San Sebastian Film Fest’s Spanish titles unveiled

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fernando Trueba, Juan Antonio Bayona and Sergio Castellitto are some of the Spanish directors who will see their latest works screen in the Official Section at the 60th San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers announced Friday, July 27, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Oscar-winner Trueba—a favorite of the festival—will see his The Artist and the Model screen in competition. Starring Jean Rochefort, Aida Folch and Claudia Cardinale focuses on the relationship between an old French sculptor and his muse in World War II France.

Bayona’s much-anticipated The Impossible—his second feature after the The Orphanage—will screen out of competition.

The helmer recreates the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in terrifyingly vivid detail in this grueling survival story about a married couple (Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor) searching for their missing children in the aftermath of the disaster.

Penelope Cruz stars in Castellitto’s Twice Born as a woman who escapes a terrible fate in Sarajevo with her newborn son after losing the love of her life, only to return 16 years to rediscover the father of her child.

Other Spanish directors competing in the Official Section include Javier Rebollo with his dark comedy The Dead Man and Being Happy, who won the best director nod in San Sebastian in 2006 for his The Woman Without a Piano; Pablo Berger with an acidic view of Snow White, starring Maribel Verdu and set in 1920s southern Spain.

Eduard Cortes’Atraco, which tells of a 1955 crime that sees Argentine exiles pawn Eva Peron’s jewels in a Spanish shop—which then they must be recovered by agents loyal to General Peron—will screen out of competition.

The festival also unveiled Spanish directors that will compete for the coveted €90,000 ($110,600) New Directors Award, including : Marcal Fores’ feature debut Animals, about adolescent love and sacrifice; Miguel Angel Jimenez’s Seagull about three different homecomings; David Valero’s The Incredibles is a documentary about three everyday heroes—Broken Win, The Iron Lady and Radioactive Woman.

The Zabalategi Specials Section offers some interesting gems. A chorus of directors including Benecio del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noe, Juan Carlos Tabio and Laurent Cantet present a portrait of contemporary Cuba in 7 Days in Havana. Inaki Elizalde will screen his documentary The Valley about people discriminated in the Baztan Valley and forced to live in isoluation. Aitor Mazo and Patxo Telleria will screen their romantic comedy Bypass, as will Miguel Coutois his Operacion E—inspired in the kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt in 2002 by the FARC. Fermin Muguruza’s Holes will follow the career of women’s rock group Zuloak.

San Sebastian runs from Sept. 21-29 in Spain’s northern Basque region.