La muerte de Mikel

La Muerte de Mikel (The Death of Mikel) is a 1984 Spanish film directed by Imanol Uribe, starring Imanol Arias. Spain, The Basque Country or Pais Vasco , sometime in the 80s .We are in a democracy and the Transition has already passed, including an Amnesty law but Eta continues to kill . Mikel is pharmaceutic and a young member of the Aberzale party , political branch of the terrorist organization ETA that brutally killed about one thousand people and acting similarly to Sicilian Mafia . The film tells in flash back, the story of a gay member of ETA who died under mysterious circumstance .The film opens at Mikel's funeral mass . A flashback spins out the circumstances of his life and death. Mikel, a young pharmacist involved in Basque Nationalist politics, is living in Lekeitio, a Basque coastal town. When his wife, Begoña (Amaia Lasa) returns from a long trip abroad, he picks her up at the airport. Their marriage is unhappy; the relationship between the couple is tense. Begoña wants to resolve their problems, but Mikel is indifferent. In the encounter after Begoña's return, the couple visits Mikel's domineering mother, Doña Maria Luisa(Montserrat Salvador) , a widow who lives in the same small town. The relationship between brother (Xavier Elorriaga) , mother and son is also fractured. Mikel and Begoña have an argument when she tells him that she has discussed their sexual problems with his mother . They go out to have supper to the home of a pair of friends: Martín, a doctor who has arrived at the town fleeing the Chilean dictatorship, and Martin's wife, Arantza. The calm of town is disrupted with the senseless death of two young people, who failed to stop in a nocturnal control and were killed by the Civil Guard. Mikel attends a political meeting where he is offered a seat in the next local election for the Basque independent party to which he belongs. Mikel takes parts in local festivities. At dawn, he arrives drunk at home and there's a violent situation. This incident effectively marks the end of their marriage.

The picture depicts a nice portrayal about Basque habits , the town party and the violent environment with full political demonstrations and strikes . The picture is acceptable , but also has conventional pitfalls and flaws . The film relies heavily on excessive talking , a certain apology or defense of the terrorist cause and being spoiled by tiring dialogue . La muerte de Mikel was filmed in Lekeitio, a small town in the Bay of Biscay. Some scenes, like those that take place in the gay-club with Fama, were shot in Bilbao. Uribe presents a fierce portrait of the intolerance prevailing in a society, submissive to the violent, an incongruous story, poorly structured and constructed, although partly saved by the brilliant and effective staging, thanks to the operator Aguirresarobe with a splendid photograph to save the movie, at least in a good visual style. In which political propaganda and a sexual identity crisis are amalgamated, set in a small town in the Basque Country, which at times seems to represent a small microcosm of that Basque society. Including strong scenes when Mikel is having sex with his wife, Mikel bites Begoña's clitoris during an alcohol-fuelled attempt at oral sex. Mikel's conflict (great work by Imanol Arias) will be marked by making others accept his authentic personality and sexual orientation without having to renounce his political and family values, a task that will become very difficult, since his same ideological companions they debate between moralistic dogma, hypocrisy and cynicism to oust him as a candidate for the municipality, even using him politically when they are interested. In 1983, the Basque nationalist government undertook a subsidized aid campaign for local cinema, which is where this Manichaean film came from in the background, although in principle it distributes smacks to all of Basque society, except for the PNV, "of course", which for that partly financed this biased and manipulative portrait of the Basque society of the eighties. Sexual repression, family oppression , but ETA terrorism is conspicuous by its absence, when it was the biggest problem in the Basque Country. Something incongruous in a story that deals with a batasuno, ETA's political arm. On the other hand, Uribe is very careful to present the Civil Guard, as repressors, torturers and who shoot at boyfriends who skip a control, and what did they expect for ignoring the agents, a prize. We also do not see how they put cars bombs and attacked barracks houses with women and children, burials through the back door of churches, humiliating them without differentiating victims from executioners , the sad and unfortunate "years of lead." La muerte de Mikel did very well at the box office. It was the most successful film in a relative boom resulting from increased Basque government subsidies between 1982 and 1987. It was also among the top-grossing Spanish films of 1984 and precipitated interest in regional Spanish Cinema. Uribe became the best known Basque filmmakers of the 1980s with this, his strongest film up to that point. Like The Crying Game (1992) and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), La muerte de Mikel juxtaposes revolutionary politics with homosexuality to examine ideological suppression of difference.

¨Muerte De Mikel¨ (1983) belongs to Imanol Uribe's uneven trilogy that deals with problems in Basque Country , being formed by ¨El Proceso De Burgos¨ (1979) about a trial against Eta members by killing a cop and ¨La Fuga De Segovia¨concerns a young homosexual and member of an Aberzale party , and this one ¨Escape from Segovia¨ (1981) based on a book titled ¨Operación Poncho¨ by Angel Amigo (also producer) and who participated in the getaway. This Javier Aguirresarobe/Imanol Arial production was professionally written by Imanol Uribe who also directed , though has some shortcomings and resulted in getting success enough at Spanish Box office . Uribe gained fame early in his career for his controversial socio-political portraits of the Basque people . And Nominee Fotogramas de Plata 1985 , Fotogramas de Plata Best Movie Actor Imanol Arias and Mystfest 1984 Nomine. Uribe who lived and had a son with actress María Barranco , gained fame early in his career for his controversial socio-political portraits of the Basque people , such as ¨Fuga Segovia¨, ¨Muerte Mikel¨ and he turned to thriller as ¨Adios Pequeña¨, ¨Plenilunio¨ , ¨Carta Esferica¨ , ¨Dias Contados¨ or ¨Running out of time¨ and drama as ¨Bwana¨ , ¨Rey Pasmado¨ and ¨Extraños¨ .

I would like to challenge the rating of 5.9 for this movie. After the first viewing, I would agree that it deserves a 5.9. Yet seeing it twice and even a third time, the viewer begins to absorb the central theme of the Individual vs. the Collective that runs through the film.

First off, this is not a true Spanish film. It is a "Basque" film. It deals with the problems of identity formation for a Basque individual trapped by his "suffocating pueblo" which imposes on him (Mikel) a masculinity that masks who he truly is. Only by leaving the pueblo and going to Bilbao, does he ultimately discover who he truly is.

Uribe plays with this irony in Bilbao in the scene where Fama, the transvestite, performs a parody of Basque culture. Yet in this "cinema within the cinema," Mikel finds himself, and he transcends the borders of a rigid Basque identity.

This is also a film about ETA, the Basque separatist/terrorist group. It questions whether one can be both an individual at the same time as part of the collective, ultimately revealing that ETA suffocates the individual and is, for this reason, an extension of the paradox of Basque society in the post-Franco years, where ETA has come to lose the "Other" - the Francosist State against which it had formed its collective ideal.

To truly understand this film, which is the third part of a "Trilogy" called the "Basque trilogy," one must understand the state of Basque film at this time, which was still searching for its own identity in the "zine-clubs" of Bilbao.

Also, the film is rewarding for broaching the issue of "What is a Documentary." Uribe shoots many "documentary-like" moments, such as the black and white scene where Mikel recounts his past aid to the ETA militants. These moments are surreal - they bring us above the activity and into the deeply individual feelings of a man frustrated that his collective group does not experience these documentary moments, but is only a passive viewer.

In terms of modern cinematography, the film falls short. Yet its underlying message remains strong.