The San Sebastián International Film Festival (SSIFF), whose name in Basque is Donostia Zinemaldia, is among those who like to call themselves the smallest of the big festivals. There are no such rankings, but indeed this event, although not on the same level of major film festivals such as Venice and Cannes, is very prestigious, especially in Spanish-speaking countries: now in its 72nd edition, it’s the event that closes the summer festival season.
As every other big event, the SSIFF tries to make the festival experience as open and inclusive as possible. For example, the deaf or hard of hearing audiences, who are already guaranteed subtitles at all screenings, get the same service during the gala ceremonies (opening, closing, lifetime achievement awards).
Since 2005, the festival has a collaboration with CESyA (Centro Español del Subtitulado y la Audiodescripción), which provides live subtitles in Basque, Spanish and English. It’s the result of a joint work between scriptwriters, producers, translators, stenographers, aided by the specific software AccEvent and Mercurio. This way, the entire audience can follow every moment of the live ceremonies, including all the unscripted situations.
The main prize is the Concha de Oro, awarded to the best film in the official selection, which this year hosts many established directors and eagerly awaited films. One of them, Conclave by Edward Berger, will be surely much talked about in Italy because of its subject. Based on the novel by Robert Harris, it gives the audience an inside look at an inaccessible event: the election of a Pope.
To keep high the thrill, there are many more plot twists than could ever happen in real life, but everything is shown with a remarkable care in the search for plausibility; nevertheless, it’s only a political thriller that lacks the spiritual involvement of the protagonist’s soul (played by Ralph Fiennes in the movie) that the novel instead makes us aware of, dealing more openly with the inextricable conflict between politics and faith.
Being invited to this festival is one of the highest honours for Spanish directors; this is the second time in competition for Pilar Palomero, with her new film Los Destellos. Based on a short story by Eider Rodriguez, is a depiction of that brief and painful interval when who has a serious disease has no hope of recovery. Ramón (Antonio de la Torre) doesn’t have much time left and can only rely on palliative care; he has been separated for many years from his ex-wife Isabel (Patricia López Arnaiz) who, however, convinced by their off-site student daughter, begins to take care of him, physically and mentally.
Nothing is told of their previous relationship, because the past no longer matters when one decides to give value to the here and now, without grudges or regrets. Although she is the main character, the most important figure is the ill man ready to die soon; everyone, even the ex-wife’s new partner, brings out their buried emotions thanks to the relationship with him.
The SSIFF has many other sections apart from the official competition. “Horizontes Latinos” is one of them: a spotlight of the best cinema from Latin America or otherwise related to Latin culture around the world. Ana Endara’s Querido Trópico is one of the movie selected this year: is the story of a Colombian immigrant who becomes the caregiver of a wealthy Panamá woman struggling with a senile dementia that can no longer be hidden. While caring for her patient with whom she develops an increasingly devoted relationship, the nurse also can’t move on from the sorrow of never having become a mother.
While the old woman slowly loses the harshness of old age and return to the tenderness of childhood, the younger one shows that kind of delicacy that she was never able to put into practice as a mother. The two different identities seems to be unresolved – the first one is fading, the second one feeds on too many dreams – but they find a point of contact that goes beyond geographical, generational and social barriers; this can only happen in a moment of brief and sincere sweetness, unreachable by anyone else’s understanding.
