It is 10 years since the DIBUJANTE Navarro Asisko Urmeneta ‘Asisko’ premiered its animated feature, along with the Biscayan producer Gartxot, La Conquista Anticipada, Juanjo Elordi. It is a film produced in the 2D digital version, and created in Gipuzkoa by Somuga S.L. with the collaboration of the former producer and the Donostia study REC Grabaketa. In addition, the project was produced by ETB and supported by the Basque Government and the Government of Navarra, as well as by ARGIA and Berria. In total, it obtained a grant of 660,770’76 euros, and once it was released, it gathered 155,363’48.

The film has many curiosities, among them, which was produced and disseminated entirely in Basque – the work of dissemination was carried out by the Biscay firm Barton Films ®. In addition to a boost for the Basque Country, he also won the first prize a year later, in Bordeaux, where the XXII International Animation Film Festival Les Nuits Magiques was held. That is why, and that same year, he also stayed first at the 15th International Film Festival in Auburne, Australia, in the category of Children and Adults. It was also presented in Bulgaria – Golden Kuker –, Brazil – Animamundi –, Spain – Málaga Film Festival – and Italy – Kimera-, broadening its dissemination.

In fact, this film in Euskera was the winner of a subtitle job. The copies sold in DVD format were translated into 18 languages, including five from the state – French, Spanish, English, Italian, Chinese – and 13 mini-sentences – Aragonese, Asturian, Aimara, Breton, Unified Basque, Scottish Gaelic, Galician, Irish, Catalan, Corso, Creole, Occitan, Georgian. This served him to tour the world and bring the ancient legend of the Bardo of Izalzu, a small town in Navarre, whose town hall also helped the film.

The Bardo de Itzaltzu is a legend collected in 1918 by the polygraph and academic Arturo Campion (Pamplona, 1854 – San Sebastián, 1987), who took from the oral tradition of the Salazar Valley (Navarra), accompanying the documentation of the Pamplona Archive – also supported the film Ibaxak. Benito Lertxundi himself recovered the legend for the album Altabizkar (1981), creating the balada Itzaltzuko Bardoa that became the soundtrack of the film. And Asisko himself also published in 2003 a comic book with the illustrators Marc Armspach ‘Marko’ and Jokin Larrea ‘Jokin’, with the support of the Euskaltegi IKA Campion de Pamplona and the editorial of ARGIA Komunikazio Biziago S.L. In fact, the film is based on the experience – and aesthetics – of that comic book, and this, in turn, in Campion’s account.

The synopsis of the film summarizes Gartxot's story very well, very close to Campion's writing: “The singer who keeps the memory and culture of the people is called a bard. And that's what the new abbot of Roncesvalles doesn't want. That's why Gartxot, the bard of the place, is groaning and kidnapping his son Mikelot to turn him into a friar that will sing in Latin. But Mikelot will escape and will sing again with his village father in town. The Church insults every act and leaves it in the hands of terrifying warrior monks to catch father and son. Tragedy in the 12th century. The previous conquest begins.”

Thus, the legend of Gartxot, both in Campión and in Asisco, is an allegory of a Basque People suffering with resistance, against the languages and ways of life imposed on them. Thus, if the legend of the first one can be considered as a store of myths – mystification of the Roncesvalles War (defeating the Basques to the Emperor Charlemagne), Euskal Herria against the impositions of religion and life…–, so many other films. True to the underground style of the comic book, it uses several symbols of the Kingdom of Pamplona of 1110 – black eagle, moon and star… – that appear in other scenes of the film.

It also brings an approach to the Basque language that could be spoken in Salazar in the Middle Ages, and in the comic book the effort made by Asisko, Marko and Jokin. Thus, the film respected the dialect of the dupliers, many of them from Zuberoa – near Salazar –, artists very close to the Basque Country and the Basque song. The presence of Iparralde, in addition to the support – also supported by Euskal Kultur Erakundea – is in the voices: Mikel and Maika Etxekopar, Gartxot and Mikelot duplicators, or Marko himself, born in Bordeaux but settled at Uztaritze, with the voice of Turoldo and Peyré. On the other hand, Bajonavarro Eñaut Larralde, who died a year after the premiere of the film, doubles Begon Abadea, who speaks only in Latin, and becomes a musician. Interestingly, Latin, a language that hardly appears in European Christian practices, appears much in the film, especially by the mouth of friars.

It cannot be said that Gartxot was the most viewed film of the year; according to the Spanish Institute of Culture and Audiovisual Arts, it gathered 32,093 viewers in the cinemas. However, account must be taken of their specific audiences and the achievements made at the international level. We must not forget the limited resources it had, since the film was made possible by the efforts of crowfounding with various entities, including the Navarro Institute of the Audiovisual Arts, as well as Udalbiltza and Udalbide.

The benefit this film has made to the collective memory of Itzaltzu, Nafarroa and the whole of the Basque Country is remarkable, and also, of course, to Basque cinema – and to other minority languages. It is no less than recovering the memory of Campion, a curious character in our history, but an outstanding scholar in the history of Navarre. In fact, he was an assistant to the Royal Academies of History and Moral and Political Sciences, and honorary president of Eusko Ikaskuntza, in 1918, in the same year when he published El Bardo de Itzaltzu – a year later Zeruko Argia was born in Iruñea. As for linguistics, Euskaltzaindia named it a numerary. The artistic recovery of the memories of the Kingdom of Navarre and one of our most judicious academics also deserves the admiration of the academy for Assisi and his team.