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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New Directors
Films
Films
New Directors
New Directors
León Siminiani
Spain
90 min.
Elías is a film director whose dream was to make a heist movie. During the summer of 2013 he reads an article about the arrest of "The Robin Hood of Vallecas", leader of "the sewer gang", making him feel as though he may have found the opportunity to make his dream come true. He writes to Robin Hood in the prison where he is serving his sentence. Against all odds, Elías receives a reply three weeks later. Robin Hood agrees to receiving a visit from him in prison.
Hiroshi Okuyama
Japan
76 min.
Yura is a young boy whose family leaves Tokyo to live with his grandmother in the snowy countryside. Not only must he fit in at a new school, but it's a Christian one to boot. At first he's puzzled when he and his classmates are called to "worship", but he gradually adjusts to his new environment. One day, in the middle of a prayer, he sees a small Jesus appear before him. Every wish Yura makes to Jesus comes true, and he starts to have faith in the power of the Lord.
Hannes Baumgartner
Switzerland
92 min.
Jonas Widmer, one of the best runners in Switzerland, is focussed on participating in the Olympic games. Besides sports, Jonas is also a successful cook and plans to move in with his girlfriend, Simone. But Jonas's perfect life is increasingly disturbed by memories of his late brother. He starts leading a tragic double life, robbing young women at night. Based on a true story.
Inés María Barrionuevo
Argentina
105 min.
Julia, an ex-actress, and her daughter Emma, move into a mansion in a village of Córdoba, Argentina. It's winter and Julia has to get the house into shape to sell it. Despite the time to have passed since her husband and Emma’s father died, they are still in mourning. The days go by gloomily. Grief has made Julia quiet and cool with her daughter. One night, Julia runs into Gaspar, a life-long friend. Gaspar tries to convince Julia to take part in a theatre competition. Julia, Emma and Gaspar find a way to rebuild their lives by starting a somewhat shaky project to form a new type of family.
Lila Avilés
Mexico
102 min.
Young Eve works as a chambermaid in one of Mexico City's most luxurious hotels, an exclusive glass tower inhabited by guests so wealthy she can only imagine their lives through intimate fantasies around the belongings they've left behind. Long, laborious shifts prevent Eve from caring for her son while she helps guests with their own children. Believing her situation will improve if she is promoted to work in the executive suites, she accepts a grueling schedule. To meet her goal, she also enrolls in the hotel's adult education programme...
Romain Laguna
France
85 min.
Nina, a 16-year-old girl, dreams of adventure. Meanwhile, she spends the summer between her village in the south of France and the theme park where she works. Just before meeting Morad, a teenage boy from an Algerian family living in the nearby council houses, Nina sees a meteorite falling from the sky which it seems only she can see... like an omen.
Ismet Sijarina
Kosovo - Albania - Republic of Macedonia
93 min.
In the early '90s, the Yugoslavian Government cancelled the autonomy of Kosovo, dissolved its Parliament and closed down the National Television. All institutional life was reorganized by the new authorities, while the majority of the citizens responded with peaceful demonstrations. During this terrible time, Fadili, who works as an archivist, has to choose between two options, knowing that both of them are wrong. He therefore involuntarily and unwillingly "swallows" the shame, endures the pressure bearing down from all sides and puts up with the bad reputation for only one reason: to provide for his family.
Laurits Flensted-Jensen
Denmark
89 min.
Neon Heart is a story about three people who are chasing life and each other. Laura comes home to Denmark after a short-lived porn career in the USA. Despite the remaining online videos of her, she tries to put the pieces of a normal existence back together. Niklas, Laura's ex, is a recovering addict who finds meaning in his new job taking care of two men with Down's syndrome. As he develops newfound empathy for the pair, he begins to bend the rigid rules of his role, leading him down a slippery slope. Frederik, Niklas' teenage brother, is out to gain respect as a hooligan, peer-pressured into difficult situations and forced to negotiate the demands of masculine bravado. In glimpses and fragments of the past and present, we follow Laura, Niklas and Frederik on a journey full of taboos and desires where connections are made and torn apart.
Koldo Almandoz
Spain
88 min.
Khalil is a young man torn from his roots who lives on the edge of town, where the industrial estates merge into the river and the marshes. Khalil gets by as best he can and spends his time with an old poacher, who shares a house on the riverbank with a brother he hasn't spoken to in years. On the banks of the marshes, the tides mark the time of love and heartbreak, of friendship and revenge.
Francisco Marise
Argentina - Spain
65 min.
Para la guerra explores the memory and loneliness of a former Cuban internationalist soldier by observing his body and his (extra)ordinary gestures. This is a war film with no shooting, but with a wound: that of this special forces veteran who tries to find the colleagues of his commando who survived their last mission 30 years ago.
Kun Yang
China
80 min.
Having left Yunnan, his native city, Yu Zhao moved to Beijing, where he has lived for more than thirty years. Since his retirement, his only occupation has been helping his son in the house and looking after his grandson. When Yu Zhao returns to Yunnan with the intention of starting a new life, he finds that things, his relatives, friends and loves of the past are no longer the way he remembered them. Everything has become colder and more routine. The people he knew now have their own lives and the dream of a new love disappears too. Gradually Yu Zhao realises that Yunnan is no longer his true home, and he decides to return to Beijing.
Nataliia Meshchaninova
Russia - Lithuania
124 min.
Egor is a 25-year-old vet on a rural farm which doubles as a hunting dog training center using domesticated foxes. Although he is a grown man, deep inside he is a wounded child who finds it easier to get along with animals than with people. In desperate need of a controlled environment after a violent past relationship with his mother, all he wants is to care for the animals and to feel part of the close-knit family he works for. When animal rights activists invade this fragile microcosm, upsetting its delicate balance, Egor's world begins to crumble...
Ash Mayfair
Vietnam
96 min.
In 19th century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung. Soon she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May's hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalizing possibility when she falls pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.
Hadrian Marcu
Romania
93 min.
Petru is a drilling engineer living in a community of oil industry workers. He has mixed feelings. On the one hand he is about to marry his pregnant girlfriend Laura, on the other he is involved with the wife of one of his colleagues, Sonia, the victim of a serious accident at work. His new life seems about to begin while she feels hers is ending. When Laura finds out about his relationship with Sonia, all hell breaks loose. Petru feels terrible guilt, but also responsibility for the baby-to-be. Participant in the first edition of Glocal in Progress.
Celia Rico Clavellino
Spain - France
94 min.
Leonor wants to leave home but she doesn't dare tell her mother. Estrella doesn't want her daughter to leave, but she isn't able to keep her by her side. Mother and daughter will have to face up to a new stage in their lives in which the world they share is wavering.
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