Maixabel

... well can you? No pun intended of course. A great drama based on a true story. I did not know much about the things going on - sorry that went on a long time ago, in Spain. A lot of unrest, a lot of mayhem and murder and criminality. If people are being used for purposes they are not even aware of themselves ... well it is easy to brainwash people who are easily swayed ... but what does it do with them mentally, psychologically? What about the victims and their families? Of course you can't depict all, so this concentrates on a few people. Luis Tosar is an amazing actor - and the woman main character, whose name I am not familiar with, but who is also very well known in her country ... I mean both are just grand. And they have to be ... very hard stuff to watch. Very hard stuff to make ... us relate to. Even the griefing process .... when are you able to forgive? And how much? It really has a lot of questions and it does not shy away from a very ... well let's call it controversial ending ... it does not take it easy ... but there is no easy when something despicable has ruined your life ...

The political film "Maixabel" was partially based on real events during the dark period in the Spanish Basque region. The movie describes the separatist ETA terrorist attack and how it affected one family in particular. Based on that premise, the movie focus on the search for inner peace on both sides of terrorism: the victim and the perpetrator. Director and writer Icíar Bollaín tells the story of Maixabel Lasa (Blanca Portillo), widow of socialist politician José María Jáuregui, and the repentance of two of the three ETA members (Luis Carrasco and Ibon Etxezarreta) who participated in the 2000 murder of her husband. The movie works well mainly due to the performance of the main actors, i.e. During the encounters between the widow and the ETA members, and the moving final scene. The movie's main idea is repentance, and how it developed in the lives of terrorists. Beautiful movie!!!!

source: Maixabel

At first, you might think this movie will be a very boring and going-nowhere movie. But if you decide to hang on with patience, this movie would gradually pull you in to another level of life, death, love, hate, forgiveness and redemption from a lifelong suffering, the aftermath of blind killings of the victims and the killers. The screenplay is so greatly scripted, especially those two conversations between the victim and the two conspirators-killers. It's so profound and so heartfelt, and rarely been written in such unprecedented way. I was deeply moved by this great movie and greatly appreciated for all of the people who made it possible. Highly recommended, especially when all the movies so popular now are nothing but CGI sci-fi Marvel superheroes, bank robbers, junkies, LGBTQ, political propaganda brainwashes, adultery, horror or farce. If people still have some brain cells left, this movie will be good for you.

While continuing to sing the tunes from My Heart Goes Boom! (2020-also reviewed), I took a look at the other titles in the line-up of VIVA: The 28th Manchester Spanish & Latin American Cinema Film Festival that were to feature a Q&A,and discovered that the next two were titles looking at the Basque Country during the terrorist attacks of ETA, this led to me meeting Maixabel. View on the film: Going deep into the making of the film during a 50 minute Q&A after the screening, co-writer (with Isa Campo) / director Iciar Bollain revealed that before she joined the project, the producers were originally planning this to be a documentary. Closely working with Julieta (2016-also reviewed) composer Alberto Iglesias, Bollain retains the close-up, unvarnished grain of documentary, smartly using Iglesias's delicate, sparse score in fleeting moments, (with Iglesias not being comfortable about going into the mind of Etxezarreta in order to compose a theme for him) which emphasizes Maixabel's pain from the murder of her husband. Holding back from any note of dramatic music over emotion scenes, Bollain composes a superb, layered Ambient sound design, where the closing of cell doors and indistinct chattering from guards on the other side of the door is the only thing which break the silences between Etxezarreta and Maixabel, who when she leaves the jail behind, is surrounded by the sound of nature, playing in the background to the memories of her husband. Played note perfect to match the sounds in Maixabel's life, director Bollain & cinematographer Javier Agirre unlock an incredibly raw atmosphere, pinned on long-takes mid-shots and lingering close-ups of Maixabel (played by an tremendous, expressive Blanca Portillo, who was kept apart from meeting her co-star by the director,until they filmed their scenes) and Etxezarreta (played by Sleep Tight (2011-also reviewed) lead actor Luis Tosar, who delicately balances Etxezarreta's horrifying bursts of violence, with a growing resourcefulness from accepting the impact his acts of terrorism has had on people) laying bare their emotions across the table. Highlighting the differences between Etxezarreta and Maixabel in their surroundings, Bollain reflects on Maixabel's mourning with warm, earthy blues and reds, which are contrasted by the cold, hard brick and concrete textures that Etxezarreta is confined to. Extensively talking to the real Maixabel, the screenplay by Bollain and Campo present a thoughtful character study, with the writers displaying a real precision in capturing the years of mourning Maixabel and others have experienced from the aftermath of the ETA terrorists attacks. Not shying away from showing voices of disagreement raised over Maixabel speaking to one of the terrorists jailed for killing her husband, the writers unveil the deep roots of hatred that run in Etxezarreta's ideology, who the writers gradually show develop a true sense of remorse, over the long meetings of reconciliation by the brave Maixabel.

A sensitive exploration of the emotional fallout of terrorism. Maixabel Lasa was widowed in 2000 when her husband Juan Maria Jauregui, a progressive former politician, was killed by three gunmen while eating lunch with a friend. Eleven years later, she has agreed to meet two of her husband's murderers as part of a short-lived state program for reconciliation. The true enemy is never the other side, but rather our hatred of it.

After an assassination kills a former governor, his wife and daughter go through years of agony and feeling of loss. Years later, the widow, on whom there is threat now, engages in talks with couple of men in prison who had shot her husband. Both of them repentant and reconcile with her and her family. A powerful story that gets more touching towards the end.

This film revolves around an extremely sorrowful period of the Spanish history set in the first decade of the 2000´s. It was a time fraught with huge suffering and pain caused by the indiscriminate murders of innocent people by a ruthless terrorist Basque group called ETA. Iciar Bollain is the female director of this interesting piece of work, who tells the story of Maixabel, a courageous female victim of this mob. Maixabel makes the difficult and controversial decision to arrange a meeting with one of the responsibles for his husband's death at her request so as to tell him how she truly feels. Iciar succeeds in conveying an honest effort to show respect towards the victims, but she also wants to show how even a horrible monster who has been brainwashed and raised in an extremely toxic environment, is capable of feeling regret and redemption. One of the things that I liked about the film the most, apart from the solid perfomances of the cast, was the fact that most of the time it is addressed from a perspective which is strictly human and personal. The political or ideological connotations that it might have had, are deliberately overlooked or , in the best of the cases, relegated to a secondary role. In other words, in my opinion it is merely about the internal evolution of two people and their crucial meeting: The exemplary wife whose husband was cowardly killed and his tormented murderer. All in all, this is a good story told in a generally tactful way which is worth watching despite the fact that there were a few lines of dialogue which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Recommended.

Trailer—Maixabel