2022 is a strong year for Spanish filmmaking. Carla Simon’s Alcarrás won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in February and has performed well at the local box office.
Now on home turf at the San Sebastian International FIlm Festvial, some 20 local features are playing throughout the festival. They include Isabel Coixet’s gender doc El Sostre Goc, Carlota Pereda’s Sundance stand-out Piggy, Alberto Rodríguez new action thriller Prison 77 and Elena López Riera’s The Water, an entry at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight this year.
Screen selects a further six with strong international potential.
La Maternal
Dir: Pilar Palomero
Palomero’s second feature, following the Goya-winning Schoolgirls, is about a 14-year-old girl living in the countryside who has a difficult relationship with her mother. When she realises she is pregnant, she goes to stay at a shelter for young expectant mothers called La Maternal. As with Schoolgirls, the movie is produced by Valerie Delpierre at Inicia Films and BTeam Productions. La Maternal is screening in Official Selection.
Int’l sales: Elle Driver
Suro
Dir: Mikel Gurrea
Barcelona’s Lastor Media, which co-produced Alcarrás, and Malmo Pictures, and San Sebastian’s Irusoin have produced the much-anticipated feature debut of Gurrea. Suro is playing in Official Selection and stars Vicky Luengo and Pol López. The Catalan-language dramatic thriller is about a couple about to have their first child who decide to leave the city and move to the countryside to work in the family business she has inherited. Gurrea made his name with the short film Foxes.
Int’l sales: Reason8 Films
The Rite Of Spring
Dir: Fernando Franco
This is the third feature from director-editor-producer Franco who recieved a special jury prize at San Sebastian in 2013 for his debut Wounded. Produced by the director’s own Ferdydurke Films with Kowalski Films and Lazona, the film stars newcomer Valeria Sorolla as a woman studying in Madrid who forms a complex relationship with a child with cerebral palsy and his mother, played by Emma Suárez, best known for Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta. Also in Official Section.
Int’l sales: Film Factory Entertainment
Tobacco Barns
Dir: Rocío Mesa
Screening in New Directors, Tobacco Barns is the fiction debut of Granada-born, Los Angeles-based Mesa, It is a coming-of-age story about a young child who spends her summers on her grandparents’ farm, particularly in their tobacco barn. The film is produced by Olmo Figueredo’s La Claqueta and mixes the traditional with the psychedelic, against a rural backdrop.
Int’l sales: Latido Films
To Books And Women I Sing
Dir: María Elorza
This 72-minute creative documentary follows four women who have spent their lives reading and studying. To Books And Women I Sing explores the bonds of family and explores literature, poetry and cinema through portraying the daily lives of these women. It is produced by Marian Fernández and Koldo Almandoz at Txintxua Films, whose credits include Arantza Santesteban’s 918 Nights. Elorza is a rising star of Basque cinema. The film is screening in New Directors.
Int’l sales: TBC
Wild Flowers
Dir: Jaime Rosales
Anna Castillo stars in this film about a woman trying to find romantic love while raising her children. Rosales, whose credits include The Hours Of The Day and Beautiful Youth, has said he hopes Wild Flowers will have a broader appeal than his earlier work. It is produced by Fresdeval, A Contracorriente, Oberon and France’s Luxbox and is screening in Official Section.
Int’l sales: Film Factory Entertainment
-
San Sebastian festival director José Luis Rebordinos: “It’s a sweet moment for the Spanish industry”
No comments yet