Basque culture at the Eñe Festival

Every autumn, the Eñe festival gathers leading figures from the literary world in Madrid, becoming a meeting place for writers, books and readers. This year´s festival kicked off on 11th November and will once again provide a space for Basque culture and literature. The programme blends words, cinema, and music to explore modern experiences from the perspective of the Basque Country. Curated by writer Katixa Agirre and promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute, this section brings together some of the most prominent and diverse voices in contemporary Basque creation.

The window onto Basque literature will take place on 15th November in the Círculo de Bellas Artes ballroom in Madrid, welcoming creators across different generations and disciplines.

Director Sara Fantova, after the premier of her debut film ´Jone, batzuetan´; writer and bertsolari Uxue Alberdi, whose literature heavily relies on listening and memory exercises; and writer, poet and essayist Beñat Sarasola will kick off inaugurate the programme dedicated to Basque culture. The discussion will revolve around millennial experiences, with creators sharing their perspectives on a generation that has learned to find pleasure and joy even in uncertainty, balancing irony, tenderness, and rebellion. This activity will begin at 11:30 am.

At 1:30 p.m., singer-songwriter Miren Iza (Tulsa) and author Miren Agur Meabe, winner of the National Poetry Prize, will team up for ´El placer de la melancolía´ (The pleasure of melancholy), a conversation on sadness as a form of sensory and creative pleasure. Both creators have explored themes of disenchantment, loss, and existential questions with honesty and sensitivity, whether through Tulsa´s discography or Meabe´s lyrics.

Finally, at 5:45 p.m., in “Placeres queer” (Queer pleasures), Telmo Irureta, winner of the 2023 Goya Award for Best New Actor; Jose Mari Goenaga, veteran filmmaker and author of the recently released film ´Maspalomas´; and novelist and poet Itxaro Borda will create a space for dialogue on desire, freedom and difference as areas of creation and resistance.

The many faces of contemporary Basque creation

The window on Basque literature, together with Catalan and Galician literature, strengthens the Eñe Festival’s commitment to linguistic diversity. By turning the Círculo de Bellas Artes into a crossroads for culture, language, and creative expression, this programme demonstrates Eñe´s commitment to celebrating the diversity of cultures and languages across Spain. The Basque contribution broadens the festival´s horizons with a fresh and daring approach, where literature engages with music, cinema, and new ways of exploring desire, humour, and everyday life.

The common pursuit of pleasure

Under the artistic direction of Jesús Ruiz Mantilla, the 2025 Eñe Festival centres its cultural discussions around the theme of pleasure. The Basque Window embodies one of the most vivid expressions of this idea: an invitation to enjoy thought, words, and emotion through a lens of diversity.