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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2009

San Sebastian Film Festival 2009

Made In Spain

A showcase of the year’s Spanish movies.

Programme

15 films · 3 reviews

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25 Carat (25 kilates)

Review preview for 25 Carat

Director Patxi Amézcua sets the pace carefully – it’s fast enough to keep your heart-rate up but not in that forced, dizzying, blink-and-you’ll miss it style with which Hollywood is so enamoured.

Emma Slawinski · 4 out of 5
A thug and a thief fall for each other and try to escape a life of crime in this Barcelona-set thriller.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Patxi Amézcua; Writer: Patxi Amézcua; Stars: Francesc Garrido, Aida Folch, Manuel Morón) , Official site

Full review

Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos)

Review preview for Broken Embraces

There is a violence here, a passion, all beautifully shot, all haunting.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A tale of obsessive love and contested identity within the world of filmmaking.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Pedro Almodóvar; Writer: Pedro Almodóvar; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Tamar Novas, Rubén Ochandiano) , Official site , Trailer

Full review

Brain Drain (Fuga de cerebros)

Emilio is a shy student who has spent his entire life nurturing a secret love for Natalia, the beautiful bright girl in his class. Just when he’s decided to tell her his feelings, Natalia learns that she’s received a scholarship to study Medicine at Oxford. While all seems lost for Emilio, his ostracised schoolmates refuse to give up.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Fernando González Molina; Writer: Álex Pina, Curro Velázquez; Stars: Mario Casas, Alberto Amarilla, Amaia Salamanca, Canco Rodríguez, Gorka Lasaosa, Pablo Penedo, Blanca Suárez, Sarah Mühlhause, Álex Angulo, Asunción Balaguer, Joan Dalmau, David Fernández, José Luis Gil, Fernando Guillén, Loles León)

Familystrip

An improvised film, initially intended as a family gift, unexpectedly becomes the chronicle of a disappearing generation.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Lluís Miñarro; Writer: Lluís Miñarro; Stars: María Luz Albero Calvo, Francesc Miñarro Bermejo, Lluís Miñarro Albero, Francesc Herrero)

The Friend Zone (Pagafantas)

Having recently split from his long-standing girlfriend, Chema sets out every evening ready to take on the world. His nighttime skirmishes are pretty much a flop until he meets Claudia, an amusing, stunning girl who seems to like him. But Chema soon realises that, although Claudia loves him dearly, she only sees him as a friend.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Borja Cobeaga; Writer: Borja Cobeaga, Diego San José; Stars: Gorka Otxoa, Sabrina Garciarena, Julián López, Óscar Ladoire, Kiti Manver, María Asquerino, Michel Brown, Teresa Hurtado de Ory, Bárbara Santa Cruz, Ernesto Sevilla, Santi Ugalde)

The Good News (La buena nueva)

Miguel is named parish priest of a socialist village coinciding with the outbreak of Civil War in 1936. Right from the genesis of the uprising, the nationals take over the village and the shootings begin. In his struggle to defend the victims, Miguel clashes with the ecclesiastic and military hierarchy, putting his own life on the line.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Helena Taberna; Writer: Andrés Martorell, Helena Taberna; Stars: Susana Abaituna Gómez, Gorka Aguinagalde, Magdalena Aizpurua, Joseba Apaolaza, Klara Badiola, Bárbara Goenaga, Iñake Irastorza, Loquillo, Jabier Muguruza, Erik Probanza, Fernando Ruiz, Rodrigo Sáenz de Heredia, Maribel Salas, Mercedes Sampietro, Mikel Tello)

History Of A Rock Band (Historia de un grupo de rock)

The farewell of cult Spanish rock band Distrito 14.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Juanma Bajo Ulloa; Writer: Juanma Bajo Ulloa; Stars: Distrito 14)

Ich Bin Enric Marco

Enric Marco, ex-president of the Spain’s main deportees’ association, embarks on a car trip to Germany, a demythologising journey into his past.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Santiago Fillol, Lucas Vermal; Stars: Enric Marco)

The Loss (La Pérdida)

Documentary concerning intellectuals forced to flee Argentina in the Sixties and Seventies, who went on to great success. Considering the impact they might have had in their homeland.

(Country: Spain, Argentina; Year: 2009; Director: Javier Angulo, Enrique Gabriel; Writer: Javier Angulo, Rafael Flores Montenegro, Enrique Gabriel; Stars: Cristina Rota, Osvaldo Bayer, Juan Gelman, Juan Carlos Chachques, Rodolfo Mattarollo, Cora Sadoski, Juan Méndez, Marcelino Cereijido, Liliana De Riz, Daniel Goldstein, Enrique Oteiza, Víctor Penchaszadeh)

Relatos

Rosario Francesc, an authoress leading a completely conventional housewife’s life, visits a psychotherapist for a problem of nighttime panic attacks.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Mario Iglesias; Writer: Mario Iglesias; Stars: Concepción González, Luis Callejo, Yago Presa, Bruto Pomeroy, Graciela Rodríguez)

Return To Hansala (Retorno a Hansala)

In the early years of this decade, the corpses of eleven young Moroccan immigrants attempting to cross the Strait in a small launch are found strewn across the Rota beaches. The clothes they were wearing serve to establish that all eleven boys came from the same tiny village, Anísala. Retorno a Hansala endeavours to recreate the event seen from the eyes of Martín, owner of a funeral parlour who intends to make money from the occurrence, and Leila, one of the dead boy’s sisters.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Chus Gutiérrez; Writer: Chus Gutiérrez, Juan Carlos Rubio; Stars: El Hussein Aghazaff, Miguel Alcíbar, Fatima Andah, Adam Bounnouacha, Antonio Dechent, María del Águila, Antonio de la Torre, Cuca Escribano, José Luis García Pérez, Farah Hamed, Sebastián Haro, Aida Salhi, César Vea)

The Shame (La vergüenza)

Review preview for The Shame

Planell has been working as a writer on Spanish television for several years, so it is little surprise that this story feels as though it could just as easily be an episode in an ongoing soap opera as the basis for a feature film.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A couple on the brink of adoption, find themselves in crisis.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: David Planell; Writer: David Planell; Stars: Natalia Mateo, Alberto San Juan, Norma Martínez, Brandon Alexander Lastra Cobos)

Full review

Some Truth (Una cierta verdad)

Over a period of two years, the documentary chronicles six people who frequent the same mental health centre in the outlying areas of Barcelona: Sabadell’s Parc Taulí Hospital.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Abel García Roure; Writer: Abel García Roure)

Three Days With The Family (Tres dies amb la família, Tres días con la familia)

Léa suddenly has to return to Girona when her grandfather on her father’s side passes away.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Mar Coll; Writer: Mar Coll, Valentina Viso; Stars: Dafnis Balduz, Leonor Bonacasa, Nausicaa Bonnín, Artur Busquets, Josep Maria Busquets, Nadina Campas, Mercè Compte, Josefina Espinosa, Eduard Fernández, Greta Fernández, Ramon Fontserè, Cristina Gàmiz, Santiago Gimeno-Bayón, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Francesc Orella)

The Two Lives of Andrés Rabadán (Las Dues Vidas De Andrés Rabadán)

In 1994, Andrés Rabadán gave himself up to the police after derailing three trains and killing his father with a crossbow. He was declared not guilty on being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and committed to a penitentiary psychiatric ward for 20 years. Eleven years later, contrary to his doctors’ opinion, Andrés thinks he’s cured and tries to escape on realising his slim chances of getting out.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Ventura Durall; Writer: Ventura Durall, Andrés Rabadán; Stars: Àlex Brendemühl, Elena Fortuny, Andrés Herrera, Jordi Llordella, Emilio Mencheta, Albert Riballo, Tania Román, Boris Ruiz, Clara Segura, Mar Ulldemolins)