Cinema: "Les repentis (Maixabel)" by Iciar Bollain, "we all have the right to a second chance"

Les repentis (Maixabel), a Spanish film by Iciar Bollain, on screens in France on Wednesday 9 November.

© Epicenter Films

Text by: Isabelle Le Gonidec

5 mins

On screens this Wednesday, November 9, the latest feature film by Spanish director Iciar Bollain.

This film, multiple awards in Spain, tells the meeting between the widow of a senior official murdered by ETA, in the Basque Country, and the executioners of her husband.

A story of mourning, of regrets, but also of redemption.

Advertising

Read more

It is neither really the story of forgiveness nor that of reconciliation, but perhaps rather that of redemption.

A political film, given the history and the context, but above all a "moral" film which tells how individuals return to good ("

", says one of the assassins) or at least to life, going towards the other, by questioning the reason for the fatal gesture, by saying the weight of grief.

It is this long and painful process, for the two antagonistic parties, that the film tells, inspired by a true story, that of Maixabel Lasa.

She was the wife of Juan Mari Jauregui, former governor (socialist) of the province of Guipuzcoa, who had to go into exile in Chile, because threatened by both ETA and the extreme right.

Returning to the country for a few weeks, he was assassinated by the Basque independence organization in July 2000. This is the beginning of the film, the time of drama and pain.

Years later, in 2011, the Spanish state offered Basque prisoners who had renounced the armed struggle the opportunity to meet victims of terrorism, on an individual basis.

Maixabel Lasa, who was then president of the Basque government's Office for Supporting Victims of Terrorism, agreed to take part in the experiment.

Within the office, she had opened up the concept of victims by welcoming not only those from the

Les repentis (Maixabel), a film by Iciar Bollain on the life of Maixaben Lasa (played by Blanca Portillo, photo): protected by bodyguards because threatened - like many public figures in the Spanish Basque Country - both by the Basque terrorists of ETA and by far-right groups.

© Epicenter Films

On a ridge line

Iciar Bollain built his film on a crest line - risky, but successful - between the story of intimate journeys and a still conflicting political history.

The original Spanish title of the film, discovered at the San Sebastian festival last year, is 

named after the heroine.

The French title,

 is broader and could have been that of another film.

Maixabel Lasa, and the two assassins of her husband, Ibon Etxezarreta and Luis Carrasco (

of the French title) are the main characters of the film and the performance of the three actors who interpret them carries the film, otherwise classic in its form. : Blanca Portillo, Luis Tosar (who had already worked with

in his first films

and

) and Urko Olazabal are surrounded by a gallery of equally accurate characters, such as Maria Cerezuela, who plays Maria, the daughter of Maixabel and Juan Maria Jauregui.

Actors -rewarded with a myriad of prizes during the Goya of Spanish cinema last February-, who met the protagonists of the real story to feed their characters.

A collective work carried out for many months also by the director and her co-screenwriter Isa Campos.

Bonds of blood and pain

Between the victim, the woman who was robbed of her husband and part of her life, and the ETA murderers, who kill the one designated for them, there are ties of blood and pain.

“

”, explains the character of Maixabel in the film to his relatives.

Maixabel, who reminds the assassins of their political commitment to the left of her and her husband, and her conviction that " 

".

The film underlines the sometimes incomprehension of the entourage or even their anger (how can we forgive so much suffering inflicted?), the sorrows which remain inconsolable for the families of all those who were assassinated by ETA after the return to democracy, and the protagonist's own doubts.

It also points to the questions of the imprisoned repentants of ETA: can we collaborate with a Spanish state that we have always fought, how to get out of a collective even if we have denied the armed struggle, how to live with the murders that have we committed?

How can we also envisage social and family reintegration in a Basque Country where the memory of this violent history is very fresh and where passions are still alive?

Those who have renounced the armed struggle are also accused of having betrayed the cause, including by those who have not wet their shirts much...

Les repentis (Maixabel) by Iciar Bollain, on screens in France this November 9: the actor Luis Tosar interprets the role of Ibon Etxezarreta who will end up meeting the wife of the high official whom he assassinated.

© Epicenter Films

►

: In Spain, the film "Maixabel" revives the Basque tragedy

The dialogues are harsh, but without hatred: "

"... "

...".

No tears, it's no longer the time, but fleeing or searching looks, wringing hands, silences, words chosen as if torn from the clay of regret.

Redemption is an individual path, but worth taking despite its bumps, that's the message of this film.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• Spain

• Movie theater

• France

• Culture

• our selection