Mother Earth

In 1963, the businessman Juan Huarte Beaumont, art patron, collector and founder of X Films, a film production company based in Madrid, invited the Basque artists Nestor Basterretxea and Jorge Oteiza to make a promotional short about his companies. Certain conditions were attached to the commission: the artists were each to present finished scripts without any contact with each other about them. Huarte chose Basterretxea's script, and Basterretxea directed the film, which was given the title 'Operación H' in postproduction.

In the foothills of the Pyrenees in the province of Huesca lies the medieval village of Alquézar. The film takes a journey through this religious site using images of the Colegiata de Santa María church, the paintings it houses and the capitals in its cloisters. It also draws on images of narrow and steep empty streets, the Semana Santa procession and sculptures of Christ on the cross.

Initially a made-to-order documentary on Spain, the film becomes an open-ended work-in-the-making about the creative process. “Settling in the Spanish capital to make a documentary, Hanoun sketches out for us the different steps involved in making a film. The author turns his hesitations, his doubts and difficult working conditions into the constituents of his work”. (Raphaël Bassan)