‘A ghost in the battle’, the film by Susana Abaitua that portrays ETA and is the shadow of ‘The Infiltrator’

Spanish fiction is daring, little by little, to portray ETA. Just a few years ago, it seemed almost impossible for Spanish series or films to talk about a sensitive topic, with many victims behind it and which represented a real drama for the whole of Spanish society.

Years after the end of the terrorist group during the Zapatero government, series like ‘The invisible line’ and movies like ‘The infiltrator’ They have revived leaders, executioners and victims of ETA and have even used their long history to create complex thrillers.

Genre films that in other countries (take the IRA in Irish cinema as an example) are perfectly normal but here they were not so normal.

‘A Ghost in the Battle’, which has reached number 1 on Netflix in just one weekend, is the last of those films. And behind the camera there is not just anyone, but Agustín Díaz Yaneyes, the director after ‘No one will talk about us when we are dead’ o ‘Alatriste’.

Leading the cast, someone who is not unknown when it comes to being in fictions related to the band: Susana Abaituawhich we could also see in ‘Patria’.

In the film she is Amaia, an agent of the Civil Guard who infiltrates, as the character of Carolina Yuste in the award-winning ‘The Infiltrator’, in the organization, to locate caches with hidden weapons in the south of France.

A more or less real event fictionalized for dramatic purposes, set between the 90s and 2000s, which has the objective of making the story more accessible to the viewer.

The protagonist experiences dilemmas that go beyond the good and bad that usually populate these films. The vital cost of a covert mission, or the loss of identity, are perfectly defined in Abaitua’s gaze, who seems to achieve, with this, his most outstanding work after standing out in films such as ‘I know who you are’, ‘Crazy for her’ o ‘We were songs.’

Minor titles compared to the work of Diaz Yaneswhich has become one of those Netflix productions that go beyond the algorithm and represent a firm step in quality.

It is curious that, although Díaz Yanes does not invent the wheel with his film, he does give it a certain originality. For example, introducing classics of Italian song that, in principle, could not be further from an enclave like the Basque Country.

Thus, the music of Mina o Patty Bravo serves to show, in a more or less original way, the moods of the characters.

Although some of the dramatic elements (the search for caches in the French country, for example) are true, the character of Amaia herself is a conjunction of agents and a tribute to those who fought against the terrorist group in the shadows and without any desire for prominence.

Furthermore, Yanes avoids easy judgment and we even understand the protagonist’s empathy with Begoña, mother and terrorist at the same time.

That care taken by the characters, the pure and simple action and the grateful gray light of the Basque lands, enhanced by the photography of Paco Femeníahave consolidated ‘A ghost in the battle’ not only as one of the outstanding titles of Spanish cinema of 2025 but also as a popular hit on Netflix.

Spanish fiction is daring, little by little, to portray ETA. Just a few years ago, it seemed almost impossible for Spanish series or films to talk about a sensitive topic, with many victims behind it and which represented a real drama for the whole of Spanish society.