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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2012

San Sebastian Film Festival 2012

New Directors

Hived off for the first time completely from the Zabaltegi section, the festival are giving these directors a greater prominence in the programme. Seventeen films compete for the Kutxa-New Directors Award.

Programme

17 films · 5 reviews

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7 Boxes

Review preview for 7 Boxes

This Paraguayan thriller, featuring almost as many twists and turns as the market in which it is set, is a fast-moving, audience-pleaser with decent helpings of tension and black humour.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A teenager finds himself with the custody of seven boxes... but everyone wants the contents.

(Country: Paraguay; Year: 2012; Director: Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schembori; Writer: Patrick Altamirano, René Ayala, Juan Carlos Maneglia; Stars: Arturo Arellano, Beto Ayala, Roberto Cardozo, Atil Closs, Nelly Dávalos, Ever Enciso, Fernando Fleitas, Celso Franco, Katia García, Nico García, Lali González, Alicia Guerra, Luis Gutiérrez, Stephen Jang, Johnny Kim)

Full review

Animals

A teenage love story, about sacrifice and the tragedy of two conflicting worlds, where the power of fantasy blurs its limits with reality.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2012; Director: Marçal Forés; Writer: Marçal Forés, Enric Pardo, Aintza Serra; Stars: Martin Freeman, Dimitri Leonidas, Augustus Prew, Javier Beltrán, Alba Ribas, Oriol Pla, Katia Klein, Roser Tapias, Maria Rodríguez Soto)

A Caretaker's Tale ( Vicevaerten)

A harsh and bitter caretaker with a lowlife son, strikes up an unexpected bond with a young woman.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2012; Director: Katrine Wiedemamm)

The Cleaner (El Limpiador)

A crime-scene cleaner takes charge of a child orphaned during an epidemic breakout in Lima.

(Country: Peru; Year: 2012; Director: Adrian Saba; Writer: Adrian Saba; Stars: Víctor Prada)

Colours

A tale of love and cheating between three youngsters from São Paulo, a huge city in full economic upswing.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2012; Director: Francisco García)

The Day Of The Crows (Le jour des corneilles)

Review preview for The Day Of The Crows

Complex and immersive, funny but with a sense of danger lurking in its darker moments, this is the sort of film that children and adults will watch to the end and then want to watch again.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Animated story of a boy who leads a wild existence deep in the forest until the day he discovers civilised life in a neighbouring village and meets a girl who lives there.

(Country: France; Year: 2012; Director: Jean-Christophe Dessaint; Writer: Amandine Taffin; Stars: Voices of Jean Reno, Isabelle Carré, Claude Chabrol, Lorànt Deutsch)

Full review

Dog Flesh

A project selected for several festivals, including Cannes, Berlin and Toulouse, about a complex moment in the life of Alejandro. A solitary, fragile and unpredictable man crushed by the hostility of his past.

(Country: Chile, France, Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Fernando Guzzoni)

The Incredibles

Short-film maker David Valero’s debut film is a non-fiction film telling the story of three everyday heroes: Broken Wing, The Iron Lady and the Radioactive Woman. Three people who suffer the adversities that life throws at them and struggle with the most terrifying villains: death, lack of affection and loneliness.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2012; Director: David Valero; Writer: David Valero)

The Love Songs Of Tiedan

Review preview for The Love Songs Of Tiedan

An on-paper melodrama imbued with musical energy and comical mischief by an excellent ensemble cast.

Michael Pattison · 3.5 out of 5
The film recounts a romantic obsession that spans several decades. In a poor Shanxi Province village, six-year old Tiedan falls in love with May, the beautiful neighbor who practices a traditional form of singing, Er-ren-tai, and this love will never die.

(Country: China; Year: 2012; Director: Hie Jao; Writer: Hie Jao; Stars: Feng Si, Ye Lan, Feng Yun, Li Yuqin, Hao Guoying, Du Huanrong, Ge Xia)

Full review

Parviz

Parviz is a man in his fifties who has lived his entire life in his father's home and has never held a job. His quiet routine suddenly comes apart the day his father decides to remarry and tells him to move out.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2012; Writer: Majid Barzegar)

Rocker

Victor, a rocker in his 40s, is ready to do anything for his drug-addicted son - even help the boy and his rock band to prepare an upcoming live concert.

(Country: Romania, Germany, France; Year: 2012; Director: Marian Crisan; Writer: Marian Crisan)

Seagull (Chaika)

Love story between a prostitute and a loser sailor.

(Country: Russia, Georgia, Spain, Kazakhstan; Year: 2012; Director: Miguel Ángel Jiménez; Writer: Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Luis Moya; Stars: Gio Gabunia, Salome Demuria)

Shell

Review preview for Shell

Isolation rules and comfort is cold in Scott Graham's gripping and emotionally tense feature debut.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An intense story of two people who struggle to keep their longings for freedom under control, set against a beautiful and remote landscape that reflects their isolation back at them.

(Country: UK; Year: 2012; Director: Scott Graham; Writer: Scott Graham; Stars: Chloe Pirrie, Joseph Mawle, Iain de Caestecker, Paul Hickey, Kate Dickie, Michael Smiley)

Full review

Silent City

A psychological portrait of a young European woman who faces the harsh loneliness of Tokyo in order to master the secrets of the Japanese art of filleting fish.

(Country: Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium; Year: 2012; Director: Threes Anna; Writer: Threes Anna; Stars: Laurence Roothooft, Makoto Makita, Shinji Otani, Ayako Kobayashi, Yukari Uekawa, Gen Shimaoka, Hubert Fermin, Kenichi Sano, Michihiro Koseki, Yosuke Kajima, Toshimitsu Sato, Atsushi Shimizu, Riku Takumiya, Yuki Iwamoto, Tetsuya Sato)

Six Acts (Shesh Peamim, S#x Acts)

Review preview for Six Acts

Director Jonathan Gurfinkel's film rides a deeply uncomfortable societal line between misogynistic conservatism and liberation through feminism.

Scott Macdonald · 3 out of 5
A deep dive into the grey area of sexual abuse told through the story of Gili, a teenager who in order to improve her lame social status hooks up with several different boys, all from her new school.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2012; Director: Johnathan Gurfinkel; Writer: Rona Segal; Stars: Sivan Levy)

Full review

Sleepless Nights (Layali Bala Noom)

Through the stories of Assaad Shaftari, an ex high rank leader in a Christian militia, responsible for many killings during the Lebanese Civil War, and Maryam Saiidi, a mother of a kidnapped young fighter, this documentary by Eliane Raheb looks closely at war wounds and asks if redemption and forgiveness are possible.

(Country: Lebanon, Dubai; Year: 2012; Director: Eliane Raheb)

Summer Outside (Draussen ist Sommer)

A teenage girl leaves Germany for Switzerland with her family in an effort to heal the open wounds between her parents, but the distance between them grows in an unusually hot summer.

(Country: Switzerland, Germany; Year: 2012; Director: Friederike Jehn; Writer: Friederike Jehn, Lara Schützsack; Stars: Nicolette Krebitz, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Joel Basman, Marie Leuenberger, Wolfram Koch, Gilles Tschudi, Verena Zimmermann, Philippe Graber, Ueli Jäggi, Audrey Käthe von Scheele, Nalu Walder, Ella Rumpf, Jael Schlatter)