Filmfest Dresden: Cartography of Contemporany Basque Society

The 35th Filmfest Dresden International Short Film Festival will be held in Dresden, Germany, from 18 to 23 April. In partnership with the Etxepare Basque Institute, this year’s festival will feature a series of Basque short films under the title "Cartography of Contemporary Basque Society’.

The programme brings together seven Basque shorts that express a strong sense of Basque identity and a particular cultural and cinematographic tradition. The films will be screened in the original version with English subtitles.

Together these short films sketch a complex cartography of contemporary Basque society, drawn by filmmakers with their own cultural and cinematographic tradition. The films will be screened in two sessions:

- 19 April at 7:00pm (GMT +1) at Schauburg Tarkowski.

- 21 April at 5:00pm (GMT +1) at the Thalia cinema.

Tickets can be purchased on the festival website.

‘Estado de excepción’ (Iñaki Núñez, 1977).

This film tells the story of a family in the Basque Country marked by the Spanish Civil War, the father killed in the bombing of Gernika and his son by Franco´s police.

‘Ez’ (Imanol Uribe, 1977).

The film depicts the mobilisation of Basque citizens in protest against the construction of the Lemoiz nuclear power plant.

‘Ehiza’ (Collective Hauazkena Taldea, 2020).

This work is a continuation of Rafael Ruiz Balerdi’s 1969 short ´Homenaje a Tarzán´. In the original work, a hunter kills a rhinoceros, and the sound of the shot changes the life of the jungle. This work celebrates the power of collective participation.

‘Areka’ (Atxur Animazio Taldea, 2017)

Euxebi´s father was killed in the civil war before she was born. In her youth, Euxebi suffered from Franco´s repression. Many years after the dictatorship, she still hasn’t had the chance to reclaim her father’s memory. ’Areka’ is the result of a creative collaboration between a group of twenty young artists.

La caída del vencejo’ (Gonzalo Quincoces, 2020)

This short film deals with three fundamental issues in 1980s Basque society: industrial changes, the workers´ struggle in the shipyards and gender issues in a traditional community.

‘No me despertéis’ (Patricia Naya, 2018)

This short film explores with great delicacy the complex issues of identity and the search for a sense of belonging within a radical environment, as seen through the solitary journey of a teenager.

Heltzear’ (Mikel Gurrea, 2021).

‘Heltzear’ (winner of Best Short Film at FILMFEST DRESDE 2022) tells the intimate story of two brothers living apart during the Basque conflict.

To round out the Basque cinema experience, the festival will also host the groups Collective Hauazkena and Atxur and filmmaker Gonzalo Quinoces.