Five films will compete for the Cooperación Española Award given by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) at San Sebastian Festival’s 68th edition. The accolade goes every year, since 2015, to the producer of the Latin American film (including Spanish and Portuguese films) making the best contribution to human development, the eradication of poverty and the full exercising of human rights.
The Cooperación Española Award goes to a Latin American film screened in the Official Selection, New Directors or Horizontes Latinos. Its objective is to strengthen the commitment to work jointly with the Ibero-American audiovisual industry in order to promote new talents, stimulate the production of film projects, disseminate the values of development cooperation and boost commercialization and internationalization of the films.
One of the competing films, Nosotros nunca moriremos / We Will Never Die (Argentina), by Eduardo Crespo, comes from the Official Selection, while La última primavera / Last Days of Spring (Netherlands-Spain), by Isabel Lamberti is included in New Directors. Three films from Horizontes Latinos also compete for the award: Visión nocturna / Night Shot (Chile), by Carolina Moscoso; Todos os mortos / All the Dead Ones (Brazil-France), by Caetano Gotardo and Marco Dutra; and Sin señas particulares / Identifying Features (Mexico), by Fernanda Valadez.
OFFICIAL SELECTION
NOSOTROS NUNCA MORIREMOS / WE WILL NEVER DIE
EDUARDO CRESPO (ARGENTINA)
Rodrigo and his mother travel to the town where his elder brother has just died. The first moments of their mourning are spent in this calm place. Rodrigo will gradually come to grips with the adults’ pain and will unwittingly start to leave his childhood behind. His mother will endeavor to uncover the mysteries of that death. A delicate film, with melancholy and a touch of humor, with solitary characters who try to dispense a little affection. A story suspended in time, in the floating of the province’s lost places.
NEW DIRECTORS
LA ÚLTIMA PRIMAVERA / LAST DAYS OF SPRING
ISABEL LAMBERTI (NETHERLANDS – SPAIN)
The Gabarre-Mendoza family is celebrating their grandson’s birthday when a police inspection interrupts the party. In La Cañada Real, a shanty town outside Madrid, tensions are running high between the officials and the inhabitants given that the land has been sold and the families must leave the homes they put up with their own hands. The mother, Augustina, once full of laughter, is now tormented by fear; the father, David, a hardworking scrap merchant, tries to find a solution but is let down by the bureaucratic system. Meanwhile, the younger members of the family—David Jr, the adolescent mother and daughter-in-law Maria and the young Alejandro—struggle in their own way with their lives in transition. Debut film.
HORIZONTES LATINOS
SIN SEÑAS PARTICULARES / IDENTIFYING FEATURES
FERNANDA VALADEZ (MEXICO – SPAIN)
Films in Progress 36
Magdalena sets out on a peregrination in search of her son, who disappeared en route to the US border. Travelling through the desolate towns and landscapes of today’s Mexico she meets Miguel, a young man recently deported from the United States who is making his way home. The two accompany one another: Magdalena looking for her son, and Miguel eager to see his mother again in a territory where victims and aggressors wander together. Films in Progress 36 Industry Award.
TODOS OS MORTOS / ALL THE DEAD ONES
CAETANO GOTARDO, MARCO DUTRA (BRAZIL – FRANCE)
The fast-growing city of São Paulo, Brazil, 1899. A few years after slavery has been abolished. The three women of the Soares family, former owners of lands and slaves, just came back to the city. Lost after the death of their last housemaid, they struggle to adapt to the changes in Brazil. At the same time, the Nascimento family, who used to work as slaves in the Soares estate, are now facing a society in which there is no space for the recently freed black people. Between Brazil’s past and present, out of place, they all fight to survive in the modern world.
VISIÓN NOCTURNA / NIGHT SHOT
CAROLINA MOSCOSO (CHILE)
Eight years after being raped on a beach near Santiago, a young filmmaker composes a kaleidoscope with dozens of diary-videos showing the wounds of the abuse, the re-victimizing legal proceedings and the friendship that accompanies her. One question arises in that journey: What really is rape and when does it end?