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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The Red Nightmare - Senator McCarthy
Films
Films
VICTOR SAVILLE
87 min.
At a dance during a short visit to London, American Melinda Grayton meets mature British officer Michael Curragh to whom she gets married a few weeks later. A short time afterwards, the girl becomes curious about the frequent and mysterious outings made by her husband every time he receives a postcard with no message. One day, she finds a letter explaining the truth: Michael is a Russian spy. She demands an explanation and he promises to give up his work, but doesn't do so, and even shoots at his wife during a hunting trip, although he doesn't hit her. Melinda eventually gets in touch with Scotland Yard to report her husband.
HENRY HATHAWAY
97 min.
Mike Kells, a courier for the Department of State, travels to Salzburg to meet his old friend Sam Carew from the American Embassy in Bucarest. But Sam is murdered, leaving Mike no option but to go to Trieste to try and recover the documents his friend had obtained and which contain the Red Army's plans to invade Yugoslavia He gets friendly with an American girl but ends up discovering that she is a Russian agent.
GORDON DOUGLAS
83 min.
Matt Cvetic is the son of slovene immigrants and a member of the Communist Party, which names him head of the Pittsburg district. After a fight at school with some boys who accuse his father of being a Communist, Dick runs home to ask Matt if what they say is true. The answer is affirmative and the son rejects his father. Matt writes a letter to Dick in which he tells him the truth, that he is an FBI infiltrator in the Communist Party, and gives it to Novac the priest to look after. Meanwhile, the agitators try to boycott the production of a steel factory.
JACK ARNOLD
81 min.
A spaceship breaks down and crashes in the Arizona desert. In order to repair it without attracting attention, the alien crew takes on the appearance of people from a nearby town, although they are soon found out. Fear of the unknown grips both sides; the earthlings are afraid of the alien's chameleonic skills, even although they can be killed with a simple gun shot. Only Richard Carlson, an astronomer who lives as somewhat of a recluse with respect to the rest of the community, tries to keep the calm.
ELIA KAZAN
105 min.
A Czechoslovakian theatre company tries to cross the Iron Curtain to the West. The director is sick of state control, of having his artists arrested and of having to deal with spies. He also has personal problems: he suffers from the indifference of his young wife and is worried about the future of his fanciful daughter. His decision to try and cross the border to Austria earns him the respect of his family and employees.
LEO McCAREY
122 min.
Lucille starts to suspect that her eldest son, John, is not a good patriot. For example, he doesn't go to his brothers' farewell party before leaving for the Korean War, he mocks the American Legion and at one point states that the Bible should be interpreted symbolically and not literally. John's mother obliges him to swear that he is not, nor has been, a Communist, which he does. However, when John goes back to his job in Washington, Lucille discovers that he is being investigated by the FBI as a possible spy. As if this wasn't enough, John is going out with a girl who is also a suspect. For the mother, this is sufficient proof of his guilt.
DELMER DAVES
94 min.
The action takes place in the post-war Soviet Union, when the so-called cold war confrontation with the United States is at its worst. Correspondent Philip Sutherland and Russian dancer Marya Lamarkina get married and live happily together until their situation becomes complicated when a new law declares deportation for foreigners and Philip is about to be thrown out of the country. Refusing to be separated by force, they organize Marya's flight from the USSR.
NUNNALLY JOHNSON
93 min.
Influential businessman Charles Leatherby goes to the American sector in Berlin to demand the freedom of his son Johnny, a soldier who has been kidnapped by Russian agents. Coronel Van Dyke, the officer in charge of the case, puts him in the picture: Johnny is to be exchanged for a retired couple who will probably be executed as soon as they are handed over to the Communists. Van Dyke discovers that Hoffy, his contact, is on the Russian payroll, and takes advantage of her to draw up a plan of action to rescue the soldier and save the old couple.
SAMUEL FULLER
83 min.
Pickpocket Skip McCoy, a poor wretch who has already been in jail three times, steals a handbag from a prostitute called Candy. But the girl, an unwitting accomplice to Joey, who passes information to the Communists, is being followed by federal agents. The thief runs off, not realizing that the bag contains a reel of microfilm with confidential information. Everyone, from the police to Joey, are therefore interested in finding Skip who, when he finds out how much the microfilm is really worth, tries to sell it to the highest bidder.
THOM ANDERSEN , NOEL BURCH
The victims of the blacklists that circulated in Hollywood during the "witch-hunts" set off by Senator McCarthy have been treated as martyrs, but their work is still either denigrated or quite simply ignored. This documentary takes a look at these works to demonstrate that, in spite of the restrictions, the Hollywood Communists were totally capable of expressing their ideas in the films they wrote or directed.
HARRY HORNER
85 min.
Young astronomer Chris Cronyn has succeeded in making contact with Mars. The first messages he receives indicate that hunger, poverty and war have been erradicated from the planet, and that the Earth's energy sources were given up as obsolete centuries ago. This has a destabilizing effect on the world: the stock exchange cracks, Governments fall and chaos rules, to the unconcealed enjoyment of Russian hierarchy. But the next message seems to come from God himself and calls for peace and understanding between men. When they hear "The Voice of America" on a radio station, the Russian peasants rebel.
WILLIAM A. WELLMAN
87 min.
Gouzenko, an officer at the Soviet Union Embassy, deciphers coded messages and is a first-hand witness to Soviet espionage activities . He starts realising that, in comparison with the embassy's sordid atmosphere, the Canadians are happy people, capable of enjoying themselves even in the middle of the Second World War. He decides to go over to the other side with his wife, Anna. Secret police agent Ranev follows them and the Soviet authorities put the pressure on to get the defectors back.
GEORGE SIDNEY
119 min.
Maria Bühlen, a dancer with the Bolshoi ballet in Leningrad, decides to escape from Communism. She is taken in by the members of a convent in Vienna, who hide and protect her from the mother superior. The Austrian capital, a nest of intrigue and espionage during the years immediately after the Second World War, is therefore the setting for the action. The Russians send one of their agents, Pinieve, to try and get Maria back.
R. G. SPRINGSTEEN
87 min.
Desenkatuak jota eta etsipenak besarkatua den gerrako beterano honen mentura konta ahal izateko nahita aukeratu zuten ekoizleek eta zuzendariak ia ezezagunak ziren aktoreak. Britainia Handian estrenatu zenean
WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES
82 min.
Filme honek zientzi fikziozko eta beldurrezko jeneroen ezaugarri zehatzak ditu. Baita kazetaritzaren gainean egindako zeluloidezko zenbait saiorena ere. Garai hartako Estatu Batuek zituzten beldur, kezka eta
ROBERT STEVENSON
73 min.
Bradley Collins, a hot-shot executive with a San Francisco shipping company, is visited by Vanning, an unscrupulous Communist Party leader. Vanning confronts Collins with his Communist past and with an unresolved crime in an attempt to blackmail him and stop talks between the docker's union and the company. On top of this, Christine, Collin's mistress during his Communist period, is threatening to destroy his new marriage. By the time Collins decides to tell the truth to his self-sacrificing wife Nan, it is too late.
GORDON DOUGLAS
90 min.
The plans for making atomic bombs fall into the hands of a rebel group led by Igor Braun. The United States and Great Britain work together to stop the Russians from getting a hold of them. To do this, they put two of their best men on the job, Inspectors Daniel O'Hara of the FBI and Philip Grayson of Scotland Yard.
ALFRED WERKER
98 min.
Moscow wants to know the details of a secret American project called "Falcon", directed by the famous mathematician, Albert Kafer. After the failure of Martin, an American who works for the Russians, they send a special agent called Alex to do the job. To get what they want, the Communists kidnap Kafer's son in East Berlin, telling the scientist that if he wants him back, he should walk east on Beacon to a rendezvous where he will hand over his research documents.
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