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Festival coverage

San Sebastian Film Festival

21 September – 29 September 2018

Closing film Bad Times At The El Royale
Closing film Bad Times At The El Royale

The 66th edition of San Sebastian Film Festival ran from September 21 to 29. This year one of its retrospectives was dedicated to British filmmaker Muriel Box. The festival opened with An Unexpected Love and closed with Bad Times At The El Royale. Read about all the winners here.

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  • Asako I & II
    Review preview for Asako I & II

    Higashide will no doubt attract most attention, impressive in his ability to inhabit two very different characters, yet it's Karata who is the power at the heart of the film.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    Asako is a 21-year-old woman, living in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku who has a free spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and she meets Ryohei. He looks just like her ex-boyfriend Baku, but he has a completely different personality.
  • Dilili In Paris
    Review preview for Dilili In Paris

    Michel Ocelot's combination of live film, photo-realistic images and animation brings out the magic of Paris as if were being seen for the first time.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    With the help of her friend, a delivery boy, young Dilili from New Caledonia investigates a spate of mysterious kidnappings of young girls that is plaguing the Paris of the Belle Epoque.
  • Jaén, Virgin And Extra
    Review preview for Jaén, Virgin And Extra

    Gentle, entertaining, functional.

    Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
    Documentary about the Jaén region and olive oil.
  • Birds Of Passage
    Review preview for Birds Of Passage

    The rituals set in motion at the start, also tune us into the wavelength of portent, so that a heron's feet on a rug or the sound of locusts carry at least as much threat as the site of a loaded gun.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    Story of a family who become involved with the drugs trade.
  • Vision
    Review preview for Vision

    In one shot, in absolute silence, we watch a single leaf fall down from high above; it is a moment so compelling that you will hesitate to interrupt it with a breath.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A Frenchwoman enters a Japanese forest in search of a herb rumoured to be able to cure emotional pain.
  • The Third Wife
    Review preview for The Third Wife

    Mayfair treats her scenes of sex and desire with restraint, using juxtaposition to evoke mood.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    The story of a 14-year-old who becomes the third wife of a much older man in 19th Century Vietnam.
  • Yuli
    Review preview for Yuli

    It's in dance that the film's strength lies, illustrating, through choreography, Acosta's more abstract - and more negative - emotions, including fear, loneliness and lust.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    The true story of Carlos Acosta, a black Cuban dancer who rose from an impoverished childhood to find international acclaim as a ballet dancer with London's Royal Ballet.
  • The Sisters Brothers
    Review preview for The Sisters Brothers

    Phoenix gives his character more depth than such men are usually afforded but deliberately takes a back seat, allowing Reilly the dramatic lead role he has long deserved.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Two assassins set out into the wilderness on the trail of a man with a secret.
  • Beautiful Boy
    Review preview for Beautiful Boy

    The performances are a tribute to a screenplay that avoids the worst indulgences of the urban jungle.

    Angus Wolfe Murray · 3.5 out of 5
    A father tries to help his son break his cycle of drug addiction.
  • An Elephant Sitting Still
    Review preview for An Elephant Sitting Still

    Despite its grey, flat light and general melancholy punctured by menace, An Elephant Sitting Still is, by the end considerably more optimistic than it first appears about humanity.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    The lives of four people cross over the course of a day in China.

A–Z of San Sebastian Film Festival 2018 reviews

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