Born on 27 January 1949 in Olleta, Navarra. He was the last hope for his parents, who had already lost three baby sons. His father was a farmhand and blacksmith and Armendáriz spent his first year in rural Basque Country, a landscape that would reappear repeatedly in his filmography. He was six years old when, in 1955, he moved with his parents to Pamplona in search of a better life. At age eighteen, he discovered existentialism in the works of foreign authors. After completing his mandatory military service, he studied electronics, a subject he taught as university professor at the Instituto politecnico de Pamplona. Interested in filmmaking, he joined a film club, studied folklore, wrote and performed protest songs and bought a Super 8 camera to make his own short films. In 1975 he was arrested for protesting the killing of a Basque activist and faced trial on charges of conspiracy; this coincided with Franco's death and a subsequent amnesty was declared.