The San Sebastián International Film Festival premieres “Baskavígin”, the documentary about the massacre of Basque whalers in Iceland

San Sebastián is the venue for top-class film every September, with international stars arriving every day during the festival to mix with tourists and visitors. The actor Ethan Hawke, 4-time Oscar nominee, and Sigourney Weaver, another Oscar nominee and winner of two golden Globes, will receive the Donostia prize this year, the event's 64th. The Zinemira section includes the premiere of “Baskavígin”, a historical documentary that tells the story of one of the darkest episodes in Basque whaling history and at the same time the biggest massacre ever committed in Iceland. It happened in 1615 when 81 whalers from the Basque coast arrived on the Icelandic coast off Strandir to hunt whales. The captains, Pedro de Aguirre, Esteban de Telleria and Martín de Villafranca, decided to postpone their homeward voyage to earn some extra profits. Destiny had it that various factors combined against the Basque whalers, who came up against a terrible storm that sank their ships, a corrupt local sheriff and a Lutheran pastor with little love for foreigners. The fatal conclusion is known as the “Spanverjavígin” or “massacre of the Spaniards,” later renamed the “Baskavígin” or “massacre of the Basque whalers”. The sponsors of the documentary include Basquetour