Cristina Martinez Sacristan. A train travels through Legorreta (Gipuzkoa). In reality, the tracks are the city’s arteries, according to 20-somethings that live there. A metaphor for the bringing and taking away of flash-backs and testimonies featured in the film Hurrengo geltokia, devised by Ion Dias and Oroitz Jauregi, to gather a document of what they knew about the civil war, and post-war times, the Franco regime, a transition that never really occurred…The scene to talk about it all, and visual the documentary, that debuted this Saturday in Berlin at the Prenzlauer Berg where Berlin still knows where to graffiti, to ideas, to mix, to fight for freedom.
The German capital, remade as a patchwork, piecemeal, duplicated, multicultural and full of creators and dreamers, also follows the aesthetics of the trains and subways to all the neighborhoods….Another matching emblem for the small movie theater Lichtblick Kino will show the sons and daughters of Legorreta singing, telling stories, and remembers, and in the end, a montage without words, moved, with a faraway look and humility, remembering the repression, the shots fired, torture, death. A very dark period in which they tell about girls and boys being separated, teachers begin obliged to not speak Basque, they could arrest you for having a type writer at home, and they could strip you and put your head in a bucket of water for…so that you would admit to what you had done.
The Euskal Etxea in Berlin organizes events in both Euskera and German, so that Germany gets to know the Basque culture better, as well as its past, its History and its persecution. That is how Constanze Lindemann explained it to Deia on Saturday. Lindemann, a history expert who besides supporting the foundation of said Basque club: “We had to give a voice to the survivors of the bombing of Gernika, the stories of that town that was totally destroyed had to be told. There were only Basque associations for many of years. We had so much historic material and we had to give it visibility, so that German institutions would get involved.” They have worked for some time collaborating with Gernika.
His friend, Ingu Drostil, revealed in the Q&A with Ion Diaz after the film that “When i was in Gernika some Basques told me that the Spanish Government still hadn’t apologized,” he said worriedly. Fabian, a German doctor, told us: “I remember what happened to the Jews. What do the Basques think about what they did to them? Have they forgiven the Spanish?”
LEHENENGO GELTOKIA. Before going to the Prenzlauer Berg Theater, Ion Diaz, Oroitz Jauregi, cameraman Antton Altuna, his daughter Mara, the lecturer in Leipzig, Unai Lauzirika, and others from Legorreta who participated either directly, or indirectly in the film, ate at a nearby Lebanese restaurant. The multicultural aspect and joy had little to do with the horrific stories that were remembered in Hurrengo geltokia. It is clear that Berlin today has little to do with the controlled, silent one of the darker times of Nazism. Nor that fleeced by the wall…
The fact of presenting this personalized portrait of the footprint left by war and a dictatorship in Berlin was in the interest of its creators, even if it had already been shown in London, at the International Film Makers Festival, and they will continue to show it in strategic places.
Ion, who is also a professor at the University of the Basque Country and Mondragon University, and Oroitz haven’t worked together before. Everything began because Jabier Larrauri used to tell stories while having a coffee, or a wine at the bar. He had become the oral transmitter of the historic memory of Legorreta, and then one of the most forceful narrators in Hurrengo geltokia. This made Ion think that this production had to be made, beyond “the anecdote,” and so he wrote the script along with Oroitz, with Iban Zunzunegi filming. The melancholic music accompanies the tape: the author, Jabier Muguruza, who has once again shown his sensitivity in translating feelings.
With similarities with La pelota vasca (Basque Pilota) where Julio Medem tries to capture the edges and views on the so-called “Basque conflict,” the camera comes and goes in this production, passing through hunger, children’s games despite the trenches, union clashes with the employers years later, the Franco regime, the most lacerating in all aspects of life, the first pants worn by women….Women accused of provoking because they wouldn’t wear skirts, men unable to sing in their own language.
BIGARREN GELTOKIA It was interesting that there were people from Legorreta, of different generations, in Berlin. So Mara and Maddi, Karmele Gaztañaga’s daughter said that in Legorreta nobody talks about the Franco regime anymore, or what happened during the war, like in prior generations. Of course, Karmele or Nekana, Jabier Larrauri’s wife, does have memories of extortion, clandestine activity, of violence and intimidation. “My mother was forbidden to walk with Karmele,” Ion Dias said in the discussion following the film.
Mara and Maddi, both 20 years of age, and Josune who is 40 agree that this film is a “document” of the era that serves “to make people aware of what happened.” This was one of Ion and Oroitz’s goals: create a documentary for the Town Hall of Legorreta. But now it is going further, making the world aware of this reality.
In their own way, the authors translated the film into English, and so it is now circulating in various forums. For the “town’s pride,” those from Legorreta said on Saturday. They all were interviews and Ion, accustomed to research, compiled the data.
The former union member, Jose Elorrieta, Irati’s dad, one of the organizers of the Basque events in Germany, avoided the camera, but did show his joy to Deia when evaluating “various themes” touched on in the film, from “the class struggles, the war, church, separation of men and women…,” among the anonymous stories, although they are identifiable.” Elorrieta sees a “choral” set that brings it “closer” to the spectators.
Estitxu is from Donostia and has been in Berlin for 24 years. She knows the president of the Basque Club well, Ainhoa Añorga, who is currently on vacation. Her husband, Andreas, is German and he says that he doesn’t speak Basque, “it is very difficult,” although he understands Estitxu when she speaks to their son Erik Beñat. Otherwise they speak in German. It was the first time that he attended such an event. In the case of Alazne, who has been a Berlin guide for a dozen years, she often attends the events, especially with a friend from Gipuzkoa.
Ion, deepening friend, brought the image of “two Spains:” to the debate, “one for the rich, and the other for the poor,” that currently “is very bad. Politically, in the media….” And there was talk of those who went to other countries to fight Hitler, to see if they could defeat Franco, “and did not succeed.” Ion explained in Basque, Lourdes Izagirre in German, for those who asked in German with Lourdes translating, and vice versa.
Ion, amigo de profundizar, aportó al debate la imagen de “dos Españas: una de ricos y otra de pobres”, que actualmente “está muy mal. Políticamente, en los medios de comunicación...”. Y ahí se habló de quienes fueron a otros países a luchar contra Hitler, para ver si lograban derrotar a Franco, “y no lo lograron”. Ion lo explicaba en euskera, Lourdes Izagirre en alemán, había quien preguntaba en alemán y Lourdes traducía, y viceversa.
(Published in Deia 10-26-2016)
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