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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2021

San Sebastian Film Festival 2021

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

Programme

18 films · 7 reviews

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107 Mothers (Cenzorka)

Review preview for 107 Mothers

Despite all of its shortcomings, 107 Mothers nonetheless, makes for quite a completing piece of filmmaking.

Nikola Jovic · 4 out of 5
Docufiction considering the lives of mothers in Odessa women's prison.

(Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine; Year: 2021; Director: Péter Kerekes; Writer: Péter Kerekes, Ivan Ostrochovský, Ivan Ostrochovský; Stars: Maryna Klimova, Iryna Kiryazeva, Lyubov Vasylyna, Maryna Klimova, Iryna Kiryazeva, Lyubov Vasylyna)

Full review

Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn (Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc)

Review preview for Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn

At times, the dialogue is well done, scores points. At other times, it felt like we had wandered into a Socratic symposium.

Jane Fae · 3.5 out of 5
Emi, a school teacher, finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet.

(Country: Romania, Croatia, Czech Republic, Luxembourg; Year: 2021; Director: Radu Jude; Writer: Radu Jude; Stars: Tudorel Filimon, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Malai, Ilinca Manolache, Daniela Ionita Marcu, Katia Pascariu, Alexandru Potocean, Nicodim Ungureanu, Andi Vasluianu, Dana Voicu)

Full review See: Jude Uncovered! An almost complete A to Z to Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn

The Cormorant

A mother and her son are secluded in their house on an isolated island where two moments of their lives will intertwine.

(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2021; Director: Lubna Playoust; Writer: Lubna Playoust; Stars: Anatole Karmitz, Mireille Perrier, Lubna Playoust, Robinson Stévenin)

The Crossing (La Traversee)

Fleeing their village, two children are separated from their parents and embark on a heroic journey.

(Country: France, Czech Republic, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Florence Miailhe; Writer: Marie Desplechin, Florence Miailhe)

Day Is Done

Xiao Lei returns to his grandfather's house. It is still the same compound and family, but wrinkles have formed on his parents' faces. Xiao Lei, who is never without his nunchucks, has grown up. Life in grandpa's little house was always calm and slow; even the trivial daily routines between the family members are gentle and warm.

(Country: China; Year: 2020; Director: Dalei Zhang; Writer: Dalei Zhang; Stars: Weiyi Kong, Chen Zhang, Yanyun Guo, Hua Zhao, Mengfu Hao, Xuejian Li)

The Great Movement (El Gran Movimiento)

Review preview for The Great Movement

The multi-layered emotional consideration of themes, in particular the clash of cultural traditions and modernity - the building up of the city mirroring the destruction of the people within it and the natural landscape - are resonant and engaging.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Mystical portrait of the contemporary central South American cityscape and those who work within its bowels and environs.

(Country: Bolivia, France, Qatar, Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Kiro Russo; Writer: Kiro Russo; Stars: Francisa Arce de Aro, Israel Hurtado, Gustavo Milán Ticona, Julio César Ticona, Max Bautista Uchasara)

Full review

Haruhara-san's Recorder

Portrait of a young woman’s interior world.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2021; Director: Kyoshi Sugita; Writer: Kyoshi Sugita; Stars: Chika Araki, Saho Ito, Takenori Kaneko, Minako Niibe, Chika Araki, Saho Ito, Takenori Kaneko, Minako Niibe)

Heltzear

San Sebastian, the year 2000. The Basque conflict is ongoing. While writing a letter to her absent brother, Sara, a 15-year-old mountain climber, trains for the hardest ascent of her life.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2021; Director: Mikel Gurrea; Writer: Mikel Gurrea; Stars: Mikel Arruti, Oier de Santiago, Haizea Oses)

Mi Iubita, Mon Amour

Jeanne is traveling to Romania to celebrate her bachelorette party with her friends when she meets Nino and her family. They are worlds away from one another, yet for the two of them it is the beginning of a passionate and timeless summer.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Noémie Merlant; Writer: Gimi-Nicole Covaci, Noémie Merlant; Stars: Gimi-Nicole Covaci, Noémie Merlant, Sanda Codreanu, Clara Lama-Schmit, Alexia Lefaix)

My Friends And The Fire (Le Filles Du Feu)

It has been 10 years since five women last saw each other... when they were 16 they went on a girls' trip - and then everything burned.

(Year: 2021; Director: Laura Rius)

My Uncle Tudor

After 20 years of silence, the filmmaker returns to the house of her great-grandparents, where she witnessed harmful events that left a deep imprint. Her attempt to overcome the past awaits.

(Country: Hungary, Portugal, Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Olga Lucovnicova; Writer: Olga Lucovnicova)

Petrov's Flu

A day in the life of a comic book artist and his family in post-Soviet Russia. While suffering from the flu, Petrov is carried by his friend Igor on a long walk, drifting in and out of fantasy and reality.

(Country: Switzerland, France, Russia, Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Kirill Serebrennikov; Writer: Kirill Serebrennikov, based on the book by Alexey Salnikov; Stars: Chulpan Khamatova, Semyon Serzin, Elene Mushkaeva, Ivan Ivashkin)

Playground (Un Monde)

Review preview for Playground

This is the playground as a warzone, where the sandpit might, indeed, be as deep as the sea and hold dead bodies and where adult authority might only make things worse.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A little girl faces a moral dilemma after she sees her brother being bullied.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2021; Director: Laura Wandel; Writer: Laura Wandel; Stars: Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret, Lena Girard Voss, Laura Verlinden, Karim Leklou)

Full review See: Playground politics: Laura Wandel on bullying and working with children on her first feature

Returning To Reims (Fragments) (Retour A Reims (Fragments))

Review preview for Returning To Reims (Fragments)

Never directly asking the question, but leaving liberté, égalité and fraternité to hang in the air between scenes and lines, Périot’s latest gives a voice to the voiceless, the disenfranchised, the forgotten.

Matthew Anderson · 3 out of 5
An intimate and political story of the French working class from the beginning of the 1950s to today.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot; Stars: Narrated by Adèle Haenel)

Full review

The Souvenir: Part II

Review preview for The Souvenir: Part II

Hogg has always had an eye for architectural as well as emotional spaces and we see it here, as she floods the large rooms of Julie's parents' home with light, so that she almost seems to be paling out of them, which, coupled with her often silent reactions as others babble around her makes it seem as though she is the one who might be the ghost.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Joanna Hogg; Writer: Joanna Hogg; Stars: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Harris Dickinson, Jack McMullen, Richard Ayoade, Joe Alwyn, Charlie Heaton, Ariane Labed, Alice McMillan, Amber Anderson, Tosin Cole, Frankie Wilson, Jaygann Ayeh, Gala Botero, Grace Hancock)

Full review See: Tilda Swinton and Honor Swinton Byrne make a splash in Cannes with The Souvenir: Part II

They Carry Death (Eles Transportan A Morte)

1492. Among the crew captained by Christopher Columbus, travel three men who should have been dead by now. They have managed to avoid their sad fate by participating in this uncertain journey. The film follows the trip.

(Country: Spain, Colombia; Year: 2021; Director: Samuel M Delgado, Helena Girón; Writer: Samuel M Delgado, Helena Girón; Stars: Xoán Reices, Valentín Estévez, David Pantaleón, Sara Ferro, Nuria Lestegás, Xoán Reices, Valentín Estévez, David Pantaleón, Sara Ferro, Nuria Lestegás)

Unclenching The Fists

A young woman struggles to break free from her over-controlling father in a mining town in the mountains.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2021; Director: Kira Kovalenko)

Vortex

Review preview for Vortex

The most restrained and yet audacious, unadorned and still intelligent picture the Argentinian auteur has made.

Levan Tskhovrebadze · 4 out of 5
Drama focused on a handful of dark days in the lives of an elderly couple in Paris.

(Country: France, Belgium, Monaco; Year: 2021; Director: Gaspar Noé; Writer: Gaspar Noé; Stars: Dario Argento, Alex Lutz, Françoise Lebrun)

Full review See: Gaspar Noé interview about Vortex