Rotterdam 2026 Review: THE NIGHT Holds Horrors And Wonders

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has started its 2026 edition. And even though the festival slants towards arthouse as always, there are plenty of genre films to enjoy as well. Case in point: Paul Urkijo Alijo's Gaua a.k.a. The Night, which is an example of European folk horror at its finest. It is Alijo third feature film, and like the previous two (Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil and Irati) it is based on myths from the North-West of Spain, the Basque country.

In The Night, we see Kattalin, a young woman, running into the woods after trying to poison her husband. According to myth, you shouldn't venture in the woods after dark. It doesn't take long for Kattalin to find out why: some... thing is chasing her. Luckily she gets rescued by three old women living in the woods, who offer her food and shelter for the night. To while away the time, they start telling each other scary stories. They are not just stories though: they are about recent events, concern the locals villagers... and together, they may explain just why Kattalin ran into the woods this night.

Horror anthologies may be out and abound, but fantasy anthologies are somewhat more rare. To think of one THIS good I may need to go all the way back to Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves, released in 1984. And like with what happens in that film, Paul Urkijo Alijo plays with our knowledge of Western fairy-tales and witchcraft, adding some modern sensibilities and amazing art direction. As he showed in his previous films, Alijo has a great eye for catchy visuals and a good grasp of what to do with special effects. The woods at night are black and blue, and all light is orange and comes from fire, torches and lanterns. It's a consistently beautiful film. As for monsters: normally I'm happy when a story like this presents me with one great creature. Well, The Night presented me with three. I left the cinema as a very happy camper. Paul Urkijo Alijo (co)writes his own scripts, in the Basque language, and seems happy to have his films play in the history and legends of that region. Based on the quality so far, I hope he makes more of these.

The film respects the intelligence of its audience, is gorgeous, not too gory, horrifying or explicit... In fact, half an hour in I caught myself wishing I had brought my extended family with me. Then again... somewhat later a rather realistic depiction of a Witches' Sabbath happens and things get quite ehm... adult (so that would have been damn awkward).

Gaua a.k.a. The Night is -thus far- my favorite film of the festival. I gave it a 5 out of 5. This was an International Premiere (meaning it was the first time the film was shown outside of Spain) and I hope it will find its audience in genre fans worldwide.


The Night is currently doing the festival circuit, and as it is partly financed through Amazon, this will probably stream through Prime in the future.