The places that illuminated '20,000 species of bees', the Goyas' favorite

In front of the tree, the first official stop of the trip, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Llodio, 39 years old) gets a little emotional.

It's three in the afternoon on a sunny Friday in January, and the filmmaker has a good feeling on her body: after accompanying her film through festivals in northern Europe, she has landed directly in Bilbao to participate that morning in a conference in the Guggenheim on linguistic management in economic activity.

It was her turn to tell her experience in

20,000 species of bees,

a film in which Spanish and Basque are spoken interchangeably, a dialogue necessary for the verisimilitude of her story, the portrait of trans childhood, and specifically of her protagonist: Aitor on paper, Coco for his mother, Lucía inside.

At its premiere at the Berlinale it received great applause, then its protagonist, Sofía Otero, won the Silver Bear for best performance at the German competition, and thus her career took off, until, after winning the Malaga festival and the award Forqué for best feature film, the favorite to win the Goya for best film, supported by its 15 nominations (Urresola is a candidate in novel direction and original screenplay).

More information

'20,000 species of bees', by Estibaliz Urresola, and 'The Snow Society', by JA Bayona, lead the nominations for the 2024 Goya Awards

But before the tree, at lunch in a restaurant in her native Llodio, the filmmaker recalled that the story was born in February 2018, when Ekai Lersundi gave up at the age of 16.

She had requested hormonal treatment that she never obtained, she struggled unsuccessfully to have her gender identity recognized, and she couldn't take it anymore: Lersundi took her own life in her house.

“It was heartbreaking.

However, he wrote a hopeful, luminous farewell letter, so that his drastic decision would make sense and a change would occur in society.

At that time, his reality may not have been part of the social debate or the political agenda, but it motivated me.

And today, of course, it is very present,” she recalls.

Now, that was the inspiration, not the foundation.

“The script is the result of many snippets of the lives of the families I was able to interview”;

a task in which she had the help of Naizen, the association of families of trans minors in Euskadi and Navarra.

Estibaliz Urresola, in the cabin of the field of beehives, the Lourdes cabin.Javier Hernández

All in all, there is a lot of Urresola, and his childhood and adolescence in the film.

Before eating, from the car, he pointed out the building where his mother lives, the school and institute he went to, the place where he saw his first films... Although he now lives in Hernani, it is clear that he has Llodio involved: The main locations of his film are in his hometown.

Like the first stop, the one with the tree and the Lourdes cabin.

On one side of the road, going up the side of the mountain, is the tree with its hole in the trunk.

On the other, just at the end of a group of hamlets, a metal fence closes a path to a shed and a field: now in winter rest, it is an orchard with prodigious views that on screen houses the Lourdes beehives.

Félix Hortigüela and María del Carmen Ussía, brothers-in-law, caretakers of the land and passionate about the film, are waiting for the director.

“Suddenly your garden appears all over the world,” they say happily.

And they ask about the possibilities at the Goya, something the director, whom they call Esti, prefers not to dwell on.

“They are going to show the ceremony on a big screen in the town,” she says, embarrassed.

Estibaliz Urresola, with the owners of the cabin, in the film, by Lourdes.Javier Hernández

Back to the car and up to the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora del Yermo, from the 16th century, where the filmmaker went to mass with her family as a child.

Urresola remembers those moments with her father, the walks through the forest, and the figure of Saint Lucia, “fundamental for the film.”

Because the saint is the patron saint of those who suffer from eye diseases.

“And

20,000 species of bees

reflects on how people see us and how we see ourselves,” explains the filmmaker.

Hence Lucía assumes that name and passes her hands over the eyes of the altar.

Of course, there is a trick, as in many other things in cinema: the statue of the saint is in the hermitage below, but due to the background and the necessary space it had to be filmed in the church of Santa María (they managed, yes, to be able move the statue of the saint).

“And the friendship between Saint Agatha and Saint Lucia is curious,” she points out.

The same thing happened with other locations, such as the pool and the pools: they are not those in Llodio due to filming needs.

The hermitage of Santa Lucía, within the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora del Yermo.Javier Hernández

Urresola has deeply meditated and kneaded his film.

With a degree in Audiovisual Communication from the Public University of the Basque Country, a master's degree in Film Direction and Film Business from Escac, the Film School of Catalonia, the director filmed two short films —

Adri

(2014) and

Polvo Somos

(2020) — and a long documentary —

Voces de papel

(2016) — before the work piled up in the post-pandemic.

At Cannes in 2022 she presented the short film

Cuerdas

, winner of the Forqué award in its category and candidate for the Goya, at Critics' Week.

“It was very hard, intense.

Ropes

was going to be filmed a year earlier.

After Covid, I took it forward and events began to overlap,” she recalls.

“The distribution process for the feature started when I shot the short.

Strings

premiered

in Cannes a month after filming

20,000 Species...

And I accompanied the promotion of the short film while post-producing the feature.

“Now I think about it and I get exhausted.”

On the way down to Llodio, Urresola talks about the beautiful song in Basque that is heard in the credits,

Gaua,

by Lourdes Iriondo, and about her conversations with Asier López Iraola, the filmmaker's partner, composer and scholar who has reflected on philosophy and music.

The journey ends at the main house of the film, a fundamental location for the film and for portraying the family.

“I have walked here many times,” recalls the filmmaker.

“But I hadn't noticed her.”

What's more, they had noticed other buildings that resemble the cells of beehives.

However, since it was impossible to film there, the team looked for this new option, and Urresola was attracted by its proximity to the train track, and the multiple entrances and exits, that feeling of a hive and community.

The filmmaker, in the family home where part of the film takes place.Javier Hernández

Inside, she is also received with love and happiness.

Even one of the walls of the living room has been left with the decoration from the film.

The kitchen, the terrace... There is the physical spirit of

20,000 species of bees.

Its real owners speak excitedly about the experience.

It will always be the house from that movie.

“I know that I have reached a large audience, that the impact of our film has been impressive,” explains Urrseola.

And she makes a small confession: “Last night I met Patricia López Arnaiz [who plays the protagonist's mother] and in a bar someone recognized her and asked her if she was the one with the bees.

Well yes, we are.”

The possible success at the Goya is postponed until next Sunday morning.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_