Basque Gothic Cinema (1990-2021): a regionalist challenge to the Spanish model of national cinematic production and cultural identity

Wynne-Walsh, Rebecca (2022) Basque Gothic Cinema (1990-2021): a regionalist challenge to the Spanish model of national cinematic production and cultural identity. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The following thesis addresses the upsurge in Gothic cinema emanating from the Autonomous Basque Community, Euskadi, in Northern Spain. Regional film production in the Gothic mode has increased exponentially since 1990, owing to government-funded filmmaking initiatives, legislative recognition and cultural reclamation of the Basque, or Euskaldun, region. Established scholarship often conflates regional output with Spanish cinema, while Basque cinema studies privilege historical dramas, social realism or documentary. This thesis thus fills a critical gap and addresses contemporary Basque Gothic cinema (1990–2021) as a regionalist challenge to the Spanish model of national cinema and identity. I establish Basque Gothic as an expression of transgenerational trauma engendered by a history of statesuppression and socio-political violence. This thesis contextualises, historicises and theorises the rise of Basque Gothic cinema, demonstrating the ongoing past-present dialectic and twenty-first century negotiations of cultural heritage that characterise it. The chapters follow a thematic chronology, with the first chapter exploring concepts of history and memory, the second honing in on ongoing debates about contemporary identity and language, and the third examining the future of Basque screen media in global and digital terms. Specific films and sequences are used to illustrate key theories and ideological connotations, such as La madre muerta (The Dead Mother, Juanma Bajo Ulloa 1993) Hileta (Funeral, Kepa Sojo 2016) and Patria (Homeland, Félix Viscarret and Óscar Pedraza 2020). Films are also presented in clusters to highlight pervasive trends, styles and themes that define a uniquely Basque expression of the Gothic. While the Gothic forms the theoretical foundation of this project, several frameworks (memory studies, folklore studies, historical narrative construction techniques, transnationalism and regionalism) are deployed. I address this regional iteration of the mode as a window into contemporary community perception and projection. Crucial factors in the global projection of regional cultural production are new screen technologies, streaming platforms and social media. A significant number of the texts studied in this thesis accessed global distribution via SVOD (subscriptionvideo- on-demand) services and video-sharing sites such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and Vimeo. A central aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the impact of multinational co-production and distribution on the development of Basque Gothic cinema. This thesis therefore also looks to the future of regional production in the digital era. As regional filmmaking industries increasingly engage with globalised distribution markets, the borders of any culturally occluded region such as Euskadi become more flexible. The fluctuation of regional identity is exciting yet terrifying in its disregard for established cultural categories. This thesis shows that regionalism holds great value for future cultural and film studies endeavours, offering scope to challenge national singularity and delineating the nuances of interstitial cultural identities. Without regionalist approaches, language, folklore, locations, political references and music can be misinterpreted. Therefore, while this project centres a Basque Gothic case study, I further establish a model for the reimagination of critical approaches to global, indeed glocal, screen cultures in the twenty-first century.