Errementari

Errementari (also released as *The Blacksmith and the Devil*) is a 2017 Basque-language fantasy horror film. It was directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo, who co-wrote the script with Asier Guerricaechebarría. The story adapts a Basque version of the folktale *The Smith and the Devil*, originally recorded by Father Joxemiel Barandiaran. The film is set in 1843 and follows a blacksmith who keeps a demon locked up, and an orphan girl who sets the demon free.

During the First Carlist War in 1835, a rebel named Francisco Patxi survives an execution with a demon’s help and kills the soldiers who captured him. Eight years later, government investigator Alfredo Ortiz arrives in Araba looking for Patxi, who now lives in a ruined forge in the woods. Local villagers avoid the forge because of rumors that Patxi murdered his wife and kidnaps children. They distrust Ortiz, since the government melted down all their metal—including the church bell—to make weapons during the war. A village boy named Benito steals a letter revealing that Ortiz is actually searching for gold that went missing during the conflict.

An orphan girl named Usue, whose face is scarred from burns, is bullied by Benito, who throws her doll over Patxi’s fence. Ortiz hires villagers to raid the forge, suspecting Patxi has the gold, but Patxi drives them off; one man falls into a bear trap and dies. Usue goes to retrieve her doll while Patxi disposes of the body. Inside the forge, she finds a boy locked in an iron cage. He begs her to steal Patxi’s ring of keys and free him. She does, but the boy grabs a pitchfork and reveals himself to be the demon Sartael. He kidnaps Usue, promising to return her for Patxi’s soul, but gets caught in another bear trap, and Usue is knocked unconscious. Patxi breaks off one of the demon’s horns and locks him back in the cage. Benito tells Ortiz that Patxi and a demon have taken Usue, and Ortiz rallies the men to rescue her.

Usue wakes to find Patxi torturing Sartael. The demon explains that during the war he made a deal to keep Patxi alive so he could see his wife again. When Patxi returned home, his wife had taken a new lover, believing him dead. Patxi teaches Usue how to torment demons: throwing chickpeas on the floor, which demons cannot resist counting, and ringing gold bells blessed by the church.