Spanish director Julio Medem (Sex And Lucia) will present his new documentary about life in Basque country as one of five charged "special screenings" lined up for the Zabaltegi section of the 51st Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 18-27).

La Pelota Vasca, La Piel Contra La Piedra mixes hours of interviews with Basque citizens and archive footage in a consideration of the volatile region's past, present and future that organisers of San Sebastian, which is located in Basque Country, say "will leave no one indifferent."

Andrew Jarecki's documentary about a family dealing with charges of pederasty, Sundance prize-winner Capturing The Friedmans, is one of three other socially- and politically-charged documentaries in the line-up.

From Barcelona comes Joaquin Jorda's denouncement of the local legal system following the 2001 trial of a presumed pederast ring, Child's Game (Juego De Ninos). French-Belgian-Algerian co-production An Algerian Dream (Un Reve Algerien) sees director Jean-Pierre Lledo return to his native country only to find Algeria has not lived up to his hopes for a happy assimilation of its diverse communities.

Finally, Spaniard Joaquin Oristrell's fiction film Los Abajo Firmantes stems from the Spanish acting community's outspoken stance this year against the war in Iraq in telling the story of a young activist theatre actor.