A total of 18 films, including works by Joanna Hogg, Radu Jude and Gaspar Noé, will compete for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award of the 2021 San Sebastian Festival. This year thirteen features, one medium-length film and four shorts will compete in the all-encompassing competitive section, where any kind of style or length goes.
Following its premiere in the Orizzonti section of the upcoming Venice Festival, Bolivian director Kiro Russo will bring his second work to San Sebastian, El gran movimiento, the story of a sick worker who turns to a healer to save his life. Also arriving from Orizzonti is the latest work by the Slovak Peter Kerekes Cenzorka / 107 Mothers, a film combining fiction and non-fiction set in a prison for women in Ukraine.
Director Kirill Serebrennikov will present the film with which he competed in the Official Selection at Cannes, Petrov’s Flu, about a man who lives his life on the border between fantasy and reality.
Zabaltegi-Tabakalera will also include the winning film of Un Certain Regard at the Festival de Cannes, Razzhimaya Kulaki / Unclenching the Fists, a story set in northern Ossetia where a young girl tries to flee from her family’s asphyxiating control.
Un monde / Playground, an immersion in the school universe through the eyes of a little girl whose brother is the victim of bullying, is the first work by Laura Wandel premiered this year in Un Certain Regard, where she won the Fipresci Prize.
Another title from the French festival, precisely from the Cannes Première section, is Vortex, by Gaspar Noé, the tale of the relationship between two poorly elderly people.
The French festival’s Special Screenings saw the participation of Mi Iubita, Mon Amour, the feature directorial debut from the Parisian actress Noémie Merlant, who starred in Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Woman on Fire, Perlak 2019), by Céline Sciamma. Merlant directs and stars in the story of a woman who meets a man younger than herself while celebrating her hen party.
Arriving from the Cannes Quinzaine des Réalisateurs is The Souvenir: Part II, second installment of the autobiographical story from the British director Joanna Hogg. Her latest film is a portrait of the artist that transcends the halting particulars of everyday life – a singular, alchemic mix of memoir and fantasy.
Another competitor in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs was Jean-Gabriel Périot, with Retour à Reims (Fragments) / Returning to Reims, using Didier Eribon’s text to narrate, with archive footage, an intimate and political tale of the French working class from the 50s until today.
Coming from the last Annecy Animation Film Festival, where it landed the Jury Distinction, is La traversée / The Crossing, the first feature film by Florence Miailhe about two siblings who flee from the war and the persecution of immigrants.
The Japanese director Kyoshi Sugita will present the film with which he won the Grand Prix and Audience Award at the last FIDMarseille. Haruharasan no Uta / Haruhara-san’s Recorder, following a woman as she tries to recover from her partner’s suicide.
The Romanian Radu Jude will present Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc / Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, the story of a schoolteacher who lands herself in hot water over a personal video with sexual content. The film carried off the Golden Bear at Berlin Festival, where the moviemaker had previously bagged the Best Director Award for Aferim! (2015).
Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award 2021 Films
BABARDEALĂ CU BUCLUC SAU PORNO BALAMUC / BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN
RADU JUDE (ROMANIA)
Country(ies) of production: Romania – Luxembourg – Czech Republic – Croatia
Cast: Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Mălai, Nicodim Ungureanu, Alexandru Potocean, Andi Vasluianu
Emi, a schoolteacher, finds her reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is uploaded onto the internet. Forced to meet the parents demanding her dismissal, Emi refuses to surrender. It’s a film in three loosely connected parts: a walk in the city of Bucharest, then a playful essay on obscenities, all culminating, in the third part, in an incendiary comic confrontation.
CENZORKA / 107 MOTHERS
PETER KEREKES (SLOVAKIA)
Country(ies) of production: Slovakia – Czech Republic – Ukraine
Cast: Maryna Klimova, Iryna Kiryazeva, Lyubov Vasylyna
Lesya has committed a crime of passion which brings her a seven-year sentence in one of Odessa’s women’s correctional facilities. She has just given birth to her first child, and now she is entering a world populated only by women: inmates, nurses and wardens, women of all ages, wives and widows, daughters, sisters, pregnant women, and women with children too. If not for the color of the uniform, it would sometimes be hard to tell who is who.
EL GRAN MOVIMIENTO
KIRO RUSSO (BOLIVIA)
Country(ies) of production:Bolivia – France
Cast: Julio César Ticona, Max Eduardo Bautista Uchasara
A symphony of the city in the heights, the illness of a worker, the nightmare and his redemption.
ELES TRANSPORTAN A MORTE / THEY CARRY DEATH
HELENA GIRÓN (SPAIN), SAMUEL M. DELGADO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Colombia
Cast: Nuria Lestegás, Sara Ferro, Xoán Reices, Valentín Estévez, David Pantaleón
1492. Travelling among the crew captained by Christopher Columbus are two men who should have been dead by now. They have managed to avoid their sad fate by signing up for the uncertain voyage. But on reaching the Canary Islands the men flee, taking one of the ship’s sails with them. Meanwhile, in the Old World, a woman tries to save her dying sister by taking her to a healer. Both journeys try to outwit death. Both journeys are at the mercy of time and history.
HARUHARASAN NO UTA / HARUHARA-SAN’S RECORDER
KYOSHI SUGITA (JAPAN)
Country(ies) of production: Japan
Cast: Chika Araki, Minako Niibe, Takenori Kaneko, Saho Ito
Starting to work part-time at a cafe after quitting her job as a curator at an art museum, Sachi moves into an apartment recommended by a regular at the cafe. The whole renewal of her job and address is an attempt to overcome the suicide of her partner, Yuki, when they were living together. Yet, while Yuki can never be seen again, her image remains in Sachi’s mind and the illusion still appears in front of Sachi’s eyes.
HELTZEAR
Short film
MIKEL GURREA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Haizea Oses, Mikel Arruti, Oier de Santiago
San Sebastian, the year 2000. The Basque conflict is ongoing. While writing a letter to her absent brother, Sara, a 15-year-old mountain climber, trains for the hardest ascent of her life.
LA TRAVERSÉE / THE CROSSING
FLORENCE MIAILHE (FRANCE)
Country(ies) of production: France – Germany – Czech Republic
A small village looted in darkness, a family forced to flee. The two oldest children, Kyona and Adriel are quickly separated from their parents facing the road of exile alone. They embark on a heroic journey which takes them from childhood to adolescence in search of shelter, peace and the hope of finding refuge and their family. Crossing a continent torn apart by war and migrant persecution, these courageous siblings survive incredible challenges.
LE CORMORAN / THE CORMORANT
Short filmLUBNA PLAYOUST (FRANCE – ITALY)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Mireille Perrier, Robinson Stévenin, Lubna Playoust, Anatole Karmitz
A mother and her son are secluded in their house on an isolated island where two moments of their lives will intertwine -youth and maturity- and where the bonds of their fragile but indestructible relationship are forged.
LES FILLES DU FEU / MY FRIENDS AND THE FIRE
Medium-length film
LAURA RIUS ARAN (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: France
Magdalena, Oriane, Anna, Solène and Morgane. It has been ten years since they last saw each other. When they were sixteen, they went together on a girl’s trip. In a beautiful house, facing the sea. They went to the beach, drank a bit of wine, danced… And then everything burned.
MI IUBITA, MON AMOUR
NOÉMIE MERLANT (FRANCE)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Gimi Covaci, Noémie Merlant, Sanda Codreanu, Clara Lama-Schmit, Alexia Lefaix
Jeanne is traveling to Romania to celebrate her bachelorette party with her friends when she meets Nino and her family. They are worlds away from one another, yet for the two of them it is the beginning of a passionate and timeless summer.
NANU TUDOR / MY UNCLE TUDOR
Short film
OLGA LUCOVNICOVA (REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA)
Country(ies) of production: Belgium
After 20 years of silence, the filmmaker returns to the house of her great-grandparents, where she witnessed harmful events that left a deep imprint forever engraved in her memory. Her attempt to overcome the past contrasts with the long-awaited family gathering.
PETROV’S FLU
KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV (RUSSIA)
Country(ies) of production: Russia – France – Switzerland – Germany
Cast: Semyon Serzin, Chulpan Khamatova
Post-Soviet Russia. A day in the life of the Petrov family during a flu epidemic. Affected by the disease, he is a delusional comic book artist. She is a librarian with a taste for killing abusive men. Beneath layers of the ordinary, things turn out to be quite extraordinary.
RAZZHIMAYA KULAKI / UNCLENCHING THE FISTS
KIRA KOVALENKO (RUSSIA)
Country(ies) of production: Russia
Cast: Milana Aguzarova, Alik Karaev, Soslan Khugaev, Khetag Bibilov, Arsen Khetagurov, Milana Pagieva
High in the mountains of North Ossetia the small mining town of Mizur nestles between the sheer cliffs. Following certain dramatic events, Zaur moved his children Ada, Akim and Dakko here. Zaur is a strict father who prizes discipline above all and doesn’t feel the difference between care and overprotection. His eldest son, Akim, already escaped from his father to work in Rostov, the closest city to Mizur. His younger brother, Dakko, has yet to decide what he wants from life, and their sister Ada is actively planning her escape. She is a grown woman but her father still treats her as a baby. Ada will soon realize that it will be very hard to escape her father’s embrace and begin her own new life. The return of Akim will illuminate the family’s unspoken and unhealed traumas.
RETOUR À REIMS (FRAGMENTS) / RETURNING TO REIMS
JEAN-GABRIEL PÉRIOT (FRANCE)
Country(ies) of production: France
Freely adapted from the eponymous novel by Didier Eribon, Returning to Reims tells in archives an intimate and political story of the French working class from the beginning of the 1950s until today.
THE SOUVENIR: PART II
JOANNA HOGG (UNITED KINGDOM)
Country(ies) of production: UK
Cast: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction. Joanna Hogg’s shimmering story of first love and a young woman’s formative years, The Souvenir: Part II is a portrait of the artist that transcends the halting particulars of everyday life – a singular, alchemic mix of memoir and fantasy.
UN MONDE / PLAYGROUND
LAURA WANDEL (BELGIUM)
Country(ies) of production: Belgium
Cast: Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret
Belgium. Nowadays. 7-year-old Nora and her big brother Abel are back to school. When Nora witnesses Abel being bullied by other kids, she rushes to protect him by warning their father. But Abel forces her to remain silent. Caught in a conflict of loyalty, Nora will ultimately try to find her place, torn between children’s and adult’s worlds.
VORTEX
GASPAR NOÉ (FRANCE – ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Françoise Lebrun, Dario Argento, Alex Lutz
“Life is a short party that will soon be forgotten”.
XIA WU GUO QU LE YI BAN / DAY IS DONE
Short film
ZHANG DALEI (CHINA)
Country(ies) of production: China
Cast: Li Xuejian
Xiao Lei returns to his grandfather’s house. It is still the same compound and family, but wrinkles have formed on his parents’ faces. Xiao Lei, who is never without his nunchucks, has grown up. Life in grandpa’s little house was always calm and slow; even the trivial daily routines between the family members are gentle and warm.