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hurrengoa
lucio: thief, kidnapper, revolutionary, but above all... a brickie. uxueta labrit   Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi are very pleased with the end result of the film they have spent the last three years working on. There are always moments of incertitude and tension when work on a film draws to a close. And it’s not a case of newbeginner’s syndrome in this case either. Both of these guys from Moriarti Productions are experienced in the world of audiovisuals.
As mentioned above, the idea for this project started to take shape at an documentary film festival in Italy three years back They were presenting their documentary "Sahara Marathon" when they were approached by an ex-member of the Red Brigades, who told them that seeing they were Basque, they should make a film about Lucio Urtubia. “We didn’t know who Lucio Urtubia was. We got our hands on a copy of Bernar Thomas’ "Lucio L’irreductible" and we just knew we had to make that film.” The next step was to get in touch with Lucio himself and once he said he would come on board, they started on the project. Lucio was born in the Navarrese village of Cascante in 1931. Because his family were "reds", they suffered greatly in the post-civil-war years. He got involved in a spot of bother while he was doing military service and he escaped to France. He became involved in the anarchist movement there and soon moved on to direct action. Bank robberies, kidnappings, forgeries... there simply isn’t enough space here to go into the things he has been involved throughout his life. However, we couldn’t speak about him and not mention the First National Bank job. Lucio managed to do them out of 30 million dollars through false travellers cheques. This has been described as the most amazing political bank robbery in history and the bank has never come forward with details of what happened. The money taken in that swindle financed many movements on the left that operated outside the system. “I have no doubts at all that the banks are the real thieves. We did that job just to even things up a bit” he says.
Jose Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi have gotten to know the person as well as the character over the last three years. “Lucio is an anarchist among anarchists. He’s special. He’s an anarchist and a libertarian, bit above absolutely everything, he’s Lucio. A man who follows himself and his beliefs alone. And the most important factor to his ideology is work.” Any of the many different people who have had dealings with him will quickly confirm that. Any time he was caught, it was working as a brickie. Many different refugees in Paris have found work with him throughout the different decades. They all say that this man’s religion is his work.
Just as he said on August the 8th at the inauguration of Buenaventura Durruti Street in Leon: “I was lucky enough to be born into abject poverty. It is work that has opened up doors for me and has given me the pride necessary to live. If unemployment created revolutionaries, they would have made it".