There is a coldness to Basque cinema that separates it, perhaps deliberately, from the rich vein of eroticism in Spanish cinema that is mined in this volume and others (Jordan and Morgan-Tamosunas 1998; Perriam 2003; Fouz-Hernández and Martínez-Expósito 2007; Sánchez-Conejero 2015). Whereas ‘Spanish cinema is known for producing more explicit images (of both sex and violence) than most other contemporary European cinemas’ (Jordan and Morgan-Tamosunas 1998: 112), the emphasis on violence in Basque cinema is more exclusive. Apart from the films directed by Julio Medem, whose cinematic exploration of imaginative passions is the exception that proves the rule of a comparatively sexless Basque cinema, there are very few attempts at eroticism in relation to the Basque Country. The reasons for this paucity of sexual content centre upon the impact and legacy of the cultural oppression visited on the Basque Country during the Francoist dictatorship, which delayed the emergence of modern Basque cinema until Ama Lur/ Motherland (dirs. Nestor Basterretxea and Fernando Larruquert) in 1968; but blame is also due to the Basques themselves. The denial of sexual content and eroticism in Basque cinema extends so far into democracy that neither Spain's national censorship, which ended with the Transition, nor the prudery prompted by strict Catholicism, which has greatly loosened its hold, can be held wholly accountable for this lack. Something else is restricting erotic content in Basque cinema. In seeking to understand the sexlessness of Basque cinema, this chapter fixates on rare instances of eroticism in relation to torture and identifies a resultant tendency towards masochistic imagery and description that acquires complex symbolism in a context of political conflict and even violent armed struggle. Analysis suggests that, until recently, the abnegation of the sexual impulse in Basque cinema was indicative of the postponement of individualistic desire until the primary collective objective of independence or at least a degree of self-government and self-determination could be achieved.

That is to say, the Basque body in Basque cinema appears to be yoked to a higher purpose, with gratification and release deliberately withheld pending the resolution of conflict over the status of the Basque Country. Consequently, the puritanical Basque body, which is sexualised by being subject to rape-like tortures, represents both suffering on the part of the Basques and the masochistic pleasures of their self-sacrifice when this results in the embodiment of martyrdom.