Spain's greatest producer of author movies takes his final bow
- Elías Querejeta, who produced movies such as The Hunt, The Spirit of the Beehive, Familia and Fast, Fast, has died in Madrid at the age of 78
Elías Querejeta, Spain's greatest producer of author movies, passed away in Madrid during the night from Saturday to Sunday. He was 78 years old. After a career spanning 50 years and as many films, he leaves a huge gap, not only in the Spanish cinema industry, but also in European cinema, in which he was recognized as one of the great figures of author cinema since its emergence last century.
Born in Hernani (Guipúzcoa) in 1934, Querejeta was a professional footballer (he played for Real Sociedad until 1958) before producing the most important films in the history of Spanish cinema. It was he who accompanied the early days of directors such as Carlos Saura, Jaime Chávarri, Montxo Armendáriz, Emilio Martínez Lázaro, Fernando León de Aranoa and Víctor Erice.
His relationship with Carlos Saura was particularly important: among other things, Querejeta produced The Hunt (Best Director Award in Berlin in 1965), Peppermint Frappé (Silver Bear in 1967), Cría cuervos (Prize of the Jury in Cannes in 1975) and Fast, Fast (Golden Bear in Berlin in 1980). Together they produced the screenplay of Saura’s next film, 33 días.
The list of masterpieces produced by Querejeta does not stop there. We also owe him two films that made Víctor Erice famous (The Spirit of the Beehive in 1973 and El Sur in 1983), as well as The Disenchantment by Jaime Chávarri (1976), Pascal Duarte by Ricardo Franco (1976), Feroz by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón (1984) and, more recently, Stories from the Kronen by Montxo Armendáriz (1995) and Familia (1996) and Barrio (1998) by Fernando León de Aranoa.
(Translated from Spanish)
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