After the short Eneko Aritza (The War of Roncesvalles), you have returned to history. In particular, you have worked on inquisition.

With the first project we plan to tell a story of our own, but in the end came the script that unites Eneko Aritza and the Roncesvalles War with the history of Euskal Herria. We decided to go back to a topic of history. The main objective was to make known to the public some passages of the history of Euskal Herria.

Have you contributed anything from the historical point of view to inquisition?

No, historically there is no big contribution. He who knows what the inquisition process of Pierre de Lancre was. The goal has been to remind people. In fact, there will be everything, until I myself started this project I did not know much about the inquisition, but the case of Zugarramurdi has become much more known and we do not have the same knowledge and the same view about the massacre in Lapurdi.

Which source have you come to document?

The film's co-writer, Xague, read many books. In addition, we met with Toti Martínez de Lezea and other experts to inform us about the inquisition.

Was the Inquisitor Pierre de Lancre as cruel and powerful as it appeared in the film, according to the documents of the time?

Yes, and not just based on documents of the time. In the book De Lancre himself wrote in 1612, he states that he prosecuted 3,000 people, including 500 children, and that he tortured and killed more than 600 people. That is easy to say! In addition, it must be borne in mind that at that time many fishermen were going to fish and do business in Ternua. When they were not present, those who were burned in the inquisition process found less protection in the village.

The Church would also take responsibility for all this.

Pierre de Lancre came to Lapurdi with the support of the Church by sending Henri IV.ak. But there were priests who rebelled against this inquisitive process and were also tried and many of them were killed.

Who were the witches?

Until then the witches did not exist, it is a word that emerged from there. They were ordinary people, meeting to worship the earth and celebrate their feasts, and they were not poorly seen in the society of the time. But when the church came, everything changed. Some families started denouncing others for witchcraft for several reasons, with the support of the Church.

Most witches were women. What was the role of women at that time?

Women played a very important role in Basque society, as Pierre de Lancre himself assured in his books. He also wrote that the witches at the time in Lapurdi spoke in Basque and felt Basque, not French or Spanish. Euskera was the devil's language for Lancre. But in addition to women, Lancre opposed children and men, also clergy.

How did you get over 700 people to participate in the film?

We've been rolling all over Euskal Herria, and in every village we've tried to get people there to be encouraged to participate in the recording. Making contacts, putting up posters, making a recording through the media… Apart from us, many people have been encouraged and in the end, we have reached over 700 people.

Recording, transport, production, clothing, material, etc., ends up being a major expense. Where did you get the funding from?

It is a project carried out without money. From time to time we've put some concerts or some txosnas and we've taken some money, but the whole recording process has been thanks to the will of the people. We were paying for the snack and the petrol each. What we have had to pay for is post-production, but we have had a great deal of expenditure.

You also have curiosities, for example, when the police stopped you while driving a stroller in the car.

Not only did they see pigbug, but they also saw open vans and lots of swords, soldier suits, generator, gasoline, etc. We have been left with a number of controls and in each of them we have had to look for an excuse to leave in some way. We've had pretty adventures.

The two protagonists of the film were arrested and detained in Madrid prison.

It was a major blow to the project. One of the reasons why it was finally based on inquisition was because it seems to us that this inquisition is being repeated today, and we ourselves have had to bear it. At the heart of the film, we were arrested by two of the protagonists, and although they later absolved us, that remains there. They took some fragments of the film and those images we haven't recovered yet.

In Maule Castle, along with some 300 friends who approached to record the revolt, they organized a kalejira and an akelarre after the recording. What is the current akelarre like?

The Akelarres of today, at least the ones we organize, are like the ones of before. Put the crew together, make a good dinner, give with the mandringer and from there put some music, dance, have fun, tie... In our view, the old akelarre was a kind of party that was used to worship the land.

Do you have any other projects in mind for the future?

The projects are always on the head, but it has to be said that this last project has burned us a lot and that after so many years the situation has also changed. Anyway, I think something is going to come out, maybe it's not a movie, it can be a theater play, or who knows. For the time being, we are broadcasting the film Sua, in the towns that call us. It is a project that we have taken out of the village, we leave it in the hands of the people, and we will be happy to show our project in any village.