« For the last 20 years, I’ve been travelling around the world. When people asked me where I was from, I always replied “I’m Basque”.
But it’s time that I face the truth: I don’t really know the Basque country… As a child, I spent all my weekends and holidays with my “Amani”, but when I was 15, my grandmother died and all that came to an end.
Today, I come to realize that it’s really silly to go twice around the world and not stop once in my home country. This film is the story of my homecoming, my return to the land of my childhood – which coincides with the rehearsals of a ‘Pastoral’ in my village…
This is a tale of a friendly and peaceful land (“You know, there are morons like everywhere else…nonetheless, we all like each other”). A land where culture still plays the role of a social lubricant – it is probably the region with the highest rate of creation of live performances per inhabitant!
I got to know closely all the characters of my film. I have been to their homes, shared their daily life so as to understand what binds them to this country and their village… a collection of three hamlets at the heart of the Haute-Soule in the mountainous Northern Basque country.
This is the place of my first dreams, my first emotions…It knows more about me than I know about this country. It’s always been quite easy for me to leave it in order to explore what lay beyond. But coming back? Getting settled in its social environment…? This is where the serious stuff begins…”
AVAILABLE FOR SCREENING: French version only.