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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Films
Films
Brian Stirner
UK
95 min.
17-year-old Stu works as a kitchen hand and trainee chef in a cheap Bayswater hotel. Both he and his friends try to lay the ghosts of child abuse and break the cycle of random violence in which they have been cast. For Stu the struggle takes on added urgency since it is only by freeing himself of the fears of the past and regaining trust in the world that he can hope to win Kathleen, the girl he loves. He is helped in his fight by Chef who, as surrogate father figure, provides the unconditional love and discipline of which he was robbed as a child. Bolstered by this support, Stu encourages the gang to face their demons and confront their abusers.
Robert Guédiguian
France
110 min.
Clementine, affectionately known as Clim, has been in love with François (Baby) ever since she can remember, and the two of them are bent on tying the knot in spite of the fact that they're both still in their mid-teens; but a rape accusation, not helped by the fact that he is black, puts the man she loves behind bars. While Baby's father would tear down the prison stone by stone to free his son; his wife believes his salvation lies with God. Although Clim's family has done its best to help the boy by finding him a good lawyer and paying his fees, the woman who has accused Baby of rape has scarpered, and the two lovebirds have nothing better to do but wait, while their difficulties bring them closer and the pregnancy Clim announces on one of her visits to the jail advances.
Hirokazu Kore - Eda
Japan
118 min.
At a way-station somewhere between Heaven and Earth, the newly-deceased are greeted by guides who will help them sift through their memories to find a defining moment of life. Each of the dead must choose a single memory to be archived on film and then taken along as they pass into heaven.
Fernando León de Aranoa
Spain - France
99 min.
This is the story of a neighbourhood. It could be any of the areas sprawling out from the big cities that are ignored by both the metro and money. Javi, Manu and Rai are at that age when they are neither men nor children, when they talk a lot about girls but hardly ever with them. They live in an area with huge blocks of subsidised flats, built in dark brick and the poorest of tastes. There's not much to do, and even less so in the month of August. The city centre is long way off and difficult to reach. Time in these parts of town passes more slowly, and in summer, as we already know, that's the one thing there's lots of. Far too much not to spend it on getting into trouble.
Bernardo Bertolucci
Italy
90 min.
An old house in the centre of Rome - a refuge for two lonely people. He's English, middle-aged, withdrawn and eccentric, while she's a young African woman in her early 20's, burdened with worries and hopes. Kinsky hides behind his piano, with music as his only companion. Shandurai comes from far away and finds refuge in Kinsky's house - which she cleans in exchange for a room. Their lives interlink in a game of attractions and refusals, of secrets and allusions, appearance and truth, doubt and certainty. An old house, a man, a woman, and a piano. And through the window, a glimpse of a stormy springtime at the end of the century.
Not in competition
Abolfazl Jalili
Iran
90 min.
A nameless child, with no birth certificate, who doesn't know his age and whom everyone calls a different name. This isn't about Don, it's about all of the people who have no choice but to wander, reflected in the boy's character.
Alejandro Agresti
Argentina - Spain - France - The Netherlands
90 min.
Fed up being treated like a toerag by her passengers and her boss, and one of the few women taxi-drivers in Buenos Aires, Soledad blazes a southward trail in her stolen cab. An accident at the point where the road peters out in Patagonia obliges her to seek help at the nearest village, where it doesn't take long for her to realise that the locals have been cut off from the real world for a bit too long. One of the main problems would seem to be the fact that their only contact with the outside world is the picture house at which they watch dated, speckled films shown in such a strange order that the whole thing has gone to their heads.
Olivier Assayas
France
112 min.
Adrien is going to die. The illness that has been haunting him for so long is coming to the surface and he can no longer hide it from his friends. The void his absence will create is looming on the horizon, especially for his close younger pal Gabriel Deshayes, for whom he has always been a role-model. Gabriel's life has been turned upside-down: having left Jenny after ten years of cohabitation, he has found himself a new lover and a steady job into the bargain. The void left by Adrien is gradually filled with everyday life and its banal concerns.
Gerardo Herrero
Spain - Germany - France - Argentina
98 min.
Two immigrants, the 35-year-old widower father-of-one, Roque Díaz, and German musician, Hermann Frisch, become friends on the way to Argentina. Together they educate Roque's son Ramón and make their fortune with the help of Ciriaco Maidana, the ghost of a man who died in a fight over a woman who only shows himself to Roque and Teresa, an ex-prostitute and brothel madame. These are the years between 1880 and 1900, a turbulent period when the social ladder is fairly easy to climb, but where it's a question of the strongest man wins, so that the two friends have to learn how to get by in the New World.
Bill Condon
USA
105 min.
When handsome young ex-marine Clayton Boone becomes the gardener for an ill-tempered old man, he is surprised to learn that this eccentric recluse is none other than James Whale, the once-famous genius who created the original Frankenstein films of the early thirties. Immediately taken by the boy, Whale asks if he can paint his portrait, making Clayton and his ex-girlfriend Betty suspect an ulterior sexual motive; but nothing prepares him for the surprise of Whale's true intention.
Francisco J. Lombardi
Spain - Peru
111 min.
Young Joaquín's sexual initiation throws him into confusion. The laws governing his well-to-do bourgeois life don't offer him the answers to what he's feeling. The attitude of his father, Luis Felipe, an unobliging male chauvinist patriarch who tries to beat the secrets of virility into him, confuses Joaquín even more. And the threadbare pieties of his mother, Maricucha, only deepen his sense of guilt. Life at university gets him away from home and gives him the chance to have a go at everything: drugs, sex and violence. He eventually finds a friend in Alejandra, who even leaves her boyfriend for him, but a hurricane of doubt and confusion lead Joaquín to Miami where he abandons all self control.
Closing Film
Peter Howitt
USA - UK
105 min.
Hip English PR executive, Helen appears to have her life in reasonable order with an exciting job and the companionship of Gerry, the struggling novelist boyfriend with whom she lives. However, unexpectedly fired by her boss, Helen returns home earlier than usual, causing her life to take a strange turn. Trouble compounds trouble as she is mugged and taken to hospital. But what if Helen had made that train? If so, she would have sat next to a charming stranger and would have made it home just in time to find the philandering Gerry still in bed with his ex-girlfriend.
Not in competition
Brian de Palma
USA
106 min.
Detective Rick Santoro joins his old friend, Kevin Dunne, who works with the U.S, Secretary, at a heavyweight boxing match. When Dunne's back is turned, the secretary is assassinated and the 14,000 fight fans become suspects, possible accomplices and witnesses. Seeking to salvage his friend's career, Rick joins forces with Dunne to untangle the events preceding the assassination. Battling time and with limited manpower, Rick seeks answers from three witnesses: Julia, a mysterious woman who spoke to the Secretary just before he was shot and then disappeared into the crowd; Lincoln Tyler, the heavyweight champion who lost the fight; and Dunne himself, who was suspiciously drawn away from his post moments before the shots rang out.
Not in competition
Stephen Bradley
Ireland
91 min.
When Sweety Barrett loses his job at a travelling circus, he arrives in the port of Dockery looking for work; but his naive and simple nature makes him easy prey in this corrupt town of smugglers dominated by the vicious detective, Mannix Bone, and he is soon unwittingly used by the latter and his gang to do their dirty work. When Conor's father Leo is released from prison and resumes a vendetta with Bone, Sweety Barrett becomes an innocent party to a dangerous and unexpected spiral of events. Just when it seems that Bone is getting away with murder, Sweety exacts a spectacular revenge which transforms him into a redeeming hero for the whole town.
Martin Campbell
USA
136 min.
It's been 20 years since Don Diego de la Vega successfully led the struggle against Spanish oppression in California from behind the mask of the romantic hero, "El Zorro". After two decades in prison, he has to find a successor to curb the activities of the powerful Spanish ex-governor, Don Rafael Montero, the man who deprived him of his freedom, his wife and his daughter, and who is scheming to buy North California from the Mexican President, General Santa Ana. He finds his man in Alejandro Murieta, a bandit in his own right who becomes the new "Zorro", and on whom Don Diego places all his hopes of putting paid to Montero's plans once and for all.
Not in competition
Carlos Carrera
Mexico
130 min.
Involved in a secret affair with his schoolteacher, Felipa, 13-year-old Eliseo dreams of a better life than that of his father, a stevedore in Mexico's Yucatan region. Felipa is also convinced that there has to be better world, without the restrictive barriers of tradition, incomprehension and intolerance. But everything tumbles round about them when the secret is let out of the bag. The teacher's return ten years later gives Eliseo the chance to end the story and break the spell, thereby recovering his respect for his father and finding the freedom to make his own way in life.
Peter Berg
USA
100 min.
On the verge of marrying Laura, the lovely, but tense girl of his dreams, Kyle Fisher is treated by his friends to a stag night he'll certainly never forget when murder turns up at the door of what began as a wild boys' night out in Las Vegas. Despite the mess, the wedding has to go ahead as planned; but not everyone can keep a secret, and especially not when it's such a whopper.
Opening Film (In competition)
Neil LaBute
USA
100 min.
In this contemporary immorality tale, your life is what you make it. An afternoon brunch with another couple? No better time to make a play for your best friend's wife. Vigorous sex with your lover? A perfect place to voice your contempt. Drinks in a quiet cafe? An irresistible opportunity to emotionally eviscerate someone close to you. A trip with your partner to a chain drugstore? Hash out your sexual differences in Aisle 6. Words are the ultimate weapons. Only the most cunning and remorseless of your friends and neighbors survive. Welcome to the 90s.
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Friday: 10:00h - 14:00h
Monday to Thursday: 09:00h - 15:00h
Friday: 10:00h - 14:00h
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