17 Spanish produced titles – 12 feature films, one mid-length film, one short and three series – are slated for the 72nd San Sebastian Festival, taking place from September 20-28, 2024, in the Official Selection and the sections New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera and Velodrome.

I’m Nevenka (Soy Nevenka) starring Mireia Oriol and Urko Olazabal, the true story of a town councillor and the high price she had to pay for reporting the abuse perpetrated by the mayor, is the fifth participation in the Official Selection from Iciar Bollain.

The Official Selection will also feature The Wailing (El llanto), the directorial debut from Pedro Martín-Calero, author of short films and a raft of works for the music and advertising industry. In El llanto, Ester Expósito, Mathilde Ollivier and Malena Villa play three women at different moments in time, connected to one another without realizing it and faced with a threat bigger than all of them.

Pilar Palomero will show her third feature, Glimmers (Los destellos), taking its inspiration from the short story Bihotz handiegia by writer Eider Rodríguez. Patricia López Arnáiz, Antonio de la Torre, Marina Guerola and Julián López head the cast of this story about a woman who accepts the task of caring for her ailing ex-husband despite having been separated for more than a decade.

For his part, Albert Serra (Banyoles, 1975) will participate in the Official Selection for the first time with Tardes de soledad, a non-fiction about bullfighting bringing a study of the mental and spiritual states of the bullfighter in the ring.

The Official Selection Special Screenings will host the out of competition screening of Paula Ortiz’s The Red Virgin (La virgen roja), starring Najwa Nimri, Alba Planas, Patrick Criado, Aixa Villagrán and Pepe Viyuela. She returns to the true events of Spain in the 30s, where the young Hildegart is conceived and raised by her strict mother to become the woman of the future.

The New Directors section will open with La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés, the directorial debut from Antón Álvarez, better known, in his musical facet, as C. Tangana. After starring in This Excessive Ambition (Esta ambición desmedida) -which had its world premiere at the San Sebastian Festival (Velodrome, 2023)-, the documentary project signed by Little Spain, in this non-fiction film Álvarez uses the music as a vehicle to immerse the audience in the guitarist’s personal story, reveal a great family secret and confront the ghosts of the past.

Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato will also compete in New Directors with their second collaboration, The Arrival of the Son (La llegada del hijo), about a mother reunited with her son on his release from jail. In the cast are Maricel Álvarez, Angelo Mutti Spinetta, Cristina Banegas and Greta Fernández.

David Pérez Sañudo will return to New Directors with his second feature, Azken erromantikoak, based on the novel by Txani Rodríguez Los últimos románticos and starring Miren Gaztañaga, following the life of a woman forced to rethink her entire existence on finding a lump in her breast.

The Andalusian moviemaker Sandra Romero, winner in Malaga of the Silver Biznaga for Best Director in the fiction shorts category with Por donde pasa el silencio / Where the Silence Passes (2020), takes the same story and title to make her feature directorial debut about a young man who returns to the family home.

Among the Horizontes Latinos titles with Spanish production is Most People Die on Sundays (Los domingos mueren más personas) for which debuting director Iair Said landed last year’s WIP Latam Industry Award and the Egeda Platino Industry Award for Best WIP Latam. Said, who boasts experience as a short filmmaker and actor, helms and stars in the life story of a young middle-class Jewish boy who returns from Europe to Buenos Aires when his uncle dies. The film premiered in the ACID section at the Festival de Cannes.

Also to feature in the Horizontes Latinos section is Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us (Quizás es cierto lo que dicen de nosotras) co-directed by Sofía Paloma Gómez and Camilo Becerra, which tells the tale of a successful psychiatrist visited by her elder daughter following a long period cut off from the world as part of a sect.

The Zabaltegi-Tabakalera program will include Southern Brides (Las novias del sur), a film from Elena López Riera. This mid-length movie recently premiered at the Cannes Semaine de la Critique, where it bagged the Queer Palm, follows a group of mature women as they discuss marriage, love and sexuality.

Michael Fetter Nathansky will participate with his second work, Every You Every Me (Alle die Du bist), which tells the tale of a woman factory worker who falls for a colleague.

OFFICIAL SELECTION – In competition

EL LLANTO / THE WAILING
PEDRO MARTÍN-CALERO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Argentina – France
Cast: Ester Expósito, Mathilde Ollivier, Malena Villa
Something’s stalking Andrea, but nobody, not even herself, can actually see it. Twenty years ago, 10,000 kilometres away, the same presence terrorised Marie. Camila was the only person capable of understanding what was happening, but nobody believed them. Taking a stand against the oppressive threat, all three women hear the same horrific sound. Wailing.

LOS DESTELLOS / GLIMMERS
PILAR PALOMERO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Patricia López Arnaiz, Antonio de la Torre, Marina Guerola, Julián López
Isabel’s life turns on its head the day her daughter Madalen asks her to make regular visits to the ailing Ramón. Fifteen years after leaving her ex-husband, a man she sees as a stranger despite having been married to him for years, Isabel experiences renewed feelings of the resentment she thought she had left behind. But accompanying Ramón at his most vulnerable moment will make her see what happened to them with fresh eyes and enable her to concentrate on her own life as it stands today.

SOY NEVENKA / I´M NEVENKA
ICIAR BOLLAIN (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Mireia Oriol, Urko Olazabal
In the year 2000, Nevenka Fernández, the Finance Councillor of Ponferrada Town Council, is relentlessly hounded by the mayor, a man used to getting his way both politically and personally. Nevenka decides to report him, knowing that it will cost her dearly. A story based on true events turning its lead character into a forerunner of the #metoo movement due to being the first person to take an influential politician to court for sexual and labour harassment.

TARDES DE SOLEDAD
ALBERT SERRA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – France – Portugal
Cast: Andrés Roca Rey
The life of the bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey during a day of bullfighting, from the moment he dresses up to the moment he undresses.

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Not in Competition

QUERER
Series
ALAUDA RUIZ DE AZÚA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Nagore Aranburu, Pedro Casablanc, Miguel Bernardeau, Iván Pellicer, Loreto Mauleón
Not in competition

After 30 years of marriage and two children, Miren leaves the family home and reports her husband for continued rape. This serious accusation forces the children to choose between believing their mother or supporting a father who claims his innocence. A family odyssey running parallel to a legal process with the same goal: to discover the truth.

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Special Screenings

LA VIRGEN ROJA / THE RED VIRGIN
PAULA ORTIZ (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: USA – Spain
Cast: Najwa Nimri, Alba Planas, Aixa Villagrán, Patrick Criado, Pepe Viyuela
Special Screenings
Not in competition
Hildegart is conceived and raised by her mother Aurora to be the woman of the future, making her one of the most brilliant minds of 30’s Spain as well as a reference on female sexuality. At the age of 18, Hildegart meets Abel Vilella, who will help her to explore a new emotional world and extricate herself from the grip of the maternal nest, while Aurora is afraid of losing control over her daughter. Things come to a head between the two women one summer night in 1933, putting an end to the ‘Hildegart Project’.

YO, ADICTO / I, ADDICT
Series
JAVIER GINER (SPAIN), ELENA TRAPÉ (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Oriol Pla, Nora Navas, Ramón Barea, Marina Salas, Itziar Lazkano, Bernabé Fernández, Catalina Sopelana, Victoria Luengo, Omar Ayuso
Special Screenings
Not in competition
I, addict tells how Javier Giner, an audiovisual professional, at the age of 30 decides of his own free will to enter a rehab centre. In the depths of his darkness, a desperate instinct to survive will push him to seek professional help. Without knowing it, this gesture will change his life and turn him into a new person.

NEW DIRECTORS

LA GUITARRA FLAMENCA DE YERAI CORTÉS
ANTÓN ÁLVAREZ (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Yerai Cortés, María Merino de Paz, Miguel Cortés, Tania García
OPENING FILM
When Antón Álvarez, C. Tangana, meets Yerai Cortés, he is fascinated by his talent and intrigued by his family history. Yerai is an unusual figure in flamenco, respected by both the more traditionalist Roma and the avant-garde artists of the new wave to which he belongs. They decide to embark on a journey together to record an album whose songs are marked by a great sadness, where the artistic process itself confronts him with his past and drives him to explore a family secret through which he tries to redeem his relationship with his parents. The result is a film that develops a unique musical experience to immerse us in a story of passion, love and forgiveness.

AZKEN ERROMANTIKOAK
DAVID PÉREZ SAÑUDO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Miren Gaztañaga, Maica Barroso
Irune, a woman who keeps to herself, lacks self confidence and has hypochondriac tendencies, works in a paper mill on the edge of an industrial town. Her life is limited to a few acquaintances: her work colleagues, a neighbour with whom she shares something of a friendship and a railway company employee she consults on the times of trains she never takes. Her fragile balance will fall to pieces when she feels a lump in her breast, coinciding with a work conflict in which she is personally involved. Suddenly her life takes an expected turn, offering her the chance, perhaps without knowing it, she had always been waiting for.

LA LLEGADA DEL HIJO / THE ARRIVAL OF THE SON
CECILIA ATÁN (ARGENTINA), VALERIA PIVATO (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Argentina
Cast: Maricel Álvarez, Angelo Mutti Spinetta, Greta Fernández, Cristina Banegas
Sofía, deep in secret mourning, must take her son into her home on his return from spending years in jail. For both of them this reunion will be the chance to overcome the unsurmountable distance separating them since the moment of the crime.

POR DONDE PASA EL SILENCIO / WHERE THE SILENCE PASSES
SANDRA ROMERO (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Antonio Araque, Javier Araque, María Araque, Mona Martínez
Antonio has to return to Ecija, a city in the interior of Andalusia, after a long time. It is Easter. There he is reunited with his family and his twin brother Javier who has a physical disability and needs his help. Antonio will have to deal with this situation and face a difficult decision: stay and help his family or return to the life he has built outside.

HORIZONTES LATINOS

LOS DOMINGOS MUEREN MÁS PERSONAS / MOST PEOPLE DIE ON SUNDAYS
IAIR SAID (ARGENTINA)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina – Italy – Spain
Cast: Iair Said, Rita Cortese, Antonia Zegers , Juliana Gattas
WIP Latam 2023

Arriving home in Buenos Aires, David learns that his mother has decided to switch off the life support for Bernardo, his father, who is in a coma. David struggles between living in close range with his mother, disturbed by the pain of the imminent loss of her husband, and a burning desire to relieve his existential angst. He spends his time learning to drive, fluctuating between the past and the present and trying to have sex with anyone who pays him the slightest bit of attention.

QUIZÁS ES CIERTO LO QUE DICEN DE NOSOTRAS / MAYBE IT´S TRUE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US
SOFÍA PALOMA GÓMEZ (CHILE), CAMILO BECERRA (CHILE)
Country(ies) of production: Chile – Argentina – Spain
Cast: Aline Küppenheim, Julia Lübert, Camila Roeschmann
WIP Latam 2023

Inspired in true events. Ximena, a successful psychiatrist, receives an unexpected visit from her eldest daughter, Tamara, fresh from a long period cut off from the world as the member of a sect. A police investigation is launched while the girl takes refuge in her mother’s house, given that Tamara’s newborn baby disappeared within the sect in strange circumstances. Both the law and Ximena will set out to discover what has become of the missing baby.

ZABALTEGI-TABAKALERA

ALLE DIE DU BIST / EVERY YOU EVERY ME
MICHAEL FETTER NATHANSKY (GERMANY)
Country(ies) of production: Germany – Spain
Cast: Aenne Schwarz, Carlo Ljubek, Youness Aabbaz, Sara Fazilat, Naila Schuberth
WIP Europa 2022

What if the person you love the most suddenly becomes a stranger in your eyes? Nadine, a dedicated factory worker, tries to revive her relationship by reconnecting with her deepest emotions. But who did she once see in him that she can no longer find? A romantic social drama about the painful process of falling out of love and the initial magic of falling in love.

ETORRIKO DA (ETA ZURE BEGIAK IZANGO DITU) / WHEN IT COMES (IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES)
Short film
IZIBENE OÑEDERRA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
A small community brought to its knees by an environmental crisis adapts as it can to the new reality. The more privileged inhabitants enjoy a hedonistic life based on the notion of carpe diem, while the others have no choice but to get by as they can. What does the future hold? If there’s nothing else, can anything save us?

LAS NOVIAS DEL SUR / SOUTHERN BRIDES
Medium-length film
ELENA LÓPEZ RIERA (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Switzerland
Mature women discuss marriage, their first time, their intimate relationship with sexuality. As she repeats these ancient rites, the director questions her own lack of wedlock, children and, with it, a chain of disappearing mother-daughter relations.

VELODROME

CELESTE
Series
ELENA TRAPÉ (SPAIN)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Carmen Machí, Manolo Solo, Andrea Bayardo, Antonio Durán
Celeste is a huge star of the Latin music world. Her songs are a global phenomenon, and her concerts pack out stadiums. But this series is not about her. The real star of Celeste is Sara Santano, a Tax inspector who has spent her life collecting taxes. Having dedicated more than thirty years to inland revenue, and on the point of retiring, she receives the most important assignment of her career: to demonstrate that Celeste must pay tax in Spain.