#irati 2022

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Irati (2022) dir. Paul Urkijo Alijo

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The YouTuber PutoMikel (take a look at his channel about historical divulgation and other things, his video essays are gems) and the comic artist & YouTuber Loulogio/ Isaac Sánchez made a colab about Basque mythology in the film Irati, PutoMikel is talking about this elements shown in the film and Loulogio has drawn two criatures of Basque mythology: a Lamia and a Basajaun.

These are the finished fanarts (×):

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I have found some more interviews and made a compilation of them @asongofstarkandtargaryen @queenmiriamele @isadomna @cucullas @luceirosdegolados

I've always been a lover of mythology in general, but above all of Basque mythology, which is mine, the one that was taught to me, and I have always wanted to make a film about this mythological world, this cosmogony.

I've always wanted to do sword and sorcery, which is one of my favorite genres and well that's a bit, that love for the sword and sorcery genre, that love for mythology and medieval history.

-It's better to die by a Christian sword than to live under the Saracens.

- Are you looking for my iron?

-Please!

We wanted to make a film as big as possible, in 2.35, with anamorphics... Visually it was spectacular, epic, big! So for that we had to go to natural locations, as large as possible, the Pyrenees, the forests, the rivers, the caves... Immerse ourselves in that natural world that is very difficult to access to be able to shoot with all the materials and so on, and it is very hard also for the cast.

-Put this on.

-No way.

-The eguzkilore will protect you more than that cross, it is an amulet for the darkness.

-I'm not going to wear that.

Nature is also the protagonist of the film, it somehow represents those mythological deities. Recreate all that historical world, with battles, extras and so on.

As I comented the other day in a post about Irati that Belasko is the antagonist of the film, he and some other nobles are against Eneko inheriting his grandfather's position as lord of the valley and Belasko propose himself as the next lord of the valley, because they believe Eneko's family isn't "Christian enough" because his father believed in pagan beliefs and his mother Oneka is now a Muslim woman because she married Musa Ibn Fortun and had children with him (like Musa Ibn Musa al-Qasawi) after her first husband died ( this marriage meant the beginning of an alliance in the family with the Banu Qasi against the Franks and more or less a good political relationship with the emirate of Córdoba) despite Ximeno and Eneko being staunchly Christian and Eneko starts understanding the old beliefs during his adventure with Irati.

Eneko is a young man who is destined to be the leader of the valley. His father was, so Eneko returns to the valley after a few years wanting to restore a bit of order and peace in the valley.

-I remember little, my father's funeral, a wild tradition. When I am lord of the valley there will be nothing like this anymore

He's in for an adventure...

- What are you doing here?

-Don't worry, there's no need to shed blood. Tell us where the gold is and we'll be in peace.

-Get out or duel!

That will be played by Irati, a mysterious young pagan from the valley with whom he will have to unite if he wants to become the leader of that valley. Then, all his faith and all his beliefs will be put in check to achieve peace. But also review his past and review his father.

-Be careful Belasko, respect or you will go to the dungeon!

-God has cursed your surname.

The most difficult part of the shoot was maintaining my weight, which I gained almost ten kilos for this film, along with also maintaining the choreography of the swords, that the horse listened to me, all these things that are already a bit out of the actor's control. That was really like a leap of faith.

The funny thing is that this film wasn't the first time Eneko Sagardoy has been in prominent changes, although in my opinion in Irati for he didn't change so much, although the following ones were more like an aspect of the effects and the production, there's Handia in which he played Miguel Joaquin Eleizegi, aka the Giant of Altzo, and in Errementari he played as the devil Sartael:

Eneko: Some beings have been created that I want to find in my nightmares. The public is going to be incredibly surprised with the beings that we are going to see during the film. I can not say too much... I think the work that has been done to put body and shape to all this that until now we have only had in our minds, in our imagination is precious and I think it is impressive and that the public is going to hallucinate.

Edurne: Wonderful. Special mention to David Heras because he is also a good friend and is working hard for the effects. It is another of the quadrangular stones that believe a lot in Irati. Him and his entire team, because let's not forget that there are like, I don't know, 120 people pixel by pixel, working to make it believable, so that this universe reaches the screens as big as possible. So this department is really crucial and Paul holds it in high esteem.

Itziar: I remember that I had an LED attached to my hand and to my body that, when she got angry, it turned on the LED, because well, this later with the effects... I didn't understand anything, all full of cables.

The first film by director Paul Urkijo, Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil, despite its defects, evidenced the author's intentions to exploit an almost intact beta in our cinema, that of folklore and peninsular legends.

Paul: We have such a large compendium of legends and there are many people who do not know them, that is a pity, that is, these legends are not transmitted for not giving them importance or taking them as a story, when they really are part of our culture, that is, they root us deeply in the world and our way of seeing the world. We also have to preserve these stories because they are precisely a lesson to preserve all this natural world that we have.

-To arms!

-Prepare for battle!

Now in Irati the director jumps back several centuries, specifically the 8th century to narrate, more accurately than its predecessor, the legend of Eneko, the first king of Pamplona. Once again with the participation of RTVE, shot in Basque, Urkijo repeats the leading role with Eneko Sagardoy, who faced the action challenge typical of these fantasies, apparently far from the actor's physique.

-That's enough, grandfather is waiting for me.

Eneko: He is one of the characters that I would never have thought that any casting director, for example, would have thought of me to play the king of Navarra who rides a horse, and such, that I put on 10 kilos based on sandwiches, cheese and milkshakes, and I gained a lot of muscle. I would never have imagined seeing myself like this or learning to ride a horse, to fight with swords very quickly and I think it was necessary.

Also in that case it was not a question of i Look, how I have transformed!, it was not binding, and it has been nice to see you physically transformed, it is always interesting.

-Calm down, what's up?

-The pain of the forest anguishes him

-This river is full of lamia tears. They left long ago with the construction of your hermitages and mills.

He takes as his starting point the first volume of the comic El Ciclo de Irati with which he builds a precious and careful story of magic and swords in which we witness the return of Eneko years after the battle of Roncesvalles in which his father lost his life. against the army of Charlemagne.

-Boy, you'll have to be strong to be a leader.

-To die!

-To arms!

Eneko will find himself in a region where the emerging Christianity and Muslims coexist with pagan beliefs. To reclaim his dynastic right, he will try to recover his father's body with the help of an enigmatic hermit, the beautiful Irati, played by the young debutant actress Edurne Azkarate.

-He appreciates you, he likes that you give him nuts

-How do you know that?

-Silence!

Paul: I've been able to make a movie three times as big, more serious too, although that adventure is also good, it's a movie with monsters and sword blows, but it's also a drama.

-Lamias...there are no such female creatures with bird feet

-A noble like you will have been with many women, right? Have you seen many feet?

We can affirm that Irati is the best to date, also almost the only magic and swords genre film in our cinema. It contains everything that fans of these formats of evocative adventure landscapes and magical beings such as lamias or mermaids and Basque mythology such as the mother earth goddess Mari or the tartalus, a kind of cyclops.

Paul: What I like is doing fantastic genres with creatures from fairy tale worlds, it's what I like the most, and it's what I want to continue doing as long as they let me.

Its technical envelope transmits a sensation of big-budget cinema, the care from the photography to the special effects or its impressive soundtrack and the epic of its story reminds us of productions such as the classic Excalibur or the recent The Green Knight, excellent distant cousins for a second work by a director to keep an eye on.

- Lamiak, Basajaun, mamarroak, Gaueko...

-Do they all have names?

-Yes, as long as someone remembers them

Previous interviews: Edurne Azkarate, Itziar Ituño

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Irati -> First trailer @asongofstarkandtargaryen

Year 778 A.C Western Pyrenees

"Your father did what he had to to protect our kind"

"Father!"

"When I'm gone one day you'll take care of the valley"

"Promise me"

"Boy, you'll have to be strong to be a leader"

"Eneko the young can't be a leader"

"I stand before the cross to be the Christian leader of the valley"

"Who?"

"Luxa"

"She is to blame for continuing to believe in pagan tales"

"There's a deep cave in the heart of the forest"

"You may find the answer there"

"My grandaughter will guide you."

"Irati"

"A soul flies tonight"

"To die"

"Don't stop!"

"I don't believe in tales"

Everything that has a name is

"To die"

"Irati"

"Forget my name and don't say it again"

Here's Irati's first trailer, it can be watched now in the Eitb (the Basque TV) web page. It looks promising!

Although I have read that probably the film will not be on cinemas until February 2023 :"(

Mythological aspects:

Wow! It seems that those creatures that appear between 1:13-1:18 are the Basajaun.

And in 1:18-1:20 probably it's when Eneko's father meets goddess Mari, because is her human form Mari is often described as a woman with abundant blonde hair that she combs, in the sun, with a golden comb. Probably Mari will be the one who unleash the storm during the battle.

I love the transition between 0:46-0:48, showing a sculture of Maria and then a cave art that represents Mari, showing the theme about syncretism of the Basque mythology into Christian beliefs:

In the cave art it can also be seen a symbol inside Mari, that seems to be a kind of representation of god Sugaar or Maju in form of a lauburu with some more arms.

Sugaar or Maju is Mari's husband, and usually is represented as a giant snake or a dragon. It represents elements of fire and air, meanwhile Mari is often linked to water and earth. He travels from one place to another as a ball of fire.

Mari and Sugaar have two children, Atarrabi and Mikelatz, who represent the goodness and evilness, and in some other legends, Eguzki and Ilargi, the sun and moon goddess, respectively.

Although Sugaar has other son with the princess of Mundaka, Jaun Zuria, the mythological first Lord of Bizkaia.

It is said that Mari lies with Sugaar on Friday, the day when ancient akelarres were celebrated, and they cause strong storms.

The lauburu symbol is often linked with them because the lauburu represents the sun, but also the four elements: earth, water, air and fire, and male and female duality.

Historical aspects:

About the setting of the film, it looks like the film will start by the first battle of Roncesvalles/Orriaga in 778, when Eneko is a kid, and great part of the film will be set in the late 790's when Eneko is already an adult.

Knowing that the film is inspired in the El Ciclo de Irati comics (which one day I will do a couple of posts about them), I believe that is very possible that this Eneko is Eneko Arizta/ Eneko Enekoitz or Iñigo Arista/Iñigo Íñiguez, in castilian, (770-854), son of Eneko Semenoitz (Iñigo Jiménez) and Oneka of Pamplona/Oneka Iruñekoa, Lord of Pamplona and founder of the Arista-Íñiguez dinasty, and in the past he was considered the first "king" of Pamplona (Iruña)/Navarra (Nafarroa), although it has been currently studied that he wasn't truly a king, but his descendants were.

Some time after her husband died, Oneka converted to Islam and married Musa ibn Fortún ibn Qasi (740-788), chief of the Banu Qasi clan, walī (governor) of Arnedo, Zaragoza and Tarazona. Their son was Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi, known as Musa the Great (Arnedo, La Rioja, 785-Tudela, Navarra, 862), walī of the al-Ṯaġr al-Aʿlà, the Upper March of Al-Andalus, that was formed by the territories of Tudela, Huesca, Zaragoza and Lleida.

Several marriages between the members of the family happened several times during the following generations. Although in some circumstancies they fight against each other because of alliances with the kingdom of Asturias or the emirate of Cordoba.

When Ludovico Pio sent an army to try to take Pamplona , they attacked the city and in response they were defeated again in the Pyrenees in 824 the second battle of Roncesvalles/Orriaga by a group of basques and aragoneses lead by Eneko, Musa and Gartzia.

Apart from being his brother, Musa married one of Eneko's daughters with Oneka Velázquez of Pamplona/ Oneka Beraskoitz Iruñekoa, Assona.

The other daughter of Eneko, Nunila, married García Galíndez/Gartzia Garindoitz "the Bad", who became count of Aragón after Eneko overthrowed the former count of Aragón (Gartzia's former father-in-law ) Aznar I Galíndez/ Azeari Garindoitz because he was pro-Frankish. Charlemagne and his heirs formed the Hispanic March formed by a bunch of counties, dependent to the carolingian empire like Barcelona, Girona, Urgel Pallars, Ribagorza, Roussillon, Cerdaña, Ampurias, Sobrarbe and Osona, and other ones like Pamplona/Navarra and the county of Aragón, that became independent sooner.

And Pamplona/Navarra and the county of Aragón as ally/vassal of Navarra managed to keep independence.

(I don't think that the film is going to reach the events of the second battle, but it would be good for a sequel)

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@asongofstarkandtargaryen on the Instagram account of the costume designer of Irati there hace been published some pics of the concept art of the costumes of the characters, ans soon there will be published some other ones of the rest of the characters:

Ximeno the Strong

Eneko Ximenez

Oneka

Eneko Arizta

Irati

Luxa

Virila

Belasko

Munia

Odón

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Next week will be the fourth week of Irati at cinemas, and it will be screened for the first time in Extremadura, in a cinema from Cáceres.

Apart from that, that pic is from the scene when Eneko finally becomes lord of the valley (@cucullas @asongofstarkandtargaryen @luceirosdegolados @queenmiriamele remebering the etymology and sigils post I made about some characters of the film, in this scene there's Eneko's sigil painted on the shield in which Eneko is standing)

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Irati -> Trailer Gifs (3/?) @asongofstarkandtargaryen

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Irati -> Posters @asongofstarkandtargaryen

Release date: February 24, 2023