The 73rd San Sebastián International Film Festival has announced the work-in-progress films to be presented to industry experts on 22, 23 and 24 September as part of the WIP Europe activity. They will also be competing for the WIP Europe Industry Award (consisting of post-production until a DCP subtitled in English, and its distribution in Spain) and the WIP Europe Award (€10,000).

German director Jonas Bak (whose début Wood and Water [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
fiche film] premièred in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the Berlinale) will present his second film Somewhere Between Sleep, which narrates the consequences of a casual encounter between two women in a Black Forest village. February, Seven Days (Sieben Tage Februar) is the first feature film by Ukrainian Tatjana Moutchnik, who uses the Russian invasion of her country as the backdrop for the reunion of two Ukrainian brothers in Stuttgart for their mother's funeral.

The film-maker of Iranian origin Massih Parsaei will present Lovers Sleep Alone (working title), about a young exile who scrapes by doing casual work in Berlin and whose only relationship with a man he has occasional sex with in a park, until one day he receives a visit from his cousin from Tehran. Completing this year's WIP Europe selection is Veha, first feature film from Turkish screenwriter and director Elif Sölzen, in which the protagonist, who is travelling with her son from Germany to her birthplace for her father's funeral, disappears overnight, abandoning her child.

The festival has also announced the four Latin American feature films in post-production that will be presented in the WIP Latam section on the same dates, and which will compete for the WIP Latam Industry Award (consisting of post-production until a DCP subtitled in English, and its distribution in Spain) and the EGEDA Platinum Industry Award (€30,000 gross for the majority production company of the winning film).

The Neverending Plague is a co-production with Europe co-directed by Chilean visual artists Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León (who premièred The Wolf House at the Berlinale in 2018 and The Hyperboreans at last year's Cannes Film-makers' Fortnight), telling the magical story of Diana, princess of a fairytale kingdom, who time travels to present-day Santiago de Chile. While Mexican Fernando Eimbcke (known for Duck Season and Lake Tahoe, whose latest film Elm premièred in Panorama at this year's Berlinale) is returning to San Sebastián with Flies, a story about the emotional ties between a woman who needs to rent out a room in her apartment and her tenant's son.

Colombian duo Esteban Hoyos and Juan Miguel Gelacio are presenting their second film (after Selva), We were no longer five, the story of a group of Colombian women carrying out their own search for their children, who disappeared in the armed conflict. Finally, Sad Girls is the début feature film from Mexican Fernanda Tovar (who participated with the short film Mi edad, la tuya y la edad del mundo at the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes in 2022), a co-production between her native Spain and France that shows how the friendship between two swimmers falls apart due to their different approaches to a compromising situation.

The selected projects:

WIP Europe

Somewhere Between Sleep - Jonas Bak (France/Germany)
Production: Trance Films

February, Seven Days (Sieben Tage Februar) - Tatjana Moutchnik (Germany/Austria)
Production: Wega Film

Lovers Sleep Alone (working title) - Massih Parsaei (Germany)
Production: Film Five, Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf

Veha - Elif Sözen (Turkey/France/Saudi Arabia)
Production: Les Films d'Ici

WIP Latam

The Neverending Plague - Joaquín Cociña, Cristóbal León (Chile/Netherlands/Uruguay/Germany/France)
Production: Globo Rojo Films, Viking Film, Autentika Films, Montelona

Moscas (Flies) - Fernando Eimbcke (México)
Production: Kinotitlán, Teorema

We Were No Longer Five- Esteban Hoyos, Juan Miguel Gelacio (Colombia/United States).
Production: Selva Producciones

Sad Girls - Fernanda Tovar (Mexico/Spain/France)
Production: Colectivo Colmena, Martinishot Films