Film director Imanol Uribe has recently released his latest movie, Miel de Naranjas. The launch of his new film was preceded by its success at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival, where it won the Silver Biznaga awards for Best Director and Best New Screenwriter, the latter to Remedios Crespo. Miel de Naranjas is the 15th feature film in the Uribe?s extensive career, in which he has also had other filmmaking tasks, such as producer and script-writer.
The decade of the 1980s and first half of the ?90s was the period in which the ETA terrorist group committed its largest and most indiscriminate attacks. In this context, for
Spanish cinema to take on this armed group was at the very least a tricky matter. However, quite a number of films did so at this time.
Pedro Costa in
El Caso Almería (1984),
José Antonio de la Loma in
Goma 2(1984),
Ana Díez in
Ander y Yul (1988), and other filmmakers like
Mario Camus,
Manuel Macia and Antonio Eceiza all turned their camera lenses on this critical problem, which cost so many lives and marked others forever. Among the directors who rose to the challenge was
Imanol Uribe.
Uribe, born in San Salvador, El Salvador, received his film training at the Escuela Cinematográfica de Madrid (?Madrid Film School?). Before jumping into doing his first feature film, he gained experience shooting short films, both fiction and documentaries. In this latter genre, he got his first feature-length project and his first contact with issue of ETA in El Proceso de Burgos (The Burgos Trial) (1979).
On August 2, 1968, following the murder of police officer Melitón Manzanas in Irún, Spain, martial law was declared in Guipúzcoa and dozens of people were arrested. A high-profile summary trial was held in 1970 in the city of Burgos for this crime and the death of the Spanish Guardia Civil José Pardines. The documentary El Proceso de Burgos (The Burgos Trial) brings together testimonies of the accused and imprisoned persons from this court martial proceeding.
After this debut, Uribe made his first fiction feature film, La Fuga de Segovia (Escape from Segovia) (1981), about the escape through a tunnel of a group of prisoners from the penitentiary of the town of Segovia in Spain?s Castilla-León region. The screenplay is based on the actual escape of 29 captives, including 24 ETA militants, which took place from the Segovia prison in 1969. The film starred Xabier Elorriaga, Álex Angulo and Guillermo Montesinos.
Xabier Elorriaga would also appear in the cast of Imanol Uribe?s next film, La Muerte de Mikel (Michael?s Death) (1984), but this time right the leading role to Imanol Arias. Arias plays a chemist whose sexual orientation was not accepted by his comrades in the Basque nationalist movement. His death, shrouded in mystery, would be used as a political tool by the radical right.
The script written by
José Antonio Rebolledo as well as Uribe himself was very daring for its day, with the element of homosexuality in the story of a small town in Euskadi (the Basque Country) characterized by conservative traditions.
In 1994,
Uribe returned to the issue of ETA terrorism for one of his films. This was
Días Contados (?Running Out of Time?), his most-awarded film to-date, receiving
26 awards and
16 nominations, including the
Concha de Oro (Golden Shell) from the
San Sebastian International Film Festival and a
Concha de Plata (Silver Shell) for
Javier Bardem, for his performance as a drug addict. This film had great success at the
Goya Awards, too, where the leading couple,
Carmelo Gómez and
Ruth Gabriel, took the prizes in the categories of
Best Actor and
Best New Actress, respectively.
Javier Bardem was also awarded a
Goya in the category of
Best Supporting Actor, and
Imanol Uribe got the awards for
Best Adapted Screenplay and
Best Director. The movie also won the
Goya for Best Film and three others categories.
Días Contados tells of when
Antonio, an ETA terrorist, and
Charo, a young drug addict, meet each other. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by
Juan Madrid. In the book, the leading character is a photographer who ETA makes into a guide. While doing this job, he meets two drug-addicted women neighbours who show him their world.
Imanol Uribe?s filmography is filled with literary adaptations in addition to
Días Contados, with six movies based on novels and, as in the case of
Bwana (1996), a theatre play.
Bwana takes a work for the theatre by
Ignacio del Moral,
La Mirada del Hombre Oscuro, to the big screen. While on their holidays, a family headed by the two characters played by
María Barranco and
Andrés Pajares, run into a needy illegal immigrant who doesn?t speak Spanish. This film about racism, moving between drama and comedy, was a new hit for the director of
La Muerte de Mikel at the
San Sebastian Film Festival, where it again won the
Golden Shell and was also recognized for its cinematography.
The sum total of literary works Uribe has made into films are rounded out by
El Mono y el Caballo, a novel by
Andreu Martín, from which came
Adiós Pequeña (1986),
Plenilunio by
Antonio Muñoz Molina,
La Carta Esférica by
Arturo Pérez Reverte (Uribe keeping the original titles for the film versions of these last two), and
A Boca de Noche by
Ángel García Roldán, which became
El Viaje de Carol (Carol?s Journey) (2002). The latter was given the
Crystal Bear award at the
Berlin Film Festival.
Another of Uribe?s most popular films is
El Rey Pasmado (The Dumbfounded King) (1991), an adaptation from the work by
Gonzalo Torrente Ballester Crónica del Rey Pasmado. This film is about how
King Phillip IV of Spain is awed by the nude body of the courtesan Marfisa to the point that he wants to see the nude body of the queen despite the scandal and opposition his desire causes with the Church. Numerous members of the cast, such as
Gabino Diego, who played the king,
Javier Gurruchaga and
María Barranco were nominated for
Goya Awards, but only
Juan Diego, who played the priest Villaescusa, took home a
Goya for Best Supporting Actor.
Imanol Uribe?s latest premiere is
Miel de Naranjas, a drama which takes us back to the post-Spanish Civil War period like
El Viaje de Carol. The film shows the deep love between Carmen and Enrique, who is completing his military service in a court. Tired of the injustices he observes, he decides to go into active duty, although his life will be in danger.
Currently,
Imanol Uribe is working on a project about the life of the Argentine singer-songwriter
Facundo Cabral, murdered last year in Guatemala. This co-production between Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Spain still doesn?t have a complete cast, and the search is on to find an actor to play the lead role of the musician himself.
