SanSebastian

Nora

Lara Izagirre (Spain - France)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: Ane Pikaza, Héctor Alterio, Loli Astoreka, Naiara Carmona, Ramón Barea, Klara Badiola, Kepa Errasti, Iñigo Aranbarri, Joseba Usabiaga, Aia Kruse, Peio Berterretche, Catherine Domain, June Isasi, Paul Correa, Hegoa Negueloua, Aizpea Goenaga, Tessa Andonegi, Nagore González, Ainhoa Artetxe, Joanes Passicot, Jean Marc Toto

Opening Night Film

Nora is 30 years old; she lives with her Argentinian grandfather Nicolás and regularly takes care of her friend Meri's children. She writes the horoscope for the town newspaper, although her dream is to be a travel writer. When her grandfather dies, she inherits an old Dyane 6. Despite being a terrible driver, Nora will set out aimlessly on a road trip along the Basque coast so that her grandfather's ashes may finally rest beside those of her grandmother. The road will soon teach her that she's not a born traveller and that her dream had nothing to do with roving, but was only an excuse for the chance to be free, to grow, to close wounds and, for the first time, to find her own happiness.

Lobster Soup

Pepe Andreu , Rafael Molés (Spain - Iceland - Lithuania)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Closing Night Film

Every morning Krilli prepares the myriad ingredients required to make the lobster soup at the Bryggjan café, a tiny eatery in Iceland’s most anodyne town. His wife helps him in the kitchen and yearns to return to Rejkyavik. In the café, Krilli’s brother Alli sits with the old fishermen, the last boxer in Iceland and the translator of Don Quixote into Icelandic. Every day they find a new answer to the world’s problems. Once a month the neighbours meet at the Bryggjan café to remember those who died in Grindavik and pronounce their names. Four crazy musicians play jazz. A few lost tourists turn up at the fishing harbour and are captured by the atmosphere in the café. Real people, they think. A real place. On the other side of the mountain is the Blue Lagoon, the island’s great attraction. People from all over the world come in fascination to see the volcanoes, the ice and the genesis of the Earth. But now the mountain, the tourists and the lava field seem to increasingly push the whole town towards the sea.

Atarrabi et Mikelats

Eugène Green (France - Belgium)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: Saia Hiriart, Lukas Hiriart

The goddess Mari entrusts her two sons, both born to a mortal father, to the Devil for their education. When they reach their majority, one, Mikelats, decides to stay with the master, while the other, Atarrabi, flees. But the Devil succeeds in retaining his shadow.

Caminho longe

Josu Martinez, Txaber Larreategi (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Former ETA militant Alfonso Etxegarai makes his way home after decades of exile on the African island Sao Tomé and Principe, to which he had been deported by France and Spain in 1986. He is accompanied by his indefatigable partner, Kristiane Etxaluz.

El Drogas

Natxo Leuza (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: Enrique Villarreal, Mamen Irujo

A biographical documentary which explores, like a river, the length and breadth of the figure of Enrique Villareal. A human portrait where individual memory converges with its collective counterpart to bring us a tale taking an in-depth look at the historical and vital background of one of the leading lights of Rock & Roll in Spanish. An emotional story where we can observe the different faces and paths taken up by this singular artist. This is the story of a being who walks crooked so that he can see what's on the other side. It is the story of Enrique Villareal, “El Drogas”.

El Estado contra Pablo Ibar / The Miramar Murders: The State vs. Pablo Ibar

TV Series

Olmo Figueredo (Spain)

In July 1994, Pablo Ibar is arrested accused of a triple murder in Miami. A crime that shook the foundations of the whole community given that the whole thing was recorded on a home security camera. Although he defends his innocence throughout, Pablo is condemned to death and will spend more than 20 years in prison... until Florida Supreme Court confirms the lack of proof against him and grants a retrial. Back in the starting box, the District Attorney’s office once again asks for the death sentence while the Ibar family sets about finding the money to pay for a trial that will cost more than a million dollars. This is his last chance.  

Hijos de Dios / God´s Children

Ekain Irigoien (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: Javier Lea Cano, Mariano López de la Isidra, María José Sarabia

Javier and Romerales, two homeless veterans, sleep under one of the cornices surrounding Madrid’s tourist-packed Plaza de la Ópera. In company of the two, a long journey will begin round the busy streets of the capital, where surviving without giving in to madness becomes all of an art. The friendship between these two characters and their outlandish lives make this film a hymn to life, death and dignity.

Jo ta ke / Non-stop

Medium-length film

Aitziber Olaskoaga (Spain)

A film crew embark on a persistant search to find the cracks between two strongly polarised national identities. The successive refusals and silences will mark the way from the Basque Country to La Mancha, home of the first high-security prison built in Spain. A voyage with no answers and a single question: How can we represent History when the images are denied to us?

Non Dago Mikel? / Where is Mikel?

Amaia Merino, Miguel Angel Llamas (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Account of the disappearance in 1985 of Mikel Zabalza, a young man from Navarre arrested by the Guardia Civil, who confused him with an ETA activist. For the 20 days that Zabalza was missing, the mistrust of Basque society towards the official version ended with huge protests and social unrest when his body was finally found floating in the waters of the Bidasoa River. Despite the generalised conviction that Zabalza had died from torture, nobody was ever tried or punished for these occurrences. In November 2020 it will be 35 years since he died, and his family continues to call for the truth about what really happened.

Talento / Talent

David González Rudiez (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: David Huertas, Marta Reig, Jesús Soria, Juan Jiménez Estepa

Jorge is a guerrilla filmmaker on the point of completing his latest and most ambitious work, the one he hopes will finally earn him an established place in the avant-garde film scene. An improbable grant leads to the reappearance of an old project that will turn his life upside down: to make a film with money, at last. A commercial film.

Urtzen

Telmo Esnal (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

During lockdown, Telmo Esnal recovered a long-forgotten project: UR, a tale by Pablo Azkue taking a deep look at the conscience and the sea. Urtzen is a special cinematic essay, a curious collage which, recycling and reusing dialogues, images and music, reflects on existence.

Bizimina

Short film

Pablo Iraburu, MIgueltxo Molina, Jon Maya (Spain)

Bizimina combines documentary cinema with dance. Through a series of independent pieces, it composes a story around the emotions we find it so difficult to express these days: distance, longing for others, desire, the community spirit, impotence, isolation, confusion, hope. The choreography builds a tale serving to provide comfort and company in this uncertain time.

Alardea / Boast

TV Series

David Pérez Sañudo (Spain)

Cast: Itziar Ituño, Carmen Climent, Klara Badiola, Iñigo Aranburu

Amaia’s life is turned upside down when the women’s association of Uriola, her town, decide to participate in the traditional Alarde parade. Becoming involved in this matter is something that could bring this primary school teacher into confrontation with her community, and with her family. Deciding what to do is an enormous dilemma for her. The planned struggle also implies Amaia’s reunion with her mother, Edurne, now a nurse, and from whom she was distanced 25 years ago after the divorce from and subsequent death of her father. Amaia has never forgiven her mother for putting her involvement in the parade before the interests of the family. She has no intention of letting the same thing happen again, precisely in the year that her husband Aitor is named burgomaster and her daughter Jone, a water carrier. Screening of two of the four episodes making up this miniseries.

Akelarre

Pablo Agüero (Spain - France - Argentina)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: Álex Brendemühl, Amaia Aberasturi, Garazi Urkola, Irati Saez de Urabain, Jone Laspiur, Lorea Ibarra, Yune Nogueiras, Daniel Fanego, Asier Oruesagasti, Iñigo de la Iglesia, Elena Úriz , Daniel Chamorro, Jeanne Insausti

Basque Country, 1609. The men of the region are at sea. Ana joins other girls from the village to dance in the woods. Judge Rostegui, given the task of purifying the region by the King, arrests the women and accuses them of witchcraft. He decides to do what it takes for them to confess what they know about the akelarre, a ceremony with magical connotations during which the Devil is said to initiate his servants and mate with them. Winning project of the Arte Kino International Prize at the VI Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2017.

Ane

David Pérez Sañudo (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: Patricia López Arnáiz, Jone Laspiur, Mikel Losada, Luis Callejo, Nagore Aramburu, Fernando Albizu, Gorka Aguinagalde, David Blanka

The Basque Country, 2009. Lide is a security guard for the high-speed train works, a project that generates social protests in the streets. Coming home after work and partying all night, she makes breakfast for two, but her teenage daughter, Ane, is nowhere to be found. The next day, she’s still not back. Lide isn’t particularly worried, believing that her disappearance is probably connected to their huge argument of the previous day. Looking through Ane’s things, she gradually realises that her daughter is a stranger to her. Debut film.  

Hil kanpaiak / Death Knell

Imanol Rayo (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Cast: Itziar Ituño, Eneko Sagardoy, Yon González, Asier Hernández, Iñigo Aranburu, Dorleta Urretabizkaia, Josean Bengoetxea, Kandido Uranga, Patricia López Arnaiz, Andrés Gertrúdix, Itxaso Arana

Human bones are found at the Garizmendi farmhouse. Farmers Fermín and Karmen call their son Néstor, who reports the matter to the authorities. But, when the agents turn up, the bones are gone. Suddenly, the bell on the nearby chapel begins to peal. This bad omen announces the coming of tragic events and reopens old wounds within the family and those around it. Second feature film by its director.

Autoficción / Autofiction

Short film

Laida Lertxundi (USA - Spain -New Zealand)

Borrowing its name from the title of a literary genre, the film recognises the indeterminacy of both fiction and of the being. Film noir elements are reduced to inexpressive gestures under the bright Californian sunlight. Field recordings made in New Zealand can be heard while the women talk to one another about motherhood, abortion, break-ups and anxiety. A civil rights demonstration moves slowly along a street. The bodies appear in states of weariness, injured or relaxed, while the songs of Irma Thomas and Goldberg evoke the passing of time and an uncertain future. 

Ya no duermo

Short film

Marina Palacio Burgueño (Spain)

Cast: Jesús Palacio Erauskin, Miguel Burgueño Herrero

Ya no duermo is a family-made movie showing us Miguel and his Uncle Kechus, who want to shoot a film about vampires. In that endeavour to create something together, reality and fiction alternate, in a game which also shows the particular relationship established between boy and adult. 

ARZAK since 1897

Asier Altuna (Spain)

Competes for the Irizar Basque Film Award

Opening Night Film

When Juan Mari told his mother he wanted to study catering and continue in the tradition of the family business, she tried to convince him to choose a career offering a better future. Sixty years later, the social prestige enjoyed by gastronomy is enormous, the change has been revolutionary and today many children encouraged by their parents dream of becoming great chefs. Juan Mari has lived this evolution in first person and has been a fundamental part of it. Arzak, the family eatery situated at the top of San Sebastian’s Alto de Miracruz, has become one of the world’s best restaurants. Today, the new generation has taken up the baton. Elena Arzak, Juan Mari’s daughter, now runs the restaurant and her father is gradually retiring. The time has come to look back, to take stock of a whole life; to analyse the transformation of traditional cuisine into the new cuisine d’auteur.

La isla de las mentiras / The Island of Lies

Paula Cons Varela (Spain - Argentina - Portugal)

Cast: Nerea Barros, Darío Grandinetti, Aitor Luna, Victoria Teijeiro, Ana Oca

In the early hours of 2 January 1921, the ship Santa Isabel, on its way to Buenos Aires and with 260 people on board, sunk off the sheer, harsh coast of Sálvora island, in Galicia. With very few men on the island, three young local women, María, Josefa and Cipriana, set about rescuing 48 people, a heroic act that would cost them very dearly. After those events, an Argentine journalist, León, makes his way to Sálvora to cover the story of the shipwreck. Gradually he will discover that on said night there had been too many coincidences, even starting to suspect that they ship may have been deliberately sunk. Meanwhile, nothing will be the same. The shipwreck will shake and forever change life on the island. Inspired by true events.

Barbudos

Short film

Tucker Dávila Wood, Larry Mankuso (Spain)

Cast: Bob Wood, James MacEneaney

April 2013. Despite the American embargo, citizen Bob Wood returns to Cuba almost 60 years after he left.

Dar-dar

Short film

Paul Urkijo Alijo (Spain)

Cast: Udane Elosegi, Almudena Cid, Elias García

Dar-dar is a mythical Basque demon that eats fingers. He says: ‘Dar, dar, dar, bring your finger for dinner. If you decline, I will return at night time and your soul will be mine’.

Ehiza / Hunting

Short film

Hauazkena Taldea (Spain)

In 1969, artist Rafael Ruiz Balerdi made the short animated film Homenaje a Tarzán (Homage to Tarzan), which ended with an enigmatic «to be continued». Ehiza (Hunting) is its continuation. It accepts Balerdi's aesthetic proposal, but steps away from the colonial perspective of the films that inspired that work to depict the harshness of our own reality: harassment, violence and destruction.

El ruido solar / Solar Noise

Short film

Pablo Hernando (Spain)

Cast: Eva Llorach, Ingrid García Jonsson, Miquel Insúa, Julián Génisson, Lorena Iglesias, Vito Sanz, Alejandro Morellón, Axier Raya, Vicenç Miralles

A collection of stories about people who had a fleeting vision of the future after an inexplicable cosmic event.

Interior Taxi Noche / Interior Taxi Night

Short film

Iban del Campo, Silvia Rey (Spain)

Cast: Álvaro Ogalla, Tanya de la Cruz

Based on one of the directors’ own experiences, this film is a somewhat ironical tribute to the famous hidden camera TV programme Taxicab Confessions and to New York City.

Quebrantos / Breaches

Short film

Maria Elorza, Koldo Almandoz (Spain)

Cast: Ziortza Linares, Maite Artola

- You really loved him, didn’t you?

- Yes. I stopped loving him recently.

(Interferences. Silences. Fissures. Two women talking. A radio-graphy).

Ya no duermo

Short film

Marina Palacio Burgueño (Spain)

Cast: Jesús Palacio Erauskin, Miguel Burgueño Herrero

Ya no duermo is a family-made movie showing us Miguel and his Uncle Kechus, who want to shoot a film about vampires. In that endeavour to create something together, reality and fiction alternate, in a game which also shows the particular relationship established between boy and adult. 

918 gau / 918 Nights

Arantza Santesteban (Spain)

Cast: Arantza Santesteban, Mercè Salom, Maryann Peony, Manon Praline, Mirari Echávarri

"On the night of October 4th, 2007, several Spanish National Police Corps vans stopped the car in which I was travelling with other people. After showing them our ID, they told us we were under arrest. We were accused of the crime of terrorism, due to our political activity in a party declared illegal under the Political Parties Law of the year 2002. That same moment marked the start of a long road that would become my new life: prison. In total, I spent 918 nights in prison. Almost three years during which I completely disappeared from my previous life" (Arantza Santesteban). Selected for Ikusmira Berriak in 2018.