No whiteningthe title of the documentary is inspired by the words of the ETA member himself, who does not like that they call him Veal. During the interview he tries to justify the unjustifiablewith hardly any empathy.

He journalist Jordi Évole is aware of the controversy that his interview with the terrorist Josu Ternera has generated, but for him there is no dilemma. “We don’t want us to stop doing what we believe is what we have to do because of what they say. And it seems to us that doing this interview is a journalistic duty,” says Évole, co-director of the documentary.

His intention and that of his team was clear from the beginning: “This country has to learn to look at your past bravely and without fear. What hurts? Of course it hurts,” he says. In that pain, Évole acknowledges that he expected to find a more conciliatory tone from someone who was one of the leaders of ETA. “We were disappointed in the sense that we had wanted a language more conciliatory (…) He spoke for the militancy (…) I imagine he did not want to make an amendment to the whole,” says the journalist.

In the more than 100 minutes of interview, Josu Ternera answers many questions, like this one: “48 hours passed and ETA murdered Miguel Ángel Blanco. Did you consider leaving ETA?” “Why?” Veal answers.

As remarkable as their responses are the silences that Ternera leaves in this Netflix documentary, where he acknowledges that he participated in some attack with victims mortals. “What difference do you see between killing for a god or for one’s country?” asks Évole, who, far from whitewashing a character, thinks that the documentary should serve to understand. “We have to decide if we want to be with that part of society that sang ‘let Txapote vote for you’ without knowing who Txapote is, or knowing who Txapote was, the murderer of Miguel Ángel Blanco“.