San Sebastian Film Festival

Latest reviews

• 
  Winter Of The Crow

  Review preview for Winter Of The Crow

  As a director Adamik is good when it is close up and claustrophobic.

  A psychiatry professor gets caught up in Poland's instigation of martial law during a trip to Warsaw and ends up in a cat-and-mouse chase to escape.
• 
  Hen

  Review preview for Hen

  You’re unlikely to see anything quite like it any time soon.

  A hen seeks refuge, where she becomes an innocent observer of a human trafficking gang.
• 
  The Stranger

  Review preview for The Stranger

  Ozon remains faithful to the source and keeps its sense of mystery but has strengthened the female characters

  Adaptation of Camus' classic.
• 
  The Wizard Of The Kremlin

  Review preview for The Wizard Of The Kremlin

  Dano has chosen to use the same flat vocal expression throughout, a technique well suited to satire which might have worked if only the rest of the film had been a bit more lively.

  Russia, early 1990s. Amid post-Soviet chaos, a brilliant young man, Vadim Baranov, charts his path. First an artist, then a reality show producer, he becomes the spin doctor to a rising KGB agent: Vladimir Putin.
• 
  Fiume O Morte!

  Review preview for Fiume O Morte!

  Fiume O Morte! resists a purely historical reading, instead inviting a present-day sociological perspective in which the authoritarian leader becomes one element within the city’s layered history.

  In 1919, Italian poet and fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio occupies the Croatian city of Fiume and declares it his personal state.
• 
  Orwell: 2+2=5

  Review preview for Orwell: 2+2=5

  Offers food for thought in the realm of a slightly ungainly and sprawling all-you-can-eat buffet rather than a satisfying sit-down feast.

  Delves deep into Orwell’s final months and visionary works to explore the roots of the vital and troubling concepts he revealed to the world in his dystopian masterpiece… Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak, the omnipresent spectre of Big Brother… disturbing socio-political truths which resonate ever-more powerfully today.
• 
  Little Amélie

  Review preview for Little Amélie

  Amélie doesn’t just narrate but completely dominates this film as a personality.

  Amélie is a little Belgian girl born in Japan. Thanks to her friend Nishio-san, the world is full of adventure and discovery. But on her third birthday, an event changes the course of her life. For Amélie, everything is at stake at that age, happiness as well as tragedy.
• 
  The Voice Of Hind Rajab

  Review preview for The Voice Of Hind Rajab

  There is some very good work here, and all of it tempered where it needs to be, to give due prominence to Hind herself.

  January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her.
• 
  Nuremberg

  Review preview for Nuremberg

  It relies on often clumsy exposition, a common construction of "only if X" with a cut to "X has happened" leaves one asking "why?".

  Drama chronicles the events that brought the Nazi high command to justice following the Second World War.
• 
  Belén

  Review preview for Belén

  A largely straightforward drama that is a bit too structurally loose for its own good, Argentina’s Oscar nominee is buoyed considerably by Fonzi’s own central performance.

  An innocent woman jailed for self-inducing an abortion fights for her freedom.

A–Z of San Sebastian Film Festival 2025 reviews →

Features

• Behind the tsar
  Olivier Assayas on humanising history in The Wizard Of The Kremlin
• 'If Visconti had done it how could I possibly do it any better?'
  Ozon on the challenges of tackling Camus' masterwork The Stranger
• 'Children can understand a lot more than we think..'
  The makers of Little Amélie on why perceptions about animation are changing
• Song of the desert
  Kangding Ray on changing attitudes to music in cinema, and scoring Sirât
• The beauty of doubt
  Toni Servillo on costumes by Carlo Poggioli and working with Paolo Sorrentino on La Grazia
• A red thread
  Dolores Fonzi on how activism led to filmmaking in the case of Belén
• Spring in his step
  Joachim Lafosse on the personal story behind his latest film and its lighter feel
• 'I wanted the film to be extremely subjective'
  Kasia Adamik on claustrophobia and the cold in 'anti-spy thriller' Winter Of The Crow
• Getting the message
  Olmo Omerzu on family and communication breakdown in Ungrateful Beings
• 'I’m very happy to be trusted with characters of this calibre'
  Denis Lavant on the art of constructing personas in Redoubt and The Stranger
• Class act
  Eye Haïdara on building her character and the world of Six Days In Spring
• 'Even though I'm 36, I still feel connected to the girl I was'
  Emilie Thalund on teen desire, body positivity and crossing boundaries in Weightless
• Caught in The Currents
  Milagros Mumenthaler on the psychological journey of her latest film
• Language difficulties
  Barry Ward and Barbora Bobulova on communication and multilingual families in Ungrateful Beings
• The man who prepared for war
  John Skoog on Karl-Göran Persson and Redoubt
• Magnifying manga
  Shô Miyake on adding 'pure cinema' to Tsuge classics in Two Seasons, Two Strangers
• 'I didn't make this film myself. The Islamic Republic made it by putting me in prison'
  Jafar Panahi on the inspiration for It Was Just An Accident
• A sense of place
  When The Geese Flew director Arthur Gay on transient characters and the idea of home
• 'I admit it was crazy idea, but then film people are crazy'
  Richard Linklater on chronicling the creation of Godard's Breathless in Nouvelle Vague
• Slice of life... and fable
  The President's Cake director Hasan Hadi on the challenges and craft behind his debut
• 'I wanted her to have the space to not know what's right and wrong all the time'
  Sarah Miro Fischer on the torn loyalties of her protagonist in The Good Sister
• 'Reality offers impromptu flowers that you’re able to harvest'
  Iván Fund talks about his loose and intuitive approach to filmmaking and story in The Message
• Reflections of a cat
  Gints Zilbalodis on Hayao Miyazaki, fairy tales and Latvia’s Oscar submission, Flow

News

• Sundays snags San Sebastian Golden Shell
  Joachim Lafosse drama & Voice Of Hiind Rajab among winners
• San Sebastian announces opening and closing films
  Jennifer Lawrence to be honoured at festival
• San Sebastian Pearls announced
  Glossy section includes Cannes' Palme d'Or winner
• Desplechin, Holland and Winocour to compete in San Sebastian
  Festival continues to announce Competition titles
• Lillian Hellman retrospective in San Sebastian
  Festival dedicates strand to Little Foxes screenwriter