In this essay, I explore how this Basque director relies on different elements in order to alter the time and to create different realities inside his narrative features. These elements consist of cinematographic tools, for example editing, flashbacks, and leitmotifs; and other distinctive narrative, ideological and theoretical elements, for example Sigmund Freud’s structure of ‘The uncanny’, and Basque nationalism.
I mainly analyze his 2007 film Caótica Ana, as it is, in my opinion, where these elements are clearer. But I also talk about the first films in his filmography in chronological order, finding common themes, archetypical characters and conventional places, starting with Vacas (1992) and ending with Los amantes del círculo polar (1998) I frame a direct relation between the narrative and the use of ‘time and space’ as a filmmaking tool and the relation with these elements and Magical realism.