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Maixabel

Maixabel
SYNOPSIS

Synopsis

In the year 2000, Maixabel Lasa’s husband, Juan María Jaúregui, was killed by ETA. Eleven years later, she receives an incredible request: one of the men who killed Juan wants to meet with her in the Nanclares de la Oca prison in Álava (Spain), where he is serving his sentence after breaking ties with the terrorist group. Despite her reservations and her immense pain, Maixabel Lasa agrees to meet face to face with those who ended the life of the person who had been her companion since she was 16 years old. “Everyone deserves a second chance”, she said, when asked why she was willing to confront the man who killed her husband.

Drama
115 minutes
2021
Spain
Spanish with English Subtitles

Director: Icíar Bollaín
Producer: Koldo Zuazua, Juan Moreno, Guillermo Sempere, and Guadalupe Balaguer Trelles
Company of production: Kowalski Films and Feelgood Media
Cast: Blanca Portillo, Luis Tosar, Bruno Sevilla
Screenwriter: Icíar Bollaín
Cinematography: Javier Agirre
Editing: Nacho Ruiz Capillas
Sound: Alazne Ameztoy
Awards: GOYA Awards: Best leading actress (Blanca Portillo); Best Supporting Actor (Urko Olazabal); Best new actress (Mary Cherry)

Icíar Bollaín
Director, screenwriter and actress, Icíar Bollaín (Madrid, 1967) started out as an actress at age 15 under the direction of Víctor Erice in The South (1983). In 1991, she founded Producciones La Iguana to develop her own directorial projects. Hi, Are You Alone? (1995) was her first feature film. This was followed by Flowers from Another World (1999), Take My Eyes (2003) – winner of two Goya® Awards for best direction
and best screenplay – Mataharis (2007), Even the Rain (2010), with screenplay by Paul Laverty, and Kathmandu Lullaby (2011). The filmmaker tried her hand at the documentary genre with In a Foreign Land (2014) before returning to fiction with The Olive Tree (2016). Two years later, she released Yuli (2018), and in 2020 she directed Candela Peña in Rosa’s Wedding. Founder of CIMA (Association for Women in Film Making and Audiovisual Media), she is one of a selection of female Spanish directors who has successfully brought together audience intimacy with a unique style that combines sensitivity and elegance.