La Muerte de Mikel

La Muerte de Mikel is a 1984 Spanish film directed by Imanol Uribe, starring Imanol Arias. The film tells in flash back, the story of a gay member of ETA who died under mysterious circumstances. Plot The film opens at Mikel's funeral mass. A flashback spins out the circumstances of his life and death. Mikel, a young pharmacist involved in Basque Nationalist politics, is living in Lekeitio, a Basque coastal town. When his wife, Begoña, returns from a long trip abroad, he picks her up at the airport. Their marriage is unhappy; the relationship between the couple is tense. Begoña wants to resolve their problems, but Mikel is indifferent. In the encounter after Begoña's return, the couple visits Mikel's domineering mother, Doña Maria Luisa, a widow who lives in the same small town. The relationship between mother and son is also fractured. Mikel and Begoña have an argument when she tells him that she has discussed their sexual problems with his mother. They go out to have supper to the home of a pair of friends: Martín, a doctor who has arrived at the town fleeing the Chilean dictatorship, and Martin's wife, Arantza. The calm of town is disrupted with the senseless death of two young people, who failed to stop in a nocturnal control and were killed by the Civil Guard. Mikel attends a political meeting where he is offered a seat in the next local election for the Basque independent party to which he belongs. Mikel takes parts in local festivities. At dawn, he arrives drunk at home. Having sex with his wife, Mikel bites Begoña's clitoris during an alcohol-fuelled attempt at oral sex. This incident effectively marks the end of their marriage. The next day Martín, takes cares of Begoña's wounds inflected in the attack and as a friend and mentor to Mikel, he recommends him a therapist in Bilbao. After his first session, Mikel joins an old friend in a bar and gets drunk. Mikel wakes up the following morning, knowing that he has had sex with Fama, a female impersonator, whose show he has seen at the bar. Realizing what he has done, humiliated and confused, Mikel embarks on a suicidal drive down the wrong side of the motorway, but swerves aside in time to avoid a crash.