San Sebastián Reveals Spanish Titles: Isabel Coixet, Fernando Trueba & Isabel Herguera To Debut New Works
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The San Sebastián Film Festival has revealed the lineup of Spanish titles that will screen as part of the Official Selection of its latest edition, which is due to unfold from September 22 — 30. Scroll down for the full list.
Selected titles include Un Amor from Isabel Coixet, who competes for the festival’s Golden Shell for the first time with the pic based on the book of the same name by Sara Mesa and starring Laia Costa at the head of a cast also featuring Hovik Keuchkerian, Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo, Ingrid García-Jonsson and Francesco Carril.
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Filmmaker Fernando Trueba, of the Oscar-nominated feature Chico & Rita (2012), will present his latest project, They Shot the Piano Player, directed alongside Javier Mariscal in the fest’s Special Screening sidebar. The film, narrated by the voice of Jeff Goldblum, follows the figure of Brazilian musician Tenorio Jr. during the early days of the musical movement known as bossa nova.
Elsewhere, visual artist and filmmaker Isabel Herguera, whose films include the shorts Kutxa beltza (2016), Amore d’inverno (2015), brings her first feature, El sueño de la sultana / Sultana’s Dream, to San Seb. The pic is described as a tale based on a short story written in 1905 by Rokeya Hussain in which she tells her own story and that of Ladyland, a Utopian world governed by women.
Away from feature films, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, members of the artistic duo popularly known as Los Javis, make their Official Selection debut with the 7-episode thriller La Mesías, which will screen out of competition and boasts a cast including Roger Casamajor, Macarena García, Lola Dueñas, Carmen Machi, Ana Rujas, Albert Pla, Amaia, Biel Rossell and Cecilia Roth. Ambrossi and Calvo’s credits include Paquita Salas (2016), La Veneno (2020), and Cardo (2021). In 2017, the duo screened their first feature Holy Camp at the festival as the RTVE Gala.
This year San Seb celebrates its 71st edition. Non-Spanish Competition titles include Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu’s latest film MMXX. The festival describes the pic as a story that captures the “wanderings of a bunch of errant souls stuck at the crossroads of history.”
American filmmaker Raven Jackson will also enter the Competition with her debut film, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. The festival described the pic as “a lyrical exploration of the life of a woman in Mississippi.” The film was screened this year in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance.
OFFICIAL SELECTION – In competition
EL SUEÑO DE LA SULTANA / SULTANA’S DREAM
ISABEL HERGUERA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Germany
Taking its inspiration from a feminist sci-fi short story written in Bengal in 1905, Inés sets out on a voyage of discovery around India in search of Ladyland, the Utopian land of women.
O CORNO / THE RYE HORN
JAIONE CAMBORDA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Portugal – Belgium
Cast: Janet Novás, Siobhan Fernándes, Carla Rivas, Daniela Hernán Marchán, María Lado, Julia Gómez, José Navarro, Nuria Lestegás, Diego Anido
Ikusmira Berriak 2020
Illa de Arousa, 1971. Maria is a woman who earns her living by seafood. She is also known on the island for helping other women in childbirth with special dedication and care. After an unexpected event, she is forced to flee and begins a dangerous journey that will make her fight for her survival. Seeking her freedom, Maria decides to cross the border by one of the smuggling routes between Galicia and Portugal.
UN AMOR
ISABEL COIXET (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Laia Costa, Hovik Keuchkerian, Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo, Ingrid García-Jonsson, Francesco Carril
Having escaped from her stressful life in the city, 30-year-old Nat holes up in the small town of La Escapa, in deepest rural Spain. In a rundown country house, with a crochety stray dog, the young girl will try to put her life back on track. Having dealt with her landlord’s hostility and the mistrust of the village locals, Nat finds herself accepting a disturbing sexual proposal made by her neighbour Andreas. This strange and confusing encounter will give rise to an all-consuming and obsessive passion that will completely engulf Nat and make her question the kind of woman she thinks she is.
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Not in competition
LA MESÍAS
Series
JAVIER CALVO (SPAIN), JAVIER AMBROSSI (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Roger Casamajor, Macarena García, Lola Dueñas, Carmen Machi, Ana Rujas, Albert Pla, Amaia , Biel Rossell, Cecilia Roth
Not in competition
The viral video of a Christian pop group made up of several sisters has an enormous effect on the life of Enric, a man tormented by a childhood marked by religious fanaticism and the yoke of a mother with messianic delirium.
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Special Screenings
THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER
FERNANDO TRUEBA (SPAIN), JAVIER MARISCAL (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Special Screenings
Not in competition
A music journalist from New York sets out on a frantic investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Brazilian pianist Tenorio Jr, regular accompanist of Vinicius de Moraes, among others. This animated thriller moving to the beat of jazz and bossa nova portrays the days immediately before the Latin American continent was enshrouded by totalitarian regimes.
NEW DIRECTORS
LA ESTRELLA AZUL / THE BLUE STAR
JAVIER MACIPE (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Argentina
Cast: Pepe Lorente, Cuti Carabajal, Bruna Cusí, Marc Rodriguez, Mariela Carabajal, Noelia Verenice Díaz
The 90s. A famous Spanish rock star travels around Latin America in the endeavour to reconnect with his vocation. There he meets an old musician down on his luck, prompting the birth of an unlikely duo with every chance of becoming an epic commercial failure.
HORIZONTES LATINOS
BLONDI
DOLORES FONZI (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina – Spain – USA
Cast: Dolores Fonzi, Carla Peterson, Rita Cortese, Toto Rovito, Leonardo Sbaraglia
Blondi and Mirko are best friends. They love living together, listen to the same music, watch the same films, they like smoking grass, going to concerts, they share the same friends, everything is perfect between them… but even if they look the same age, Blondi is Mirko’s mother.
EL CASTILLO / THE CASTLE
MARTÍN BENCHIMOL (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina – France – Spain
Cast: Justina Olivo, Alexia Caminos Olivo
Having worked as a maid all her life, Justine’s former employer leaves her an enormous mansion deep in the Argentinian pampa. The only condition is that she must never sell it.
ZABALTEGI-TABAKALERA
ANTIER NOCHE / NIGHTS GONE BY
ALBERTO MARTÍN MENACHO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Switzerland – Spain
Cast: Juan Francisco Cambero Domínguez, Pepa Gracia, Antonio Acosta Narciso, Alba Domingo Martínez
Ikusmira Berriak 2019
Juan Francisco is twelve years old and lives in a village in southern Spain, surrounded by ancient oak trees and solar panels. Through hunting with greyhounds, he discovers the close relationship between humans and animals. Santi and Antonio are part of a youthful modernity that coexists with the oldest of traditions. Pepa is a young mother who works as a seasonal worker. The choral portrait of this youth reveals a land of hares and donkeys, love stories, fires and rave parties.
BÉN TRONG VO KEN VANG / INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL
AN PHAM THIEN (VIETNAM)
Country(ies) of production: Singapore – Vietnam – France – Spain
Cast: Le Phong Vu, Nguyen Thi Truc Quynh, Nguyen Thinh, Vu Ngoc Manh
A reluctant Thien must take the body of his sister-in-law, who died in a freak motorcycle accident in Saigon, and her five-year-old son Dao, who miraculously survived the crash, to their hometown in the countryside. Thien begins a search for his older brother who vanished years ago to hand Dao over to him. On the road, Thien has a series of sublime dreams and enthralling encounters that reignite suppressed memories and forbidden desires. Deep in the labyrinth of these phantom pursuits, Thien battles with his own existential crisis of what is worth living for.
CONTADORES
Short film
IRATI GOROSTIDI (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Santiago Fernández de Mosteyrín, Jaume Ferrete, Claugia Pagès, Iskandar Rementeria, Natalia Suárez, Marina Suárez, Mugerza Ronse
During the 1978 negotiations for a new bargaining agreement in the metalworking sector, a group of militant libertarians defend their radical stance before their factory workmates while looking on crestfallen as the workers’ movement falls to pieces.
MAMÁNTULA
Medium-length film
ION DE SOSA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Germany – Spain
Cast: Lorena Iglesias Lista , Moisés Richart, Marta Bassols
Mamántula is the boy everyone wants, but also a giant spider cross-dressed as a human, fruit of a brief encounter in Berlin’s Tiergarten, in an alternative past of brutalist saunas, never-ending subway corridors and detectives in trench coats and hats.
VELODROME
EL OTRO LADO / THE OTHER SIDE
Series
JAVIER RUIZ CALDERA (SPAIN), ALBERTO DE TORO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Berto Romero, Andreu Buenafuente, Eva Ugarte, María Botto, Nacho Vigalondo
Nacho Nieto, a journalist specialising in paranormal activity, is at a professional and personal low. After a failed suicide attempt he comes back to life accompanied by the ghost of his mentor, doctor Estrada, iconic communicator of mystery, who died more than 20 years ago.
ESTA AMBICIÓN DESMEDIDA / THIS EXCESSIVE AMBITION
Series
SANTOS BACANA (SPAIN), CRISTINA TRENAS (SPAIN), ROGELIO GONZALEZ (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Following the success of his album El Madrileño, C. Tangana is faced with the challenge of creating the most ambitious tour of his career and shaking up the concept of the live performance. A journey undertaken by the artist over more than four years. From the birth of the album in Cuba to the conceptualisation of the show, the hostility of the negotiations, the rehearsals, the awkward conversations, the behind-closed-doors events and the whirlwind of concerts throughout Spain and Latin America.
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