Will Someone Listen?

Here you have an analysis about the Julio Medem documentary by Amagoia Mujika published at Berria:

A daring, sincere proposal

‘La Pelota Vasca’. It was very well received the day before yesterday when it was shown for the first time; there are many views on it, but they nearly all coincide with Julio Medem’s proposal: dialogue is the way

Amagoia Mujika

Julio Medem’s proposal should not take us by surprise, but in a country where opinions are silenced and manipulated, the documentary ‘La Pelota Vasca’ (Basque Pelota) has caught us unawares; perhaps we, and other people, detect some gaps in it, each one misses people on his or her own side, but you can’t deny that it has brought many voices together, and that it is a sincere and daring stab at what is going on in this country. The person who went to see the premiere the day before yesterday is grateful for this; let us hope that the politicians present realise what point Medem was making: Ladies and Gentlemen, here we have a serious political problem, and dialogue is the solution.

The pelota player hurls the balls against the wall as if they were bullets; the tug-of-war participant wants to leave the opposing side exhausted; the heads in Asier Altuna’s ‘Topeka’(*) continually hit each other, and all this is interspersed with writers, politicians, thinkers, police officers, priests and victims... Shots of the Basque countryside and “images of primitive situations” together with Mikel Laboa’s “Gernika” songs are used to weave the themes together and reduce the tension.

Before the screening the attitude of the people was open, and when Julio Medem appeared on stage he was met with a round of applause, a gesture of audience solidarity for what has happened to him recently. The premiere began with the words of Bernardo Atxaga, and as the documentary progresses you realise that it is not specially directed at the Basque people, everything that appears is in some way familiar, but it could be an appropriate document for an international audience; it provides a historical perspective, it mentions the Carlist wars, the loss of the “fueros” [the ancient Basque laws and privileges], the Franco era, the transition and the current situation.

(*) Short film depicting rams fighting and the audience’s reaction.

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