La pelota vasca, fear of discrepancy

Jon Apaolaza

Spanish culture minister, Pilar del Castillo clearly left on the open what the mentality of many leaders of the Partido Popular (Popular Party) is: “I can assure you that this film has not received any subsidy from my Ministry”. There were some who breathed easily with that statement, but a deeper analysis of the phrase brought on a dangerous interpretation: will subsidies be given only to those who do not dissent from government orthodoxy on the subject of terrorism? This was in September 2003, the opening of the Festival de San Sebastian was approaching, and a second battle between the Spanish government and Spanish filmmakers was starting, the one brought forth by La pelota vasca, la piel contra la piedra, (the first one was the phrase “No to war” pronounced during the Goya 2003 ceremony).
Madrid resident, Julio Medem, author of La ardilla roja, Tierra, Los amantes del circulo polar and Lucia y el sexo, affirms that he felt compelled to make a documentary about the situation in his homeland starting from the aggressive and electoralist (in the rest of Spain) politics of president Jose Maria Asnar and his center-rightist Partido Popular. With this documentary, he tried to obtain testimonies from politicians, intellectuals, victims of terrorism and those who sympathize with independentist ideas. Nevertheless, people close to the PP did not want to participate. This did not stop the non-nationalist point of view to be present in La pelota vasca, with words - amongst others – of socialist-ex president Felipe González.
The documentary, which is part of an ambitious project that includes a book, a longer version for television (the Basque network ETB participates in its production) and a DVD collection, was chosen for participation in the Zabaltegi informative section at the Festival de San Sebastián, in September 2003, an it was anticipated as a generator of polemic, which indeed started a few days before the opening of the competition. Two representatives of the Foro de Ermua, a group of anti-nationalist Basque intellectuals, under threat from ETA, asked Julio Medem, through the press, to withdraw their testimonies from the documentary, since they consider that Medem favored the thesis held by the Abertzales (Basque nationalists).
Writer Iñaqui Ezkerra and college professor Gotzone Mora, known personalities of the “constitutionalist” camp, threatened with legal actions against Medem if he screened his film with their statements. Sources next to the production responded that it was technically impossible to edit them out for lack of time. Ezkerra and Mora, who had attended a previous screening, prior to the Festival, said that they had felt “horrified” by the whole of the documentary. Anti-nationalist intellectuals considered it “biased, offensive for those threatened by ETA, that it presents the Civil Guard and the Police as torturers, people around ETA as victims and that it mocks the Basque people such as the nationalists see it”.
In previous statements, Medem had regretted, not being able to include representatives of the Spanish government or from its party, by their own choice, because of their refusal to participate in a documentary next to those who defend the independence of the Basque Country.
Nevertheless, Mora and Ezkerra consider “the numeric superiority of nationalists in comparison to constitutionalists” to be scandalous.
It was at this point when Minister Pilar del Castillo, after recognizing that she had not seen the film, came forward to assure that it had been done without money from her Ministry. The exchange of declarations, accompanied by a campaign against the film by press from Madrid next to the PP brought on – as it usually happens in these cases, remember El crimen del padre Amaro – the opposite effect to that which was sought. La pelota vasca became the most expected film at San Sebastián, it was a sold out and an extra press screening made many journalists arrive very early to the séance. The press then, and later the general audience gave a standing ovation to Medem’s work, an incomplete document – basically, due to the refusal to participate by the sectors of the PP and organizations akin to them – but a valid one that asks for a dialogue in order to solve the political and violence problem that have existed for many decades in Euskadi. The director, expressed then his joy for the good welcome and his pain for the unjust campaign that he suffered in those days, and that he consider it “an attack to free speech” and an example of what he described as an “authoritarian democracy”.
“I have been put under suspicion of being an accomplice to terrorists though slanders”. In his opinion, his only whish in making La pelota vasca had been to put himself on the side of the victims and ask for a dialogue.
A few days after, the film was commercially premiered, at first, only in the Basque Country and in a few theaters in Madrid and Barcelona, although the audience’s interest ended up convincing the reticent exhibitors, and by the end of the year – in spite of being a documentary – it would obtain the thirtieth place amongst the almost one hundred Spanish films released in 2003 with more than 300,000 viewers.
Still, in January of this year the polemic was brought back to life and to his dismay, Medem became the center figure at the Premios Goya when his film La pelota vasca, la piel contra la piedra was nominated as best documentary. The Asociación de víctimas del terrorismo (Association of victims of terrorism) subsidized by the government, assembled a demonstration at the entrance of the Palacio de Congresos where the gala for the awards presentation was being held. This moved the quick solidarity of his fellow members of the Academia del Cine (Film Academy), which had claimed against the war in Iraq a year before, and were now doing it in favor of freedom of speech.
“In La pelota vasca, la piel contra la piedra – said Medem then – there are victims of terrorism which enjoy a special treatment, with the utmost respect, support and warmth for their delicate situation and my ethical commitment with non-violence and dialogue cannot be more explicit and adamant throughout the documentary. The victims of terrorism reject it (through their leaders) to participate in my documentary, alongside the Partido Popular. The fact that them, just because I did not make a film to their liking, now protest under the terrifying motto: against the pelota Vasco, the back of the neck against the bullet, is an act of deep injustice, but it is about everything a grave defamation that make possibly incur in libel; because with their abominable motto they want to present that I, through my film, I’m holding a gun to shoot someone on the back of the neck”.
“Besides this – he added – they would distribute stickers reading ‘No to Medem’ next to others that read ‘No to ETA’, with which they pretend, once again, establish a macabre comparison, stating that it is similar to oppose the ETA as it is to oppose me. I protest with all of my soul against this act of intimidation, coaxion and persecution done with all the aftertaste of fascism”.
All of this has not stopped La pelota vasca from undertaking a successful tour through international festivals as a document, perhaps partial, but personal and valid, to understand a conflict with too many years on its back.

Jon Apaolaza is a writer and a journalist. He was born in San Sebastián (Spain), he works mainly in press journalism and radio since 1979. He worked organizing several film festivals, directing Huelva in 1998. He founded the first Latin American and Spanish weekly on the Internet, Claqueta.com and the first newspaper Noticine.com. Currently he is finishing the publication of the first international film festivals in Spanish guide.