72nd San Sebastian Festival - 20/28 September 2023
71SSIFF - 22/30 September 2023
Official
Sponsor
Sponsor
Media
Partner
Partner
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).
Calls for entries Log-in to MY FESTIVAL
Complete this form with your details for accessing the contents reserved for registered users.
Enter your email and press send. You will receive a link through which you can reset your password
Complete this form with your details for accessing the contents reserved for registered users.
Agenda
...
Programme and tickets 
Search 
Official Section
Films
Films
Francisco J. Lombardi
Spain - Peru - Germany
110 min.
A shy, insecure and peace-loving cop is put in charge of Palle police station, in the small north Peruvian village of the same name, and which was once home to the most violent and beautiful people of the pre-Inca period, the Moches. A series of crimes are being committed according to the Moche tradition (young people are having their throats cut and their eyes gouged out). The policeman, called Percy, is put in charge of the investigation together with a Spanish pathologist and a professor who specializes in the Moche culture. The increasingly intimate relationship between the pathologist and Percy leads him to experience a fiery passion and deep urges which he has difficulty controlling.
Ted Demme
USA
112 min.
About to turn thirty, Willie comes home to his native village where he runs into his old friends Tommy, Kev, Paul and Mo, and starts partying with them again. Despite the different directions their lives have taken, they still have one thing in common, a fear of compromise and love. They all agree on the fact that the women of their lives and the "perfect" loves they had dreamt about in their adolescence are two completely different things. And some of these women sometimes even create new problems, like Marty, Willie's precocious young neighbour, or Andera, the local bar owner's beautiful cousin.
Opening Film (In competition)
Bob Rafelson
UK
100 min.
Alex Gates, a cynical and refined wine dealer with money problems, and his friend, a professional safe-blower, plan to steal a million-dollar diamond necklace. After a fight between Alex and his wife, tired of her husband's playing around with other women, the perfect crime degenerates into an explosion of violence. The loot changes hands and becomes a tempting bait arousing the most brutal of instincts. Greed, desire and vengeance entwine in a tense plot, where the predator runs the risk of becoming the prey.
Imanol Uribe
Spain
87 min.
A taxi driver called Antonio decides to make the most of a winter Sunday to visit a remote beach with his family. While they are looking for mollusks, his youngest daughter sees a black man burying another man of the same race, and runs to tell her parents. The man, Ombasi, sets off after after the girl asking for help in his language, but Antonio doesn't understand him and thinks his family is in danger. A series of circumstances oblige them to spend the night together on the beach. The next morning, the aggressivity explodes, with disastrous results for everyone involved.
Bertrand Tavernier
France
131 min.
November 1918, towards the end of the First World War in the Balkans. The allied victory in Thessalonica completes those achieved on the other fronts. Together with the men he commands, Conan has played a large part in this victory: fighting with knives before the guns arrived. However, now that this extremely dirty war has come to an end, the men are ordered to put away their daggers, wash their hands of blood and forget their memories of killings and murders. And their medals while they are at it.
Gracia Querejeta
Spain - UK
104 min.
Robert Rylands, a university archaeologist who has been lost from sight for the last ten years, returns to Oxford when he is about to turn 70. He spends a whole night making a voluntary statement at Archdale police station. His story establishes links between several people: the redhead called Jill, her daughter, Sue, the Indian girl, Ahira, the black student, Abraham Jones, and the Spanish boy, Juan Noguera, who has just arrived to give a course on literature. Rylands' declaration uncovers his long-standing, intimate relationship with Alfred Cromer-Blake. The news that Cromer-Blake's days are numbered make what is Robert Rylands' last journey into a personal emotional experience
Helke Misselwitz
Germany
88 min.
"Little Angel" is the nickname given to Ramona Schneider, a hypersensitive woman with a nondescript lifestyle. A grotesque coincidence is responsible for her encounter with Andrej, a Polish man who makes a living from selling contraband cigarettes, in the area around the Ostkreuz train station in Berlin. Ramona falls in love with Andrej, but ends up suffering a tragical and inevitable fall from the heights of her unexpected happiness.
Renato De Maria
Italy
100 min.
Carlo Ruggiere, the director of an important company in Milan, is about to buy a flat, because the owner of his family's rented apartment wants them out. Suddenly, Carlo is given the sack and one thing leads to another like a nightmare: they are thrown out of their flat, the bank refuses to give them a mortgage to buy the new one and they lose their deposit. The Town Hall gives them accommodation in one of the suburbs, but the stress is too much for their relationship and Carlo's wife, Liliana, decides to leave with her son and spend the summer at her parents' house. Now alone, Carlo no longer has the right to welfare housing and has to go into a hostal, where he starts discovering how the down-and-out live.
Majid Majidi
Iran
96 min.
Mehralla is a 14-year-old boy who has to take care of his family after his father's death. Obliged to find a job, he leaves his village and ends up wandering through several South Iranian cities. After a series of experiences, he returns to his native village only to find that his mother has remarried. The confrontation between stepson and stepfather creates a series of tense situations and leads to a dangerous adventure.
Eduardo Mignogna
Argentina
102 min.
Clara Goldstein publishes an announcement in an attempt to find a man her own age (about 55) with whom to start a relationship, in which she includes a drawing of the Star of David. She gets a phone call from a man who introduces himself as Saúl Levín, and they agree to meet in a central Buenos Aires café. Although they get along fairly well together, Clara discovers that he is really called Raúl Ferraro and that he isn't a Jew at all. The reason for Clara having published the announcement is the forthcoming visit from Boston by her older brother, to whom she has lied for years, telling him that she lives with a man of her own beliefs. Clara offers to hire Raúl to play the part of her husband, to do which she has to teach him the Jewish ways
Zhou Xiaowen
Hong Kong - China
115 min.
Ying Zheng, the first emperor of China, and the composer Gao Jianli, have been close since childhood, as Gao's mother was a wet nurse to them both. After years of separation, Ying becomes the king of Qin, while Gao is a musician in the court of Yan. When Ying conquers the kingdom of Yan, Gao becomes his prisoner and is branded on the forehead to prove the fact. Gao is given the job of teaching music to the king's daughter, Yueyang. The two fall in love, but Ying, for reasons of political convenience, has already promised Yueyang to a general's son.
Carlos Diegues
Brazil
90 min.
Tieta was thrown out of her home at the early age of 17 by her father after he discovered she was no longer a virgin. Now, 26 years later, Tieta is a rich widow who lives in São Paulo with important financial and political contacts. She decides to return to her village, Santana do Agreste, which still lives in the past and maintains its retrograde customs. Her arrival is one of the greatest events in the place's history. Tieta is attracted to her cousin Ricardo and they become lovers. Local life is given another shock when a multinational chemical company decides to install a highly contaminating factory in the village, thereby creating a split between the inhabitants.
Gillies Mackinnon
UK
105 min.
Eddie runs makeshift auctions for Power. He travels around Ireland with a Trojan van and can sell anything to anyone because he's got the gift of the gab. Power is a widower, a travelling man who has settled down to build an empire. When he sees the gorgeous Kathleen, he falls completely and madly in love with her. She accepts his marriage proposal, despite the massive age difference, but runs away three days after the wedding with Dermot, Power's nephew, and the almost £11,000 in dowry money. But Power has been hardened by his years on the road, and is not about to be stopped by the theft of his girl and his money.
Pilar Miró
Spain
120 min.
Angel Barciela, now a professor in Mathematics, and Francisco Valduque, a police inspector, meet at the funeral of an engineer called Buendía, where they both hope to see Julia, the daughter of the deceased. The girl was one of the people involved in the investigation which started when the body of a man turned up in a park with a bullet in the head and a gun in his hand. What first looks like a suicide is, however, much more complicated. This death is related to that of a civil governor and a flour manufacturer, both Falangists, who had lived as refugees in a chalet belonging to the engineer during the war. "Those up above" put the pressure on so that the case will be closed quickly, with no political involvement.
Official Sponsor 
Media Partner 
Official Collaborators: 
Associated Institutions:
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
Suscribe to our newsletter
We inform you that the personal data you provide to us on completing this form will be processed by the San Sebastian Festival as the body responsible for this website. The personal data we request will be processed for the purpose of sending you our newsletter. Authorisation to do so is given through the consent of the interested party. Only the San Sebastian Festival will send you messages and we will not disclose your data to third parties. We inform you that the data you provide to us will be stored in the Mailrelay (email marketing providers) servers, located within the EU. See the Mailrelay privacy policy. If you do not enter the data appearing as mandatory on the form, we may be unable to fulfil your request. You can exercise your rights of access, rectification, limitation and deletion of data at privacidad@sansebastianfestival.com. You can consult additional and detailed information on Data Production in our privacy policy.