LOCARNO 2023 Cineasti del presente
Colectivo Negu • Directors of Negu hurbilak
“The aim of the film is to form part of post-conflict Basque Country, shining a little light on a part that we don't often see”
- Two of the members of this artistic group, Mikel Ibarguren and Ekain Albite, reveal the keys to their experimental début work, which recalls the silenced traumas of the Basque Country
The Colectivo Negu is made up of film directors Ekain Albite, Mikel Ibarguren, Nicolau Mallofre and Adrià Roca, who met five years ago studying at the School of Cinema and Audiovisual of Catalonia (ESCAC), where they shared similar concerns and points of view in their creative approach. This collaboration gave rise to the medium-length film Uhara and the short films Erroitz and A rabassa morta, culminating in the full-length film Negu hurbilak [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Colectivo Negu
film profile] (literally “Close Winter”), filmed in rural Navarra, which has premièred in the Cineasti del Presente section of the 76th edition of the Locarno Festival. We spoke to these two members of the group, both from the Basque Country, although most of the Collective (including the other members of the film team) are Catalonian.
Cineuropa: What was your feeling when you were selected to première at a festival as significant as this one?
Mikel Ibarguren: Well, we were amazed, seeing the whole process, based on a crazy idea from a group of twenty-somethings: at first it was just a short film, then we thought it would be a medium-length film, and finally it became a full-length film that we managed to finish. During the script-writing and research stage, we dreamt of coming to this festival, as it is the perfect space for independent film: being here in Locarno is a dream come true.
The project has gone through a number of different labs. Has that been helpful?
Ekain Albite: It was something new for us and we felt a little afraid, as the project was starting to get big. Up until then we could create freely, without any pressure, and suddenly we were facing labs that were forcing us to how them our work. And you would find that some people would like it, and others not so much. But this opened up the film and it was no longer just ours. It was good training for what would come next, and taking part in Locarno is the result of working with all those labs.
This film has three phases/states: a beginning with static images, a central narrative part and an end with documentary scenes. Why this mutation of languages?
MI: At first we only thought of the narrative part, but we wanted to take the film away from the historical context of the Basque Country. We haven't gone into political conflicts, we’ve taken it to a personal level. The main character represents the people who have fled, which is an embodiment of the people we interviewed during the preparation phase. Then we found the village of Zubieta, remote and shrouded in the mist of Navarra, with its small and elderly population, where they hold a mythological carnival that is disappearing here in the Basque Country: it is wild and visceral, full of magic. Our creative process consisted of blending, making a pot pourri of the narrative, the village, and its carnival. Negu hurbilak is slow and detailed, ending with the shouts of the festivities, because when something is coming to an end, at the same time something is alive and hopeful: it is a ray of light in a dramatic and sad film.
It is also a journey, both for the protagonist and the audience.
EA: None of the team were familiar with the places where the film takes place, so there is an interesting parallel in how we experienced this process of intuition, location and research. The film has that essence of search and travel: how it was for us to arrive at that place, the experience of the protagonist and, therefore of the audience.
What was it like to work with the non-professional actors who interact with the professional Jone Laspiur?
MI: It was a process of constant listening and not creating a super-structured character. We would go to the village and rehearse with the non-professional performers, who had never seen a film camera before. We were very careful to respecting their spaces, putting them in everyday situations and then improvising from there.
Social silence is a topic in this film. Do you think something similar could happen in the near future?
EA: I was very young when the Basque political conflict came to an end and I have felt that this silence has been going on for too long, but it is not total silence any more, as recently other films have finally addressed it, but that delay is a reflection of the great pain people felt. The film talks about human consequences without entering into ideology. The aim of Negu hurbilak is to form part of post-conflict Basque Country, shining a little light on a part that we don't often see. Hopefully something like this will never happen, although humans have often made the same mistake twice...
(Translated from Spanish by Alexandra Stephens)
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