Maixabel (2021) Movie Script

1
This film is inspired by real events.
Some elements have been fictionalised.
Hey, piss off.
TOLOSA, JULY 2000
- No, but it's impressive.
- Here we are!
- I just cleaned the table. Take a seat.
- Great.
Five hours from here.
Compared to Chile, at 11 hours...
- It's from a friend's cellar there.
- Can I go back to my wine?
You clown!
- It won't be so cold, or what?
- Between 15...
Juan Mari!
Please, move to one side.
Please, make a space, please.
YOU ARE IN OUR HEARTS
- Is there no more?
- We're out of beer.
Girls, we're going for beer.
Anything else?
- Some sandwiches?
- Okay?
Girls, answer!
- Olives.
- A little sugar.
- Mara, what do you want? It's now or never.
- No, no.
- Come on, a shot?
- No!
- For your birthday!
- No!
Just one!
- No.
- You're so boring!
Ok, Ok.
Black vehicle driving at top speed
through the centre of Tolosa.
Citroen with two men inside.
They are armed.
God! Fuck...
- Cool it.
- Two men between 25 and 35.
The vehicle is a black Citroen,
in the station area.
Come on, fuck.
Black Citroen,
I repeat, black Citroen.
- Turn back at the crossing.
- No, we're taking the motorway.
- Turn back! Fuck!
- Shut the fuck up.
We're taking the motorway.
They're not looking for us.
What the fuck?!
Don't overtake them!
Shut up.
- Don't overtake them.
- Shut up!
Any info on the black Citron?
Any info on the black Citron?
Attention, units,
it is not a black Citroen.
I repeat, it is not a black Citroen.
Three men just carried out an attack
in the Tolosa Casino. White Renault.
Have all units got me?
- Hi!
- Hi.
- Beer, right?
- How many?
- 24?
- Okay.
And 8 omelette sandwiches.
The Ex Civil Governor of Guipzcoa,
Juan Mara Juregi.
- A slice of omelet, with peppers.
- Yes.
While he was with a friend in a
well-known cafe in the centre of town.
According to witnesses,
two unidentified men burst in,
firing two shots from behind.
They then made their getaway.
Juan Mara Juregi has been transferred
to Tolosa Central Hospital.
Coming up to two o'clock,
one in the Canaries...
Stop messing around!
- Into the water!
- You are joking!
Into the water!
Come on, go, go, go.
Go!
Maixabel.
We have no news yet.
The doctor's with him.
We'll have to wait.
- Jaime.
- They've just arrived.
- Okay.
- But they're upstairs.
Are you going up,
or should they come down?
- Give me a sec.
- Josu.
Maixabel, come here.
There are more people coming.
It'll be quieter here.
Wait here.
The doctor's coming now.
The wife of Juan Mara Juregui?
He was shot in the head.
He was alive on arrival
but we couldn't save him.
I'm so sorry.
In a few minutes you can
go in to see him if you want.
Mara!
Auntie!
No.
Motherfuckers!
Go boys! Fucking hell, it's done!
- Fuck! Let's go!
- Let's go!
I thought we wouldn't make it
out of Tolosa! Fuck!
- Let's fucking go!
- Bollocks we wouldn't!
Let's fucking go! Come on!
Go, soldiers!
Oh, Maixabel!
Get yourself a bodyguard
or you'll be next. Please.
Oh darling.
Oh sweetheart.
They were killed just months apart.
The funeral chapel has been set up
in the PSOE HQ
in the Guipuzcoan capital.
Hundreds of people
have gone there
to bid final farewell
to Juan Mara Juregui.
His widow, Maixabel Lasa,
and daughter received condolences
from President Jos Mara Aznar
and from representatives of most
of the political bodies.
ETA KILLS J.M. JUREGUI,
DEFENDER OF DIALOGUE
The coffin was then transferred
to his hometown, Legorreta,
where comrades and family
bid him final farewell.
- What's up, lads?
- Hey, Patxi...
They've got nothing.
Good.
Some food.
Let's toast, right?
To the first time of you two!
That's right.
- Fucking hell, it's done.
- Yes.
- Comedians!
- This is a set-up!
You're a bunch of fascists!
Did the accused, Patxi Javier Makazaga
Azurmendi, Ibon Etxezarreta Etxaniz
and Luis Mara Carrasco form
a unit of the armed organization ETA
and that said unit
was called Buruntza?
This is a farce!
Bunch of comics!
Is it true that the ETA leadership
designated as a target
Juan Mara Juregui Apalategui?
A circus!
This court has no right
to try Basque militants.
I understand that you are using
your right to remain silent.
- You may ask the defense.
- You're the terrorists!
- No questions.
- For the final statement then.
Your Honor, I make no final statmenent
on the express wish of my clients,
who do not recognize
the authority of this court.
It's a farce!
Clear them!
You judges are the killers!
Murderers!
Oppressive Spanish state!
Murdering Spanish state!
- Hurrah for ETA!
- Hurrah!
Clear them!
Motherfuckers.
- You're the killers!
- Please, some silence, please!
Carry on, prosecution,
with your closing statement.
Etxezarreta!
Your grandfather.
BADAJOZ PENITENTIARY, 2010
You have the right to a visit.
If you accept, tomorrow you'll be
transferred to Nanclares de la Oca.
It's the closest prison to Lasarte.
Choose if you want to attend
the funeral in the church
or be with your family at home.
Which one?
With my mother.
You leave tomorrow.
On the way they're picking up
one of your people
who has a trial there.
You'll return in two days.
Yes, very well.
I'll see you on Friday, won't I?
No, darling, I won't be coming
this weekend.
- But are you Ok?
- Yes, as ever.
I just can't see you this weekend
because we're preparing for
the Memorial Event on Sunday,
and it's not worth me going down
to Huelva for one day, is it?
- You've missed two. What's wrong?
- You know what I told you,
about including all victims
of terrorism not just those by ETA?
- Yes.
- We're announcing it on Sunday.
You know that no one's going
to like it, right? On any side.
- Sure, and?
- Nothing.
I'm only saying it
in case you want to think about it more,
because you're going to get criticism
like you've never had before.
Well, don't you worry.
I'm fine, it'll all be fine.
I'll see you here
at the homage to Dad, right?
- Okay.
- Well then...
give the little one a cuddle for me.
Bye. 'Bye.
You're not going there to stay, right?
NANCLARES DE OCA PENITENTIARY
You're there, on the right.
Hello, Ibon.
Sorry about your granddad.
I'm Jos Luis Aguirre, the warden.
- How long have you been in Badajoz?
- Six years.
You'll see,
it's all more relaxed here.
These two days I'll treat you
the same as the inmates here.
Talk to your friends,
I'm sure you know one or two.
Then, if you want to talk
about staying, we'll look at it.
No, I want to go back straight away.
Maybe I'm wrong,
but we've listened to you for years
and I think here will suit you better.
We know you've been against violence
for a long time, like those here.
No, I'm not like those here.
No, because they have made it public
but in your private conversations
you say the same thing.
Well, settle in and we'll talk
in a couple of days.
Bloody hell, I can't stand those here,
im going inside.
Luis.
- Give me a minute.
- Yes.
Hi.
Sorry about your granddad.
Sure.
- Had you seen him lately?
- No, he wasn't up to traveling.
What are you doing here, Luis?
Fuck, unbelievable.
- Why are you doing it?
- Why not?
You guys have gone way too far.
This way you only cause harm.
Ibon, think about it,
harm against whom?
All of us, Luis,
all of us, the collective.
You can't collaborate,
we have to stick together
- or they'll eat us up.
- Eat us up, right?
Because we had so much fucking power,
we were on the point of winning.
Ibon, I'm already in one prison,
I don't want to be in another.
Do you think I agree with everything?
I agree with almost nothing. Fuck.
Didn't we talk a thousand times
about what we didn't like?
So I'm not saying anything
to them, but to you I am.
- Why get into this?
- I'm not getting in, but out.
Of everything.
That way makes no sense, Ibon.
A lot of us think it, Luis,
but one thing is thinking
and another is going around
blabbing what takes your fancy.
You think I'm not pissed off
being told what to do all the time?
Fuck, I just came off a 10-day
hunger strike for nothing.
But If you take anything you're lost,
you're collaborating, playing their game.
- Do you work here?
- Yes, in the bakery.
I request permits to leave, and I eat,
and I only sign what I want.
- You've never requested one, right?
- No, of course not.
- Of course not.
- Of course not.
A permit to leave no,
but making your Grandpa travel
for bloody miles for a visit is all right.
It's the same paperwork with
the administration for both.
But sure,
it's sadder to see poor families
traipsing up and down the country.
It exerts pressure
a more efficient strategy.
What do you want me to tell you?
Nothing, but they've used us
enough already.
And you don't even agree with them.
Memorial Day has been held
in the Basque Country.
November 10 remembers
the victims of terrorism
in an institutional act
in the capital Vitoria.
Memory gives names and dates
where terrorism gives excuses
and impossible justification.
We recall today all the victims
of terrorism without exception,
the victims of the terror of ETA
and the victims of the criminal
violence of GAL
and other violent groups that,
though a thing of the past now,
caused suffering
that deserves the same
recognition and reparation.
As of today, this anniversary list
will remind us of what happened
and what should never happen again.
Cheers, Ibon.
Thank you.
I'll get the coffee.
Why have you kept all this shit?
Grandma kept them.
And when I came to live here,
I didn't dare throw them out.
You want to remind me
the idiot I was?
Thanks Mum.
Throw it all out, go on.
Throw it all out.
Fingers crossed time will pass quickly
and we'll get out of this fucking place.
I can't even bear
to see these guys now.
How's your family?
Everything alright?
Do they need anything?
Are you sure?
It's cold outside the collective, Ibon.
Darling...
Mara, I can't hear you.
- Mum.
- Mara, what's wrong?
Is something wrong with the child?
Mara!
- Mum, Mum.
- Darling, what's wrong? I'm here.
Talk to me.
- Mum, where are you?
- Going to Donosti. What's wrong?
Mara, what's wrong?
They found your name on a list Mum.
They arrested some people
and they had your name.
They're following you.
They're following you Mum.
This can't be happening.
- Calm down, I'm fine.
- It can't be true.
It can't, it can't.
They can't kill my Mum too.
Mum, please, get a bodyguard.
Mara, sweetheart, take it easy,
don't cry, please, don't cry.
- It'll all be fine, easy now.
- Get a bodyguard.
Please.
Please, please.
Okay, I will.
- Right away.
- Yes, I promise.
Call me when you get home
and lock yourself in, okay?
I promise, darling, I promise.
Hello.
- Jos Luis.
- Esther, isn't it?
- Welcome.
- We meet at last.
Yes, come in.
How many common prisoners
are there with them?
In their module, very few, around 50.
It's a trustee module, they self manage.
Fine, I'll need 40 minutes
with each group of three.
I don't care how they're grouped
or the kind of crimes.
No, it's been decided
they'll be all at once.
Sorry? But I explained why
and it was very clear.
They're all here.
Aren't you a mediator?
Then on you go.
Good morning.
I understand that you all know
why you're gathered here.
One of you has sent
an anonymous letter
asking to meet with
an ETA victim personally.
And to ask for forgiveness.
That's nonsense. it's the organization
that has to apologise, not us.
We're not ETA, we left it,
we don't represent it.
This isn't about a collective process,
it's something personal.
Sure. Why are you now asking
more from us?
Why now? We've cut ourselves off
from the armed struggle,
we've recognized the harm caused
and ETA expelled us.
Why are you always demanding
more from us?
No, no, no. No one's demanding
anything, It's you...
some of you asked for this
and I'm in charge
of arranging this meeting
for the people who requested it.
That's all.
If anyone who wrote the letter
wants to add something
it would be greatly appreciated.
Alright, but just so you know,
nothing's being asked of you.
In fact, it's very important
that you understand
that this does not entail
any kind of prison benefit.
None. No one is going to get
a grade 3 or anything for this.
You're talking to the wrong people.
Don't you dare talk to me about benefits.
I've only thought of my people's
freedom, not benefits.
You understand nothing.
She and me... Do you think
we've ever thought of ourselves?
- Sure, only you, right?
- Shut up.
- I'm to shut up?
- Shut the fuck up.
- Shut up? What do the rest of us do?
- Shut up.
- Cool it. Please.
- Shut up, stone thrower, that's you.
What I'm saying is that this will mean
a much greater benefit for you,
for you, personally... whoever
participates does so because they know
that accepting responsibility for violence
in front of the victim may be healing.
But we hope, above all, it will be healing
for the victim, ok?
Because we're going to focus
on them.
We don't want to cause them
any more harm.
- There are victims here too, eh?
- She's not fucking talking about that.
Here you'll only attend
in your role as "victimiser" to others.
You can't try to equate
your grief with theirs
or to try to justify yourselves in any
way.
Accept that or you won't be
considered suitable to participate.
Hey, what the fuck does
"victimiser" mean? Murderer?
Like I'm going there
as a murderer
so they shout in my face
for something I didn't decide.
- Is that what you're telling me?
- A "victimiser" is a person
who has caused victims.
I killed, okay.
And every night I regret it.
But I killed
those they instructed me to.
It's absurd that
I have to apologize to someone.
What good does it do if I meet
the widow of that Guardia Civil
if I killed that one but could have killed
any other one, understand?
- ETA has to apologize. ETA.
- That's right.
What good does it do her
if I apologize?
- None at all.
- I'm critical of my past.
Of course I think that things
should've been done differently.
But my struggle now is political.
I want to know what people
out there think, to contribute.
I don't see how individual
encounters will help anyone.
- Well, I'm telling you.
- What am I going to say?
It won't do any good.
Take it easy, okay?
One second, let's take this
in another direction.
Some of you here have accepted
the 850 killings by the group
as your own for precisely that reason.
It would be from this starting point
the meetings would focus on.
So it could be that some of you
may not meet your direct victim
because they don't want to,
but another that may need
an explanation
and for some reason
it can't be provided.
Think about it... not just pardon...
you can explain many things.
Put yourselves in their place.
No one has ever given them
an explanation,
not when the attack occurred
or during all these years.
How do you think they live with that?
Do you go and meet somebody
just so they can use you?
- Leave politics to the politicians.
- Yes, those that don't use us, eh?
- They don't give a shit about us.
- I think you made up that letter.
Nobody here wrote anything.
Look, think it over if you like,
because clearly there'll be
no volunteer here today.
But understand that if we want
the Meetings to be useful,
I'll have to prepare you
and the process will be tough,
because I'll question
and challenge everything.
Will this be public?
Will they name those
who participate?
No.
Look, I don't care what happens to me,
but we have family outside, understand?
I'm frightened what might happen
to them, they've suffered enough.
Participating in these encounters will be
worse than leaving the collective.
They'll have to leave town and
I can't do that to them. I can't do it.
I want to get out and live
quietly in my town, not in Cuenca.
I apologised publicly,
I'm paying my debt.
I'm sorry, but that's all.
I've lost 20 years
because of that bloody sect.
I want to live the time I have left.
I have the right, don't I?
Please, those who want to communicate
with me can do so through admin.
Ok, let's go.
Luis Carrasco, module 4.
If the encounters go ahead,
I think I'll go.
I have to set an example.
But of course I'm scared,
especially for Mara.
No way!
- Mara is strong.
- And fragile, both things.
Now with all this she's... distraught.
The last thing I'd want
is to open up her grief again.
When they killed Juan Mari,
I knew I wouldn't fall apart,
because we had the same commitment
and thought the same. But she...
It's just...
what happens with our children...
it's something that
even we can't know.
They just get so lost.
For you and me...
they killed our husbands, but...
we had the girls to care for,
we had to live on, no choice.
Look...
My daughters won't approve...
- Listen, you're under no obligation.
- No.
I'm not much
for giving second chances.
I've enough trouble getting up
in the morning
and taking 12 pills a day
to struggle on.
But I'd like throw in their faces
everything they did to us.
I had happy, trusting,
joyful daughters.
That part of them died
the day they killed their father.
And I don't think it'll come back.
- I've hated them so much for that.
- So have I.
When Mara told me she was pregnant
I wasn't even thinking
about being a Grandmother.
All I thought was that...
she'd been saved,
that if she was having children
she'd want to live.
That's why I'm scared
to shatter something in her now.
Then why do it?
Why go there and suffer their little
speech so he can feel liberated?
Well...
Has anyone listened to you
apart from your family?
- No.
- There you go.
If I can tell them, face to face,
everything they've done to me,
I'm going to do it.
It's not that I'm not proud
of what I've done,
but I could've been
a lot of things in life.
This turned me into
something I didn't choose.
I'm linked to these people...
until death,
hanging on to what they say
and what they do.
So I'd rather meet them
and so they have to hang on me too.
In the mine, Mara Luisa
They died, four miners died.
Look, Maruxina, look
Look how I come
I bring the red shirt
I bring the red shirt
From a comrade's blood, look
Look, Maruxina, look
Look how I come
From a comrade's blood, look
Look, Maruxina, look
Look how I come
Is everything alright?
We're going to try
living here for a while.
Now that Luichi's factory
has closed down
and we don't have problems
with schools, well...
Let's see if... he can take it.
Hey...
it's...
striking, actually.
Anyway, we've been in Huelva
for 11 years. It's good to change.
Though maybe 5 here
would be enough, right?
Mara, I think it's too soon.
If I had children,
I certainly wouldn't go back.
How are we doing for wine here?
I don't get all this goody
two-shoes stuff.
Is it really going ahead?
- You're meeting with ETA members?
- Who told you?
How could I not know?
I'm a public official.
But you're not going to...
- You can't do this to Juan Mari.
- Juan Mari would've spoken
even to those who killed him,
you know that better than anyone.
Look, all of us here, all of us,
we would be dead without them.
This is another farce, another one.
Where's the bloody regret
when ETA is still killing?
What'll they say to us:
"Sorry, but we have to keep killing you".
You understand, don't you"?
Look, these people
will be released sooner or later,
even if we don't like it.
It's better if they're repentant, right?
So now you have to help them
to forgive themselves.
They're repentant, fine.
Then let them collaborate first
and afterwards remorse
can eat them up till they die.
That's the minimum, Maixabel,
the minimum.
And to help them you're going
to open up all that pain again?
Have you asked her?
Alright, dessert...
Carmen made dessert,
I had no time today.
- Today, no, I did it yesterday.
- Yesterday?
It would have made more sense
to sit here right?
I don't understand why
he was so trusting.
I would've told him to sit here.
And I didn't come that day
so I could do things at home
before coming to make
the dinner for the society.
You told me.
But there's one thing
that I didn't tell you.
I remember it perfectly, but...
then I thought it was one of those
imagined memories... from the shock.
That morning, when I went
with Dad to the garage,
he looked at me...
and said...
"I dreamt that they killed me".
"Come on, man... don't talk rubbish".
And he left.
I don't know if I made it up...
I don't think so.
But if he dreamt that,
why was he so trusting?
I don't get it... doesn't make sense.
But it happened...
and that's that.
Going over it again does more harm.
Right.
Mara, if you say I shouldn't go
to the encounters,
that's all there is to it.
Mum, do what you like.
You don't need my permission.
And you?
Luis.
Ready?
How many deaths have you caused?
Me directly?
Three.
How did you kill them?
With a gun, with a bomb?
Gun.
Do you remember the first?
Yes.
In a car park.
With one shot?
Eight.
Did you need eight?
No,
but I didn't realize.
Did you celebrate the attack?
I suppose so.
I don't remember.
If you were the judge, what sentence
would you have given yourself?
What you have, a lighter one,
life imprisonment, the death penalty?
I don't believe in the death penalty.
Well, if I were a victim,
I could tell you you did decided
it was ok to kill somemone.
That's why I'll apologize.
And what else?
Well... apologising
won't be enough for her.
She'll need you to speak,
to explain yourself,
to open up emotionally. Luis,
to lay yourself bare...
and this... I don't see it.
I find it hard to talk.
It's been many years,
I'm out of the habit.
Look...
I have to prepare you
for the questions they can ask.
OK? But it's essential
you answer every one.
You can't bring a victim here
and refuse to answer something.
Have you forgiven yourself?
I haven't considered it,
I have to live with what I've done.
Is there anything specifically
that made you change your mind?
No, it's several things.
Tell me one.
Meeting the leaders in prison.
What happened?
They were worthless,
I took my orders from mediocrities
and I was furious
for having believed them.
That's it.
Luis,
why did you join ETA?
For the liberation of the people,
to defend ourselves.
If you had those concerns,
you slipped into it, with all your mates.
It was the natural thing,
you didn't even think about it.
You're telling me this
as if you were predestined,
as if you had no choice
and that means avoiding responsibility.
- Is it your first leave?
- Yes.
Watch yourself. Careful.
- The buses.
- Thank you.
Don't get sidetracked.
WELCOME
TRAITOR
The moratorium still stands
that in 1984 stopped the building
of 5 nuclear power plants.
Today they're just ruins.
It's been 10 years since the murder
of Juan Mara Juregui,
ex-civil governor of Guipzcoa.
His widow, Maixabel Lasa,
and family and friends,
remember him, as every year,
beside the small monolith.
An active member of the civil
organization Gesture for Peace,
Maixabel Lasa has always stood out for
her commitment to peaceful coexistence.
She seems like a good woman.
You haven't slept much, have you?
Bread is baked at night, Mum.
Don't try to find your name,
It's five months you haven't been in it.
They've erased you.
- It's odd that they still send it it...
- Do I have to listen of them?
To what?
I don't know, they send me
reminders of all the marches.
- Should I go?
- No, you don't have to go to anything.
Anything.
But why? Did they say
something to you?
- Have people been acting strangely?
- No. Nothing, silly things.
Silly things like what?
Nothing like what she's been through.
I know, Mum.
I know.
Hey, Aitor.
Aitor, it's Ibon.
Ibon, I'm with the kid.
Leave us be, okay?
What's wrong?
- Aitor, what's wrong?
- We don't agree with what you did.
- Who doesn't agree?
- It's not the way, Ibon.
You can't act on your own
just as you fancy.
It's not fair to those inside
struggling to do their time.
Hold on, hold on,
I'm inside. Remember?
And I've got 20 years left.
I'm not doing what I fancy.
I've been inside for 10 years
and the last time we saw each other
I went to your bar to tell you I didn't
mind that you'd left the organization.
You couldn't cope, remember?
Remember?
You couldn't handle it.
And I defended you when they said
you deserved a bullet in the head.
What happened? They caught you
and you did 5 miserable years,
now you're the hero!
That's easy, eh?
Without doing anything.
How brave! And I'm the traitor.
I killed four people
for that fucking organisation
that you were in for a month,
so don't preach to me about betrayal.
Fucking hell!
Etxezarreta.
Hey, Ibon.
I'm never going out again.
Right.
The first time,
I came back feeling just like you.
Now when I go out, I don't look at anyone
or talk to anyone.
I look at the ground till I get home.
As if I were dead.
Nobody cares about us, Ibon.
So anything good I can do,
I'm just going to do it.
Come on.
The wife of Juan Mara Juregui?
He was shot in the head.
He was alive when he came,
but we couldn't do anything.
I'm so sorry.
In a few minutes you can go in
and see him if you want.
- Is he inside?
- No, they'll get him now.
Well, I'll say goodbye here.
I'll see you later.
- Fascists!
- Fascists!
Comedians, frauds!
Come in, Luis.
Maixabel Lasa, Luis Carrasco.
Take a seat.
I don't know if one of you wants
to start by saying something.
Why did you ask to see me?
Because now I care how you feel.
I want to contribute something.
I want you to know that I know...
what I did was monstrous.
Do you want to know anything...
explain anything to you?
Do you know who my husband was?
Juan Mara Juregui.
I found out after...
You didn't know who you
were going to kill? Nothing about him?
We'd get a few details...
such a person... we didn't investigate.
It was decided.
They didn't tell you why
it was Juan Mari?
No, we didn't ask,
it didn't matter.
We had to do the damage,
that's all.
That year we killed over 20.
Your husband was just one more.
I mean, there was no motive.
It was easy, he had no bodyguard.
He was my life,
the same for my daughter.
I know. I'm so sorry.
I wasn't like this before,
I didn't understand what I was causing.
Juan Mari was open
and in favour of dialogue.
Many people tell me
that's why you killed him, but...
I don't know if it's something I want
to believe to make some sense of it.
Right.
What do you know of him now?
He was a civil governor.
And that's it?
You destroy a life
and that's all you know about him?
But I'm sure you knew
about Lasa and Zabala, right?
Juan Mari contributed
to clearing up that case
and testified against Galindo.
When he left the court
he told me he didn't know
who'd kill him first,
Galindo or ETA.
In the end it was you.
Did you sleep that night?
Yes.
- Were you proud?
- Yes, I was proud...
And in a mess.
I joined ETA when I was 22.
I know it's not that young, I wasn't 16.
I remember I was a fanatic,
I didn't care about anything.
Is it true that Makazaga
did the shooting?
Yes, but that doesn't matter.
I'm equally responsible.
We tossed a coin.
And if it befell on you...
was that good or bad?
It was good.
I got it the previous weekend,
but...
we didn't do it.
- I was there that Saturday.
- Yes.
Yes.
Why didn't you kill him
the previous Saturday?
I don't remember. Ibon said no.
- But why?
- I don't remember.
It wouldn't have mattered.
We would've killed the next one.
No,
not the next one.
He would've gone to Chile.
He was no longer Civil Governor.
They sent him to Chile
because he was still under threat.
He was there for two years.
He came back every three months
for a whole month.
It was like we were courting again,
we'd got used to the distance.
And we called each other
several times a day.
For a long time after I called
his mobile in Chile.
I'd hear his voice
on the answering machine
hang up and call again.
And then that number...
no longer worked.
I'm very sorry.
And the other two?
- Ibon is here too.
- Really?
Is he preparing for an encounter?
- Are you friends?
- No. As kids, yes, very close.
We're both from Lasarte.
Now we see each other everyday,
we put up with each other,
but we're not friends anymore.
I look at him and remember
everything we did
and I can't stand him,
because I can't stand myself.
And the other man?
I don't know anything
about Makazaga, I'm sorry.
We coincided in Almera,
when I was no longer in the group.
I approached him,
but he moved away
and I never heard anything else.
People change and don't say it,
but I don't think Patxi has changed.
We didn't talk to him much,
we suspected he was sending reports
on us to the organisation.
And what made you change?
It was always a horrible life
and prison saved me.
Because outside I would've kept on killing
and here you have a lot of time to think.
In Grade 1 you spend
21 hours in your cell
and you can't hide from yourself.
The victims weigh down on you
every night when you go to bed.
Santiago Oleaga,
Mikel Uribe,
Juan Mara Juregui...
And the ones that weren't mine too.
I wake up with them every morning
and go to bed with them every night.
So do I.
You broke me.
After something like this,
there are no complete joys in life.
I hope that Mara has them.
I've often wondered
if she'll manage to...
I don't know if she'll like me
talking to you about her.
I understand.
I'm very grateful
for what you're doing.
Mara is fantastic, eh?
Because she hasn't turned into...
someone who hates.
How are you?
Fine.
Hey, girls!
- The last one and I'm going.
- No, you're not going yet!
- My mother's with the girl.
- Call her and stay.
- Come on, please don't go.
- I'm not promising anything.
MUM
Aren't you answering?
Mum went to see the man
who killed Dad.
I can't face going home.
Did you... ask him everything
you wanted to know?
Well, some things he couldn't answer,
but in reality it's not that...
it's something else.
It's...
seeing him there,
truly repentant.
Is he really?
Yes, yes.
It's...
If it's possible, it's...
reassuring, it makes you
feel something very strange,
very unexpected.
It's like saying that...
it's over.
I can be Maixabel again.
I know it sounds very strange,
but it's like...
I've recovered something
of what I was.
You don't understand me.
Which one was it?
Carrasco.
- Wasn't he the one that...
- No.
We still don't know
where the shooter is.
They tossed a coin
between the three of them.
It doesn't matter who fired.
Right.
Well,
will you come with me
on Nerea's walk?
You need some air too.
I can't.
I got sidetracked
and dismissed my bodyguards.
I even had a doctor's appointment...
I'm so silly today...
Go on, I'll go with you.
Anyway... I think I'm going to tell them
I don't need them anymore.
I want to be able
to waste time again.
Mum, don't even think about it!
Do you hear me?
That guy doesn't represent anyone.
How many of them inside
are repentant? Ten?
They'll kill him when he gets out
and you when they can.
Darling... I just wanted
to spend a little time with you.
I won't dismiss them, I promise.
Will I buy something?
No.
How did it go with her?
Maixabel, her name's Maixabel,
you know that.
Did she ask you why
I'm not going?
Give me a break.
Why are you running
at three in the morning?
It's as good a time as any.
What's wrong?
No more secrets here.
- What's wrong?!
- I'm sorry Mum.
I can't sleep.
My head is bursting.
But what's wrong?
Luis met with Maixabel.
With Maixabel?
I'm going to do it as well Mum.
If only your grandparents
had seen how you've changed.
Yeah Mum.
Do you know one day I didn't
have time to stop at the flat...
and hid a gun there,
among the clothes?
The next day it wasn't there
and only Grandma came in to tidy up,
so it had to be her,
but she never said anything to me.
She was like the living dead,
for two weeks.
I couldn't take it anymore
and I told her
that it wasn't mine,
that I was hiding it for a friend...
and she didn't even answer me.
Then, every time there was news
on the TV of an attack,
I knew what she was thinking.
But how she didn't tell me anything!
I didn't know!
What could she have done, Mum?
You were in Alicante, and she knew
I didn't want to go back there.
- I would've come!
- You couldn't have done anything, Mum.
I'd been in it for seven years,
it was a life full of lies.
Do you understand?
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Hello.
I'm going up to see
how the monolith is.
Let's see if they're tired
of smashing it.
See you, take care, eh?
- 'Bye.
- 'Bye.
Come in Ibon.
The encounters have been cancelled,
I'm sorry.
What?
The prison authorities have decided not to
continue the programme for the time being.
- But why? It was working...
- I know, but...
the new delegate says that there
is no repent if they don't colaborate.
They won't be doing any more.
I'm sorry.
Ibon,
I can't set up anything in here,
but what you do in your
time outside is up to you.
Fuck!
Cut it out, fuck!
Take it, take it, Nerea.
Nerea...
Very good.
Come on, another piece.
One more, one more...
Now, come on...
The other one wrote a letter.
I know, I saw it there
and I read it.
- It would have to be on a release day.
- But in the street?
Yes.
I don't know what to do.
Mum,
I'm not going,
but I'm very grateful that you are.
They were heroes.
Going to school we saw their photos
on the walls, four times a day.
And if these heroes now
don't leave prison with a homage,
but are repentant,
seeking us out,
maybe they'll listen to them
more than to us.
It's incredible that the man
who hurt us the most
now thinks more like me than...
Sure.
Come in.
No, he's almost here.
This way.
Maixabel, you know we can
stop this at any time.
You've done it once,
you're under no obligation.
We can arrange an interview
for him with another victim.
No, no. It's not him,
it's for me.
Are your parents alive?
My mother.
Did she know what you were up to?
No, she found out
when I was arrested.
Do you see her?
Yes, it's the only thing I do
when I'm out.
She was anti-ETA, totally anti-ETA.
She never suspected anything.
I didn't live with them,
they were in Alicante when...
I was 14 years old
and I wanted to return to Euskadi.
I grew up with my grandparents,
they raised me.
Did you return to join ETA?
No, I was into...
I was in Alicante
already with my ideas...
I was in an internationalist
committee to support Nicaragua
and we idealized them all...
all the world's guerrilla movements,
the Colombian guerrillas,
the Palestinian Liberation Front,
the Kurdish guerrillas of the PKK.
We knew by heart all the Sandinists
and Cuban songs, all of them.
And...
I dreamt of an independent
and socialist Basque country.
And when I came back here,
I joined the Pro-Amnesty Committee
and from there to Jarrai.
And we made our way there.
We went to ask them,
no one sought us out.
Normally they sought you out,
but we went and asked.
We knocked on ETA's door.
Did you know that Juan Mari
was in ETA?
He was studying sociology in Bilbao
during the Burgos trials.
They arrested him at the protests
and put him in Basauri jail.
He spent Christmas 1970 there.
Mara hadn't been born yet,
but we were already together...
since we were 16.
In jail he met people from the Workers
Commissions and the UGT union.
And in '73, you could already see
it was going nowhere,
so we both joined the Communist Party.
Juan Mari never agreed with violence.
And you joined, what...
20 years later?
After hundreds of dead.
You had time to think it through.
Right, but I didn't think like that.
At that time I didn't think like that,
it was a war and the dead didn't matter.
I was like that at the time, and then,
yes, later, you start to see things,
to question the objectives,
but once you're inside,
there's no going back.
I thought we'd fall very soon,
like other units fell, but...
What were fools like us doing in ETA?
But we lasted...
and I began to live a double life
with everything, work,
my girlfriend, everything,
all fake,
all fake.
I hurt everyone.
And when I was arrested
it was a weight off my shoulders,
it was all over.
And there I began to think...
about what I'd done.
And...
if only I'd been caught at the start.
When...
When you killed him,
he'd just requested
an assignment in Jordan.
I was going to go with him.
They'd granted me leave of absence
and Mara was in Huelva, at university,
and didn't need us so much.
Two days before,
Maria had turned 19.
She'd come to celebrate it
with her father
and to see her friends.
I'm sorry that you couldn't
fulfil your plans.
I'm sorry for leaving
your daughter without her Dad.
Actually, you'd taken him away
from her long before.
The day after the murder
there was a phone call.
It was a friend of Mara,
from Huelva.
They'd seen the news
and since the surnames
and the town were the same
and they hadn't heard from her,
they were worried.
Mara hadn't told them anything.
And there I was,
telling them who was her father
and he'd been killed.
Mara adored her Dad,
but when you're threatened
you don't talk about it,
and it seems normal to you.
That and... checking under the car...
and the graffiti,
the silences, the looks,
your cousin in Legorreta Council
who doesn't condemn the killing
of his own uncle,
your friends,
who never bring up the subject.
Nothing is normal.
Then it was my turn
to have a bodyguard.
Why?
I don't know, you must know.
You've poisoned everything,
for decades.
A few months after the killing,
they offered me to lead
the Office of the Victims of Terrorism.
Then it was only about ETA...
I opened it up to
the victims of other violence,
of GAL, and police violence...
I think that's why I'm threatened,
because they understood
that I was treading on their turf.
Yes, I remember that moment perfectly
because my Grandpa sent me
the press clippings
to see if it would get through to me,
I suppose.
And at first I thought it was bad luck
that they appointed one of my victims.
But then...
I don't know...
I saw what you were doing
and what you were saying
and I couldn't believe it.
My head was bursting and I started
going over it again and again.
I never said anything
to my Grandpa.
And the poor soul died
thinking I hadn't changed.
Is that what made you change?
Well, that and other things.
In prison you meet people
and go over everything and...
at first you see the attacks
and they don't even affect you,
you're even happy
because you have to believe in this.
If you stop believing, you have
nothing to grip onto. Impossible.
You sink. If you start to think
about what you've done,
but the time comes when...
you can't avoid it anymore
and you realise you're a monster
and you don't know how
to stop being one,
until one day you see...
that you can ask for forgiveness.
You can ask for forgiveness.
You know?
I'd rather be Juan Mari's widow
than your mother.
And I'd rather be Juan Mari
than his killer.
OCTOBER 20, 2011
Euskadi Eta Askatasuna,
the Basque socialist revolutionary
national liberation organization,
wishes, through this statement,
to make its decision known.
It's time to look to
the future with hope.
It's also time to act
with responsibility and courage.
Accordingly, ETA has decided to cease
its armed activity.
ETA, with this historic statement,
shows its clear, firm
and definitive commitment...
ETA has just announced in
in the newspaper GARA
a definitive cease-fire.
Mum, it's over... it's over.
- Yes, Mara, it's over.
- At last.
It's over.
- Are you watching it?
- Of course I'm watching it.
We'll talk later, eh?
Right, we'll talk later.
Yes.
After existing for 51 years
and having committed
a total of 857 murders
throughout its history.
We did it, Juan Mari.
We did it, Darling.
The severity of the struggle carried off
many comrades forever,
others are suffering
in prison or in exile.
To them, our recognition
and heartfelt tribute.
The road ahead won't be easy
faced with the persisting imposition...
It's been possible, above all, thanks
to the firmness of Spanish society,
guided by the secure reference
of the Rule of Law
which today, definitively
and unconditionally
triumphs as the sole model...
Nothing justifies so much pain
or so much cruelty.
That's why today the protagonists
cannot be the killers, but the victims.
to building a scenario
of peace and freedom...
Long live the free Basque Country.
Long live a socialist Basque Country.
We will not stop until we achieve
independence and socialism.
THE END OF TERROR
ETA'S ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN PRODUCED
WITH NO POLITICAL CONCESSION
829 DEAD
Will we put the table here?
Where do I leave them?
Put them there so people
can get them when they arrive.
Look, I don't believe anything, eh?
They make distinction between victims,
they're not handing over arms...
- It's steps.
- Steps? What steps?
- Hey there.
- Yes, but it's over.
- It's over?
- Yes.
There's a long way to go.
They don't recognise anything.
- We don't exist.
- That's what we have to remind them.
Of course. Come on...
To Juan Mari.
To Joxe Mari, to Jos Luis.
- To Froilan.
- To everyone. Of course.
Go on.
- You're taking this after all?
- Yes.
Yes, this one.
Wait, take one away...
put in a white one...
there, like that.
Do I follow you?
No, I'd better go up with you,
or you'll get lost.
With me?
It's way down this road,
then there's a turnoff, I'll tell you.
The reds are for the past.
There are ten.
And the white is from now on.
I don't recognize anything.
It was about the same time.
I was driving this way.
And now I'm driving you...
almost the same time.
Do they know I'm coming?
Some do.
Hello. Hello, everyone.
Thank you so much for being here.
This is Ibon Etxezarreta.
He killed Juan Mari.
He asked me if he could be here
with us to remember him.
I know it hurts.
But I also know that you'll bear it
because you love me,
but, above all,
because you know how
Juan Mari thought.
This is for Juan Mari!