73rd San Sebastián Festival Unveils Perlak Lineup – Opens with Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague

The latest films from Olivier Assayas, Noah Baumbach, Kaouther Ben Hania, Yorgos Lanthimos, Richard Linklater, Kleber Mendonça Filho, François Ozon, Hlynur Pálmason, Jafar Panahi, Raoul Peck, Paolo Sorrentino, Joachim Trier and Rebecca Zlotowski are amongst the sixteen feature films featured in the Perlak section at the 73rd San Sebastián Festival.

All of them will compete for the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award.

Opening the section, following its premiere in the official competition at Cannes, is Nouvelle Vague, the tribute paid by Richard Linklater to the famous French film movement and to the production in 1959 of the film Breathless (À bout de souffle) by Jean-Luc Godard.

A Private Life (Vie privée), the latest film from Rebecca Zlotowskithat will close the Perlak section. In it, Jodie Foster plays a psychiatrist who investigates the death of one of her patients. Also starring in the film are Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Matthieu Amalric and Vincent Lacoste.

2025 San Sebastián Festival – Perlak Program

Nouvelle Vague
Richard Linklater (USA)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Guillaume Marbeck, Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, Bruno Dreyfurst
Opening Film
The story behind the creation of the French film movement known as the Nouvelle Vague, focusing on the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s ground-breaking movie À bout de souffle / Breathless in 1959.

Vie privée / A Private Life
Rebecca Zlotowski (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Matthieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste
Closing Film
The renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.

Le mage du Kremlin / The Wizard of the Kremlin
Olivier Assayas (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Jude Law, Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander, Jeffrey Wright
Russia, early 1990s. Amid post-Soviet chaos, a brilliant young man, Vadim Baranov, charts his path. First an artist, then a reality show producer, he becomes the spin doctor to a rising KGB agent: Vladimir Putin. At the heart of power, Baranov shapes the new Russia, blurring the boundaries between truth and lies, belief and manipulation. Only the magnetic Ksenia is beyond his control, tempting him away from this dangerous game. Years later, after retreating into silence and shrouded in mystery, Baranov finally opens up, revealing the dark secrets of the regime he helped build.

Jay Kelly
Noah Baumbach (USA)
Country(ies) of production: USA – UK – Italy
Cast: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, Alba Rohrwacher, Josh Hamilton, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Nicôle Lecky, Thaddea Graham, Isla Fisher
Jay Kelly, the new film from Academy Award nominee Noah Baumbach, follows famous movie actor Jay Kelly and his devoted manager Ron as they embark on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe. Along the way, both men are forced to confront the choices they’ve made, the relationships with their loved ones and the legacies they’ll leave behind.

The Voice of Hind Rajab
Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia)
Country(ies) of production: Tunisia – France
Cast: Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Clara Khoury, Amer Hlehel
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 6-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.

Ciudad sin sueño / Sleepless City
Guillermo Galoe (Spain)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – France
Cast: Antonio “Toni” Fernández Gabarre, Bilal Sedraoui, Jesús “Chule” Fernández Silva, Manuela “Aneli” Fernández Fernández, Debora “Sulami” Vargas, Francisca “Paqui” Jiménez Fernández, Sana Aghmir
Toni is 15 and lives in Cañada Real, Europe’s biggest irregular shanty town, on the outskirts of Madrid. Proud of belonging to his family of scrap dealers, he spends his days with his grandfather, whom he admires and follows wherever he goes. But the demolition machines are approaching their plot, threatening to destroy everything they know. The grandfather refuses to leave, no matter what the cost. In dark nights with no electricity, the legends of his childhood feel more real than ever before. While everything around him changes, Toni must make a choice: to face an uncertain future or to cling on to a disappearing world.

Mamlaket al-Qasab / The President’s Cake
Hasan Hadi (Iraq)
Country(ies) of production: Iraq – USA – Qatar
Cast: Baneen Ahmed Nayyef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Rahim AlHaj
Set in the Iraq of the 90s, Mamlaket al-Qasab / The President’s Cake follows the odyssey of the nine-year-old Lamia as she sets out with her cockerel Hindi to gather the ingredients for the mandatory cake to celebrate Saddam Hussein’s birthday.

Bugonia
Yorgos Lanthimos (Greece)
Country(ies) of production: UK
Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone
Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

O agente secreto / The Secret Agent
Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)
Country(ies) of production: Brazil – France – Germany – Netherlands
Cast: Wagner Moura, Gabriel Leone, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Alice Carvalho, Carlos Francisco, Hermila Guedes
Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s with a mysterious past, is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.

L’étranger / The Stranger
François Ozon (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Swann Arlaud, Denis Lavant
Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother’s funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague. He quickly slips back into his usual routine. However, his daily life is soon about to be disrupted by his neighbor, Raymond Sintès, who draws Meursault into his shady dealings ‘ until one blisteringly hot day, a tragic event occurs on a beach…

Ástin sem eftir er / The Love That Remains
Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland)
Country(ies) of production: Iceland – Denmark – Sweden – France
Cast: Sverrir Gudnason, Saga Garðarsdóttir, Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson, Anders Mossling, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Katla M. Þorgeirsdóttir, Grímur Hlynsson, Þorgils Hlynsson, Kristinn Guðmundsson, Halldór Laxness Halldórsson
A year in the life of a family while the parents deal with their separation. The complexities of the family, love and the impact of shared memories through intimate vignettes and strange occurrences.

Un simple accident / It Was Just an Accident
Jafar Panahi (Iran)
Country(ies) of production: Iran – France – Luxembourg
Cast: Vahid Mobasseri, Maryam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, Georges Hashemzadeh, Afssaneh Najmabadi
What starts as a minor accident sets off a series of escalating consequences.

Orwell: 2+2=5
Raoul Peck (Haiti)
Country(ies) of production: France – USA

.1949. George Orwell finishes what will be his last but most important novel, 1984. Orwell: 2+2=5 delves deep into Orwell’s final months and visionary works to explore the roots of the vital and troubling concepts he revealed to the world in his dystopian masterpiece… Doublethink, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak, the omnipresent specter of Big Brother… disturbing socio-political truths which resonate ever-more powerfully today.

La Grazia
Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
Country(ies) of production: Italy
Cast: Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti
Paolo Sorrentino returns to Perlak with the film to open the Venice Mostra, La Grazia, another collaboration between the actor Toni Servillo and the director, who defines his film as a love story set in Italy.

Affeksjonverdi / Sentimental Value
Joachim Trier (Norway)
Country(ies) of production: Norway – France – Denmark -Germany
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas
Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star. Suddenly, the two sisters must navigate their complicated relationship with their father — and deal with an American star dropped right into the middle of their complex family dynamics.

Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes / Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Maïlys Vallade (France), Liane-Cho Han (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
Until the age of two-and-a-half years old, Amélie describes herself as a digestive tube, inert and vegetative. Then comes the crucial event that throws her headlong into the world of childhood. For the next six months, she discovers language, her parents, her brothers and sisters, the paradise of her garden, her passions (Japan and water), her aversions (the carp), the seasons and time. Everything that, from the age of three, shapes the human person for the rest of their lives.