Cine vasco: ¿un debate cerrado?

Abstract

This article is a critical approach to the concept "Basque cinema" and to the debate around its possible identity marks which has carried on among analysts and scholars along the last thirty years, especially in the decade immediately after the death of Francisco Franco. The text, following an approach to the evolution of the films shot on the Basque Country since the very first experiences in the twenties, tries to place the question in other perspective, much more related to the current reality and demand for an open, plural and mixed cinema, which takes in plural subject matters and formats and which is, at the same time, the image of the thinking and feeling of contemporary Basque creators, no matter where they are. These are the conditions which will enable the gradual creation of a film industry that will make possible to talk, for the first time, about a true "national Basque cinema", heir to the past experiences and positioned straightaway to its future.