Alberto Rodriguez, J.A. Bayona-Produced Netflix Movie

Alberto Rodriguez’s ‘Los Tigres,’ backed by Movistar Plus+, and Netflix title ‘She Walks in Darkness,’ produced by “Society of the Snow” director J.A. Bayona, feature among a first wave of 22 Spanish titles unveiled Friday by the San Sebastián Intl. Film Festival, the biggest movie event in the Spanish-speaking world. 

“Historias del Buen Valle, from renowned cineaste José Luis Guerin (“In Construction”) and “Maspalomas,” an intimate turn for “Marco” directors José Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi, join “Los Tigres” in main competition.

One of the biggest Basque movies ever, Asier Aituna’s “Karmele” screens out of competition in a selection of Spanish titles which is far more eclectic than many “A” festivals, ranging from thrillers – “Los Tigres,” “She Walks in Darkness” – to historical epic (“Karmele”) to intimate drama (“Maspalomas”), family tales grounded in singular social realities (“La Lucha,” “Sleepless City”), doc features such as the tender bio “Flores para Antonio” and comedies, as the latest from veteran Fernando Colomo (“The Delights of the Garden”).

No other festival rivals San Sebastián in the strength and depth of its Spanish film selection. That has been the case for the last 40 years. This year’s lineup underscores several trends coursing through Spanish filmmaking: the production ambition of flagship movies backed by streamers in Spain, whether Movistar Plus+’s “Los Tigres” and Netflix title “She Walks in Darkness,” the powerful presence or Basque and Catalan movies, as their industries become significant drivers of the Spanish film industry; and the importance of series at San Sebastián.

Two series which world premiered at San Sebastián, Alauda Ruíz de Azua’s “Querer,” from Movistar Plus+ and “Celeste,” from Movistar Plus+ and The Mediapro Studio, went on to win the two biggest prizes at Series Mania, Europe’s most important TV festival.

This year, San Sebastián will bow ““The Anatomy of a Moment,”  one of Spain’s most awaited series and part of an exciting title-by-title series alliance between Movistar Plus+ and Arte France. Further San Sebastian-selected series take in “La Suerte” from Paco Plaza and Disney+ and Koldo Almandoz’s Basque Noir.

“This has been a good year for Spanish cinema, with two films in competition at Cannes and Spain’s film industry the focus of Berlin’s European Film Market,” San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos said at a now traditional festival press conference in Madrid, one of the Spanish industry’s most important gatherings in the year. “It’s been more difficult than ever to select titles,” he added.

A drill-down on Spanish titles selected this year for San Sebastian:

Main Competition

“Historias del buen valle,” (José Luis Guerin)

25 years after “Under Construction,” a San Sebastián Special Jury Prize winner, Guerin films over three years life in Valbona, an outlying suburb district of Barcelona, surrounded by railway tracks, motorways and a river, which still preserves traces of an earlier aura ways resistant to big city homogenisation. A highly localised doc feature whose narratives says much about the way the world is going. Los Ilusos, headed by Jonas Trueba and Javier Lafuente, produce with Guerin’s label Perspective Films.  

“Maspalomas,” (José Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi)

The fourth San Sebastián main competition entry from Goenaga, Arregi and Jon Garaño at Moriarti and Xavi Berzosa at Irusoin who have helped elevate the international caché of Basque cinema with “Flowers,”“Giant,” “The Endless Trench,” Venice Horizons’ Marco or sumptuous Disney+ series “Balenciaga.” An intimate drama along the lines of “Flowers,” a father who came out of the closet 15 years prior feels obliged to reenter when   

“Los Tigres,” (Alberto Rodriguez)

Antonio, an top-notch industrial diver, senses his time is past. Forced to adapt to life on dry land, he teams with sister Estrella for one last job: a cocaine stash heist. The latest film from Movistar Plus+, rolling off a Cannes Jury Award for “Sirât,” and Rodríguez, behind “Marshland” and “Prison 77.” Two of the finest actors of their generation, Antonio de la Torre (“The Endless Trench”) and Barbara Lennie (“God’s Crooked Lines”) star. Film Factory handles sales.     

Out of Competition

“The Anatomy of a Moment,” (“Anatomía de un instante,” Alberto Rodríguez)

Set in 1580 Seville, Rodríguez’s “The Plague” depicts when Spain took a wrong turn. Based on Javier Cercas’ non-fiction book, starring Alvaro Morte (“Money Heist”), “Anatomy” doubles down Spain’s 1981 military coup, when its hard-won young democracy hung on a thread saved in pat by the theatrical valor of three men who – literally – refused to bow when uncouth coup leader Antonio Tejero sprayed Spain’s Congress with bullets. 

“She Walks in Darkness,” (“Un fantasma en la batalla,” Agustín Díaz Yanes) 

Netflix’s big play for International Feature Film Oscar contention, if selected by Spain’s Academy this September, starringSusana Abaitua, who put in a tremendous turn in “Crazy About Her,” as a young police officer undercover in Basque terrorist org ETA for over a decade. Produced by “Society of the Snow” helmer J.A. Bayona and its other producers Belén Atienza and Sandra Hermida, a significant production power in Spain.

Special Screenings 

“Karmele,” Asier Altuna (Txintxua Films)

Based on real-life characters, following Karmele, a nurse in the Spanish Civil War, to Paris, flight from the Nazis, exile in Venezuela and marriage to a Basque government-in-exile spy. A sweeping historical epic, capturing the pain, loss and resilience of the Basque diaspora sparked by Franco’s victory. From Basque outfit Txintxua Films, which has grown title by title with Altuna’s “Amama” and “Intimacy,” a Netflix No. 1 non-English series global hit.    

“Flores para Antonio,” (Elena Molina, Isaki Lacuesta)

Alba Flores, Nairobi in “Money Heist,” traces the life story of her father, Antonio Flores, one of tghe most genial of flamenco musicians who walked this earth, but who took his life when his daughter was just eight. Highly respected auteur Isaki de la Cuesta (“Between Two Waters”) and Elena Molina (“La mano en el fuego”) direct the Movistar Plus+ doc feature.

“Sky Mouths,” (“Zero Koldo Almandoz)

Following up his hit Bocas de Arena,”another slice of stylish Basque noir, starring once more Nagore Aranburu as the investigator.

“La Suerte,” (Paco Plaza, Disney+)

A return to San Sebastian for Plaza, one year after “,” this time with a comedy about a tax driver who become a chauffeur for a down in his luck bullfighter. Backed by Disney+).

New Directors

“Aro Berria,” (aka “Anekumen,” Irati Gorostidi)

The awaited feature expansion of rising Basque director Gorostidi’s Cannes Critics’ Week short “Contadores,” set in a late ‘70s hippy commune in the mountains, home to idealists disillusioned by the toothlessness of Basque workers movement.  From leading Basque producer Leire Appellaniz via Apellaniz y de Sosa (“The Sacred Spirit”) and Sr. & Sra (“Samsara”), released in Spain by top arthouse-crossover distributor Elástica Films.     

“La Lucha,” (José Ayllón)

Unspooling on the arid island of Fuerteventura, set against the world of traditional wrestling, a father-daughter relationship drama with both cast adrift by the death of the wife and mother. Better known as a producer at El Viaje Films, a significant international co-producer (“White on White”), Ayllón’s second movie as a director, working with ace DP Mauro Herce (“Sirât”). 

Horizontes Latinos

“The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,” (Diego Céspedes) 

Winner of an Uncertain Regard Award winner at May’s Cannes Festival, a Chilean AIDS drama, produced by Quijote Films (“The Settlers”) an offbeat study of a transgender commune living in the Chilean desert around the onset of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. Cespedes already won a Cannes Cinéfondation prize for his film school short “The Summer of the Electric Lion,” back in 2018. 

Perlak

“Sleepless City,” (“Ciudad sin sueño,” Guillermo Galoe)

An auspicious, grounded but stylish debut by Galoe, playing successfully at Cannes Critics’ Week, offering a vision of adolescence on the margins as Toni’s Roma family is riven by its shanty town’s demolition. Significantly elected for San Sebastian’s best of fests Perlak strand, though just Galoe’s first fiction feature.

“Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

“Strange River,” (“Estrany Riu,” Jaume Claret)

An anticipated buzz feature from Catalan Claret, which “gives first-love a metaphysical touch” as it follows an adolescent boy whose crush may or may not be a mystical embodiment of the Danube River, Variety wrote after it picked up a post-production award at Les Arcs Film Festival Industry Village in December. 

Made in Spain

“The Delights of the Garden,” (“Las delicias del jardín, Fernando Colomo)

Swooped on by Latido Films, a film which world premieres at San Sebastián which sees Colomo’s retiring to his winning leitmotif of the highly humane contradictions of a Spain adapting to a modern age. Here Colomo plays an abstract artist facing old age and falling out of fashion, who desperately needs his son’s help to paint a contemporary reinterpretation of Bosch’s masterpiece “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” Colomo in fine fettle resorting to his hallmark character-driven bathos.   

More to come