“Being awarded in Homeless gives us strength to continue working”

We have spoken with Eñaut Castagnet, director of the short film MUGA, with the aim of learning a little more about the award-winning work in the Kalean section of the Santurzine festival. and also know a little about what the process has been like.

Congratulations, Eñaut, tell us a little about what Muga is about, please.

Thank you so much. I have directed two other films, but Muga was the first one I have written, my first job as a scriptwriter and director. I wanted to make a total fiction with a little of the themes that interest me and the styles that also interest me, and that is where the Western is located. I think that when I picked up the pen, the first time I tried to write or tell or invent a story, it came out like that, with those Western codes. And I think that shows a little that there is a bit in the character of the bad guy, very bad, the cowboy at the end and the Indian, something like that. Well, all of that a little in this time, today, let’s say, and in the Basque Country. Because? Because in the end it can be here, in the Basque Country, or also on another border in the other part of the world. But that is the story of a migrant who wants to cross the border that exists in the Basque Country, but that is the border between Spain and France.

This is about the last obstacle.

The last obstacle to his new life. And it stays on the Spanish side because there is a factory that promises to produce papers and help those people get over that last obstacle. And of course, it doesn’t happen as it should happen or as it is promised to happen. And then, that migrant is going to hide next to that factory. And the landlord does not welcome him as he expected or as a spectator I suppose he expected, but rather he welcomes him with a shotgun. And from there we can see what happens. It’s a short film that takes about a year, at least a year of work with a lot of people.

What values did you want to transmit with this work?

Well, values, I don’t know, to say in a somewhat general way, like that, human values. I say that the idea was to tell a relationship between two people who had nothing to do with each other. They came from a totally different place and with a different language. So it was almost impossible for them to communicate if they did not do so with a universal language. That was the intention, to show that humans can do the best things in the world sometimes and other times, the opposite. There are many people who want or say they want to do good and who do a lot of evil. We didn’t intend to portray a hero and a villain, but it is true that there is an antihero.

What does it mean to you and for you to be awarded at the Homeless Film Festival?

A lot of joy, it couldn’t be any other way. I did not know about this festival and I am delighted to be able to meet it, to meet the people who participate and the people of Bizitegi and do things together. Being awarded makes the desire to work continue and that is golden, because sometimes our work is difficult.