Les Repentis: the film that was a hit at the Spanish Césars arrives on Arte

Blanca Portillo notably received the Goya for best actress for her role of a grieving woman agreeing to meet her husband’s killer in prison.

The RepentantsofIciar Bollain (Don’t say anything, even the rain…), this is the real story of Maixabel Lasa, the widow of Juan Maria Jauregui, a politician assassinated by the terrorist organization ETA in 2000. Eleven years later, one of the perpetrators of the crime who is serving her prison sentence requires meeting her, after having severed her ties with the terrorist group.

In original version, the film is also named after its heroine, Maixabelbrilliantly embodied by Blanca Portillo. The actress of Volver andBroken embraces received the Best Actress award at the 2022 Goyas. Urko Olazabal was honored with the trophy for best supporting actor and Maria Cerezuela was voted best female hopeful that year.

Arte will offer The Repentants this evening, at 11 p.m.: just before, the channel programs Music boxby Costa-Gavras, as part of a special program around the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. First recommends this captivating movie evening, which you can also organize whenever you want at home: both films can also be viewed for free in replay.

Here is our review of Repentancewhich is also worn by Luis Tosar (Malice), an actor loyal to the director: in addition to his two films cited at the top of the article, he was on the bill for Flowers from another world (1999) and Mataharis (2007).

“In the early 2010s – years before its official dissolution in 2018 – ETA terrorists asked to meet the families of victims of the deadly attacks they may have committed. Iciar Bolain (Rosa’s Wedding) here brings to the screen one of these stories of repentance, that of Maixabel Lasa, one of the eleven people who had accepted the principle of this discussion and had therefore confronted the murderer of her husband, the ex -prefect and politician Juan Maria Lauregui.

A huge success on Spanish soil, this film finds the right tone to deal with this delicate question of forgiveness and the possibility of reconciliation in a society where blood has flowed and still flows. A discreet staging, a story which takes the time to explore the questions and then the misunderstandings that this gesture of forgiveness and its acceptance gives rise to both those close to Maixabel Lasa – who find that this outstretched hand arrives far too soon – and to the terrorist’s former comrades – who see the regret for his actions as a betrayal of the cause.

No rush to impress, no trace of sensationalism, like the restrained compositions of its two remarkable main performers Blanca Portillo and Luis Tosar. Nothing disturbs or rather everything nourishes the perfectly oiled mechanics of a story which leads to a poignant final monologue on the suffering of the aftermath which does not prevent the outstretched hand. An assumed humanist plea which never resorts to simplistic shortcuts.”

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