Re-imaging the Community: Imanol Uribe’s La muerte de Mikel ( r98 3) and the Cinema of Transition

Abstract Imanol Uribe’s La muerte de Mikel ( r983) is one of the earliest demonstrations of the possibility of a popular and commercially viable Basque cinema. At the same time, however, the film poses an emotionally charged refutation of the intransigent identity politics at the root of regional cinemas. This apparent ambivalence reflects the underlying project of Mikel: to contest the Manichaean logic that shaped the cultural politics of cinema during the first decade after Franco’s death, and, more generally, to bring audiences to rethink the chain of allegiances and affiliations that have formed and deformed the notion of community for Spaniards.