SanSebastian

• View
• Edit

Oliver Stone's latest film, Savages, will enjoy its premiere at the 60th edition of the San Sebastian Festival. The North American director will receive a Special Award in tribute to his career bestowed by the San Sebastian Festival on the occasion of its 60th anniversary.

Oliver Stone (New York, 1946) is today one of the most emblematic makers of modern American film thanks to his treatment of red-hot social and political topics and his powerful visual style.

Stone started in film as a screenwriter and won his first Academy Award for the script of Alan Parker's Midnight Express (1978); he also penned the screenplay of hugely popular films like John Milius' Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Brian de Palma's Scarface (1983). Although Stone debuted as a director in 1981 with the fantasy thriller The Hand, it wasn't until five years later that he set about defining his style and interests as a director with the political drama Salvador (1986), opening movie of screenings in the Velodromo at the San Sebastian Festival in its day. This was followed by the film that sealed his international fame, Platoon, a brutal portrayal of the Vietnam War for which he landed the Academy Award for Best Director and carried off the statuette for Best Film. He continued to reap success with his acid view of the big business world in Wall Street (1987) and his return to the trauma of Vietnam in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), which garnered him a second Academy Award for Best Director. In his following films, Stone sketched a profound and shocking portrait of modern America through subjects like the murder of Kennedy in JFK (1991), Richard Nixon's presidency in Nixon (1995), the violence of American society in Natural Born Killers (1994), sports corruption in Any Given Sunday (1999) and the 9/11 terrorist attack in World Trade Center (2006).

Stone has visited the San Sebastian Festival on four occasions, with Salvador, Natural Born Killers and World Trade Center at the Velodromo and with his documentary Looking for Fidel (2004) in Zabaltegi Specials.

Stone's latest film, Savages, is a fast-moving thriller based on Don Winslow's hard-boiled best seller and featuring a star-studded cast headlined by John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and Demian Bichir.

The film tells the exciting tale of two Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Taylor Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary. They run a lucrative, homegrown industry: raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Blake Lively). Life is idyllic in their Southern California town... until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them. But the merciless head of the Baja Cartel, Elena (Salma Hayek), and her brutal enforcer, Lado (Benicio Del Toro), underestimate the unbreakable bond among these three friends. Ben and Chon, with the reluctant, slippery assistance of a dirty DEA agent (John Travolta), decide to wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel. And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and manoeuvres in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.

Savages will be released on screens throughout Spain on September 28, distributed by Universal Pictures International Spain.

The screening of Savages will take place on September 23rd at the Teatro Victoria Eugenia, attended by Oliver Stone and by the actors John Travolta and Benicio Del Toro.