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docpiplup · 2 years

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@asongofstarkandtargaryen the interview I told you about. And the release date of the film is on 18th November. Although it will be during the Sitges Film Festival (6th-16th October)

Here's the link to the interview, but it's in spanish so I've translated to make it easier. It's from February, but it has some interesting info.

Paul Urkijo: "Mari is the most powerful character in Basque mythology"

Paul Urkijo is in love with mythology in general and Basque mythology in particular. His films drink from those sources that fill the narratives of ancient legends. The director from Alava has finished 'Irati', his second film after Errementari.

Irati is a fantasy of medieval Euskadi, and Paul Urkijo places the action in the 8th century. The plot revolves around a group of Christian and Muslim warriors who enter the Basque Pyrenees in search of a lost treasure of the Emperor Charlemagne. And it is supposed to be in a cave, according to the locals, guarded by the goddess of the lands, Mari. The group of warriors, led by Eneko, is led by a mysterious young woman from the area named Irati. The film stars Eneko Sagardoy and Edurne Azkarate, and the story begins in a comic by Juan Luis Landa and Joxean Muñoz. Talking with Urkijo means immersing yourself in a world of swords and witches

You studied Fine Arts. Was your idea the audiovisual world?

I originally got into this career to do illustration, and my intention was to go into comics or animation. That was what I thought from my way of making and creating stories. I discovered the audiovisual in Fine Arts. Until then it had never crossed my mind that I could make movies, and even less so here; at least, not the kind of cinema that I liked.

Why did you think you didn't have that chance?

Because the cinema that I like is the fantastic genre. When I was 18, I didn't consider those kinds of possibilities. That yes, the cinema is what I have liked most in life, since I was a child, but at that time what I did the most was draw. In Fine Arts I began to discover the audiovisual world because I had several film subjects, and little by little, making short films, I realized that this was going to be my way of telling stories.

And drawing?

It was also included. In the pre-production of a film there is a lot of drawing, so I was immediately hooked on the audiovisual world. At first I made short films with friends to have fun where we used a lot of ketchup, a lot of tomato.

It seems you like it bloody.

Ha, ha, ha. It has its appeal. Every time I was doing more complex things. Little by little I became a professional, and they were no longer just stories with friends to have fun. I wanted what I was experiencing to be my profession. I took a 3D course, I got an award at EITB Kultura and with 2,000 euros I made a short film, El pez plomo, my first work that can be considered semi-professional.

And Errementari arrived

Well, not so fast. Before I did about fifteen shorts. It was a while before he launched me into making a feature film, and that was big words. It seems that he is a big fan of Barandiaran. Of course, and I can also be very monothematic. I have always been a fan of the fantastic and mythology on an international level. Monsters have fascinated me ever since I was a child. I like the meaning of stories and everything behind them. It is a very nice way to describe ourselves, a way to talk about our darkest things and our brightest moments. I am from where I am and from a very young age I have been deeply touched by Basque mythology. I had stories, I went to the mountains a lot, I visited caves... My aitas (aitas=parents in basque) took me to very interesting places and told me stories.

Stories that you now turn into movies.

Ha, ha, ha. Yes, it can be said that from those stories later came others that have become shorts and movies. At home we had an edition of Barandiaran's Complete Works, and I also bought books, although more modern. Little by little I became interested on a deeper level. I saw in those stories what I needed and wanted to tell.

What did you see in Errementari

A fantastic genre story, fun, but dark and with demons; an imagery that I love, so developing all that, I knew it was perfect. I had a really good time making that movie.

Between Errementari and Irati

Yes. I had always wanted to make a fantastic film, with a historical genre and Basque mythology. I was in love with the idea of doing something sword and sorcery, and this comic had enough ingredients to make the movie that I wanted. He had certain nuances that made me go headlong toward him. It drinks directly from Basque mythology and has the perfect excuse to be able to combine history and mythology. I was inspired by the main characters, but I went to the origin.

Did it go off script?

In a way. Yes, I passed a little on the aesthetics, the tone, even the narration of the comic, and in the end I have done something totally different. People who expect something similar to comics will not find it in Irati. It is a much more adult narration, which delves much more into what for me is Basque mythology. It gets a lot into the symbology of those telluric characters related to nature and the beliefs that pagan people had, as opposed to other religions that came later.

It has dropped a lot, from the 21st to the 8th century.

I am not a historian; I am a fan of history and my profession is to tell stories, especially fantasy genres. I use historical settings and periods to immerse the viewer in the lives of my characters, and the 8th century is a fascinating time.

Although seen from a distance of thirteen centuries apart, it seems like a very dark time.

There is no documentation at all. There are very few engravings, there are very few codices, there are very few writings, but in every dark age there have been lights. Christianity has not established the iconography that we are going to see later in the churches. We meet pagan deities who are later transformed into Christian deities. It is a game that is very present in the stories of Barandiaran, where there is always a game between the Christian and the pagan.

Irati is one of the main characters, but many will think that the title refers to the Irati jungle, in Navarra.

I play with that idea. The protagonist is Eneko, a young Christian and nobleman who aims to be the leader of the area, while she is a pagan girl. In order to complete his mission and be the Jaun (lord in basque), Eneko will need the help of Irati. With it you will immerse yourself in that inhospitable, magical and dark jungle that we call Irati.

You have fulfilled your fantastic goals with two films like Errementari and Irati

Ha ha ha. I would love to, because those movies are much easier to produce. I have current stories and projects planned for the future, but right now, what comes to mind is from the period and in complicated locations, with swords, with monsters. After this film, which has been a great epic at the production level, I would like to do something simpler, to rest.

What is the Basque territory that treasures the most mythology?

It is difficult to choose and they all share mythology.

You have chosen Mari.

And Mari is in all herrialdes. Language unites us. Mythology comes to us through oral transmission, and in Basque. There are many studies linking Mari to a matriarchal goddess who was part of a religion that was all over Europe.

What is your favorite character within the mythology of Euskal Herria?

Mari, so we go back to her. It has a power so deep that it is part of all of us. It represents Amalurra, the mother of all creatures. It is fair and terrible in equal parts. Mari is the most suggestive and powerful character in Basque mythology. It is exciting in all the forms it can take: fire, storm, gold, skeleton, snake and all possible animals. It is a unique character that is within my dreams.

And your dreams are about monsters, witches, storms, darkness. A nightmare?

Ha ha ha. No. When I think of monsters, I dream of empathizing with them. They are not a nightmare. I like them because I try to see the other side, because I see the incomprehension that exists in this world towards creatures that are different.

How long has the filming of your film lasted? Eight weeks

Is it a lot or a little?

For what is usually done in independent cinema, it is a lot. We have had the help of the Basque Government, EITB, TVE, the Gasteiz city council. Many people have helped us. Thanks to all of them we have been able to produce a fantastic genre film in Basque. This has been a very complicated project, but I am very stubborn. It's been four or five years of development. Today, making an eight-week film is very complicated. Normal is between four and five.

What route do you think Irati is going to have?

We're in post-production and thinking about the fall festivals. We want to treat the film in the most traditional way possible.

Cinemas?

Exactly, and then it will go to platforms, that's the world we're in. We want it to go to cinemas, festivals and everywhere possible. It is a film that I have tried to make as big as possible. I have wanted to make an epic film so that it can be seen on a cinema screen.

Can you tell who finds Charlemagne's treasure?

No. For that you will have to wait and see the movie, and that is if Charlemagne's treasure exists.

What does a filmmaker like you live on when the cameras are turned off and the story is already finished?

There were times when I had to work doing everything. I've been a waiter, I've been on assembly lines, as a drawing teacher. Of everything. When you go to feature film and make a movie you try to save up to last the time it takes to get to the next one.

In this case, five years, how much does it stretch the money?

Ha ha ha. That valley is usually usually tricky. Let's say that the illusion is what pushes you and you have to cling to it a lot so as not to get sidetracked thinking that you have to pay the flat.

Is Basque cinema in fashion?

I think we're doing pretty well. There have always been great Basque films, but perhaps since Aupa Etxebeste! our cinema has taken off. From a certain point, films have begun to be made in Basque that are consumed nationally and internationally.

Handia was about to go to the Oscars.

The Moriarty production company is the spearhead of Basque cinema. What others do affects us, just as what I do affects others. I think that in Basque cinema we feed off each other, and all at the same time we are creating an increasingly professional, increasingly stable industrial fabric, and that is why we have more and more work in the Basque Country. For example, it is very difficult to find technicians for a film. When we went to do Irati we had a hard time, because they were in other series and other movies. We have a good outlook.

Would you like to make non-independent cinema?

Yeah, of course. Maybe you don't have as much creative freedom, but at an industrial level you can make very big, contrived and fun movies, it wouldn't be bad at all. It is also true that I make films because I like to tell my own stories.

Do you think that in the end we will end up seeing all the movies on platforms?

I think and hope not. People, with this pandemic, have stayed at home and have gotten used to watching movies there, but I think the time will come, if it hasn't already, when people once again have the need to share the films in larger spaces, where the experience is different. I am hopeful that theaters will be strong again.

And with popcorn included, right?

That of course. A good movie and a good carton of popcorn. We will return to it and we will see the cinema as we have always seen it, in theaters. It is true that I have also gone less because of the situation we have been through, but I have tried to go to a room every week.

In your first film you used three dialects of Basque. In this one?

A dialect of Basque, Latin and Arabic. These last two languages are brushstrokes that we have put. Basque is Navarrese with a very old nuance, but totally understandable. All this will help us immerse ourselves in that time, the 8th century.

Does your movie has age restrictions?

No, my film is immortal. Seriously, it's an adult movie, I haven't limited anything, but totally understandable. All this will help us immerse ourselves in that time, the 8th century. Is your movie old? No, my film is immortal. Seriously, it's an adult movie, I haven't limited anything, but I think it's a movie that everyone could see. It is an adventure story, entertaining, with its dark moments, with violence. I'm not going to be the one to categorize it. Hopefully the younger ones will see it too.

**********

About the director...

Age: 37 years old (June 22, 1984).

Place of birth: Gasteiz.

Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Career: Once he discovered the audiovisual universe in college, he launched himself into the world of short films. His works in this field have won 85 national and international awards and have been selected for festivals some 400 times. In 2016 he wrote the bible for his first feature film, based on the Basque story Patxi Errementaria. With this film he has won numerous awards, including the award for best film at the Terror Week in San Sebastian. Five years later, he has returned to command to make his second feature, Irati, an epic story that will travel through the autumn festivals.

#irati 2022 #irati #interview #period dramas #fims #paul urkijo alijo

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