Montxo Armendariz

Montxo Armendáriz’s career as a filmmaker is somewhat atypical, as he began to consolidate rather late. In fact, he did not shoot his first feature film until he was 34 years old, but, yes, Tasio already had his personal stamp and drew a lot of critical attention. Later, other works arrived until a total of seven were completed, all of them also written by him and generally of commendable quality.

Born in Olleta (Navarra) on January 27, 1949, Armendáriz moved to Pamplona at the age of six and began his professional life as an electronics professor at the Polytechnic Institute of the Navarrese capital. His interest in cinema led him to experiment shooting some short films, almost always in a documentary style, among which Paisaje (1980) and Carboneros de Navarra (1981) stand out. Three years later, by the hand of producer Elías Querejeta , came his first feature film, Tasio, the story of a humble man who tries to earn a living as a charcoal burner and later as a poacher. The documentary air of the film was notorious, but also its approach to the land, its heartfelt look at the landscape and the life of the country people. That intimacy is one of his favorite themes, although without neglecting the atmosphere of society and its involvement in people.

His social concern would spill over into other later films, such as 27 hours (1986), which deals with the issue of drug addiction and which won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián Festival. It was a first step, because the Golden Shell came to him four years later with Las cartas de Alou , a film with a very social theme that deals with the delicate subject of racism in Spain. With him, Armendáriz also garnered the Goya award and the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos award for best original screenplay. With a social theme, but this time focused on the moral and vital disorientation of youth, it is also Historias del Kronen (1995), in which the writer-director critically adapts the novel by José Ángel Mañas, about a group of young people who foolishly waste their lives in the Madrid night. The Academy and the CEC once again gave Armendáriz the award for best screenplay.

But the Navarrese director still had to give his best. Secrets of the Heart (1997) is undoubtedly his best film to date, a very intimate drama that delves into childhood innocence with great sensitivity and narrates the process of maturation of a boy (fantastic Andoni Erburu ) and his discovery of the world of Adults. The film, with a worked and subtle script, is very successful and was deservedly awarded several international awards, as well as being selected to represent Spain at the Oscars.

In 1999 Puy Oria and Montxo Armendáriz founded their own production company Oria Films, and two years later they produced the director’s next film, Broken Silence . The film, quite solid, recreated the world of the maquis, guerrillas who continued to fight against Francoism after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Later, Armendáriz returned to his beginnings shooting a documentary, Escenario móvil (2004), which follows the itinerant life of a musician through various concerts. And a year later he again adapted a successful novel in Obaba , based on the various unitary stories from “Obabakoak”, a book written by Bernardo Atxaga .. The film, played by a group of excellent actors, stands out for its costumbrismo. Armendáriz is currently preparing his next film, Don’t be afraid , which will deal with the consequences of child abuse.