Maixabel

Maixabel Lasa lost her husband, Juan María Jaúregui, in 2000, when he was killed by the Basque separatist group ETA. Eleven years later, a request reaches her that she never expected: one of the men involved in the killing, who is serving his sentence in the Nanclares de la Oca prison in Álava after cutting his ties with the organization, wants to meet her face to face. Despite her doubts and the scale of her loss, she agrees to the encounter, and the film follows what comes out of sitting down with the people who took the life of the man who had been her partner since she was sixteen.

Icíar Bollaín directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Isa Campo. Blanca Portillo plays Maixabel Lasa, with Luis Tosar, Urko Olazábal, María Cerezuela, Tamara Canosa and María Jesús Hoyos among the twenty credited cast members. The film was produced by Koldo Zuazua, Juan Moreno and Guillermo Sempere for TVE, Kowalski Films and Feelgood Media, and runs 115 minutes.

Released in Spain in September 2021, Maixabel took in around 3 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.1 rating from roughly 4,100 votes, and on TMDB a 7 from about 141 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.2 from ten reviews places it in similar territory. Bollaín's next feature, I Am Nevenka, followed in 2024.