Basque Conflict Escape Movie ‘Negu Hurbilak’ Hits Locarno: ‘People Expect Shootouts in Getaway Movies. It’s Not Always Like That’

variety.com:

Holly Jones With ruminating obscurity, the ambitious Negu Film Collective – which includes filmmakers Ekain Albite, Mikel Ibarguren, Nicolau Mallofré and Adrià Roca – works to explore the contradictions of a Basque conflict that weighs heavy on all that lived through it.

Stakes, set in slow succession, portray reverberations of the era’s traumas. With international sales and distribution in Spain handled by Madrid-based Begin Again Films (“21 Paraíso”), “Negu Hurbilak” marks the debut feature from the collective, whose prior Basque-shot short films “Erroitz” and “Laiotz” laid a solid foundation for its ever-expanding network of cineasts with an urge to unravel its incongruities.

A Catalan-Basque production between Barcelona’s Cornelius Films (“Frontera”) and San Sebastian-based Maluta Films (“Ainarak”), the project participated in the Atlantida Mallorca Talent Lab WIP Section in 2022 and is slated for its world premiere in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente strand, that serves to discover talent.

Set in the moody border village of Zubieta, the film tells the story of a young woman, played by Goya Award winner Jone Lasipur, fleeing political persecution who meets a vast network of townspeople attempting to help her abscond.