#daniel fanego

Director: Pablo Aguero

Writers: Pablo Aguero; Katell Guillou

Producers: Fred Premel; Iker Ganuza; Koldo Zuazua

Notable Cast: Amaia Aberasturi; Alex Brendermuhl; Daniel Fanego; Garazi Urkola

Run Time: 90 minutes

Languages: Spanish; Basque

Restrictions: 16 for sexual violence

Genre: Period drama

Akelarre pulled me in, ripped my heart out and put it back just to do it all over again. It is a story about six girls accused of witchcraft in 1609 and their bravery and cunning which they utilise to save themselves from being burned at the stake. But do they save their lives? 

The film ends on a very literal cliffhanger - the girls, lead by Ana (Amaia Aberasturi) leap off a cliff into the ocean after being chased and surrounded by the Spanish royal guard. 

I have so little words to say about this movie because nothing I write will have any chance of doing it justice. Never before have I been interested in films about witchcraft and the witch trials because they all seem too wrapped up in the mystical, spiritual darkness of it all to the point where most of the films forget the events happened. Real men and women were burned for their knowledge or physical appearance. What I equate Akelarre most to is Robert Egger’s 2015 film, ‘The VVitch”. With a 20 year gap of the period - Akelarre in 1609 and The VVitch in the 1630s - both still have very similar feelings about them. The camera direction, colour palette and tone are all so similar, but I think Akelarre deals with the events it portrays with far more empathy to the history.

Specifically with this, I want to draw attention to the rituals displayed in both. The VVitch draws a lot of attention to Satan as ‘Black Philip’ and at the end of the film there is a supernatural bonfire scene wherein a group of naked women elevate into the air. I’m not here to say that scene, or, indeed the whole film, is bad, but it is a good starting point in the discussion for Akelarre’s ‘ritual scene’.

Akelarre tells and shows its ritual while Ana is being interrogated by the judge Rostegui (Alex Brendermuhl). Hoping to save her sister and her friends, Ana weavers a story made of truths of a happy memory and embellished lies to give Rostegui what he wants. And I think the description is my second favourite scene in this film. The audience gets to see the memory Ana is drawing her story from and hear the tale she is recounting to Rostegui at the same time. The audience hears her claim she turned her sister Maria (Yune Nogueiras) into a lamb which is shown as her putting on a lambskin jerkin. She claims to create illusions with smoke, which is shown as her and the rest of the girls sharing a pipe in a clearing. The very description she gives of Lucifer she takes from Rostegui himself, adoring the devil with the judge’s beard and light eyes. During the whole account I was enraptured as Rostegui himself.

Rostegui is so, pardon the pun, bewitched by Ana’s account that he has to see it for himself. He goes so far as to postpone the executions of the girls... until he is informed that the full moon when the girls want to ‘perform the ritual’ is the same day all their fathers and brothers get back from sea and might cause issues for the men. So Rostegui takes matters into his own hands and, using the descriptions told to him by Ana, tries to recreate the Sabbath ritual she was so detailed about. Rostegui is suffering both from the witch mania and his desire for Ana and this culminates in a scene that is nothing short of epic.

Personally, this is made all the better by not having a singe supernatural event occur. It felt more like a traditional pagan high-energy ritual than the supernatural, fantastical display in The VVitch. Everything is dark outside the circle created and inside is bathed in a heavy orange glow from the fire. Even thought the girls have been shackled by the guards for added protection, the magic is still there. And this is a magic that exists in our world as we know it. The girls feast and sing and dance. They create an infectious energy around them through nothing but their joy. This infects Rostegui to the point where the girls are even able to leave the fray they’ve created and escape. 

This is the cliffside ending. The moon is full, the tide is meant to be high. The girls leap in the sea. Is the audience meant to hold out hope for them? Do the sailors save them? Do they die? My breath caught in my throat to witness it and it would not have had the same power if the ending was resolved.

I am still in shock from this film. Everything from the plot to the characters to the costumes. And every frame looks like a Baroque painting. The play of texture, of light and shadow, of colour and absence... my jaw was on the floor the entire time. My notes for this post were so spares because I couldn’t bring myself to look away from the screen. Very few films in my life have had the power to so subtly wrap me in their world. One cannot sit with Akelarre without being transported to the universe it depicts. The screen is a thin veil of speration between the viewer and the characters. When the girls are tortured for information, their pain is tangible. When they run and leap and dance through the forest, sunlight and salt air plays on your skin just as much as it does theirs. 

All of this is down to the sheer level of empathy to the plight of these women that I mentioned earlier. Perhaps it was a bit unfair comparing this period piece to a 2015 horror, but again, I also don’t think genre is a reason for a lack of empathy. This movie never made that mistake. Each actress was so chosen that they became the embodiment of all their character stood for. The gentleness of the acting and the masterful directing meant everything was played just enough for it to hit the audience in the gut like a freight train without allowing for any preparation. I am sure that this is a film which delivers some new, unique tidbit after each individual watch.

Akelarre is nothing short of a masterpiece that most certainly will have its place in the history of film for a long time coming. If not in all history, then at least in mine. As the credits rolled I had to forcibly crawl my way back to the real world and shake off the enchantment this left me with. 

Films seen in 2019