Aupa Josu
2013 · 43m
Directed by Borja Cobeaga
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, theatrical
Ambitious Basque agriculture minister Josu Zabaleta plots with his press chief and new secretary to seize the vacant interior ministry post, planning secret contact with ETA to seal a definitive peace as his winning card.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A Basque political satire that treats ETA peace-brokering like a cabinet reshuffle comedy—most scouts would either miss the subversion entirely or feel queasy about the premise, but that's exactly why it works. Cobeaga leans into the absurdist machinery of power games until the whole thing becomes a dark joke about ambition eating itself.
Structurally assured political theater that sitcom-ifies parliamentary maneuvering with real formal control; the film knows exactly what lineage it's working in—Spanish political comedy with teeth—and executes its satirical argument through meticulous ensemble timing rather than easy targets.
The decision to play Josu's scheming with deadpan bureaucratic sincerity—never winking, never letting us off the hook—is what elevates what could be broad farce into something genuinely unsettling; one tonal choice that reframes the entire premise into uncomfortable territory.