In ‘Betrayers’, Jon Viar describes the family consequences after his father turned his back on ETA

25/10/2020.- Betrayers is the first documentary film by the young director Jon Viar, a doctor in English studies who has already made two short films. This 25 October it has been released in the DOC. Spain section of the 65th Valladolid International Film Festival, with the attendance of both the director and Iñaki Viar, his father, who is the protagonist of the feature film.

The film tells the story of how its director lived his childhood while gradually discovering that his father had been a member of terrorist group ETA, on which he later turned his back and became a “betrayer” in the eyes of the abertzale environment.

Jon Viar defines his documentary as “the view point of a child who has become an adult and now inherits his father’s situation”, in which “it was a regular thing to be insulted” and “for many people to refuse to say hello to me”.

Iñaki Viar points out that he experienced his personal catharsis during his time in prison, where he entered as an ETA member and left condemning terrorism. “When we arrived at the prison, there was a group of people who started reading Marx and Freud”, Viar explained.

For him, participating in Seminci is “an honour and a prize”, and he admits that, if they won the prize, they would be “delighted”.