A quick note that Julio Medem's (Sex and Lucia; Lovers on the Arctic Circle; etc) documentary Basque Ball is now out in the UK. The film focuses on the history of the ongoing bloody conflict in the Basque province and some of ETA's claims for independence.



Reviews-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/05/0...4_review.shtml

http://www.phase9.tv/moviereviews/basqueball.htm

Original Poster art-




Cheers,
Pro-B

Pro-b. I have the Spanish 3 disc Special Edision version and I would recomend it highly. For what it looks like this is just the film version, the spanish 3 disc set is very nice although the box it comes in is pretty flimsy. It containts the theatrical version and on the other 2 discs in contains the 7 hour version. All the disc have English subs. Here are the links. I do like the Tartan cover much better.
single disc: http://www.dvdgo.com/product.asp?cat...ntra+la+Piedra

3 disc:
http://www.dvdgo.com/product.asp?cat...ecial+3+Discos

Thank you for the clarification BuddhaWalke....could you confirm whether or not the Spanish disc's extras are subbed (all, part of them?)

Thank you.

Pro-B

Well, i checked tonight and the theatrical cut dvd's extras have english subtext. For instance, the biofilmography is in both english and spanish. there is also a essay/memoir which is text only and that is available in three languages, spanish, english and euskera. as for the film, there are english, french and spanish subtitles. As you could see the extras are on the light side including a trailer and a "ficha tecnica". the 7hr version has no extras except for the first disc, which has a feature called abrazos which is a montage of all the people interviewed and a little behind the sceens stuff with music (no dialogue or anything), the third disc has no extras in it.

Spanish version (released by SAV) reviewed here.

Interesting to hear about the 7hr version... I got (or rather was given) the Tartan R0 disc back in August, and I was wondering how to get hold of the longer version. Thanks for the info, BuddhaWake (& others).

Dazza.

Hmm, Dazza, as you've seen it: is this something one can really "enjoy" as a film? Or is it just facts after facts i.e. an information overkill? That is the message I get from the BBC review.

Thanks for letting me know,

S

Summerwine - in all honesty: no, not really one you can enjoy as such. It is a bit of an information overkill, and you need to really follow the film closely as there are many, many interview subjects thrown before the camera. Also, it's not a great film for anyone who doesn't know the basics of the conflict, as it doesn't provide too much exposition on this.
I was keen to see it as I'd spent part of my summer down in Basque country, but it's not really one I'd recommend to those who know little about the situation...

Hope this helps,

Dazza.

I would have to agree with Dazza. It will be easier to read a couple of books or anything else before it because it is defianately information overkill, especially if you do it backwards as I did by watching the 7hr version first like i did. is a shame too because there is little background info on the beggining of the conflict. I recomend Mark Kurlansky's book Basque History of the World, this would be a good start to know about the Vascos.