To the relief of Bilbao residents and foreigners, the mercury has plummetedThe suffocating heat wave has lifted its siege on the town and the city is finally breathing. It’s the last day of July and filmmaker Gastón Haag He shows up at Café Tilo at around 12 noon. He manages to sit at one of the four tables that the place has set up a zebra crossing from the Arriaga Theatre. He smiles, and he has reason to do so: His latest short film, Tragedium, has made its way into the Screamfest Horror Festival. This is the most established horror film festival in the United States. The Sitges of the Americas, which will be held on the stage of the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles from October 8th to 14th“I am surprised, because we sent the short film thinking that we were not going to be chosen,” says the filmmaker.

The film follows the journey of a group of small-time thugs as they try to collect a debt. They end up facing something out of this world.

He adds that this is a festival that is difficult to access, even more so when resources are scarce. “But the team is incredible, they have managed to make an underground short film look like a bigger budget project,” he marvels. This underground short film was shot entirely in Plentzia. He says the following about the location chosen to set his story: “When I arrived in Bizkaia [Haag se trasladó de Uruguay a Bilbao hace cinco años]“I found a place of peace here,” he says, “a place where I sat and read and that made me feel safe,” he says. In this place in Plentzia, dominated by the Butrón estuaryhighlights an imposing mansion that, as fate would have it, is often rented for filming. “We were able to access it and, in the end, the story was concentrated here,” he adds. That story takes shape thanks to a cast made up of Lander Otaola, Aimar Vega, Goize Blanco, Garazi Urkiola, Jordi Aguilar, Ivón Belandia, Eriz Elorza and the director himself.

Together, They show the journey of a gang of small-time thugs who want to collect what is owed to them.so he invades the home of his debtors. A serious mistake. The house is home to horrors, it holds a secret that goes beyond what can be explained, and in the blink of an eye, the hunters become the prey of something that lives in the shadows.

“My idea with all this was to pay homage to the films [de terror] from the 70s and 80s, a type of B-series feature filmvery linear, that seek to entertain, to serve as an escape from one’s problems,” Haag explains about the selected work. And, in the filmmaker’s opinion, Cinema does not always have to have a profound message that pushes the audience to ask themselves very transcendental questions.. Haag champions the absurd, the funny and films whose sole purpose is to serve as a vehicle to travel to fantasy places like the ones he proposes in the film. The team that has shaped it, says Haag, stands out for its Basque accent. Except for one of the production companies –Vivir Rodando Films, based in Catalonia–, All the people involved in the short are professionals who live and develop professionally between the Ebro and the Pyrenees: “The Basque Country Film School [que coproduce la obra] He supported us and helped us with equipment, lights, etc. In fact, they always do. I have never been a student, but I feel like one because they are always willing to help me, they have done so in a lot of projects,” says the director, who would like the Basque audiovisual sector to benefit more from the juicy tax incentives that the Provincial Council offers to producers. “I think it is very nice that cinema is focusing on the Basque Country, because it generates a lot of work for professionals here,” she points out. “However, all this money that is falling should also have an impact on cinema, on Basque stories and their directors,” she demands.

BASQUE CINEMA

And for Haag, One of the dangers that loom on the horizon is that Bizkaia ends up dying of success. Or, rather, that this immense set into which the territory is being transformed will only be accessible to the large streaming platforms. “The fear is that this will become a set for others who in their places of origin, Madrid or the United States, already have a powerful infrastructure and industry,” he says.

Over the next few minutes the topics of conversation vary. The Uruguayan declares his love for science fiction and fantasy. And He talks about the need to introduce diverse accents and bodies into Spanish cinema. And the Biscayan territory is so “terrifying” for filming all kinds of stories. Haag has plenty of room for growth.