Ainhoa and Jeff

Gaintza is a small village in Gipuzkoa, perched among mountains. It is Ainhoa's village: she does not live there any more, but she lived there for years and wanted to marry there, and when you see it you understand why. There was no booked estate here and no arrival time — there was the village, the fields, and a family who put us up for three nights.

Those three nights are half of this story. We got up with them, ate with them and their friends, and by the time the day comes you already know what they think and what they want. Then there is no need to intrude: you know what to show and what to leave, and it tells later, in the edit.

They married twice in two days. First the traditional ceremony from Ghana, where Jeff is from. The groom's family knocks at the door of the bride's family and asks to be let in: the brother is looking for a wife and would like to marry one of the daughters of the house. Women come forward and he keeps saying no — she is very beautiful, but she is not the one — until he finds his. Then come the offerings and the gifts, and after that food and a party. The next day the Basque one arrived, in an open field with the mountains cut out behind.

There are two films rather than one because there were two weddings on two days. Separating them was the only way each ceremony could be understood: first part, second part.