Perlak returns to the 70th San Sebastián Festival in style

The latest films by prominent filmmakers such as the Dardenne brothers, Mia Hansen-Løve, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Hirokazu Koreeda, Cristian Mungiu, Ruben Östlund and François Ozon will star in the Perlak section of the 70th San Sebastian Festival.

The movies of the pearls are candidates for City of Donostia / San Sebastián Public Award, sponsored by the San Sebastián City Council, which is awarded by the public attending the first screening of the film. The City of Donostia / San Sebastián Public Prize is made up of two awards: the award for the best film, worth 50,000 euros, and the award for the best European film, worth 20,000 euros, destined for the film distributors in Spain.

The Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre (Engis, 1951) and Luc (Awirs, 1954) Dardenne, winners of two Palme d'Ors at Cannes, will compete for the first time for the City of Donostia/San Sebastián Audience Award with Tori et Lokita / Tori and Lokita (Tori and Lokita), Cannes Festival 75th Anniversary Award. The actor, writer and filmmaker will also be part of this selection Louis Garrel (Paris, 1983), who won the Jury Prize for best script in San Sebastián with his second feature film, The faithful man (a faithful man, 2018), the first part of a trilogy. The second installment, The crusade (2021), was selected at Perlak after passing through the Cannes Festival, as was the third part, L’innocent / The Innocent, with which he returns to San Sebastián.

After competing with Eden in the Official Section (2014) and be selected in Perlak with The future / Things to Come (2016), Mia Hansen-Løve (Paris, 1981) returns to the section in which the public acts as a jury with One fine morning / One Fine Morning (a nice morning), which won the Europa Cinemas Cannes Label award at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. On the other hand, the South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus (Cape Town, 1983) signature Living, the British remake of Ikiru (Live, 1952), by Akira Kurosawa, on the 70th anniversary of its release. Presented at the Sundance Festival and selected in the Venice Official Selection out of competition, the film has a script by a Nobel Prize winner in Literature, the British writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro, and stars Bill Nighy and Aimee Lou Wood.

Iñárritu, Koreeda, Kreutzer…

Could not be missing from this selection Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, long that will be the third participation of Alejandro González Iñárritu (Mexico City, 1963) in the Perlak section, after the passage of Dog loves (2000) y Babel (2006). His latest film, focused on a Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker, will compete at the next Venice Film Festival.

Hirokazu Koreeda (Tokyo, 1962) has competed in the Official Section of San Sebastián with Wandafuru raifu (After Life, 1998), Hana yori mo naho (Hana, 2006),Aruitemo, aruitemo (Still Walking, 2008) y Kiseki (Miracle, 2011), which won the Jury Prize for best screenplay, and has received the Audience Award twice, with Soshite chichi ni naru (Like father, like son, 2013) and with Umimachi Diary (Our little sister, 2015). In 2018, Manbiki Kazoku (A family affair) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival and was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language film, and Koreeda received the Donostia Award. Broker, whose protagonist, Song Kang-ho, received the best actor award at Cannes, is the first South Korean production directed by the Japanese filmmaker. On the other hand, in Corsage (The rebellious empress), the Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer (Graz, 1977) revisits the story of Sissi and chooses the moment when the Empress of Austria turns 40. Corsage It was presented in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, in which Vicky Krieps was recognized with the award for best performance.

Santiago Miter (Buenos Aires, 1980), who won the Horizontes Award with his second film, Paulina (2015), returns to San Sebastián with Argentina, 1985. The film, which is part of the official competition of the Venice Festival, reconstructs what is known as Juicio a las Juntas, with a script by Miter himself and Mariano Llinás, and the interpretation of the Donostia Prize winner Ricardo Darín.

Morgen, Mingiu, Ozon, Östlund...

Especially expected by the public is Moonage Daydream, an immersion in the universe of the singer and artist David Bowie, which will close the section out of competition after passing through the Cannes Festival. Brett Morgen (Los Angeles, 1968), author of On the Ropes, Jane y Cobain: Montage of Heck, has explored more than five million articles (drawings, recordings, films, diaries...) to build this musical non-fiction.

The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu (Iasi, 1968), who received the Fipresci Grand Prize in San Sebastián for4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 2007), will present at Perlak R.M.N., his reflection on xenophobia that competed at the last Cannes Film Festival. Besides, Peter of Kan , the latest film François Ozon (Paris, 1967), which opened the last Berlinale, will be the opening film of the Perlak section. Ozon, winner of the Golden Shell and the Jury Prize for best script for In the house (At home, 2012) and the Special Jury Prize for The shelter (my refuge, 2009), the RTVE-Otra Mirada Award for Young and pretty (young and pretty, 2013) and that competed in the Official Section withA new friend (a new friend, 2014) ySummer 85 (Summer of '85, 2020), honors in Peter von Kant to the filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, in a work that features Denis Ménochet, Hanna Schygulla and Isabelle Adjani. Perlak will also be part of the selection for the Palme d'Or at the last Cannes Festival: Triangle of Sadness (The triangle of sadness) by the Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund (Styrsö, 1974). Östlund, who inaugurated Zabaltegi-Tabakalera with his other Palme d'Or, The Square (2017), sets his new film on a luxury cruise ship to satirize the bourgeois class.

These twelve films, to which one more will be added, are added to those announced As Bestas / The Beasts, directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, selected at Cannes; One year, one night / One Year, One Night, of Isaki Lacuesta, which competed in Berlin; On the Fringe / On the Fringe, of Juan Diego Botto, which is part of the Venice programme; and God's Crooked Lines, a production of Oriol Paulo, special screening of the section.