The storm passed. The Goya for Best Animated Film tonight went to the film Unicorn Wars, by Alberto Vázquez, which vanishes the risk of a storm that was coming if the Basque production Black is Beltza II had won the award: Ainhoa, directed by Fermín Muguruza, former candidate of Euskal Herritarrok and sympathizer of the nationalist left.
Unicorn Wars is not a children's movie, despite appearances. It is an anti-war plea, against the flags and against the shedding of the blood of the young people who are sent there. The film contrasts childish and infantiloid figures against the stark effects of war: from military training to the treatment of corpses or the psychological sequelae.
Vázquez had already collected two Goyas, the first for the best animated short film Birdboy in 2011 and Decorado in 2016. In 2015 he was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film for Psychonauts.
This award will put out the controversy excited by the ultra-right for days. Since the candidacies were announced, Vox has been charging against Muguruza's nomination as a finalist due to his sympathies for abertzales.
Muguruza, founder among others of the punt Kortatu gang, was Euskal Herritarrok's candidate for the European Parliament in 1999, 24 years ago, and only his election had been described by the extreme right in Seville as a government maneuver to whitewash the Basque independentist left . Vox's spokeswoman at the Seville City Council, Cristina Peláez, said on Thursday that the Goya gala in her city was "one more chapter of ETA's whitening", because Muguruza is "a well-known filoetarra, friend" of the general coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi.
Muguruza had announced that, if he won, the film crew's speech would recall the police operation that, on February 20, 2003, will take place 20 years ago, led to the closure of the Basque-language newspaper Egunkaria and the arrest of its leadership; His director, Martxelo Otamendi, denounced torture by the Civil Guard during his detention. Spain was condemned in 2012 by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for not sufficiently investigating the journalist's complaint.
Arriving (one of the first) on the red carpet of the gala this Saturday, Muguruza said he had perceived "the affection of all the Sevillian people" in the face of the "boycott" that in his opinion Vox has tried to do by criticizing his presence. "It is a far-right formation, which tries to set political agendas, cultural agendas, which is boycotting this Goya gala and which have been completely left out, they are the only ones", Muguruza stressed. Despite the "tension" that an attempt has been made to create, the singer has felt completely supported and loved in Seville, he said."I arrive here and the photographers start to sing 'Sarri, sarri', they tell me howdy Fermín", he explained when he arrived at the Auditorium .
The singer and filmmaker explained that the event held yesterday in a bookstore "was filled with people" and had "all the love of all the people from Seville and Triana" and they had a "phenomenal" time. "How am I not going to feel happy?", he added, recalling that Antonio de la Torre, presenter of the gala, participates as one of the voices in his nominated film and had announced that, if he won this film, he would get to dance "Sarri, sarri" (Kortatu's great hit) on stage. "We come to party, to have a good time, and as Mario Benedetti said, joy must be defended as if it were a trench."
The Vox representative in Seville appeared at the end of the week together with relatives of ETA victims to denounce Muguruza's candidacy. Among them was the provincial deputy for Vox, Rafael García Ortiz, brother of Ascensión García: this was the wife of the PP politician Alberto Jiménez Becerril. Both were shot dead on their way home one night in 1998. They left behind three children ages 9, 6 and 5. Vox has recalled these days other actions by ETA in the Andalusian city, such as a defused car bomb, an attack on the Seville prison that killed four people, or the murder in 2000 of Air Force colonel Antonio Muñoz love us
"The presence of Muguruza in Seville is not welcome for a majority of Sevillians who do not forget, nor can they forget, the irreparable damage that Muguruza's friends have caused for decades. We cannot and do not want to forget the thousand Spaniards, innocent victims, who they have fallen under ETA's bullets or explosives"; In 2017, the Ministry of the Interior determined that the number of ETA victims was 853.
Peláez also took the opportunity to charge against the mayor, Antonio Muñoz, of the PSOE, for collaborating in the placement of the red carpet "so that a sinister character such as Fermín Muguruza can parade". Muguruza was one of the first to arrive at the gala tonight .
In the previous days, the ultra campaign against Muguruza was widely contested by various sectors of the cultural world. The director of the San Sebastián Film Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, showed his support for Muguruza, as did the actor and director Aitor Merino, who was very graphic in deploring the harassment against the filmmaker by "shitty fascists". from Vox, or the actor Willy Toledo, who also expressed his solidarity with Muguruza. Both Maria Jauregi, daughter of Juan Mari Jauregi, a victim of ETA, and the former deputy and former member of the PSOE Executive Eduardo Madina, also a victim of ETA, wished the artist the best at the awards this Saturday. From the musical field, the Twitter account of Reincidentes, a Sevillian group, published a photo of its singer, Fernando Madina, with Muguruza, taking advantage of the Basque's visit to the Andalusian city.
