I really enjoyed this Spanish movie, about an inquisitor judge who initiates a process against six girls accused of witchcraft in a village in the Basque country.
A pleasant and absolute surprise is the film directed by Argentine filmmaker Pablo Agüero, who in 2006 won an award at the Cannes Film Festival for his short film Primera Nieve. In 2008 he received good reviews with the film Salamandra, starring Dolores Fonzi. He continued writing screenplays and directing in Argentina, where he released the documentary Madres de los dioses and in 2015 he wrote and directed the film Eva no duerme, starring Gael García Bernal and telling the odyssey of the embalmed corpse of Eva Perón throughout Europe in the 1950s, with good reception at the San Sebastian Festival and the Mar de Plata Festival. Then, in 2018 he co-directed a film in Ecuador: A son of Man.
The Holy Inquisition for a long time engaged in witch hunts, where women, whose sin was nonsense, such as dancing, singing, etc, could be accused of witchcraft. All over Europe, the Inquisition condemned many people to death, accused of serving the devil. It was madness and one of the greatest harms done by religion.
The filmmaker has made a wonderful film, freely inspired by the book Tratado de brujería vasca: descripción de la inconstancia de los malos ángeles y demonios, written by the French inquisitor Pierre Lacre, who in 1609 was in the north of Euskal Herria carrying out the orders of his kingdom, condemning women guilty of being witches to the stake. The book was translated into Spanish, after four hundred years, and tells all the experiences of the inquisitor, the interrogations and the explanations of the supposed demonic rituals of the witches.
Who was Pierre de Rosteguy de Lancre?
A French judge, member of the court council of Henry IV, who was entrusted with the function of inquisitor and who, according to historians, was a mad religious fanatic, cruel and bloodthirsty. His main mission was to send all witches to the stake as soon as possible and the law was also applied to anyone who dared to defend witches. Precisely in 1906, Lancre was in charge of the witchcraft trials in the Basque-French area of Labort. The inquisitor published several works on the superstitions and customs of the Basque peoples.
It was a time when any dispute, the power of the Inquisition could transform it into a case of moral and religious crimes, to repress the population, which resulted in many deaths and oppressed peoples. All in the name of God.
If you want more information about the Inquisition and its application in the Basque Country, you can read the following wikipedia link, where there is abundant and detailed information: Link 1 and Link 2
Pablo Agüero writes the script, together with Katell Guillou, to tell us this story that in the end, has a message of female empowerment in the face of the authority that has decided to oppress them and condemn them to death.
What is the plot of Akelarre?
It is the year 1609 and in one of the Basque villages, where most of the men are sailing at sea, the women have been left alone. The only man in the village is a young priest. Ana and her group of friends spend their time in the forest, dancing and having fun. But a commission of the Holy Inquisition arrives in the village, headed by Judge Rostegui, who, by order of the King, is persecuting witches throughout the region. The six girls are arrested and accused of witchcraft. The judge, with the help of his counselor, will interrogate, torture and do whatever it takes to make the girls confess. To gain time until the arrival of the men from the sea, they will invent a story that will delight the judge, eager to see for the first time the ritual of the Sabbath. A group of women, unjustly accused, will try to survive before an inquisition that already has a sentence, even before imprisoning them.
The levels of religious fanaticism can be seen today as too ridiculous. How was it possible for people to be killed for witchcraft? How could people believe in such nonsense? Women who flew, who transformed into animals and a thousand superstitions, fantastic stories, but that in a black stage of humanity, blinded by religious beliefs, there were men in charge of condemning to death according to their criteria of what was a rite to Lucifer.
That a group of friends, gathered in the forest, to eat, have fun, dance and sing in their dialect, could be considered as a morally perverse act, an incitement to the devil, they were Lucifer's servants and would easily end up burned alive at the stake. Such cruelty was executed in the name of religion and a supposedly kind God.
The character of Judge Rostegui, who represents the power of the Inquisition, is at the same time a character who seems fascinated by discovering, through the confessions of women, how demonic rituals are practiced. We see in his eyes the fascination he feels, in addition to the carnal desire he feels towards Ana's character.
The judge is the inquisitor, but in one part of the story he perfectly represents the demon, who is not a fantastic being with horns and a tail. No. The real demon is the inquisitor.
The six prisoners, where Ana is the smartest of them all, plan to tell what the inquisitors want to hear, all to buy time and hope that the men of the village will arrive at the next full moon and they can be rescued.
The inquisitors seem to be in control of the situation, but it is excellent to see the role reversal, that they are actually seeing what they want to see, believing what they want to believe. Ana will begin her story full of fantasy, bewitchments, telling how she transformed her friends into animals like donkeys or pigs, her sexual relationship with Lucifer, the power to fly, etc. Besides assuring to have practiced the Sabbath, a mysterious rite by which the Judge is obsessed and wants to see her.
Lying and manipulation is the only weapon the girls have to continue living a little longer, although they know they are already doomed, death will be inevitable for them, but with nothing to lose, they will give free rein to all their imagination, they have decided that they have the power and it will be them, and not others, who will decide the moment of their death.
The last part of Akelarre is really spectacular, The Sabbath is executed, the framing, the photography, the music and the performances, combine in the best of the film, to offer us a beautiful and at the same time disturbing sequence.
The soundtrack of the film was made with traditional instruments, indigenous to the Basque Country, which fit perfectly with the period reflected in the film. Maite Arroitajauregui and Aranzazu Calleja were in charge of the music. Maite was in charge of composing the songs, the diegetic music and the songs sung by the girls' characters. Aranzazu collaborated with Maite in the incidental music of the film.
The song that stands out the most, and that is repeated several times in the film, is Neskak sotoan, composed by the Basque poet Jon Maia. You can listen to it in the following Youtube video:
The photography in charge of Javier Agirre is of quality, transporting us to the historical period, using the beautiful landscapes of that area and especially in the extraordinary scenes of the final climax, where you can tell that there was an incredible technical deployment, to plan each framing, the choreography of the actresses and the other elements that are present in that sequence. The cinematographer had already demonstrated his talent, with the excellent films Handia in 2017 for which he would win the Goya Award and La trinchera infinita in 2019 , for which he was nominated for the Goya.
In many of the scenes, the girls' characters speak in Basque, a dialect typical of the region, but the film crew had to take good advice, because there are different variants of Basque, depending on the province, in addition to the fact that there is no written record of that language for the time shown in the film. This detail, of using the language of the area, gives more credibility to the story.
I applaud the work of the actresses, who do an extraordinary job, they are little known faces, most of them are their first experience making a film, offering a fresh, more natural work. They have fascinated me as a whole, but certainly one of them stands out above the rest.
Spanish actress Amaia Aberasturi plays Ana, giving a great performance, it is a great character who knows how to develop it, at first as the scared girl, but with the wit to try to manipulate the process and gain time. A magnetic play, full of small details, gestures, looks and changes of acting register throughout the story. Although all the girls are protagonists, Amaia stands out above the rest and for something she has been nominated for Best Actress at the Goya awards. The actress had experience in a couple of movies and TV series, such as the series 45 rpm.
Jone Laspiur plays Maider, the artist debuted in 2020 with this film and with the tape Ane. Being her first cinematographic experiences, she had previously belonged to a musical group called Koban. Garazi Urkola plays Katalin. Yune Noguerias plays María. Irati Saez de Urabain plays Olaia and Lorea Ibarra plays Oneka. All of them do it wonderfully, most of them debutants in the world of acting and cinema, women of different ages and who were selected after a long casting process, in which the production had a thousand candidates for these respective roles. Now, they are the lucky ones who are enjoying fame in their country. I hope they pursue a career in film and see them in future Spanish productions.
Actor Alex Brendemühl plays the perverse Judge Rostegui. The actor has a long career in Spanish cinema. Among his latest works stands out his role in Madre, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. But I remember seeing him in the Argentinean film Wakolda, where he plays the evil Josef Mengele. Apparently, he is attracted to disturbing characters. In Akelarre he does it very well, conveying all the madness and religious fanaticism of the character.
The brilliant Argentine actor Daniel Fanego plays Rostegui's advisor, the man in charge of keeping track of all the trials, interrogations, interrogations and even elaborates the sketches of the supposed rituals. Fanego is an actor that just with his presence or listening to his voice, gives strength to any scene. For me it was a pleasure to see him in this film, whatever character this actor plays, he does it excellently.
The rest of the characters are completed by the actors Asier Oruesagasti as Father Cirstobal, the village priest who must submit to the orders of the inquisitor. Elena Uriz as Mrs. Lara. Daniel Chamorro as the surgeon and Juana Insausti as Ana's grandmother.
The film has received nine Goya Award nominations, including Best Actress for Amaia Aberasturi. It also received six Feroz Award nominations, including Best Film. It was nominated for Best Film at the Forque Awards and premiered at the last San Sebastian Festival, obtaining a majority of positive reviews.
An excellent Spanish film that has left me enchanted. Innocent girls tortured and condemned to death for alleged witchcraft, and their desperate attempt to stay alive, in a game of manipulation and power between them and the inquisitor. A group of actresses who offer a fabulous final sequence and climax.
I hope you like it.
My Ranking: 3.8/5
Trailer
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