Make a plan to go to the Zinemaldi trying to fit all the movies you want to see is like juggling knives hanging upside down inside a volcano. Luckily, in Espinof, one more year we bring you the best way to know everything that is cooked within the most important film festival in Spain (with permission from Sitges) for nine days in which one of the most beautiful cities in the world becomes an alternative universe where people drink coffee while discussing the latest from François Ozon or Hong Sang-Soo. What the cinema has created, let the eternal rain from Donostia not separate it!
In the 70th edition (which are not few), the San Sebastián festival comes with controversy under his arm in the form of an Austrian film, ‘Sparta’, which was already censored in Toronto for the alleged abuse of its minor protagonists and which will be screened here, except for an urgent court order. But it’s only one of the eleven movies we can’t wait to get our hands on. We tell you about them on this one-way trip to the Zinemaldi!
‘little pig’
Address: Carola Martinez Pereda. Distribution: Laura Galán, Claudia Salas, Camille Aguilar, Pilar Castro, Carmen Machi, José Pastor, Chema del Barco
Villanueva de la Vera is an archetypal Extremaduran town. It has about 2,000 inhabitants, a high school, a swimming pool under a bridge and a butcher shop. There lives a teenager, Sara, better known as “Little Pig” for his kind and friendly companions. If you have seen the original short film, ‘Pig’ promises to be an extension of this world that is as dark as it is dark and vengeful. If not, you are about to enter a journey that will not leave you indifferent. After the failed ‘Mother’, Are we facing the resurgence of films from shorts in our country?
‘Argentina, 1985’
Address: Santiago Miter. Distribution: Ricardo Darin, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Carlos Portaluppi, Norman Briski, Hector Diaz
March 24, 1976: Maria Estela de Peron stops being president of Argentina by force in a military coup. Sadly, the country was already accustomed to taking up arms whenever the army disagreed with politics. Years later, and with the insurrection now over, two prosecutors try to bring to trial the soldiers who perpetrated the coup in question. Two and a half hours that seem to compensate: Santiago Miter’s film with Ricardo Darín has already won the FIPRESCI in Venice and promises to sweep the awards season.
‘Do not worry dear’
Address: Olivia Wilde. Distribution: Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde, Gemma Chan, Chris Pine
It may be the movie that has been talked about the most in recent months, although in reality no one cares about the movie itself. Cuckolds, romances, layoffs, videos and spitting wrap up a film with an air of ‘The Stepford Women’ in which we will see if Olivia Wilde has her own voice or ‘Super Nerds’ was just a coincidence. Personally I still think her trailer works, but there’s no way of knowing if a speech has been made from there… Or is it the disaster that some predict.
‘Model 77’
Address: Albert Rodriguez. Distribution: Miguel Herrán, Javier Gutiérrez, Jesús Carroza, Fernando Tejero, Catalina Sopelana, Xavi Sáez
Alberto Rodríguez, who is still obsessed with number 7 after ‘7 Vírgenes’ or ‘Grupo 7’, returns to San Sebastian with his most ambitious filmand that is saying a lot about the director of ‘La isla minima’: a portrait of post-Francoism Spanish prisons, when total amnesty was requested from within and from without politicians preferred to turn a deaf ear. The first images are spectacular and promise to bring back the best Javier Gutiérrez: the one who doesn’t always play Javier Gutiérrez.
‘walk-up’
Address: Hong Sang-soo. Distribution: Kwon Hae-hyo, Lee Hye-young, Song Seon-mi, Cho Yun-hee, Park Mi-so, Shin Seok-ho
Much has been said about Hong Sang-Soo, a sometimes predictable but always interesting director able to delve into the deepest feelings of the human being. Personally, I ended up captivated by ‘Yours and Yours’ or ‘Grass’, very sensitive films with skin-deep sensitivity, so I’m dying to see what he has in store for ‘Walk Up’, a film about a film director who sees a building with her daughter and, floor by floor, they review the years they haven’t been able to be together. Korean cinema of emotions, feelings, silences and crying a little.
‘Blackout’
Address: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Raúl Arévalo, Alberto Rodríguez, Isa Campo, Isaki Lacuesta. Distribution: Luis Callejo, Ainhoa Santamaría, Melina Matthews, Patricia López Arnaiz, Zoe Arnao, Miquel Fernández
Although it is cheating a bit, I hope that the most purists will allow me to include a series among the most anticipated of Zinemaldi. And it is that, how not to crave a product directed by five of the best active Spanish directors and based on one of the best podcasts in our language? ‘Blackout’, which tells of the world that remains after a meteorological phenomenon leaves half the world without electricity, promises to be a great little miracle: an anthology series without ups and downs, all of it directed by five people with iron personalities. If it will be the swan song of Movistar Plus + or a point and followed, it remains to be seen.
‘Sparta’
Address: Ulrich Seidl. Distribution: Georg Friedrich, Hans-Michael Rehberg, Marius Ignat
Film festivals not only have the task of serving as a sales service or a vehicle to create anticipation among the public: in addition, they are a window to filmographies from other countries and directors that we would not see otherwise and that, on occasions, they remove us from our seat, taking us out of our comfort zone. The cinema as a way to disturb and make people think. I recognize that they are nice words, but I have no idea if it is really what awaits us in ‘Sparta’, which deals with the issue of pedophilia and comes with controversy from Austria, its country of origin. At its premiere, all eyes will be on it, but we will have to check if we are facing one of the most groundbreaking films of recent years or if it is simply cheap controversy.
‘as bestas’
Address: Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Distribution: Marina Foïs, Denis Menochet, Luis Zahera, Diego Anido, Marie Colomb
Even if he didn’t get the position to represent Spain at the Oscars, any film by Rodrigo Sorogoyen becomes an automatically interesting one. In the case of ‘As bestas’, it would go even further: has the potential to become the best of his careerand having works like ‘May God forgive us’ or ‘The Kingdom’ in his filmography, is a risky statement. Overwhelming cinema in a rural Galicia in which being contrary and being a foreigner are the two perfect ingredients to have more problems than you want.
‘godland’
Address: Hlynur Palmason. Distribution: Eggert Sigurdsson, Elliott Crosset Hove, Vic Carmen Sonne, Jacob Lohmann
‘A white, white day’ was one of my favorite films of 2019. Its long scenes and Palmason’s own personality behind the camera made pay as much attention as possible to his next film, ‘Godland’, the story about a priest fond of photography who travels to Iceland to build a church and convert its inhabitants. The problem is that the priest in question is not a saint, and greed is just the least of your sins. If you’re one of those people who watches a fixed shot of more than five seconds and gets bored no matter how imposing the image is, you may want to skip this one.
‘broker’
Address: Hirokazu Koreeda. Distribution: Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Doona Bae, Iu, Lee Joo-young, Bek Hyun-jin
Years ago, Koreeda bought the season ticket to always present his films at the Zinemaldi, and since then he hasn’t missed a year. Director re-explore his obsessions with the chosen family after wonders like ‘Our Little Sister’ or ‘A Family Affair’. In this case, the director will deal with the case of a mother who, instead of leaving her baby in the hands of two thugs, decides to find the best possible adoptive parents for her. A Koreeda who does not want to pretend to be who he is not is always the best Koreeda.
‘The triangle of sadness’
Address: Ruben Ostlund Distribution: Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly De Leon, Zlatko Buric, Iris Berben, Vicki Berlin
Ruben Östlund is not a tasteful dish for everyone. Not all enjoyed his macabre sense of humor and his (sometimes broad brush) parody of society in the stupendous ‘Force majeure’ or ‘The square’, and the same is going to happen in the brand new winner of the Palme d’Ora film that puts its finger on the sore spot of influencers and their beautiful cardboard world that falls as soon as it gets a little wet.
We have selected only eleven, but among all the sections, the amount of cinema that we can get into our veins is unfathomable. We’ll be here to tell you about it from the very red carpet (which is the typical stale resource to indicate what I’ll write when I find a gap between film and film if I’m not running down the Boulevard). The best cinephagous week of the year begins. The Zinemaldi begins.