72nd San Sebastian Festival - 20/28 September 2023
71SSIFF - 22/30 September 2023
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Agenda
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Zabaltegi - New Directors
Films
Films
Ana Díez
Spain
90 min.
Ander, a prisoner who has just completed his sentence, is returning to live in his parents home due to a lack of money which stops him form going to live anywhere else. On the way home he is already reliving memories and having premonitions which are projecting him towards his origins with the same strength as that with wich he left. The return trip brings back a nostalgia for his family with whom he had broken all contact, and the urban scenery through which he travels savouring every moment, confronts him with a love that he can almost feel. It is as though his happiness were denied to him in this trip back towards his roots. But his return reunites him especially with Yul, his best friend, with whom he studied and went mountain climbing; his friend who probably took over his place when he decided to leave. However, the society in which they live moves them, without them being able to do anything about it, towards a destiny which proves itself to berelentless.
Rafael Moleón
Spain
90 min.
Baton Rouge tells the story of three characters united by the same ambition: money. Isabel Harris, a mature, beautiful and rich woman, suffers from nightmares, her life is a constant fraud, only her intelligence and need for affection allow her to survive her obsession. Antonio, a young 27 years old man, has grown up in a neighborhood, thinks he is a know-all, has always managed to make the best of fortunate moments life has given him. He gives all his love to his little brother who he adores. For Antonio his encounter with Isabel is the great opportunity he has always awaited. He does not mind being a gigolo if it means getting enigh money to keep his promise and travel with his brother to "Baton Rouge", the land where they believe life goes by at the rhythm of jazz. Destiny or coincidence makes him find the head in the character of Ana Alonso, a cold and calculating 28 years old psychiatrist who, regardless of good and bad, tries curing Isabel of her nightmares, as well as being capable of risking her life to become rich. Antonio and Ana plan the perfect crime. A crime which would accuse Isabel and bring them fortune.
Amy Goldstein
USA
40 min.
Medium-length film
The film's two independent female characters, the Vampire, Marie, and the free-lance sports photographer Ariel, roam the streets and down-town clubs of Manhattan. Marie wants Ariel to take her a picture. There is something strangely similar in Marie's longings and Ariel's mortal feelings of estrangement. The Vampire's own fear of discovery drives ariel out from behind her camera. Times Square, the Variety Cinema, and Central park have replaced the remote and forbidding landscape of Dracula's Castle. Freed from the Victorianism of Stoker's dracula, the Vampire Marie's eternal thirst is driven by a desire to be recognized in the modern world. The mythic Vampire's invisibility and its so called "perverse" sexuality are played out in a story of obsession and transformation. By change, Ariel's mysterious photograph of the Vampire appears all over New York City in a popular ad campaign for the new perfume, Starvation. The photographer's fascination with the wnigmatic image of marie drawa her into a world where her daytime realities loose their meaning. and, eventually, Ariel's obsession gives way to fulfillment.
Isabel Coixet
Spain
100 min.
This is the story of a young lad, Equiz, qho has seen everything without being anywhere; of his friend Taxi, an ex-rocker that has become a taxi driven, driven crazy by the city and by the lose of his girlfriend; and of Evax, a figther and a messenger with a very hard demeanor who dreams of great business deals while she lives of petty theft. These three search the city from one side to the other trying to find an opportunity. They are sometimes hostile, sometimes friendly, figthing in order to softern their daily reality. Trying to find out who they are and where they are going, they get irrevocably stuck in the middle.
Teodoro Ríos, Santiago Ríos
Spain
100 min.
This film takes place in the Island of Gomera in the Canary Islands in 1947.Benito, nicknamed Guarapo, a landless peasant like so many others, dreams about a new life in America; but emigration legal procedures push him to try and set out secretly. Guarapo, is in love with Amparo who works for don Luis Ventura, the owner of banana plantations, farms and his workers lives, must now confront not only the difficulties of a secret emigration helped by don Virgilio, a man's whose mind contains the historical past of the island, but also his landowner who has now turned his attentions to Amparo. Followed by the police, he hides in the density of the woods like a hunted animal. The farmers, who are on his side, help him by using a whistled message particular to this island, using him as a symbol of rebelry against their deprivation. Guarapo will pay for his daring, for his right to survival, to love and be loved with blood and violence. Love and hate alternate on Guarapo's voyage to the coast where a boat full of hope and adventure will be waiting for him.
Raoul Peck
Federal Republic of Germany
98 min.
After having been tortured and spending seven years in Haiti prison for his antigovernmental activities, Joseph Bossuet went to America where he now lives in New York with his parents and younger brother. He works in a factory and meets his cousin again who was his childhood sweetheart. Joseph spends most of his free time ina shop which is also a cafeteria, bookshop and place of gossiping. One day, whilst visiting his cousin at work, he thinks he sees his torturer amongst the clients. This encounter troubles him enormously, also affecting his relationship with his family and cousin. Joseph leaves his job in order to find his torturer which the eventually does.
Ute Wieland
Federal Republic of Germany
97 min.
Snow falls through the wintry night over the city. Heinz Kamp, 60, a widowed, unemployed book-keeper cannot sleep. Ventuting out for a walk through the cementery, he comes across a curious young girl without money or warm clothing. He lets her sleep the night in his apartment. They next morning she is in a hurry to leave. that same evening Kamp returns to find his front door broken open. Nothing was touched in the apartment. Solitary Kamp is very suspicious. Could the girl have been behind it? All he knows is her name, Claudia. Gradually she begins to plage his thoughts day anf night. One evening she returns and entangles Kamp in some bizarre, puzzling incidents. He helos her out but wonders if he is doing the right thing. The girl's warmth and charm rouse feelings in him which he tris to supress. What does she wants from him? One day he comes home to find Claudia gone, along with his entire savings. Kamp's world crumblres. He prepares himself for death. But things take an entirely different turn.
Maurizio Zaccaro
Italy
62 min.
Sandro is one of the many middle-aged commuters who are bored with their work and family and who go to work in Milan by train every morning.It all begins one day when, due to a train strike, Sandro es obliged to take his own car to het to the city. He has a FIAT 1100, one of the very first models, and which is still apparently in good condition. During the day the FIAT breathes its last breath and "dies". It won't start, there is a kilometers long traffic jam and the motor is burned out.He has to get rid of his only beloved car which has been a witness to so many years of his life. This same car will provoke many encounters throughout the day, which is full of surprises.
Francesca Archibugi
Italy
90 min.
The Forbicioni family is made up of the father who is around forty, and the mother who spends half of her time at an office and the other half at home looking after her five children. But there is a new addition to this large and noisy family with the arrival of their cousin Mignon from Paris. Clara, Giorgio's wife, hates mignon from the start, but Giorgio is impressed by her and the two of them begin a friendly relationship. Giorgio follows her in everything, sometimes with desesperation due to his feeling lonely whitin his family. However, Mignon betrays him with Cacio and the friendship between Mignon and Giorgio comes to an end leaving Giorgio more lonely than ever. He even gets to the point of attempting suicide.
Pedro de la Sota
Spain
90 min.
On his way to Italy, Leon de Balanza, deserter from the colonial army, enters a small Navarra valley in order to recuperate the inheritance belonging to his bastard father. Accompanied by a corporal and two women from the troop, he finds shelter in a mountain hut surrounded by the thick Baztan (Navarro valley) undergrowth. Andrés Balanzategui, his father's stepbrother, lives in a small farmhouse with two young women taken in as children. Balanzategui refuses to split up the land of his ancestors, to break up the humble heritage and give it to a mercenary soldier, an adventorous passer-by. The confrontation between the two men comes to the point of a duel to death. Balanza manages to kill Balanzategui and so begins his second confrontation against the two women who are determined to defend the land to the last.
David Rathod
USA
80 min.
Youn student Vikram desai (Ashutosh Gowariker) arrives in San Francisco from Bombay, hoping to stury engineering at UC Berkeley. Stranded by his host family's unexpected relocation, he finds himself with little money and uncertain plans for college. Undaunted, Vikram decides he wants to stay in America. In order to conserve his money he gets a room and a job in a seedy transient hotel, which turn out to be run by a clever and formidable Indian immigrant, Mrs. Shah (Pearl Padamsee).Vikram is mesmerized by the bizarre, colorful, and materialistic world of the modern America. The freedom he has seen in American movies drwas Vikram to a local theater specializing in horror flicks, where he meets Sue, an attractive teenager with dreams and an offbeat view of life. Through her, he discovers the subterranean side of the city's music scene, and through him, she learns about Hindi films, which she considers alienand therefore delightful.
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Opening hours
Monday to Thursday: 09:00h - 15:00h
Friday: 10:00h - 14:00h
Monday to Thursday: 09:00h - 15:00h
Friday: 10:00h - 14:00h
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