I have not had the opportunity either to see Gartxot, José Luis. By the time I hurried I was already out of the cinemas, I gave priority to the latest films by David Cronenberg, Roman Polanski and Lars von Trier.

Lately it seems that the Basque film – in short, the largoillustrator – is experiencing a kind of flowering. Some of the numbers we were able to see at the San Sebastian Film Festival. A lot has already been said about Bertsolari, Urte berri on, AMONA! and two brothers. Unfortunately I could not see Telmo Esnal, I am sorry, because as those who have seen me have said, I have the feeling that I will like it. My concern for Basque film revived after seeing Bertsolari.

I didn't like the documentary by Asier Altuna, which is not the time to explain why, maybe on another occasion, and I had my opinion on Twitter, as I did with the other films I saw that week. It was not long before the contempt, contempt, etc. of those who had been offended by my opinion. Apparently, the fact that he did not like Bertsolari was considered by some as an attack on Bertsolari and even as an attack on the homeland. That link is absurd. Not to like the film Schindler’s List – I don’t like it; it’s more, I’m disguised by many scenes – as if I were back to supporting the Nazis. For some, however, cinema – and indeed Bertsolarism – is only important insofar as it serves other national purposes. And for me that is the end, a small and deficient self-defense, not only for the Basque film, but for any form of art. Art, if it is fair, is not to strengthen the internal ties of any community, nor to form a kind of communion in any society. These phenomena may be of anthropological or sociological interest, but not artistic. And one of the problems for our people is that, because of its balanced situation, sociology and anthropology eat art on many occasions. Dissent is drowned by popular unity. And art, if it's anything, is a form of dissent.

During the San Sebastian Film Festival, film director Josu Martínez published an article in this same journal. Martinez had the gift of raising many interesting issues, but I do not agree with the basic idea: “Because one of the most dangerous evils of Euskal Herria in the struggle for survival is Alzheimer’s and among the ways of fighting it, cinema is a very useful expression of collective memory (...) when a people looks on the screen – don’t forget that films are normally seen in group, in silence and in the dark – the people are “creating”; when the celluloid causes “mirror effect” in the public,

Yes, I saw that “mirror effect” as I saw Bertsolari, but I don’t think that makes the movie good. By the way, I do not know whether the “Basque issues” that provoke a possible mirage effect have not been too exploited in the Basque industry.

In my opinion, if the Basque film is moving forward, it will do so outside those national needs. This virtue I saw in the film Bi ANAI, with all its qualities, its defects and imperfections, because it is an extreme and strong artistic wager. Art has more to do with abrasion, with distortions, with the questioning of prejudices, than with the strengthening of the cohesion of a people.