“Gaua" to open Horror and Fantasy Film Festival

2025.09.16

Gaua (2025), the new film directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo, will have the honour at the Kursaal on 31 October of opening the 36th San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival, to be staged between 31 October and 7 November at the Principal and Victoria Eugenia theatres, as well as other venues around the city.

Gaua is the third feature film directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo, after Errementari (2017) and Irati (2022), the biggest box office hit ever filmed in the Basque language. As in the director's previous works, it code-switches between fantasy and historical reality, while on this occasion plunging into the night-time world of Basque mythology, set in the 17th century. The film combines the disturbing realm of nocturnal beings with the icons of rural superstition, to create a world full of mystery, emotion and epic drama.

The film, produced by Irusoin, Ikusgarri Films, Vilaüt Films and Gaua AIE, will be premièred at the forthcoming Sitges Festival. It stars Yune Nogueiras, Elena Irureta, Ane Gabarain and Iñake Irastorza.

The movie will open on general release on 14 November, distributed by Filmax.

Synopsis

The Basque mountains in the 17th century. In the midst of a witchhunt, Kattalin flees from her husband, abandoning the farmhouse in the middle of the night. Lost in the darkness of the woods, she senses a presence pursuing her. Along the way she encounters three women who, as they wash laundry at the river's edge, share ghost stories and village gossip. Kattalin is shocked to find that she becomes part of these same stories.