THE BASQUE BALL:
SKIN AGAINST STONE aka LA PELOTA
VASCA: LA PIEL CONTRA LA PIEDRA

Year: 2003
UK: Tartan Films
Cast: Txetxo Bengoetxea, Inaki Gabilondo, Felipe Gonzalez, Fermin Muguruza, Arnaldo Otegi, Orson Welles, Xabier Arzalluz, Jose Maria Aznar, Ana Torrent
Director: Julio Medem
Country: Spain
Language: Spanish
UK: 115 mins
UK Certificate: 15 contains torture references and bombing horror images
UK Release Date: 14 May 2004 (Limited Release - London)
UK Release Date: 7 May 2004 (Limited Release - London)

Synopsis

Through the rigorous editing of nearly 100 interviews with some of the more representative figures of Basque life, THE BASQUE BALL, gives a voice to politicians, journalists, writers, musicians and victims of terrorism. Julio Medem offers each individual the opportunity to express their thoughts, their feelings, their fears, in the hope that the humble truth in each one of them, in dialogue with the others, will take us a step closer to the understanding of a complex reality.

Director's Statement

"A bird is flying through a gorge..."

"I then saw myself diving with them into the air of a ravine, into the great gap that exists between the ETA milieu and the Government in Madrid. As the two opposite edges of the ravine have moved further apart, due to those disciplined people who tighten their ropes so much, people who are tied, the air in between (two thirds of the Basques) has become filled with turbulence which is more and more stifling and sad, producing an air that is not free, even for a bird. This air, bereft of father or mother, this way of flying that moves my film, is now called equidistance..."

- Julio Medem