The Spanish cinema is most eloquently and enigmatically represented by the Basque director Julio Medem, whose four features since 1991 have gained him ever-increasing attention and numerous awards at international film festivals. Born in San Sebastian in 1958, Medem began making short films at the age of 17 and worked as a film critic while studying medicine at Basque Country University. He received his medical degree in 1985, but has devoted himself exclusively to filmmaking since 1992. Medem's unconventional narratives have brought the rural genre and with it the idea of "Basqueness" into a new light, invading realism with elements of magic, fantasy, and sardonic humor. Flora and fauna become omnipresent observers of human follies, even offering us lessons in natural history, while some of his protagonists, though clearly human, seem to have literally fallen to earth. It is an effect at once distancing and engaging; while observing the gorgeous landscapes and some of the traditions of Basque country, the viewer is allowed relief from the expected or the clichéd. Barry Jordan and Rikki Morgan-Tamosunas's description of The Red Squirrel, in Contemporary Spanish Cinema, holds for Medem's approach in general: "Medem's rather cerebral, complex feature contains a parodic, postmodern send-up of personal as well as cultural 'origins' and 'roots.' Indeed, the film invites the spectator to reflect on ways in which we construct our notions of self, cultural heritage, and national identity, which can be seen as potentially fanciful, always provisional, and subject to transformation." Medem is also engaged in a redefinition of Spanish machismo and romance, in films from The Red Squirrel to his latest, Lovers of the Arctic Circle, which screened at the 1999 San Francisco International Film Festival and is his only film to have a commercial release in the U.S.We thank Harvard Film Archive; Cultural Office, Embassy of Spain, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Consulate General of Spain, and UC Berkeley Department of Spanish and Portuguese for making this series possible. Special thanks to John Gianvito; Minister of Cultural Affairs Juan Romero de Terreros; Professor Ignacio Navarrete.
