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
Zinemira
Zinemira
Zinemira Award
Zinemira Award
Aitor Aspe Fid
70 min.
In June 1615, 86 Basque whalers, captained by Martín de Villafranca, Pedro de Aguirre and Esteban de Tellería sailed to the cold waters of Northern Iceland, where they were involved in the country’s darkest episode.
Maider Oleaga
63 min.
Iragan Gunea Berlin follows five people from different origins as they move anonymously around the streets of Berlin. Each of them with another life somewhere else, trying to ascertain where to go.
Juan Barrero
74 min.
At the age of 19, Eduardo Chillida (1924-2002) was a highly gifted athlete well on his way to becoming a football legend. However, a brutal injury during a game put an end to his professional sports career. Nobody except Pilar Belzunce, his life-long partner, suspected that the young goalkeeper from Hernani was about to rewrite his future and die decades later as one of the 20th century’s best sculptors. Chillida: Esku Huts is not a conventional biography, but a poetic, intimate look at an artist second to none. A person who remains alive through his work, his eight children and some of his closest collaborators.
Justin Webster
140 min.
The documentary opens with conversations between the President of the Basque Socialist Party of the time, Jesús Eguiguren, and the leader of Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi, at the Txillarre farmhouse in Elgoibar (Gipuzkoa), held from 2000 to 2004. They refer to the meetings between “Josu Ternera” and Eguiguren in Switzerland and to the different phases – for and against – that alternated in these conversations, with more journeys to Switzerland and Norway, while narrating the conversations with the nationalist left-wing, often with participation of the Basque Nationalist Party of Josu Jon Imaz and Iñigo Urkullu. The arrival to ETA of new military leadership with Francisco Javier López Peña, “Thierry”, representative of the organisation’s most radical branch, is on the point of undoing the progress achieved until then.
Jon Maia Soria
90 min.
The idiosyncrasy of the Basque Country is founded on the forest and wood. In this documentary we will travel from antiquity to the future, demonstrating the relationship between the person and wood. To do it, we will take the life experience of the people chosen and the opinion of renowned world specialists to show, by means of a multifaceted combination of history and stories, the principal keys of the forest and wood yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Patxo Telleria de la Fuente
97 min.
Pello, a bank branch manager, is arrested for financial fraud. Abandoned by the superior who got him mixed up in the crime, he scarpers to avoid going to jail and becomes a fugitive. By chance he ends up hiding in a building occupied by battling evicted tenants. Pello earns the group’s trust with the intention of stealing enough cash from them to pay for false documents, move abroad and start a new life.
Mikel Rueda
57 min.
What pushes people to do what they do? For what strange reason do some people still decide, in an individualistic world such as this, to spend part or all of their time helping others? Through the different testimonies of various people, we will meet one of these rare birds. A person who spent part of his life helping others and who, unawares, began one of the greatest changes of our days.
Juan Palacios
71 min.
A fledgling filmmaker follows the steps of three friends on a surrealistic nautical voyage. Aboard a second-hand pedalo, they set out on a journey of 150 kms leaving from the Basque coast. The pedalo is not, however, made for the waters of the Cantabrian Sea, and no sooner has it started than the voyage spirals into madness: an accident, partying, a hangover, a shaman, a funeral… As he documents the expedition of the three “sailors”, the director sinks into a parallel voyage.
LAST TOUR
© LAST TOUR
Juanma Bajo Ulloa
150 min.
The yearly Azkena Rock Festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz serves as a gathering place for meditating on the passion for Rock ‘n’ Roll, its essence and extraordinary social reach.
Helena Taberna
99 min.
Gabriel receives news of a mass suicide by a sect in the Canary Islands. His younger sister, from whom he has heard nothing for years, was one of its members. Travelling to the island, Gabriel is soon deeply involved in the search for his missing sibling.
Not in competition
Eriz Zapirain
88 min.
In 2003 the Spanish National High Court closed down the only existing newspaper in the Basque language: Egunkaria. It closed down the dailypaper and accused members of its editorial board of belonging to ETA. Seven years later is was proven during the trial that those accusations had no basis: all of the defendants were set free. This documentary doesn’t show that sad injustice, but the inspiring creation of the first newspaper in the Basque language, Euskera.
Not in competition
Iratxe Fresneda
54 min.
Medium-length film
Portrayal of the creative exile of Mirentxu Loyarte (Iruñea, 1938) one of those brave European film pioneers who live under the cloak of anonymity and who, despite the unfinished projects, has never stopped being a filmmaker.
Not in competition
David Aguilar Iñigo
41 min.
Death has been considered and lived in many ways throughout human history. We could say that ours is just like any other, but also that it is so special and different that it breaks away from the relative coherence assigned to it in the past. In Basque, Mara Mara means the sound of snow hitting the ground. Light and darkness pierce this film made during a blizzard in the Pyrenees.
Not in competition
Fermin Muguruza Ugarte
65 min.
Attracted by its charm, Fermin Muguruza went to The Big Easy to record “Irun Meets New Orleans”, where he adapted to the sounds of New Orleans eight songs from his career, interpreted two of the city’s classics, and made a documentary, Nola? about the situation ten years on from hurricane Katrina. All filmed with the crème de la crème of the local scene: from the historic Preservation Hall Jazz Band to bounce rapper Katey Red, with collaborators from Galactic, Dr. John and Trombone Shorty.
Not in competition
Juanmi Gutiérrez Márquez
89 min.
There are 10 million Armenians in the world. Of these, 3 million live within what are today the borders of Armenia, independent republic. The remaining 7 million are spread over several countries. They form the so-called Armenian diaspora. All of them, inside and outside of the country, share a single sentiment, almost holy, towards an Armenia which is at the same time splendid and sorrowful.
Not in competition
Rusudan Glurjidze
103 min.
Georgia, the 90s. Two families have physically survived a short but devastating war in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia. Being on the winning side, they are assigned the houses left empty by the losers. But they prove unable to build a new life in peace.
Not in competition
Olatz González Abrisketa, Jørgen Leth
71 min.
Documentary on the Basque sport of hand-pelota focussed on the fateful relationship of the pelotari with the pelota ball. Following the players’ obsessive quest to find the perfect ball every game, the film penetrates a country whose modernity has detracted nothing from its existential passion.
Not in competition
Ageda Kopla Taldea , Bego Vicario , Ibon Markaida , Kote Camacho , Arrate López Apellániz , Izibene Oñederra , Mariñe Arbeo , Oihana Leunda , Aitor Oñederra , Ximon Agirre , Jon Zurimendi , Xara Agirre , Irantzu Yaldebere , Andere Molinuevo , Iosune Etxarte , Malen Amenabar , Naiara Zuria Mauleón , Zaloa Ipiña , Alots Arregi , Roberto Zabarte , Jon Munarr
Short film
Making the most of the celebrations on the Eve of St. Agatha -a Basque tradition where groups of people, accompanied by improvisers of Basque verse (bertsolaris), go round the houses in a festive atmosphere singing verses to the beat of their walking sticks- the bertsolari Maialen Lujanbio strongly condemns gender-based violence. Verse after verse, she denounces the different kinds of male violence, and our impossibility to overcome it. Taking the occasion as their excuse, twenty young Basque artists draw on different animation techniques to helm a collective creation.
Zinemira Kimuak
Mikel Rueda
14 min.
Short film
A road in the middle of nowhere. A car. A bicycle. Two lonely people looking for the same thing. They meet.
Zinemira Kimuak
Asier Urbieta
Short film
Adem Lethani has been tortured and tied up in an abandoned garage. He’s trying to cut through the ropes round his wrists when a SUV comes into the garage and the light goes on.
Zinemira Kimuak
Maria Elorza, Maider Fernandez Iriarte
15 min.
Short film
The neighbourhood of Housewives. The district of Insomniacs. The newsstand of the Unknown Mother. The underground of The Lonely Women. Our walls pay tribute to the people we love.
Zinemira Kimuak
Kepa Sojo
Short film
In a Basque village, in 1925, a vigil is underway for the young Inge, wife of Mikel Martikorena, who died suddenly. Visited by the village authorities, Martin, the family patriarch, has only one concern: the absence of his middle son Joanes, who has lost his mind after studying theology and wanders the hills preaching the resurrection of the dead.
Zinemira Kimuak
Alejandro Díaz Castaño
Short film
When Maitane tells her husband Iosu that they have a water leak from the upstairs flat, he decides to go up and talk to the neighbours. But the visit will have more than one surprise in store for him!
Zinemira Kimuak
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