San Sebastian Film Festival is every year the best platform for the Spanish movies. This year is very special, because there are four tittles in the Official section and three of them are directed for people aged between 25 and 35. They aren’t consecrated directors but their films are a good contribution to the Spanish panorama.
“Noviembre (November) is the second film of Achero Mañas, he is director and screenwriter. First film “El bola” was the great success in Spanish cinema in year 2000 won a lot of prices in Spain, 4 Goya awards, including best film and best director, and also in many international film festivals.
In November he choice the theatre as a vehicle to show us other aspect of our society, and also symbolize the dream and the hope that the world can still be changed. But at the end the people know that it’s impossible.
“Te doy mis ojos” (take my eyes) is the third film of Iciar Bollain, her second feature film “Flores de otro mundo” winning the best film award at the Critics Week in Cannes. Take my eyes, is the story of a couple, but is also about the people around them. Is one story about fear, love and control. In an interview Iciar Bollain puts these questions what does a women stay for an average of ten years with a man who beats her? Why some women insist that they are still in love? This the main plot of this interesting movie.
“En la ciudad” (in the city) is also the third movie of Cesc Gay. The first one “Kràmpack” was the Fipresci price award in Chicago Film Festival (2000). In the city, is the story of a group of friends in one big city. They have problems, secrets, feelings. Is a choral story tourned in Barcelona but the director say that he could have shot in any big city.
“El Misterio Galindez” (The Galindez File) is the last film of the director and producer Gerardo Herrero. The Galindez file is about an unresolved case, the story of Jesús de Galindez, an activist basque that in 1939, after the Spanish civil war, went to exile in Santo Domingo under Trujillo’s dictatorship. After he moved to New York, in 1946, he worked as a teacher in Columbia University. In 1956 he presented one thesis about Latin American dictatorships accusing Trujillo. On March 12, 1956 he was kidnapped and he has never been found. The film is a fiction about that. There are three points of view in the film. The first is the point of view of the main character woman that tries to find the truth, the second is Galindez’s story, and the third is of the secrets services CIA and FBI.
© FIPRESCI 2003