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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Zabaltegi-New Directors
Films
Films
Zabaltegi-New Directors
Zabaltegi-New Directors
Shawn Ku
USA
100 min.
Beautiful Boy centres around a couple in a faltering marriage who discover that their 18 year-old son has recently committed a mass shooting at his university before taking his own life. Through the tragedy, the couple is forced to deal with their grief and is ultimately led to rediscover both themselves and their relationship.
Elena Trapé
Spain
88 min.
Blog is the surprising tale of a group of teenagers, 15 year-old middle-upper class girls who are well educated, smart, sensitive and savvy. A group of youngsters with a secret plan and a shared purpose, something they believe to be an absolute goal and a universal truth: the need to experience strong emotions to set them apart from the rest.
Marcin Wrona
Poland
86 min.
The script is loosely based on the real story of a man from the Polish provinces who, after operating as a criminal in his home town, finds himself in Warsaw. He hopes to change his luck and to escape from the criminal past he left behind. Unfortunately, there is a mafia sentence against him. Michal desperately tries to find a way to save his family. Several days before the christening of his child he invites his old friend to be the godfather.
Marcin Wrona
Poland
86 min.
The script is loosely based on the real story of a man from the Polish provinces who, after operating as a criminal in his home town, finds himself in Warsaw. He hopes to change his luck and to escape from the criminal past he left behind. Unfortunately, there is a mafia sentence against him. Michal desperately tries to find a way to save his family. Several days before the christening of his child he invites his old friend to be the godfather.
Carlos César Arbeláez
Colombia-Panama
88 min.
Manuel, 9, has an old ball with which he plays football every day in the countryside. He dreams of becoming a great goalkeeper. His wishes seem set to come true when Ernest, his father, gives him a new ball. But an unexpected accident sends the ball flying into a minefield. Despite the danger, Manuel refuses to abandon his treasure? He convinces Julián and Poca Luz, his two friends, to rescue it with him. Amid the adventures and kids' games, the signs of armed conflict start to appear in the lives of the inhabitants of "La Pradera".
Vahid Vakilifar
Iran
84 min.
Ghobad, Jahan and Nezam, three men in pursuit of a better life, leave home and head for Oslouyeh, one of the richest gas producing regions in the south of Iran. However, the difficult living conditions together with the low salaries oblige them and others to find shelter along the disused sections of the pipeline. The group of workers manages to create an atmosphere of camaraderie despite the difficult conditions with which they are faced.
Mikel Rueda
Spain
98 min.
1938. Victoria, a widow of a Spanish Republican, is confined in Saturraran prison along with her sister and her son. This women's prison, looked after by Mercedarian nuns, was the stage for one of the darkest chapters of the Spanish Civil War. And Victoria experiences the horror of it first hand. The "White Panther", director of the center and instigated by the theories of Dr. Vallejo, snatches the children out of the hands of their mothers, the women prisoners, justifying that "it is the best for Spain". Victoria, driven to desperation by the loss of her child, stands up to the White Panther along with the other inmates, suffering unbearable punishment and humiliation, attempts to escape, and, finally, learns to survive with the hope of reuniting with her son.
Niles Atallah
Chile
80 min.
Young Lucía works as a seamstress in a factory and lives with her father in an old house in Santiago, Chile. The film takes place in December 2006, in the weeks between ex-dictator Pinochet's funeral and Christmas. The simple observation of Lucía's everyday life gives spectators insight to the hidden and neglected world of a generation of Chileans who struggle to recover from the military dictatorship.
Sophie Schoukens
Belgium-Germany
85 min.
Marieke wants to live her life. But how can she succeed if love has been taken away from her? She seeks warmth in the arms of much older men to find the strength to face the past and finally be herself.
Julio Hernández Cordón
Guatemala-France-Mexico
72 min.
Don Alfonso plays the marimba, the traditional Guatemalan instrument. He faces a lack of interest for his old-fashioned instrument. Blacko is a pioneer in Guatemalan Heavy Metal. He is also a doctor at the public hospital but nobody wants to be treated by him because of his hard rock style. When Don Alfonso and Blacko meet each other and decide to combine their talents and create a brand new project called "Marimbas from Hell", they could never have imagined the reactions they would provoke.
Dragomir Sholev
Bulgaria
88 min.
12 year-old Rado, son of the water polo coach Stoychev, is almost a punk now. Mr. Stoychev thinks he's been a good father and can't understand why his son wants to run away from home with the first junkies he meets on the street.
Constantin Popescu
Romania
97 min.
Velicanu considers himself fulfilled. He has money, a new villa, he is married for the second time to a young woman with whom he has a baby and has a son from his first marriage. Before the holidays, he has to leave his business in good order. But things get a little bit complicated. The crisis at the end of the day makes him wonder if he is really happy and fulfilled.
Hanro Smitsman
Holland
90 min.
An ordinary group of teens at an ordinary school in an ordinary town turns extraordinarily hateful to one of their peers. Dusk is a character study in which this group of teens is followed to try and find a reason for this senseless act.
Hao Jie
China
93 min.
In the mountainous village of Gu Jia Gou, 150 km from Beijing, men outnumber women. Some buy wives from faraway Sichuan province, sold to them by unscrupulous human traffickers. Other remain bachelors all their lives, like Lao Yang, Gu Lin, Big Head and Li Ruan. The four men are friends, they gossip and complain together, remember the days of their long-gone youth - yet find ways to have a sex life. Lao Yang is still in love with the girl he was forbidden to marry as a young man; she is now the middle-aged wife of the village head, but they sneak out for secret trysts. Yet, Lao Yang wants more? Hao Jie, a Beijing Film Academy graduate, shot his first feature in his hometown with non-professional actors (some of them his relatives). Single Man cast an unexpected, sympathetic and humorous look at the sexuality and romantic emotions of older peasants.
Mikkel Munch-Fals
Denmark
89 min.
Smukke mennesker follows the lives of four longing souls. Ingeborg who feels unattractive and young Jonas who is so attractive that he can literally sell some of what he's got. Anna, a young beautiful woman with a physical disability, and Anders, a tender man with a psychological disability. Four people yearning for love, four people, each hoping for a better tomorrow.
Frédéric Pelle
France
83 min.
Patrick Perrin is a dealer in a small seaside casino. His dream? To leave everything for an unknown destination. But a trip such as this doesn't happen overnight. To start with, Patrick decides to buy a suitcase. A nice red one with wheels that he immediately puts at the foot of his bed. All that's left to do is to fill it up and choose a destination.
Federico Veiroj
Uruguay-Spain
67 min.
Jorge (45) lives with his parents and has been working at a film archive for 25 years. He does technical jobs, programming work, and hosts a radio show about cinema. The situation is increasingly dire at the film archive and Jorge, who has never worked anywhere else but in film, loses his job. La vida útil tells how Jorge has to change his ways and adapt to a new world. Maybe cinema will help him to survive after all.
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