The Bastards Fig Tree

The Falangist party in Spain was the local version of Fascism. Its emblem (the yoke and arrows) was clearly copied from fascist iconography. However, Falangism was a lot more retrograde even than Fascism, and its purpose was to turn Spain back into its feudal period. Falangists practiced an awesome cult of violencee. The party was too extreme even for dictator Francisco Franco; after the Civil War the Falange's influence in government steadily declined.

Rogelio is a low grade foot soldier of a Falange death squad in the town of Getxo, in the Basque Country, a few miles from Bilbao. The squad rounds up and murders Republicans tipped off by locals (sometimes to resolve old feuds or to lay hands on the victim's property). He is respected not even by his squad comrades. To gain their recognition he leads the squad to murder in cold blood the local schoolteacher and his 16 year old son. At this point his life changes. He undergoes an emotional turmoil. He fears that the teacher's second son, 10 years old at the time will eventually take revenge on him. Driven by superstition rather than religion he believes that doing certain things in a certain order (as in Tarkovsky's Nostalghia and The Sacrifice) will somehow have a spiritual meaning or influence his life. His antics are confused by the locals with true repentance.

I was unable to raise any empathy for Rogelio. He is a repulsive character, and remains so until the last frame; years after the Civil War he is still unrepentant, loyal to his co-assassins of the death squad and subservient to its sadistic leader. That ruined the movie for me. On the positive side, acting is of generally good level and cinematography captures perfectly the verdant hills and valleys of the Basque country and its melancholic cloudy skies.

Technically "The Bastard Fig Tree" isn't horror, though there is some horrific actions taken on behalf of horrific ideology. Still thanks to some gothically framed characters, haunting and fantasy-like cinematography there is an air of dark fairytale inspiration enveloping the story. Despite the more dark dramatic style of story telling "The Bastard Fig Tree" is a beautifully tragic, and captivating film.

The acting is superb. The characters are layered and familiar. And the story, even as it is set in a historical point, is very relevant to now. Ana Murugarren is very direct in telling the story as a classic morality tale. The use on the antagonist as transformative, becoming the protagonist and caretaker of the story's heart is brilliant.

The horror elements happen within very dramatic, chilling scenes where sheer cruelty and calculative action of man's own ideology. Violence and social cleansing of people who's views differ with such finality is horrifying. Fascists, Nazis, Death Squads, White Supremacy, all terrifying and disturbing similar. This makes "The Bastard Fig Tree" recognizable and relevant today as it is to history. The film is subtitled, but it is definitely worth watching.