"Until he was twenty-six years old he was a man given to the vanities of the world, and mainly delighted in the exercise of arms, with a great and vain desire to gain honour". Thus begins the autobiography of St. Ignatius and thus Ignatius himself recounts the beginning of a before and after in his life. That is why "Iñigo", the film that the film director Imanol Rayo (Pamplona, 1984) premiered on the evening of 27 September, is a challenge: to narrate the inner pilgrimage of one who passes from arms to the experience of God through a long journey "alone and on foot".

Première

The premiere took place in the Basilica of Loyola with a large audience and respecting the sanitary measures. Before the screening of the film, Abel Toraño SJ, coordinator of the Ignatian Year in the Spanish province, introduced the director, the only actor in the film, Javier Godino, and its producer, Iker Ganuza. Imanol Rayo thanked all his team for their work and invited the audience to watch and listen, to contemplate and "let themselves be carried away by its magic". He explained that the original idea of the work was to narrate the journey from Paris to Venice of the first companions. However, as the years went by, the difficulty of materializing such a project and the attraction to the figure of Ignatius reoriented the story, which takes shape during the confinement, opening up a parallelism in Rayo's mind between the recovery from the wound of Saint Ignatius and the society stopped and obliged to remain in their homes. For his part, Javier Godino indicated that the work is also "a window to the inside, there is something that has to do with your experience when you see this film" and added that "it is a film that does not keep up with the rhythm of the 21st century".

Main themes

According to the director, the two main themes of the film are: the internal process of Ignatius, closely linked to nature (Franciscan inspiration of the time) and the painting of the Annunciation that Isabel the Catholic gave to Magdalena de Araoz and which was in the chapel of the tower house. The former focuses on the process of change and the latter on the divine transformation that brings about change.

The audience was able to "contemplate" Ignacio's silent pilgrimage during the hour and a half or so that the film lasted. An internal pilgrimage that speaks of process, change and the experience of God. During the viewing, the screen becomes the perfect window to be able to look at Ignatius as "if I were present". There is no dialogue, but rather the concatenation of 30 shots that, through photography and sound, transport you to accompany Iñigo. Everything is thought out, carefully and consistently articulated. The narrative is sensorial and open, there is no historical context, only a pilgrim in conflict with himself.

An energetic applause

At the end of the screening and after an energetic applause, Abel Toraño moderated questions from the audience to which director and actor answered with passion and simplicity. The event concluded with thanks to Ina Echarte sj, in charge of the Basilica, and to all the audience for their attendance. Undoubtedly, the end of an evening in which we saw Iñigo in process, a process in which, as Bernanos says, "the first step is taken inwards and in silence". A great opportunity to continue to deepen this commemoration of the fifth centenary of the conversion of St. Ignatius.