Manu Aranguren (Ramon Barea stars as the disheveled negotiator at the center of the story) is the contact person from the Spanish government in the negotiations with terrorist group ETA represented by Jokin (Josean Bengoetxea) and subsequently Patxi (Carlos Areces). But the dialog is strongly influenced by wrongs and double language , leaving the personal relationships of the negotiators as key to its result . At the negotiation table is Manu Aranguren (an actual Basque socialist politician) , an international negotiator , a translator (Melina Matthews) and Jokin . This interesting film is full of humor , enjoyable scenes , brief drama , good feeling and being deliberately paced . It is a simple , sympathetic and intelligent portrait of a few people during an important politic meeting . The picture is developed in slow-moving but is pretty well realized , including hilarious elements here and there . This is a light comedy dealing with a government negotiator who attempts to agree with terrorist group ETA . But the dialog , far from a professional and solemn process , is really influenced by misunderstandings , errors and chance . However , it moves in fits and starts most of which would be desirable, with more traps the viewer resists any kind , and some moments of enjoyment and others quite a few embarrassing ; so, the tone of the film is light-hearted and the most part results to be rich in implausibilities . This is Borja Cobeaga's third directorial effort , as Borja he wrote the biggest hit in history of the Spanish cinema : 8 Apellidos Vascos ; in ¨Negociador¨ he tackled a notoriously thorny subject , the secret negotiations between government representatives , an international negotiator and Basque terrorist group Eta that caused about 1.000 killings , did it as a comedy , and ended up judged the top Basque film of the 2014 San Sebastian Film Festival . As only the personal relationships of the negotiators can save it to get a positive outcome , as both of whom make love with the same prostitute , both eat similar Basque plates , among other things . The cast is frankly well , such as Ramón Barea who gives a nice acting as Basque politician who is the contact person from the Spanish government in the delicate negotiations and an excellent support cast as Secun de la Rosa , Óscar Ladoire , Carlos Areces , Melina Matthews and brief acting by Raul Arévalo. Colorful as well as evocative cinematography by Jon D Domínguez , Nacho Vigalondo's usual cameraman ; being shot on location in Basque Country , San Sebastian , San Juan De Luz and South France. This San Sebastian Winner was professionally written/produced directed by Borja Gobeaga . Basque writer-director Borja Cobeaga is having himself quite good years , first out of the gate he served as a co-writer on Spanish Affair , a little comedy that became the top grossing Spanish film of all time on its 2014 release . Borja is a director and writer, he was born in 1977 in Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa, País Vasco, where usually shoots his movies . He a good filmmaker expert on comedies as he has proved writing several amusing flicks . Being known for Pagafantas (2009), Éramos Pocos (2005) and this Negociador (2014) . Being especially known for ¨8 Apellidos Vascos¨ considered to be the biggest box office in Spanish cinema and he is nowadays writing ¨8 Apellidos Vascos 2¨ . The matter of his ¨Negociador¨ was exhibited in 62nd San Sebastian Festival for its Zabaltegi section , a non-competitive strand featuring a variety of films, documentaries, shorts and television . It Won Irizar Award Best Basque Film to Borja Cobeaga and Won Turia Award Best Actor , Ramón Barea .