Celebrity Biographies
Basilio Martin Patino
He was one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called New Spanish Cinema, with titles such as “Nine letters to Berta”, “Dearest executioners” and “Songs for after a war”. The director Basilio Martín Patino died at the age of 86 as a result of a degenerative disease on August 13, 2017.
Born in Lumbrales, a town in Salamanca, on October 29, 1930, Basilio Martín Patino developed his passion for the Seventh Art from an early age. While his brother, José María Martín Patino, a Jesuit priest, was Cardinal Tarancón’s secretary during the Transition, and his other sister also became a religious, he became an anarcho-syndicalist militant. When he was studying Philosophy and Letters at the University of Salamanca, he founded a film club and the magazine Cinema Universitario. Later he was one of the promoters of the Salamanca Conversations, a meeting for industry professionals to reflect on the future, which took place in May 1955.
After graduating from the Official Film School in 1961, he made his debut behind the camera with Nine letters to Berta (1965), which won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Festival. It was followed by titles that were part of the New Spanish Cinema, such as Del Amor y otras solitudes (1969), Canciones para after a war (1971), Caudillo (1977) or Madrid (1987), which were released in alternative cinemas.
The filmmaker was opposed to collecting institutional awards, since his works were acquired by Enrique Cerezo , owner of the rights to most of the Spanish film classics. Over the years, he has lavished himself on television documentaries. His last work, Libre te quiero , from 2012, showed images of 15-M through images without any voice-over.