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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2020

San Sebastian Film Festival 2020

Official Selection

Programme

19 films · 8 reviews

Jump to a film

Akelarre

Basque Country, 1609. The men of the region are at sea. Ana joins other girls from the village to dance in the woods. Judge Rostegui, given the task of purifying the region by the King, arrests the women and accuses them of witchcraft.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2020; Director: Pablo Agüero; Writer: Pablo Agüero, Katell Guillou; Stars: Alex Brendemühl, Iñigo de la Iglesia, Daniel Fanego, Daniel Chamorro, Amaia Aberasturi, Jone Laspiur, Lorea Ibarra, Yune Nogueiras, Asier Oruesagasti, Garazi Urkola, Elena Uriz, Irati Saez de Urabain, Alex Brendemühl, Iñigo de la Iglesia, Daniel Fanego)

Another Round (Druk)

Review preview for Another Round

Shot with a loose but observant style that captures energy and thoughtfulness in all the right places.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Martin and three of his friends, all weary high school teachers, embark on an experiment to maintain a constant level of intoxication throughout the workday.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2020; Director: Thomas Vinterberg; Writer: Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg; Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe, Magnus Millang, Maria Bonnevie, Susse Wold, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Frederik Winther Rasmussen, Ole Dupont, Martin Greis-Rosenthal, Diêm Camille G., Morten Thunbo, Christiane Gjellerup Koch, Michael Asmussen)

Full review

Any Crybabies Around? (Nakuko Wa Ineega)

A man is caught on live national TV naked and drunk in the middle of the sacred Namahage festival. Tasuku, a young father, is ostracised for shaming the village and its tradition and flees to Tokyo alone. Two years later he returns to his hometown...

(Year: 2020; Director: Takumo Sato)

Beginning (Dasatskisi)

Review preview for Beginning

The lengths of time the shots last and the camera angles that hide more context than they reveal are what formally is most striking about Beginning. But it is the story that sticks with you.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah Witness community is attacked by an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict, the familiar world of Yana, the wife of the community leader, slowly crumbles.

(Country: Georgia, France; Year: 2020; Director: Dea Kulumbegashvili; Writer: Dea Kulumbegashvili, Rati Oneli; Stars: Ia Sukhitashvili, Rati Oneli, Kakha Kintsurashvili, Saba Gogichaishvili)

Full review See: Dea Kulumbegashvili on the story of a woman and the importance of filming Beginning in Georgia with international collaborators

Courtroom 3H

Review preview for Courtroom 3H

This is emotion in the raw, not just from those faced with the possibility of seeing someone else take on responsibility for their kids, but also from the advocates representing them who are being put through the emotional wringer as well.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Documentary about the Tallahassee Unified Family Court in Florida, which specialises in judicial cases involving children.

(Country: Spain, US; Year: 2020; Director: Antonio Méndez Esparza; Writer: Antonio Méndez Esparza)

Full review

Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane McGowan

Review preview for Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane McGowan

This is how the film plays out: loose and jumbled but still somehow telling a story. It's a style that suits its subject perfectly.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Documentary about The Pogues frontman.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Julien Temple; Writer: Julien Temple; Stars: Shane McGowan, Johnny Depp)

Full review

The Great Fellove

Documentary chronicling the musical career of Cuban scat singer and showman Francisco Fellove and the recording of his last album.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Matt Dillon)

Special screening

In The Dusk

Lithuania, 1948. War is over, but the country is left in ruins. Untė, 19, is a member of the Partisan movement resisting Soviet  occupation. They do not fight on equal terms, but this desperate struggle will determine the future of the whole population.

(Country: Lithuania, Czech Republic, France, Serbia, Portugal, Latvia; Year: 2020; Director: Sharunas Bartas)

Memories Of My Father (Forgotten We'll Be, El olvido que seremos)

Review preview for Memories Of My Father

There's a relaxed warmth to the, largely, lowkey events, that encourages us to cosy up to the family.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
The life of Héctor Abad Gómez, a prominent doctor and human rights activist in the violent Medellin of the 70s.

(Country: Colombia; Year: 2020; Director: Fernando Trueba; Writer: David Trueba, based on the book by Héctor Abad Faciolince; Stars: Javier Cámara, Sebastián Giraldo, Aida Morales, Patricia Tamayo, Juan Pablo Urrego, Javier Cámara, Sebastián Giraldo, Aida Morales, Patricia Tamayo, Juan Pablo Urrego)

Full review

Closing gala

Patria

The day ETA announces its plan to give up weapons, Bittori heads for the cemetery to tell the tomb of her husband, El Txato, murdered by the terrorists, that she has decided to return to the village where they had lived their whole lives. Can she live alongside those who hounded her before and after the attack that shattered her life, and that of her family?

(Country: Spain; Year: 2020; Director: Aitor Gabilondo; Writer: Fernando Aramburu, Aitor Gabilondo; Stars: Susana Abaitua, Iñigo Arambarri, Ane Gabarain, Elena Irureta, Mikel Laskurain, Loreto Mauleón, Jon Olivares, Eneko Sagardoy, José Ramón Soroiz, Alvar Gordejuela, Alba Brunet, Adolfo Fernández, Jesús Gallo, Fernando Guallar, Begoña Maestre)

Special screening

Rifkin's Festival

Review preview for Rifkin's Festival

This new film, like all the others, has some of that old Woody sauce as well that gives it some charm, but it’s a mere shadow of its old self.

Nikola Jovic · 2.5 out of 5
The story of a couple who attend San Sebastian Film Festival only to find their romance tested.

(Country: US, Spain, Italy; Year: 2020; Director: Woody Allen; Writer: Woody Allen; Stars: Gina Gershon, Christoph Waltz, Wallace Shawn, Steve Guttenberg, Elena Anaya, Richard Kind, Louis Garrel, Damian Chapa, Georgina Amorós, Sergi López, Bobby Slayton, Andrea Trepat, Douglas McGrath, Yan Tual, Ben Temple)

Full review

Out of competition. Opening gala

Riot Police

TV series. Six riot police proceed with an eviction in the centre of Madrid, but things go wrong and a man loses his life. An Internal Affairs team is given the task of investigating the facts and the six riot police are accused of manslaughter.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2020; Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

Out of competition

Simple Passion (Passion Simple)

Review preview for Simple Passion

Dosch is in her element here, bringing depth to every glance, captured by Pascal Granale not just in the thrust of sex but in more impressionistic interludes.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A woman loses her head over a Russian diplomat.

(Country: France, Belgium, Lebanon; Year: 2020; Director: Danielle Arbid; Writer: Danielle Arbid, Annie Ernaux; Stars: Laetitia Dosch, Sergei Polunin, Lou-Teymour Thion, Caroline Ducey, Grégoire Colin)

Full review See: Director Danielle Arbid on intimacy, adaptations, and a Fassbinder remake in Simple Passion

Summer Of 85

When 16-year-old Alexis capsizes off the coast of Normandy, 18-year-old David heroically saves him. Alexis has just met the friend of his dreams. But will the dream last for more than one summer?

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2020; Director: François Ozon; Writer: Aidan Chambers, François Ozon; Stars: Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Melvil Poupaud, Isabelle Nanty, Laurent Fernandez, Aurore Broutin, Bruno Lochet, Yoann Zimmer, Antoine Simoni, Patrick Zimmermann, Samuel Brafman-Moutier)

Supernova

Review preview for Supernova

With eloquent, understated performances from both leads and a willingness to take its time, Supernova explores not merely the issues they face but the life they share.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Old friends Sam and Tusker go on a road trip to make the most of their time together two years after Tusker was diagnosed with early-onset dementia.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Harry Macqueen; Writer: Harry Macqueen; Stars: Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth, James Dreyfus, Pippa Haywood, Sarah Woodward, Tina Louise Owens, Julie Hannan, John Alan Roberts, Ian Drysdale, Lori Campbell, Daneka Etchells, Peter MacQueen, Nina Marlin, Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth)

Full review

True Mothers (Asa Ga Kuru)

After a long and unsuccessful struggle to get pregnant, Satoko and her husband decide to adopt a baby boy. A few years later, their parenthood is shaken by the arrival of a woman claiming to be the child's biological mother.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2020; Director: Naomi Kawase; Stars: Arata Iura, Hiroko Nakajima, Miyoko Asada, Hiromi Nagasaku, Aju Makita, Gô Rijû, Taketo Tanaka, Tetsu Hirahara, Reo Sato, Ren Komai)

We Are Who We Are

A pair of friends who are struggling with their gender identities pretend to be a couple to avoid scrutiny.

(Country: Italy, US; Year: 2020; Director: Luca Guadagnino; Writer: Sean Conway, Paolo Giordano, Luca Guadagnino; Stars: Jack Dylan Grazer, Jordan Kristine Seamón, Chloë Sevigny, Alice Braga, Spence Moore II, Kid Cudi, Faith Alabi, Francesca Scorsese, Corey Knight, Tom Mercier, Beatrice Barichella, Sebastiano Pigazzi, Vittoria Bottin, Benjamin L. Taylor II, Jared McNeill)

We Will Never Die (Nosotros Nunca Moriremos)

A boy and his mum undertake a trip to the village where his elder brother recently died.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2020; Director: Eduardo Crespo; Writer: Lionel Braverman, Eduardo Crespo, Santiago Loza; Stars: Brian Alba, Romina Escobar, Jésica Frickel, Giovanni Pelizzari, Rodrigo Santana, Brian Alba, Romina Escobar, Jésica Frickel, Giovanni Pelizzari, Rodrigo Santana)

Wu Hai

A happily married man gets into trouble when he partners with a friend in a commerical lending business.

(Country: China; Year: 2020; Director: Ziyang Zhou; Writer: Ziyang Zhou; Stars: Xuan Huang, Zishan Yang, Tumen, Xuan Huang, Zishan Yang, Tumen)