their debut, Equaliser. The album includes contributions from the likes of Carla J. Easton, AMUNDA, MALKA, Karine Polwart, Emma Pollock, Elisabeth Elektra, Susan Bear and the late Beldina Odenyo Onassis. Welcoming their nomination, Hen Hoose say: “It is an absolute honour to have been longlisted for The SAY Award this year. Equaliser has been a real labour of love. It has brought together likeminded individuals with a common goal, created a wonderful supportive community and it has given us an opportunity to showcase the talented women and non-binary writers and producers based here in Scotland.” Stirling’s ambient neo-folk outfit Constant Follower have also landed a spot on the longlist for their debut album, Neither Is, Nor Ever Was, released last October via Shimmy-Disc and Joyful Noise Recordings, while Duncan Lyall’s Milestone – a record which has already received a nomination for the 2021 Scots Trad Music Awards – is up for The SAY Award too. Glasgow’s Walt Disco are nominated for their debut album Unlearning, which we described earlier this year as “gritty, melodramatic and a little bit batshit”, while Edinburgh producer Proc Fiskal is in the running for his second album, Siren Spine Sysex; we cited “the scale and depth of emotion he wrings from” the album’s “wonky and chaotic rhythms” as the record’s greatest achievement. A couple of jazz-focused records round out the list of newcomers for 2022. Seonaid Aitken is nominated for Chasing Sakura, a record originally commissioned by the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival in 2021, alongside Rebecca Vasmant’s With Love, From Glasgow. Vasmant says: “I have watched in awe, for many years, the artists who have come through The SAY each year, and always dreamed of one day, making my own album and it being considered, and now that it’s here, it feels absolutely crazy. This all feels like a wonderful dream, and I have the amazing musicians who played on the album, who have now become family, to thank first and foremost. I’m wholeheartedly honoured, happy, and as I always say – BUZZING!” Previous SAY Award nominees back in the running for 2022 include Aberdeen R’n’B singersongwriter AiiTee, Glasgow-based Ayrshire rapper Bemz, Edinburgh musical polymath Callum Easter, Glasgow’s politically-fuelled Declan Welsh and the Decadent West, Glasgow-based hip-hop artist and producer Kobi Onyame and the Isle of Skye’s trad-electro fusion outfit Niteworks, who all receive their second nominations. Scottish producer and composer Andrew Wasylyk, Mercury Prizenominated jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie, singersongwriter and self-professed witch Kathryn Joseph and Glasgow goth-pop outfit The Ninth Wave have all been nominated for a third time, while chamber-pop artist C Duncan’s latest album Alluvium sees him nominated for a fourth time.
The SAY Award 2022 Longlist
AiiTee – Better Days Andrew Wasylyk – Balgay Hill: Morning In Magnolia Annie Booth – Lazybody Bemz – M4 C Duncan – Alluvium Callum Easter – System Constant Follower – Neither Is, Nor Ever Was Declan Welsh and the Decadent West – It’s Been a Year Duncan Lyall – Milestone Fergus McCreadie – Forest Floor Hamish Hawk – Heavy Elevator Hen Hoose – Equaliser Kathryn Joseph – for you who are the wronged Kobi Onyame – Don’t Drink the Poison The Ninth Wave – Heavy Like a Headache Niteworks – A’Ghrian Proc Fiskal – Siren Spine Sysex Rebecca Vasmant – With Love, From Glasgow Seonaid Aitken – Chasing Sakura Walt Disco – Unlearning
The SAY Award ceremony takes place at The Albert Halls, Stirling, 20 Oct
sayaward.com
