Hairy

After three days of dull, overcast weather I have been completely blip uninspired. This is the one photo I took today, on the way back from the recycling bins -- an oddly dried up plant. No idea what it is.

Not that I haven't been anywhere. On Tuesday evening we invited S and R round for pizza as we've hardly seen them the last few weeks. Yesterday morning I dropped S off at the station as he was off to the UK to stay with his mum again. In the early evening I was in Carcassonne for choir practice. Sadly this is because G, an even more long-standing choir member than I am, died peacefully a few days ago and his widow E (also a choir member) wanted us to sing for his funeral tomorrow.

After choir, I dashed to Lézignan to catch a new Spanish film, Maixabel, at the cinema. It's by one of our favourite Spanish directors, Icíar Bollaín. The last film we saw of hers, Rosa's Wedding, was a feelgood comedy, but this was a hard watch. It's based on the true story of Maixabel Lasa, the widow of a Basque politician murdered by ETA. She becomes the president of an organisation supporting victims of terrorism, and ultimately meets two of the members of the hit squad who shot her husband in the back while he sat in a café. 

There's little action in the film apart from the violent first scene -- it's basically people talking to each other. But it's very emotional as the killers grapple with their own consciences and Maixabel copes with her own and her family's loss. You feel Maixabel's pain when she discovers the killers knew nothing about her husband other than his name, and hadn't bothered to find out afterwards -- they just killed who they were told to kill. It is very powerful, with great acting -- I recommend it.