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Described by its maker as “a road film, a trip through Basque clubs and municipal parks, plazas and school where there are or have been saplings planted,” the documentary is a personal experience for director Javier Barrio that delves into history and the present of the saplings of the Tree of Gernika in Argentina.  After trying to debut the film in Chascomus, Vasco Viejo will be shown for the first time on May 29th at Euzkal Etxea in San Nicolas. 

San Nicolas, Argentina.   After more than five years of searching, compiling and filming, the documentary Vasco Viejo (Old Basque) by Javier Barrio is now ready to debut.  Even if the director has presented his work as “an oral and visual archive of the tradition of planting saplings of the Tree of Gernika, which is little known among those outside of the Basque community,” he also proposed it as “a tool for reflection and debate inside the community.”

In fact, it will be at the heart of said community, at the Euzkal Etxea in San Nicolas, that the film will be shown for the first time, on May 29 at 8pm.  “The main idea is to present the film in places where we filmed, and so we will debut in San Nicolas, because it is one of the Basque clubs that collaborated on the project.  In the meantime, we are coordinating a function in June, in another club in the capital,” Javier Barrio told EuskalKultura.com.

The reason for the documentary

Barrio explains that he travelled with his camera to Azul, Chascomús, San Nicolás, Ramallo, Guernica (province in Buenos Aires) and that a large part is dedicated to the tree found at the Laurak Bat clubhouse in Buenos Aires.  The documentary also has footage from Gernika (Bizkaia) and the Juntetxea.

Barrio explains that the project began in 2009, when his father, Carlos barrio, started to become interested in the saplings of the Tree of Gernika and planted one at his house in Gral. Pacheco, Gran Buenos Aires.  “It was there that I was introduced to the rite of planting a sapling that has been done for over 100 years in Argentine, especially in the province of Buenos Aires.  Since then, I started to visit various clubs to try and understand why these trees were planted and the motive behind it.”

Identity and Nationality

Besides proposing a tour of some of the cities where these trees have been planted, Vasco Viejo also treats the topics of identity and nationality.  “My father was born in Bilbao, and only spent a few months of his life there; his mother’s family, who was German, denied the Basque nationality, the language and the Basque Country…” he explained and added “this is the context from which, after living fifty years in Argentina, he began to have a resurgence of Basque identity, through the symbol of the oak.  That is why the film is an approach to nationality from an emotional relationship, but also, as all history, is the story of historical contradictions between generations.”

“In regards to this, i can add that a great-uncle sent me emails from the Basque Country telling me that planting these oaks “was surely an act of Basque Independence,” that Basques wanted independence from the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina.”  On the other hand, the Basque club in Chascomus canceled the debut of the film at its clubhouse, after being approved by the board of directors, because of nay-sayers four days before the screening.  They considered the film “Spanish.”  I think that the film that asks questions about who we are, as well as posing nationalism as a heterogeneous, contradictory and dynamic construction,” the young director claims.

Testimonials

Vasco Viejo lasts an hour and gathers testimonials from Silvia Iceta and Alicia Nelida Barbería, from the Azul Basque club; Pedro Mauregui Larranda and Jorge Etchepare, from the club in Chascomús; Damián Cebey, Javier Tisera and Sebastián Hustu, from the San Nicolás club; Verónica García and Celina Bustos from Laurak Bat in Buenos Aires; and Juan Ardohain, Rolando Iturria and Ángel Linconao from Guernica, in the Province of Buenos Aires.  It also includes images and planting at a Basque festival in Argentina.  The trailer can be seen here.

Javier Barrio, was born in Buenos Aires in 1981, he had a degree in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires, in music and visual arts.

More on Javier Barrio here: http://javierbarrio.com.ar.