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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2017

San Sebastian Film Festival 2017

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

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Programme

22 films · 4 reviews

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12 Days

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Raymond Depardon)

3/4 (Three-Quarters)

Review preview for 3/4

Scenes don't run fully to their end or don't quite start at the beginning, the drama often whisked somewhere else as we're about to reach what more mainstream films would consider the small moments of climax.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
The lives of a father and his two children.

(Country: Bulgaria; Year: 2017; Director: Ilian Metev; Writer: Betina Ip, Ilian Metev; Stars: Mila Mihova, Nikolay Mashalov, Todor Veltchev, Simona Genkova, Kaloyan Georgiev, Alexander Kurtenkov)

Full review

Braguino

Review preview for Braguino

With indelible images born from an unflinching gaze, Clément Cogitore's Braguino lets us feel enraptured in an impossible community - cradled by archaic myth and awed by a sublime nature.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
Documentary about a remote Siberian town and a feud between two families who live there.

(Country: France, Finland; Year: 2017; Director: Clément Cogitore; Writer: Clément Cogitore)

Full review See: Clément Cogitore ‪in conversation on‬ Braguino the film and installation

Calipatria

Short about a prisoner in solitary confinement and his unusual plans for the prison garden.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2017; Director: Gerhard Treml, Leo Calice; Stars: Gerhard Treml, Leo Calice)

Short

Closeness (Tesnota)

Review preview for Closeness

It is, presumably, his desire for realism that leads him to cross what will be a bridge too far for many audiences.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A family struggle to raise the ransom after a kidnapping.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2017; Director: Kantemir Balagov; Writer: Kantemir Balagov, Anton Yarush; Stars: Darya Zhovner, Olga Draganova, Veniamin Kats, Artem Tsypin, Nazir Zhukov)

Full review See: Director Kantemir Balagov talks Closeness , Highlights of Russian Film Week

The Day After

A woman whose boss recently ended an affair gets mistaken for the girlfriend by his wife.

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2017; Director: Hong Sang-soo)

El Sueño De Ana

Ana tells us about a dream she had with her partner, recently deceased. The epilogue of upcoming feature Death Will Come and It Will Have Your Eyes.

(Year: 2017; Director: Jose Luis Torres Leiva; Stars: Amparo Noguera, Julieta Figueroa)

Short

Ex Libris: New York Public Library

Documentary about the library.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Frederick Wiseman)

Flores

When a natural crisis occurs, the entire population of the Azores is forced to evacuate due to an uncontrolled plague of hydrangeas. Two young soldiers, impassioned by the beauty of the landscape, guide us through the tales of sadness of those forced to leave.

(Year: 2017; Director: Jorge Jácome; Writer: Jorge Jácome; Stars: André Andrade, Pedro Rosa, Gabriel Desplanque, Jorge Jácome)

Short

Gwendolyn Green

Inspired by true events, this is the story of Gwendolyn Green, an elderly, widowed woman living out her days alone, inside a gated Palm Springs residence, as if she were stuck in another era. As Gwendolyn's lack of social graces and isolation start to close in on her, she picks up the telephone and dials 911 in search of human connection.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Tamyka Smith ; Stars: Roberta Maxwell, Dominic Rains)

Short

In The Intense Now (No Intenso Agora)

A personal essay which analyses and compares images of the political upheavals of the 1960s.

(Director: João Moreira Salles)

Lots Of Kids, A Monkey And A Castle (Muchos hijos, un mono y un castillo)

Julita always wanted lots of kids, a monkey, and a castle. After finally realizing these wishes, however, her family loses their property in the economic crisis. But they have not lost the disarming ease and kindheartedness that mark their domestic squabbling.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Gustavo Salmerón)

Lover For A Day (L'Amant d'un jour)

After a woman's relationship breaks down she heads to her fathers house - only to discover he is dating a woman her age.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Philippe Garrel; Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière, Caroline Deruas-Garrel, Philippe Garrel, Arlette Langmann; Stars: Éric Caravaca, Esther Garrel, Louise Chevillotte, Paul Toucang, Félix Kysyl, Michel Charrel, Nicolas Bridet, Marie Sergeant, Raphaël Naasz, Justine Bachelet, Christian Bouillette, Laetitia Spigarelli, Manon Chircen, Maïa Foucault, Louise Guillaume)

The Night I Swam (La Nuit Ou J'ai Nage )

Snow covered mountains in Japan. Every night, a fisherman makes his way to the market in town. His six-year-old son is awoken by his departure and finds it impossible to fall back to sleep. In the sleeping household, the young boy draws a picture he then slips into his satchel. On his way to school, still drowsy, he strays off the path and wanders into the snow…

(Country: France, Japan; Year: 2017; Director: Damien Manivel, Kohei Igarashi; Stars: Takara Kogawa, Keiki Kogawa, Takashi Kogawa, Chisato Kogawa)

Plague

Plague: From the Latin plague ‘blow’, ‘wound’. Meaning: Massive and sudden appearance of living beings of a same species which cause serious damage to animal or vegetable populations. Abundance of something harmful.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Koldo Almandoz)

Short

Plus Ultra

Plus Ultra is Spain’s motto. It was used to encourage seafarers to conquer new lands, forgetting Greek mythology’s warning: Non Terrae Plus Ultra (No Land Beyond).

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Samuel M Delgado, Helena Girón; Writer: Samuel M Delgado, Helena Girón)

Short

Saura(s)

Documentary about the director.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Félix Viscarret; Stars: Carlos Saura, Eulàlia Ramon, Anna Saura Ramón, Antonio Saura, Carlos Saura Medrano, Diego Saura, Adrián Saura, Manuel Saura)

Shame (Sram)

Macho is a poor boy who skips school to work on a construction site. The only ray of light for him is his girlfriend, Donna. But she's ashamed of his mother, who works as the janitor at their school. Forced to choose between his mother and his love, Macho finds his own way out of the situation.

(Country: Bulgaria; Year: 2017; Director: Petar Krumov; Stars: Zdravko Moskov, Monika Asparhuhova, Emiliya Panova)

Soldier (Soldado)

A young man decides to join the army. He becomes the drummer in the military band, and his everyday life is now a combination of military training and music. What does the Argentine Army do these days, more than thirty years after the dictatorship? What does it mean to be a soldier in a country without wars?

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2017; Director: Manuel Abramovich; Writer: Manuel Abramovich; Stars: Maruti Garikiparthi, Tsailii Rogers, Sylvie Grontis Hagan)

Spell Reel

Experimental documentary about a cinema movement involved in the Guinea-Bissau liberation movement.

(Country: Germany, Portugal, France, Guinea-Bissau; Year: 2017; Director: Filipa César)

The Square

Review preview for The Square

While satirically entertaining in places it has too many threads competing for attention and ultimately runs out of steam.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
An art exhibit invites passers by to altruism, but things don't go as planned for its curator.

(Country: Sweden, Germany, France, Denmark; Year: 2017; Director: Ruben Östlund; Writer: Ruben Östlund; Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary, Linda Anborg, Claes Bang, Annica Liljeblad, Christopher Læssø, Emelie Beckius, Sarah Giercksky, Jan Lindwall, Marina Schiptjenko, John Nordling, Denise Wessman, Lilianne Mardon, Peter Diaz)

Full review See: Interview with Ruben Östlund, Claes Bang and Elisabeth Moss about The Square in Cannes

Opening night film

Vergüenza (Shame)

TV drama about a couple who are the laughing stock of their family and friends.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Juan Cavestany, Álvaro Fernández Armero; Writer: Juan Cavestany, Álvaro Fernández Armero; Stars: Malena Alterio, Lola Casamayor, Javier Gutiérrez, Miguel Rellán, Estrella Olariaga, Francisco Reyes)