MAIXABEL

Film Info

Spain 2021 | 116 min. Director: Iciar Bollain

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MAIXABEL

Synopsis

In the year 2000, Maixabel Lasa’s husband, Juan María Jaúregui, was killed by ETA. Eleven years later, she receives an incredible request: one of the men who killed Juan wants to meet with her in the Nanclares de la Oca prison in Álava (Spain), where he is serving his sentence after breaking ties with the terrorist group.
Despite her reservations and her immense pain, Maixabel Lasa agrees to meet face to face with those who ended the life of the person who had been her companion since she was 16 years old. ‘Everyone deserves a second chance’, she said, when asked why she was willing to confront the man who killed her husband.

Cast & Crew

Director

Iciar Bollain
Producer

Koldo Zuazua, Juan Antonio Moreno, Guillermo Sempere
Screenwriter

Iciar Bollain, Isa Campo
Director of photography

Javier Agirre Erauso
Main Cast

Blanca Portillo (Maixabel), Luis Tosar (Ibon), Urko Olazabal (Luis), Maria Cerezuela (María)
Casting

Mireia Juárez Sanz
Editor (Cut)

Nacho Ruiz Capillas
Sound

Alazne Ameztoy, Juan Ferro, Candela Palencia
Original Score

Alberto Iglesias
Production Design

Mikel Serrano
VFX Supervisor

Ana Rubio
Costume Design

Clara Bilbao
Makeup

Karmele Soler, Sergio Pérez-Berbel

Director's comment

Maixabel Lasa has become a benchmark on the path that the Basque Country travels today towards coexistence. Her work as director of the Basque Government's Office for Victims of Terrorism is well known, but her personal involvement in the 2011 Restorative Meetings is not so much.

There is something profoundly human about what Maixabel does: to confront the men who killed her husband to let them know the pain she suffered, to ask for answers to the questions that only they can answer, to hear them say that they deeply regret the pain caused and to assess whether there is sincerity in those words.

On the other hand, these two men have made a long and difficult journey: they have left behind the justifications that one day pushed them to wield a gun to stay alone, face to face, with what they have done. They are three lives united one day by horror. Three roads that are crossed. Each one will make a different journey to the same place: hope and reparation, in a face-to-face encounter in which they go through anger, anguish, shame, and fear, but also for gratitude and for the hope of planting something even good within so much horror.

The film addresses through these characters the consequences and the human cost of violence, especially for those who suffer it, but also for those who exercise it and for the whole society that houses it.

With MAIXABEL we wanted to tell this story of our recent past with emotion, sincerity and, above all, a lot of respect for its protagonists.

Biography

Actress, screenwriter and film director Iciar Bollain is a representative of the new generation of film director.

Born in Madrid in 1967, she started out in film at just 16, performing in Víctor Erice’s film EL SUR (1983). She continued to work as an actress, performing in different films such as UN PARAGUAS PARA TRES and LAND AND FREEDOM.

Nonetheless, she has seen greatest success as a director. Her first feature film HI, ARE YOU ALONE? was made in 1995. This was followed by FLOWERS FROM ANOTHER WORLD, TAKE MY EYES, which won seven Goyas, and MATAHARIS. Her latest films EVEN THE REAIN, THE OLIVE TREE and ROSA'S WEDDING have won several awards.

FILMOGRAPHY:
2020 - ROSA´S WEDDING, Feature
2018 - YULI, Feature
2016 - THE OLIVE TREE, Feature
2014 - IN A FOREIGN LAND, Feature
2011 - KATHMANDU LULLABY, Feature
2010 - EVEN THE RAIN, Feature
2007 - MATAHARIS, Feature
2003 - TAKE MY EYES, Feature
1999 - FLOWERS FROM ANOTHER WORLD, Feature
1995 - HI, ARE YOU ALONE?, Feature