Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren

Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (born 4 May 1984) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, and producer. She has won awards for Voces de papel (2016), a documentary, and Cuerdas  [es; eu] (2022), a short film, while her first feature film, 20,000 Species of Bees (2023), has won a variety of awards at various film festivals.

Biography

Urresola was born on 4 May 1984 in Laudio/Llodio, located in the province of Álava in the autonomous community of Basque Country in northern Spain.

She has bachelor's degrees in Audiovisual Communication from the University of the Basque Country and Film Editing from the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión. Urresola has master's degrees in Film Direction and Film Business—Marketing, distribution and international sales from the Cinema and Audiovisual School of Catalonia (ESCAC). She has worked since 2011 in the Basque film and television industry.

Significant films

Voces de papel

Voces de papel is a 2016 full-length documentary about Eresoinka [fr; eu], a mixed instrumental, vocal, and choreographic ensemble of Basque performers that toured internationally from 1937 during the Spanish Civil War until the outbreak of World War II, which forced Eresoinka to return to Europe from the United States. It won the Premio Txapela de Oro for best documentary at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Cuerdas

Cuerdas (2022) is a half-hour fictional film about a women's choir in an industrial town has lost its funding from the municipality. A local company, whose factory has contaminated the area surrounding the town, offers to sponsor the choir. With the survival of the choir in doubt, the members must decide whether to accept the sponsorship or not. It was nominated for and won many prizes.

20,000 Species of Bees

This was Urresola's first feature film. Her goal of was for the audience to feel the ups and downs of a family with a transgender child. The inspiration for the story was the suicide of Ekai Lersundi [es; eu; gl] in 2018. Ekai Lersundi was a transgender 16-year-old boy from Ondarroa who had waited in vain for a hormonal treatment. Urresola was affected by the poignant note Lersundi left behind to illustrate his despair and his hope that divulging his suffering might bring about a societal change.

The film tells the story of a transgender girl, and its effect on the family. To help an accurate portrayal, Naizen [eu; es], a regional association for the families of transgender minors, worked with the director and provided guidance for Sofía Otero who played the main character.

In the film, the family crosses borders, including the one that separates Bayonne in France and Laudio/Llodio in Spanish Basque Country. Although Spanish is predominant in that film, Basque and French are also heard. Urresola seeks naturalism in the conversations between the mother (Patricia López Arnaiz) and her children. Gender dysphoria is dealt with somewhat didactically, but with emotion. "Why am I like this?" asks little Cocó (Otero).

As the director explains:

Spanish: La niña no se transforma, adquiere a lo largo de la película las herramientas para expresar quién es. La que se transforma es la familia.

English: The girl does not transform. Throughout the film, she acquires the tools to express who she is. What is transformed is the family.

— Estibaliz Urresola

In addition to the festival awards that the film itself won and those that Urresola won as a director, Otero won a best performer award, Patricia López Arnaiz won a best supporting actress award, and there were two awards for best female ensemble cast.

Filmography

Awards and nominations