Producers Drive Basque Cinema Into Spotlight at San Sebastián With ‘Maspalomas,’ ‘Karmele,’ ‘Sundays’

Basque cinema is punching above its weight at San Sebastián, with 75% of Spanish competition titles fully or partially Basque, underscoring how regional industries, once seen as peripheral, are increasingly shaping Spain’s national film landscape. Two flagships — José Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi’s “Maspalomas” and Asier Altuna’s “Karmele” — exemplify the strategies of their producers, Xabi Berzosa and Marian Fernández Pascal, as Basque production powers up.

A 100% Basque production, “Maspalomas” dramatizes a late-life coming out, then retreat, set between Gran Canaria’s gay scene and a San Sebastián nursing home. “I went to Maspalomas for the first time in 2016, and I thought this was a reality rarely seen in cinema,” Goenaga told Variety. “We’ve seen films about people coming out. But not about someone who decides to go back inside,” added Arregi.

For Berzosa, producer at Irusoin and founding partner at Moriarti Produkzioak, the creative ambition required a gamble: shooting on 35mm. “Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, but here it did,” he said. “When you shoot in 35mm and say ‘camera rolling,’ everyone is 100% focused. With digital, it’s easier to be less laser focused. Film creates a different atmosphere, and we wanted that for this project.” 

The reels nearly went missing in transit from the Canary Islands to Madrid, but the risk, he argued, paid off in intimacy. Financing was entirely Basque, though he shrugs at the symbolism: “If A24 produced something in Basque, I would still say it’s a Basque film. The key element is language and culture.”

If “Maspalomas” turns on the intimate, Altuna’s “Karmele” is a Basque-language historical epic, adapted from Kirmen Uribe’s novel “The Hour of Waking Together.” Spanning many decades from 1937 France, Venezuela and the Basque Country, it tells of exiled artists and a love story forged in diaspora. “The book was so huge you could make a 12-episode series,” said Fernández Pascal. “The challenge was to tell it in less than two hours, across decades and continents, with a limited budget. But I think the audience will still feel the emotional and geographical journey.”

Initially planned as a broader international co-production, “Karmele” scaled back after COVID. “We realised we could make the film without travelling so far,” Fernández Pascal said. “In the end, Basque TV, Spanish public TV, the Basque Government and tax incentives were decisive.” For her, working in Basque is natural: “Maybe from outside people ask ‘why in Basque?’ But for us, why not? The language isn’t the problem — the story is.”