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).
The Chilean film Rara, directed by Pepa San Martín, will receive the Sebastiane Latino Award at the coming edition of the San Sebastian Festival. The Award goes to the Latin American feature film released during the previous year to best defend the demands and values of lesbian, gay, transsexual and bisexual people. The accolade also reflects the support lent to Latin American productions by the Sebastiane Award, now in its 17th edition, and the San Sebastian Festival.
The Jury, made up of members of GEHITU, the Basque gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual association, opted for the film, to be presented in the coming Horizontes Latinos section, telling from a teenager’s point of view the story of her mother, the lesbian judge Karen Atala, who had the custody of her children taken from her by the Chilean justice because of her sexual orientation. Atala took her struggle to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which finally condemned Chile.
The Jury also rated the way the film conveys “the internal enemy that all we LGBT people have, the internalised homophobia, that feeling which after years of repression may have taken brutal root inside us, preventing us from expressing healthy affectivity in society”. San Martín prompts her leading character, “for fear of non-existent rejection, to unleash a succession of events leading to an unpleasant situation for all those around her”. They also highlighted the fact that Rara is a work directed, written and performed largely by women, “an obvious example of the strong presence of women in many films” participating in the fourth edition of the Sebastiane Latino Award.