Basque cinema has been trading on the rise for several years and it seems that it is a trend that is consolidating instead of being limited to specific titles that manage to make a little more noise. One of the most talked about titles lately was ‘Errementari (The Blacksmith and the Devil)’, the first feature film directed by Paul Urkijowho now returns to the big screen with ‘Irati’.
Urkijo already investigated Basque folklore with his first film and now he is doing it again taking the comic as a reference ‘The Irati cycle’ to transport us to the 8th century, with the unstoppable expansion of Christianity destroying pagan beliefs. There we will follow the story of two very different young people whose paths will cross to carry out a mission in a strange forest in the area.
a singular film
Winner of the Audience Award at the last Sitges Festival, ‘Irati’ is, above all, a daring film when it comes to tackling the fantastic, a genre in which Spanish cinema does not tend to venture too often. For this, epic cinema is mixed with mythology, with the latter gaining more weight as its footage progresses and relying on meticulous production work so that visually we are before a practically irreproachable work.
One of Urkijo’s secret weapons to achieve this is to bet on shooting as much as possible in natural settings instead of relying more than necessary on post-production work. It is true that this also means some limitation in terms of scalesince ‘Irati’ plays with very ambitious concepts but normally does so in fairly small spaces when the story cries out for greater ambition in that section.
It is true that quite a miracle it looks so good with a budget of just over 4 million euros, but I am not going to completely ignore one of the dominant sensations while watching the film. In fact, the aspect ratio of the image does come close to that greater width that the story asks for, but of course, ambition is one thing and the real possibilities of achieving it are another.
Lights and shadows of ‘Irati’
Something that could happen in cases like that of ‘Irati’ is that so much attention is paid to the technical section that the narrative is neglected. That does not happen here, but it is true that perhaps it promises more than it ends up giving, since everything that surrounds the journey of the two protagonists is most suggestive but is never developed in depth, while the search for their destiny through part of Eneko and Irati does feel perhaps a little more traditional than desirable. There’s nothing wrong with that either, but what could have been a fascinating work that enchanted all our senses ends up being a remarkable proposalwhich is not little.
To this we must add that ‘Irati’ suffers from a certain lack of energy once the initial momentum has passed and the character of Eneko comes to be played in his adult version by Eneko Sagardoy (‘Handia’). Of course, it continues to display an undoubted forcefulness at specific moments, but it will also be then when it will test the patience of some viewers, especially those who come to the film expecting the vibrant spectacle that its trailer sells.
Instead, Urkijo opts for a more leisurely approach, Oscillating between the tragic, the romantic and the mysterious while letting the mythology around the story he is telling us breathe. It is also there where he manages to enrich a story for which it is clear that he has had emblematic references such as ‘Excalibur’ or ‘Conan, the Barbarian’, but always seeking to highlight what is unique about ‘Irati’ and giving special importance to the link that arises between its two protagonists.
That leads to the contribution of Sagardoy and the newcomer Edurne Azkarate turns out to be the other fundamental leg on which the film rests. There it is true that we all smell what is going to happen, but the dynamics between them flows and they manage to give an extra dose of naturalness to the dialogues so that the film never gets stuck on that side. However, it is fair to recognize that ‘Irati’ goes one step further in terms of intensity whenever the key character played by Itziar Ituño appears.
So is it worth it or not?
‘Irati’ is quite a rarity within Spanish cinema in which the technical sections are carefully taken care of to offer an impressive proposal in visual terms that falls somewhat below the rest of the sections. The baggage is more than positive and it offers enough lures as a sword and sorcery movie to enjoy it, but, yes, do not expect an action-packed spectacle or you will end up disappointed.