23/08/2005

The forthcoming Donostia-San Sebastian Film Festival may be paying tribute to Americans Robert Wise and Abel Ferrara with two retrospectives focused on their career, but it’s the European filmmakers who will be under the spotlight of the official section with no less than 16 (co)productions from the old continent competing for the Golden Shell.

Spain is competing with 6 films. On the 15th September, the opening fim, Obaba, marks the return of veteran Montos Armendáriz to San Sebastian. The filmmaker, who won the Silver Shell in 1986 with 27 Hours and the Golden Shell in 1990 with Cartas de Alou presents this year the adaptation of Bernardo Atxaga's book "Obaba". Starring Pilar López de Ayala, Juan Diogo Botto and Bárbara Leen, the film will share the audience and jury's attention with 2 co-productions (El Aura by Argentinean director Fabian Bielinsky - see the making of - and La vida de Juanita Narboni by Moroccan Farida Benlyazid) and with 3 other films directed by young Spanish directors: Chema de la Peña and Gabriel Velásquez's Sud Express, Manuel Martín Cuenca's Malas Temporadas and Alberto Rodríguez's 7 Virgenes.
The UK and France compete with two films apiece: British productions Tideland by Terry Gilliam and A Cock and Bull Story by Michael Winterbottom; and French productions Entre ses mains by Anne Fontaine and Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé by Stéphane Brizé. From Slovenia comes Odgrobadogroba (Gravehopping) by Jan Cvitkovic, from Denmark Bang Bang Oranguang by Simon Staho, from the Czech Republic Stesty (Something like happiness) by Bohdan Sláma, while German director Andreas Dresen will present his film Sommer Vorm Balkon (Summer from Balcony). The other films in the official section are Zhang Yang's Sunflower (China), Tristán Bauer's Iluminados del fuego (Argentina) and Hur Jin-Ho's April Show (South Korea).

Five of the films mentioned above (El Aura, Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé, Malas Temporadas, Gravehopping and Something like happiness) will also compete for the Altadis – New Directors Award. Aspiring to this 90.000 euros prize are also Pedro Pérez Rosado's Agua con Sal (Spain), José Alcalá's Alex (France), Telmo Esnal and Asier Altuna's Aupa Etxebeste! (Spain), Sarin Ritu and Sonam Tenzing's Dreaming Lhasa (India – UK), Fien Troch's Someone else's happiness (Belgium), Fariborz Kamkari's The Forbidden Chapter (Iran – Italy), Bymbasuren Davaa's The Cave of the Yellow Dod (Germany), L'Iceberg directed by Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel and Bruno Romy (Belgium), Piotr Trzaskalski's The Master (Poland), Fabienne Godet's Sauf le respect que je vous doit (France), Antonin Svodoba's You bet your life (Austria), Stephen Wooley's Stoned (UK), and Jo Sol's El taxista.