The Patria Series – How Long Can Repentance Shape Your Life?
The Patria series is a television adaptation of Fernando Aramburu’s novel. Screenwriter and executive producer Aitor Gabilondo adapted the book to the TV screen. After the eight-episode series aired at the San Sebastian Film Festival, it was released on HBO.
The series tells the story of two families whose lives are shaped by ETA, a terrorist group that killed 853 people in an attempt to pressure the government to grant independence to the Basque Country.
The beauty of Patria, however, is that it is not a political analysis of ETA. Instead, it is a very human reflection on what it was like for those who supported ETA and those who were threatened and killed by the group. It does not try to exonerate, compare or relativize the opposite sides of the issue.
The Patria series: It’s not the story, it’s how they tell it
For 40 years, the terrorist group ETA used violence to try to gain power and be the only representative of that attitude and desires of those in the Basque Country. Very often, members of civil society were victims of attacks, extortion and threats.
Spain fought back with paramilitary groups (GAL) funded by the state. GAL members also killed and tortured ETA militants, as well as those they suspected of being members. This type of attempt to eliminate ETA often served only to justify the terrorist’s actions and to bring more people to their case.
In 2011, ETA declared a permanent ceasefire. In 2017, they also began handing in their weapons. Finally, in May 2018, they were officially dissolved. What they did not do was ask for forgiveness, and people around them refused to hand them over to the authorities. That is why many murderers are still at large.
Two women, two ideologies
Patria tells the story of three decades in the lives of two Basque families who were destroyed by armed conflict. The announcement in 2011 that ETA is disbanding inspired a widow named Bittori (played by Lena Irureta) to return to her hometown of San Sebastian. Bittori had to flee home after the murder of her husband Txato (played by José Ramón Soroiz), a Basque businessman.
Her return opens many old wounds, especially with her former friends Miren (played by Ane Gabarain) and her husband Joxian (Mikel Laskurain). The two families were very close until ETA targeted one of them. Miren wants an answer, but not because of a feeling of ideological revenge. She just wants to know if Joxe Mari (Jon Olivares), the friend’s son, was the one who killed her husband. She knows he’s in jail, but she does not know what his role was in the crime.
A story about past and present
As the series progresses, there is a flashback to the story of the friendship between the two families. You quickly learn that there are events that mark a before and after in your relationship. The need to address family, geographic, and political issues ultimately destroys even the strongest emotional ties.
The series returns many times to Txato’s death and shows the scene from different perspectives. It shows how ETA blackmailed and exposed people and how fear and disrespect affected relationships.
Patria Series: When resentment reigns, there can be no progress
The series shows the emotional devastation that destroys the families affected by ETA. The fact that ETA sent in its weapons did not mean that people did not believe that killing was the only way to achieve its goal. As we mentioned, the series tries to give the viewer a sense of the tragedy surrounding the conflict.
Without trying to acquit the terrorists in any way, it depicts the transformation of a young Basque nationalist who joins the group with a friend because it seems adventurous and exciting. What begins well, however, becomes a personal hell. The story is sometimes so fair that it seems – or is, depending on who you ask – too kind to those who murdered people in an empty area after kidnapping them and killing children.
Gabilondo takes the viewer into the life of a small community and shows what it is like to live under threat. He traces the development of a lifelong friendship between two families when it breaks down into hatred. You watch as political ideology transforms them and dehumanizes their relationship.
In the Patria series, there is no room for superficial ideas or feelings
Particularly heartbreaking is the role of Miren, a mother who seems to feel only resentment towards her son, without any compassion. Her opposite is her daughter Arantxa (Loreto Mauleon) who is brave enough to do the only thing truly revolutionary and recognize humanity in others. She fights for the good in people, even though she herself has suffered so much. Arantxa is a small flame of hope that flickers in the darkness that is Patria.
In conclusion, the series focuses less on what we believe and more on who we are: Small stories determined by a context that sometimes brings out the worst. The series also inspires questions, such as how so many people can support or embrace terrorism. How can an ideology blind someone so much that they can threaten, kidnap or kill other people? Why do we still not know the identity of the murderers who went free? Why have not those who committed such atrocities apologized for what they did?
