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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2015

San Sebastian Film Festival 2015

Official Selection

Programme

20 films · 17 reviews

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21 Nights With Pattie (Vingt et une nuits avec Pattie, 21 nuits avec pattie)

Review preview for 21 Nights With Pattie

This initially seems like a set-up for a film exploring mental reconciliation after estrangement but the Larrieus have other ideas - perhaps too many of them.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
After her mother has died, Caroline befriends a woman who was looking after her mother, but events take a mysterious turn.

(Country: France; Year: 2015; Director: Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu; Writer: Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu; Stars: Karin Viard, Sergi López, Denis Lavant, Isabelle Carré, André Dussollier, Philippe Rebbot, Laurent Poitrenaux, Mathilde Monnier)

Full review

Amama: When A Tree Falls

Review preview for Amama: When A Tree Falls

Although initially threatening to take pretentiousness too far, Amama gathers power through the runtime.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A family tale of conflict between the urban and rural worlds, past and present, parents and children.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2015; Director: Asier Altuna; Writer: Asier Altuna; Stars: Iraia Elias, Kandido Uranga, Manu Uranga, Nagore Aranburu, Ander Lipus, Amparo Badiola, Klara Badiola)

Full review

The Apostate (El apóstata)

Review preview for The Apostate

It's light tone and sprightly 80-minute length belie the depth of Veiroj's film, which is almost bursting at the seams with ideas about self-definition.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The tale of a man desperate to escape the faith passed down from his parents as he looks back over his past, his scars, the marks left by guilt and desire.

(Country: France, Spain, Uruguay; Year: 2015; Director: Federico Veiroj; Writer: Gonzalo Delgado, Álvaro Ogalla, Nicolás Saad, Federico Veiroj; Stars: Alvaro Ogalla, Bárbara Lennie, Marta Larralde, Vicky Peña, Joaquín Climent, Jaime Chávarri, Kaiet Rodríguez, Juan Calot, Alvaro Ogalla, Israel Fernández, Rafael Rodríguez Hidalgo)

Full review

Back To The North (Xiang Bei Fang)

Review preview for Back To The North

Hao certainly has an eye for a strong image, using the starkness of black and white photography to emphasise light and shade, hot and cold.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
When a young woman discovers she isn't well, she tries to persuade her parents to have another baby.

(Country: China; Year: 2015; Director: Liu Hao; Writer: Liu Hao; Stars: Luo Xiaoyi, Nan Sheng, Su Yijuan, )

Full review

The Boy And The Beast (Bakemono no ko)

Review preview for The Boy And The Beast

For all its supernatural stylings, it's the natural connections that count.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A runaway human boy becomes apprenticed to a supernatural beast.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2015; Director: Mamoru Hosoda; Writer: Mamoru Hosoda; Stars: Kumiko Asô, Rirî Furankî, Suzu Hirose, Haru Kuroki, Mamoru Miyano, Aoi Miyazaki, Sumire Morohoshi, Keishi Nagatsuka, Momoka Ohno, Shôta Sometani, Masahiko Tsugawa, Kôji Yakusho, Kappei Yamaguchi, Kazuhiro Yamaji, Yô Ôizumi)

Full review

Demons (Les démons)

While a series of kidnappings of young boys is raging in Montreal, Félix, 10, finished school in Old Longueuil, an ordinary suburb of peaceful appearance. Imaginative and sensitive, Félix, like many children, is afraid of everything. Little by little, the childhood imaginary demons mix with demons of a disturbing reality.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2015; Director: Philippe Lesage; Writer: Philippe Lesage; Stars: Laurent Lucas, Pascale Bussières, Bénédicte Décary, Pier-Luc Funk, Victoria Diamond, Théodore Pellerin, Édouard Tremblay-Grenier, Vassili Schneider, Sarah Mottet, Jean-Luc Terriault, Jenny Yiggit, Yannick Gobeil-Dugas, Raphaëlle Caron, Mathis Thomas)

Eva Doesn't Sleep (Eva no duerme)

Review preview for Eva Doesn't Sleep

The director, perhaps too accustomed to the more limited budget of his early films 77 Doronship and Salamander, imagines the story of Peron's corpse as a series of vignettes, which gives the film a feeling of a unsatisfactorily adapted stage play.

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
Eva Peron's embalmed body becomes the focal point of clashes lasting a quarter of a century.

(Country: Mexico, Argentina; Year: 2015; Director: Pablo Agüero; Writer: Pablo Agüero; Stars: Gael García Bernal, Denis Lavant, Pepi Monia, Imanol Arias, Daniel Fanego, Nahuel P. Biscayart)

Full review

Evolution

Review preview for Evolution

This is a film of two halves, the first - and best - has the cold creeping dread of icy sea water slowly soaking into your swimming costume.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
On a remote island inhabited solely by women and young boys, Nicolas and the other boys are subjected to mysterious and sinister medical treatments.

(Country: Belgium, Spain, France; Year: 2015; Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic; Writer: Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Alanté Kavaïté; Stars: Max Brebant, Roxane Duran, Julie-Marie Parmentier, Nissim Renard)

Full review

Freeheld

Review preview for Freeheld

The beats of Hester's conflict with the freeholders are hit but they lack emotional depth.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
True story of a terminally ill gay cop who fought for the rights of her partner to receive her pension.

(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Peter Sollett; Writer: Ron Nyswaner; Stars: Julianne Moore, Steve Carell, Elliot Page, Josh Charles, Michael Shannon, Luke Grimes, Mary Birdsong, Skipp Sudduth, Gabriel Luna, Dennis Boutsikaris, Tom McGowan, Jeannine Kaspar, Anthony DeSando, Kevin O'Rourke, Suzanne Savoy)

Full review

High-Rise (High Rise)

Review preview for High-Rise

In the literal act of performance there is room to talk about self as performance, and that is where High-Rise is strongest.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
Class war breaks out in a tower block.

(Country: UK; Year: 2015; Director: Ben Wheatley; Writer: Amy Jump, based on the novel by JG Ballard; Stars: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, James Purefoy, Keeley Hawes, Dan Renton Skinner, Sienna Guillory, Enzo Cilenti, Peter Ferdinando, Reece Shearsmith, Augustus Prew, Stacy Martin, Leila Mimmack) , Trailer

Full review

The King Of Havana (El rey de La Habana)

Review preview for The King Of Havana

The melodrama in Agustí Villaronga's The King Of Havana starts in the upper stratosphere and keeps on climbing.

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
Recently escaped from reformatory, young Reinaldo tries to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2015; Director: Agustí Villaronga; Writer: Agustí Villaronga; Stars: Celines Toribio, Lia Chapman, Jazz Vilá, Yordanka Ariosa, Hector Medina, Chanel Ferrero, Maikol David, Ileana Wilson)

Full review

London Road

Musical version of the events surrounding the serial killing of five women in Ipswich in 2006.

(Country: UK; Year: 2015; Director: Rufus Norris; Writer: Alecky Blythe; Stars: Tom Hardy, Olivia Colman, Kate Fleetwood, Janet Henfrey, Eloise Laurence, Alexia Khadime, Michael Shaeffer, Paul Thornley, Jenny Galloway, Calvin Demba, Jason Barnett, Lynne Wilmot, Clare Burt, Morgan Walters, Anita Dobson)

Closing night

Moira

Review preview for Moira

Inauri does what he can with Mamuka's inner conflict but with the exception of the brothers, the characters are as flat and grey as the film's colour palette.

Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
A man tries to rebuild his life after a stint in jail but finds his younger brother can't stay out of trouble.

(Country: Georgia; Year: 2015; Director: Levan Tutberidze; Writer: Davit Pirtskhalava, Giorgi Kobalia, Levan Tutberidze; Stars: Paata Inauri, Giorgi Khurtsilava, Zaza Magalashvili, Ketevan Tskhakaia, Jano Izoria, Ani Bebia)

Full review

My Big Night (Mi Gran Noche)

The taping of a New Year's show descends into farce.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2015; Director: Álex de la Iglesia; Writer: Álex de la Iglesia, Jorge Guerricaechevarría; Stars: Raphael, Mario Casas, Pepón Nieto, Blanca Suárez, Hugo Silva, Carmen Machi, Luis Callejo, Carlos Areces, Enrique Villén, Santiago Segura, Jaime Ordóñez, Tomás Pozzi, Carolina Bang, Ana Polvorosa, Luis Fernández)

Out of competition

A Perfect Day To Fly (Un Dia Perfecte Per Volar, Un Dia Perfecto Para Volar)

Review preview for A Perfect Day To Fly

The boy, played by the director's seven-year-old son Roc, looks almost as bored with the tale as we are - too many takes, perhaps?

Amber Wilkinson · 1.5 out of 5
A man helps a child fly a kite and tells him a story.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2015; Director: Marc Recha; Writer: Marc Recha; Stars: Sergi López, Roc Recha, Marc Recha)

Full review

Regression

Review preview for Regression

Amenabar would need to regress his audience back to the early Eighties for this to have any sort of suspense.

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
A father is accused of a crime he has no memory of committing.

(Country: Spain, Canada; Year: 2015; Director: Alejandro Amenábar; Writer: Alejandro Amenábar; Stars: Emma Watson, Ethan Hawke, Aaron Ashmore, David Thewlis, Devon Bostick, Dale Dickey, Adam Butcher, David Dencik, Aaron Abrams, Kristian Bruun, Lothaire Bluteau, Peter MacNeill, Maura Grierson, Janet Porter, Mackenzie Kerfoot)

Full review

Sparrows

Review preview for Sparrows

What marks Rúnarsson's film out from so many similar coming-of-age films, however, is its strong sense of place and the inner strength of his central character.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A coming-of-age story about the 16-year old boy Ari, who has been living with his mother in Reykjavik and is suddenly sent back to the remote Westfjords to live with his father Gunnar.

(Country: Iceland, Denmark, Croatia; Year: 2015; Director: Rúnar Rúnarsson; Writer: Rúnar Rúnarsson; Stars: Rade Serbedzija, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Atli Oskar Fjalarsson, Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir, Arnoddur Magnus Danks, Kristbjörg Kjeld, Eva Sigurdardottir, Pálmi Gestsson, Víkingur Kristjánsson, Elín Árnadóttir, Benedikt Benediktson, Jarkko Lahti, Júlíus Þorfinnsson, Rakel Björk Björnsdóttir, Katla M. Þorgeirsdóttir)

Full review

Sunset Song

Review preview for Sunset Song

While the craft remains faultless, the effect becomes like walking through a beautiful gallery, with each painting looking lovely but with little connection to the one before or after.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.

(Country: UK, Luxembourg; Year: 2015; Director: Terence Davies; Writer: Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Terence Davies; Stars: Peter Mullan, Agyness Deyn, Kevin Guthrie, Niall Greig Fulton, Hugh Ross, Ian Pirie, Jamie Michie, Douglas Rankine, Jack Greenlees, Jim Sweeney, Julian Nest, Trish Mullin, Tom Duncan, Linda Duncan McLaughlin) , Official site , Trailer

Full review

Truman

Review preview for Truman

Gay challenges the usual cliches of disease films.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A terminally ill man spends four days with an old friend.

(Country: Spain, Argentina; Year: 2015; Director: Cesc Gay; Writer: Tomàs Aragay, Cesc Gay; Stars: Ricardo Darín, Javier Cámara, Dolores Fonzi, Eduard Fernández, Àlex Brendemühl, Pedro Casablanc, José Luis Gómez, Javier Gutiérrez, Elvira Mínguez, Oriol Pla, Nathalie Poza, Àgata Roca, Susi Sánchez, Francesc Orella, Ana Gracia)

Full review

The White Knights (Les chevaliers blancs)

Review preview for The White Knights

A fiercely intellectual film, Lafosse shears away any shred of sentimentality, although humanism remains.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Dramatisation of the Zoe's Ark controversy.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2015; Director: Joachim Lafosse; Writer: Zélia Abadie, Bulle Decarpentries, Joachim Lafosse, Thomas van Zuylen; Stars: Vincent Lindon, Louise Bourgoin, Valérie Donzelli, Reda Kateb, Yannick Renier, Stéphane Bissot, Tatiana Rojo, Tibo Vandenborre, Philippe Rebbot, Travis Kerschen, Jean-Henri Compère, Luc Van Gunderbeeck)

Full review