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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2010

San Sebastian Film Festival 2010

Official Selection

The competition strand of the festival. Films fight it out for the prestigious Golden and Silver Shell awards. No one film can receive more than two prizes.

Programme

18 films · 6 reviews

Jump to a film

Addicted To Love

Two former childhood sweethearts meet again by chance and their love affair rekindles, despite the fact one of them has Alzheimer's.

(Country: China; Year: 2010; Director: Hao Lui; Writer: Hao Lui; Stars: Jiang Mei Hua, Niu En Pu) , Official site

Amigo

Review preview for Amigo

A beautifully observed study of a small community remaining united in the face of seismic shifts.

Jeff Robson · 4 out of 5
Set during the American-Philippine war as the head of a bario has to answer to both the Americans and the Filipino patriots, with deadly consequences.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: John Sayles; Writer: John Sayles; Stars: Chris Cooper, DJ Qualls, Garret Dillahunt, Yul Vazquez, Lucas Neff, James Parks, Dane DeHaan, Stephen Taylor, Bill Tangradi, Joel Torre, Rio Locsin, Bembol Roco, Irma Adlawan, Ronnie Lazaro, Pen Medina) , Official site

Full review See: San Sebastian Film Festival: Death and birth, Genpin, October and John Sayle's Amigo

Black Bread (Pa negre)

In post-war rural Catalonia, a boy finds a pair of bodies and - when is father is blamed for their deaths - sets out to find who killed them.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2010; Director: Agustí Villaronga; Writer: Emili Teixidor, Agustí Villaronga; Stars: Sergi López, Laia Marull, Marina Gatell, Eduard Fernández, Roger Casamajor, Pep Tosar, Mercè Arànega, Joan Carles Suau, Nora Navas, Eva Basteiro-Bertoli, Francesc Colomer, Elisa Crehuet, Lluïsa Castell, Jesús Ramos, Marina Comas)

See: San Sebastian Film Festival Day Four

Chicogrande

Following the frustrated invasion of Columbus, Pancho Villa retreats, only to be injured... Chicogrande, one of his young followers, is tasked with finding medical help.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2010; Director: Felipe Cazals; Writer: Felipe Cazals; Stars: Damián Alcázar, Juan Manuel Bernal, Bruno Bichir, Alejandro Calva, Pablo Fulgueira, Iván Rafael González, Tenoch Huerta, Daniel Martinez, Lisa Owen, Johnny Randall, Patricia Reyes Spíndola, Jorge Zárate)

Opening Night Film. Out Of Competition

Colours In The Dark (Satte Farben vor Schwarz)

The impact of terminal illness on a long-married couple.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2010; Director: Sophie Heldman; Writer: Sophie Heldman, Felix zu Knyphausen; Stars: Leonie Benesch, Senta Berger, Bruno Ganz, Ruth Glöss, Traute Höss, Sylvana Krappatsch, Thomas Limpinsel, Barnaby Metschurat, Sybille J. Schedwill, Carina N. Wiese)

See: San Sebastian Film Festival: Neds, I Saw The Devil, Colours In The Dark

Competitor for the Kutxa-New Directors Award

Eat Pray Love

A newly divorced woman goes on a round-the-world voyage of self-discovery.

(Country: US; Year: 2010; Director: Ryan Murphy; Writer: Ryan Murphy, Jennifer Salt, Elizabeth Gilbert; Stars: Julia Roberts, I. Gusti Ayu Puspawati, Hadi Subiyanto, Billy Crudup, Viola Davis, A. Jay Radcliff, Mike O'Malley, Ashlie Atkinson, James Franco, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Ryan O'Nan, Gita Reddy, Dwayne Clark, Jen Kwok, Mary Testa) , Official site

Out Of Competition

Elisa K

Review preview for Elisa K

The film is adapted from the book Elisa Kiseljak by Lolita Bosch and its origins hang like a millstone round its neck courtesy of ponderous and never-ending narration.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
The effect of childhood abuse on a young girl, both at the time and in later life.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2010; Director: Jordi Cadena, Judith Colell; Writer: Lolita Bosch, Jordi Cadena; Stars: Aina Clotet, Nausicaa Bonnín, Ramon Madaula, Pep Sais, Lydia Zimmermann, Hans Richter, Jordi Gràcia, Maria de la Pau Janer, Clàudia Pons, Ricard Farré, Pol Montañés) , Official site

Full review

Father (Aita)

Review preview for Father

Shot over three years, the film treads a line between documentary and fiction... and it combines extreme naturalism with surprisingly avant-garde techniques.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The passage of time in an elderly house.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2010; Director: José María de Orbe; Writer: José María de Orbe, Daniel V. Villamediana)

Full review See: San Sebastian Film Festival: Sarah's Key, Beautiful Boy, Barney's Version, Aita

Competitor for the Kutxa-New Directors Award

The Great Vázquez (El Gran Vázquez)

Biopic of Sixties Barcelona comic book writer Manuel Vázquez.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2010; Director: Óscar Aibar; Writer: Óscar Aibar; Stars: Santiago Segura, Álex Angulo, Manolo Solo, Biel Durán, Jesús Guzmán, Enrique Villén, Pere Ponce, Mercè Llorens, Pep Sais, Pere Vall, Jordi Banacolocha, Itziar Aizpuru, Lita Claver, Alberto Vidal, Hector Vidales)

Home For Christmas

A modern Christmas Carol based on a selection of short stories from the Norwegian author Levi Henriksen’s collection ”Only Soft Presents Under the Tree” (Bare mjuke pakker under treet).

(Country: Ireland; Year: 2002; Director: Charlie McCarthy; Stars: Isabella Devine, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Dearbhla Molloy, Martin Murphy, Emily Nagle, Colin O'Donoghue, David Wilmot)

The Mosque (A Jamaa)

The director says: "For the filming of my last movie "Waiting for Pasolini", sets were built on land leased from local villagers. Among the sets, a mosque was built on the land of Moha, a villager who also appears in the movie. At the end of filming, the filming team leaves the village. Villagers demolish all the sets, with the exceptions of the mosque. This mosque became a real place of prayer for the whole village. For Moha this is a real disaster"

(Country: Morocco, France; Year: 2010; Director: Daoud Aoulad-Syad; Stars: Abdelhadi Touhrach, Bouchra Hraich, Mustapha Tahah, Naceur Oujri, Salem Dabella)

Mount Bayo (Cerro Bayo)

The lives of a family in a Patagonian village are irrevocably changed after the matriarch attempts suicide.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2010; Director: Victoria Galardi; Writer: Victoria Galardi; Stars: Eugenia Alonso, Guillermo Arengo, Juan Barberini, Adriana Barraza, Elisa Carricajo, Inés Efron, Adela Gleijer, Marcela Kloosterboer, Verónica Llinás, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Nicolas Silberg)

Competitor for the Kutxa-New Directors Award

Mysteries Of Lisbon (Mistérios de Lisboa)

A whirlwind of adventures and escapades, coincidences and revelations, sentiments and violent passions, vengeance, love affairs, all wrapped in a rhapsodic voyage that takes us from Portugal to France, Italy, and as far as Brazil.

(Country: Portugal, France, Brazil; Year: 2010; Director: Raoul Ruiz; Writer: Camilo Castelo Branco, Carlos Saboga; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Melvil Poupaud, Clotilde Hesme, Lena Friedrich, Malik Zidi, José Afonso Pimentel, Catarina Wallenstein, Filipe Vargas, Ricardo Pereira, Miguel Monteiro, João Baptista, Carloto Cotta, Marco D'Almeida, Sofia Aparício, Maria João Bastos) , Official site

NEDS

Review preview for NEDS

The humour and emotion are so sharp you might not feel them at the time, but Mullan's film cuts deep and leaves its mark.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Story of a boy who finds growing up in Glasgow in the Seventies is tough.

(Country: UK; Year: 2010; Director: Peter Mullan; Writer: Peter Mullan; Stars: Connor McCarron, Gregg Forest, Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall, Marianna Palka, Peter Mullan, Gary Lewis, Joe Szula, David McKay, Steven Robertson)

Full review See: San Sebastian Film Festival, Peter Mullan, Bicycle, Spoon, Apple, Honey , San Sebastian Film Festival: Neds, I Saw The Devil, Colours In The Dark

Sarah's Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah)

Review preview for Sarah's Key

The drama of Julia's modern life quite simply can't compete with the history lesson that has gone before.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A journalist uncovers family secrets that link her to a young Jewish girl persecuted 60 years previously.

(Country: France; Year: 2010; Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner; Writer: Tatiana De Rosnay, Serge Joncour, Gilles Paquet-Brenner; Stars: Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frédéric Pierrot, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique Frot, Gisèle Casadesus, Aidan Quinn, Natasha Mashkevich, Arben Bajraktaraj, George Birt, James Gerard, Frederick Guillaud)

Full review See: San Sebastian Film Festival: Sarah's Key, Beautiful Boy, Barney's Version, Aita

Closing Night Film. Out Of Competition