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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Official Section
Films
Films
Fabio Carpi
Italy
118 min.
Authoritarian and capricious, the ederly psychoanalist that everyone calls 'Barbablù' because he's had five wives realizes that his end in near when local television starts preparing his biography. He calls together the entire family -children, daugther-in-law, and grandsons- in his luxurious villa on Lake Como. Difficult relations between parents and children come out under the implacable eye of the grandfather, and the atmosphere becomes tense. contrary to Barbablù's premonition, it's his dependents that one by one begin to disappear. He remains indestructable.
Amos Gitai
Japan - United Kingdom
93 min.
"Brand New Day" follow Eurythmics on their "Revenge" tour around Japan, and like them, is impresed by this country's exotism. Te sounds, the colours, the imagines; everything is new and fascinating to Dave Steward and annie Lennox, who seem to feel ready to analyse their life together and their different personalities.
Not in competition
Robert Frank, Rudy Wurlitzer
Switzerland - Canada
90 min.
Tehsearch of a young musician, Julius, for the legendary Elmore Silk, the world's greatest guitar maker, who disappeared thenty years ago. The realities and the illusions of the 'open road' confront Julius with hi own fears, with who he is as opposed to who he thinks he is, and with losing himself in order to find himself. As Jullius travels further and further nort, he encounters Elmore's ecentric brother, his beleagured daugther and an ex-lover. It is an odyssey, a journey from the centre of one culture (American) to the margins of another (Canadian) film's common thread, or the glue that holds the narrative line together, is the music.
Piero Natoli
Italy
98 min.
Ths story revolves around various persons obssesed with the collapse of their romantic relationships and with their need to redevelop their social lives. Chiara, an actress with dreams of stardom, abandons her husband whom she defines as a failed actor. Mercurio, director of a publishing company, aspires to become a writer and leaves his wife and daugther. Vera, one of his ex-lovers, specializes in dubbing animated characters and longs to climb the social ladder. Vittorio and Luciana, owners of a publishing house, celebrate a festival based in hypocrisi. The cashier of the bar frequented by Mercurio is continually on the telephone...
Dominique Deruddere
Belgium
90 min.
Three "Bukowskian" torrid nights inthe life of a man in search of love. Harry Voss, 12, is a young and naïve. Love is for him, princes and princesses romantically in love and demurely kissing each other in the mouth. His father is a hero who kidnapped his mother and married her on a lonely mountain peak... Later on, he'll do the same... But Harry still has much to learn about passion and desire. But above all he learns that mankind is capable of anything to get his part of love.
José Luis Cuerda
Spain
108 min.
A magical comedy that threads together the histories and the relations of the inhabitants of a forest that the Santa Compaña strolls through without direction. In an enchanted atmospehere where the people, the animals, and the inanimate objects talk among themselves about the doings of malvis, The Forest Bandit, his tribulations and disagreements with Fuco; the works of the girl Pialra; the sorrows of Fiz Cotovelo; the deceptions of the wellman Geraldo by the beautiful Hermelinda and the outrageous adventures of the Roade sisters.
Vicente Aranda
Spain
123 min.
In the last years of Franco's rule, a chicken thief with a long record of delinquency and petty crime, Eleuterio Sánchez, achieved national fame as "El Lute" for his continuous, though temporary, escapes from jail and the death sentence he received for his crimes.
János Dömölky
Hungary
87 min.
Budapest, August, 1956. Benedek Both (BB), a painter who hasn't painted for some time, receives notice of the death of his old friend and fellow painter, Péter Halasz (PH). while BB is recounting the story of his friendship with H to Martha, BB's partner, the phone rings: someone wants to buy one of BB's paintings of PH. the work is entitled Hajnali háztetök and depicts PH in company of a nude woman, Alice, and a clothed woman, Lilith. It is not a portrait, but shows enough likeness to PH that BB disects his memories, he paints, and an even closer likeness emerges. Suddenly,BB is astonished to realize that PH tricked him once and will do it again if he can.
Clare Peploe
UK
94 min.
Katherine is an English photographer who lives in an idyllic village on the Greek island of Rhodes. Her life is tranquil and agreeable except for some money problems and the proximity of her ex-husband, a psychologically unstable sculptor. Freedom can be had, she thinks, by selling to an american multimillionaire an antique Greek jar which was given to her by a friend and art critic.
Opening Film
John Boorman
UK
113 min.
Billy Rohan, nine years old, sees the outbreak of war between Great Britain and Gemany during World War II from a very special point of view. He lives in a suburb of London with his mother and two sisters. his father has joined the army. For Billy, the war signifies fun in the form of "fireworks" every night and going to bed late. He notices everything, including his adolescent sister's giving birth on the day of her wedding. In the final analysis, however, the war is simply an exciting show.
Not in competition
Felipe Cazals
Mexico
108 min.
Claudio O'riley, manager of the fish company he inherited, is at thirty years old, teetering in the edge of insanity. Everything indicates that at an early age he had incestuous relations with his sister Estefania, who died while still very young. Some time later, events and people began to trigger his deliriums. His love of music and the sea, however, could liberate him from an existance that was not worth living.
Jaroslav Soukup
Czechoslovakia
102 min.
Czech boxer Vilda Jakub is completely demoralized after his defeat by the German Shaller. his girlfriend then abandons him and the crises becomes even more profound. It is relieved, however, by an unexpected event: Shaller will fight him again in Prague. His sentimental prospects also seem to improve when he meets the film star Ema Gabriel. What Jakun doesn't know is that the boxing mafia has assigned her the missions of convincing him to lose the match.
Wayne Wang
USA
87 min.
Drood is a young cartoonist who can't cope with reality. his life is a mess. He is thrust harshly into the real world when a beautiful girl with whom he has been having a passionate affair, is found murdered. In the offbeat world of the Los Angeles art and club scenes, Drood becomes an eccentric amateur detective who must solve the mystery to save his own life. But the more he investigates, the more he implicates himself, and the conspiracy against him, which he doesn't understand, closes in on him.
Zlatko Lavanic
Yugoslavia
111 min.
Budimir Sarenac is an honourable man who has fought for his ideals all his life. Now retired, he finds this idealism is hard to mantain.
Closing film out of competition
John Schlesinger
USA
104 min.
The Santeria is a religious sect whose believer evoke supernatural forces for different reasons, including pure avarice. Carl Jamison, a psychiatrist, arrives with his son to New York, the end of his trip. Once stablished, he meets Sean McTaggart, a pragmatic detective who needs his help in order to determine the reason for a series of strange deaths.
David Wheatley
United Kingdom
107 min.
Following the death of their parents, three children become the dependents of their Uncle Philip who lies in London where he has a game and marionette shop. He runs his shop from a distance, employing three disgruntled Irish teenagers. In the hypnotic and enigmatic atmosphere of the shop, the mock reality of the dolls mixes with the folklore of Ireland; soon the three children support the three teenagers in defending their right to enjoy themselves and be happy.
Brian de Palma
USA
140 min.
Brian de Palma's "The Untouchable" evolves against the dense backgrond of Phohibition, "business", death and disappearencees... Kevin Costner ("Silverado"), Sean Connery and Robert de Niro (as Al Capone) star in this movie, whose soundtrack has been composed by Oscar-winner Ennio Morricone.
Not in competition
Michel Khleifi
Palestine - France - Belgium
116 min.
For four months now, martial law has been imposed on an aran palestinian village folloowing some violent demonstrations. The Mukhtar, chief of the village, asks the Israeli military Governor for authority to marry his son in great pomp, and thus to momentarily lift martial law. The Governor hesitates for fear that the wedding turns into political rioting, but finally accepts on condition that the wedding lasts only twenty-four hors and that he and his officers be the guests of honor. The Mukhtar accepts because for him even the enemy must be tolerated when there is a feast, wedding or wake. When he returns to the village, the Mukhtar tries to convince the inhabitants of his decision, for they react differently to the invitation. He thus has to rally their support for his dream to marry his son.
Omer Zülfü Livaneli
Turkey
105 min.
The people of a small village in the anatolia mountains nervously awaits the annual arrival of their landlor to collect his share of the crops and livestock. This year, however, the harvest was ruined by poor counsel from the mayor. Needing someone trustworthy and capable of confronting the mayor, the villagers resort to Tasbash (Stonehead), the village wise man. Unforntunately, they start to see him as a saint, a role that costs him much to accept. Furious at losing control over the village, the mayor organizes a showdown with "The Saint".
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