The San Sebastian Film Festival 2024 and its contribution to the visibility of Asian Cinema in Spain

Taking stock of a festival like San Sebastian without realising that is very easy to overlook information that is not always available, or that cannot go unnoticed, and not taking into account certain aspects that perhaps should be considered in order to make a fair assessment is always unsettling. The aim here is simple: to situate the role of Asian cinema in the programme, starting from the presence of Spanish cinema, whose weight in this festival is fundamental for its promotion, and bringing different cinematographies closer together so that they can get to know each other. This makes it necessary to make a brief introduction about the place of the interest in Asian cinema in the framework of an edition of the festival, where Spanish cinema has received a remarkable reception, in response to the offer made to the public, favouring the rediscovery of a cinema that belongs to us with productions that perfectly rival the best international cinema. Titles such as Tardes de soledad, Concha de oro, by Albert Serra, Nevenka by Iziar Bolaín, Casa en Lllamas by Jonas Truebas, La virgen roja by Paula Ortiz, Los destellos by Pilar Palomero, El Llanto by Pedro Martín-Calero, Yo adicto by Javier Giner, Querer by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, all in the Official Section, La guitarra flamenca, the first feature film by Yerai Cortés, Los últimos románticos by David Pérez and Por donde pasa el silencio by Sandra Romero are among the most outstanding films of this edition, competing with others from European countries like France, always with a strong presence in the festival and this year with Emilia Pérez, by Jackques Audiard, one of the most recommended films in the programme, Great Britain or Germany. This commitment to Spanish cinema in San Sebastian is clear and unequivocal, not only by the titles mentioned above, but also for the 21 feature films presented in the MADE IN SPAIN section, including La Abadesa by Antonio Chavarrías, Flores del cemento by Luismi Pantiga, El hombre bueno by David Trueba, As Neves by Sonia Méndez, Mamífera by Liliana Torres and Nina by Andrea Jaurrieta. This section is significant in terms of the inclusion of titles that are finally indicators of the great film production that occupies our screens every year and that programmers form other festivals and critics can value. In this regard, the San Sebastian festival has become an essential meeting and presentation place to cross borders and to be taken into account for Spanish cinema, as happens with French cinema at the Cannes festival or with Korean cinema at the Busan film festival. 

For years now, there has been a strong focus on Latin American cinema as well, which is concentrated in the Latin Horizons section with fifteen titles: Argentina with three and several co-productions, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia with two, and Mexico alone with Sujo, a film which won the AECID Award (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development). However, Argentinean and Chilean films are also represented in the Official section, with El hombre que amaba los platillos voladores and El lugar de la otra respectively. As usual, the festival has brought together an important representation of Latin American film production in 2024 in the Official section, as well as in the New Directors, Perlak and Zabaltegi-Tabacalera. Neither can the recovery of Cuban cinema form the 70s and later go unnoticed in the Klasikoak section, for those audiences who want to get to know the influence that some titles exerted on the most independent cinema in Spain and Latin America, from the 70s to the end of the 20th century. For some time now, Latin American cinema outside its countries of origin has found in this festival a natural response and one of its key places for its visibility. The festival’s management and direction propose a cinema that brings us closer to realities far removed from our own, breaking down the physical borders that separate us from the Other and the other, and shield national identities. The focus is directed against the hegemonic powers and coloniality in general, which is often exercised in a confused way, and whose prevalence cannot go unpunished. The 72nd edition of this festival has proposed several geographical destinations from a post-colonial perspective, with stories that denounce injustice and reveal facts that are hidden from us all, or that only become visible through film or literature. 

The presence of Asia in this context has also received special attention this year, with important titles that will soon be released in our cinemas, highlighting the importance of a cinema whose growing popularity has meant that Spanish distributors, which until recently were not involved in this phenomenon, have become interested in some of the most representative cinematographies that until very recently were shared by distributors in France, Germany, England and the Netherlands. The balance is positive for the Asian cinema, whose interest has grown among all kinds of audiences who wish to get to know other realities, understanding that the windows where it is shown give us access to worlds that are not so close, with an immediacy that no other media can offer us. San Sebastian anticipates all the other festivals that are held between September and December each year. Many films wait their turn to be promoted at this festival, because in some way they ensure their subsequent distribution in commercial cinemas. José Luis Rebordinos, its director, takes this still largely unknown cinema very much into account, despite the relevant exceptions, and has never failed to emphasise on Japanese, Korean and Chinese cinema, judging by his interest in certain filmmakers and their careers. This festival is known in all Asian countries and most directors aspire to be able to present their productions here one day, knowing that San Sebastian, Cannes, Rotterdam, Berlin, Venice, Udine and Locarno are strategic places for their international promotion. 

In this year’s edition of the festival, Asian cinema competed in practically all of the sections with a significant response from the audience. In the Official section, Bound in Heaven, winner of the FIPRESCI Award, the first feature film by the Chinese filmmaker Xin Xou (1969), who was the screenwriter of Sunflower, Concha de Oro in 2005 for Best Director in San Sebastian, and Serpent’s Path, co-produced by Japan and France, by Kyioshi Kurosawa (Kobe, 1955), a regular at this festival, at Cannes and in Venice. In the New Directors section, another film arriving from China, Stars and the Moon, by Yongkang Tang, the second film after Walking Darkness (2019), whose locations are set in a rural China that radically contrasts with the urban China of Bound in Heaven and whose protagonists insist on believing that aliens are visiting Earth. Also included in this section is Hiver à Sokcho, a co-production between France and South Korea, and the first film by Koya Kamura (Paris, 1983). Regretfully at Dawn, the second feature film by Thai director Sivaroj Kongaskul (Bangkok, 1980), is a festival’s commitment in this section to a filmmaker who became known when he received the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam festival in 2011 for Eternity, his first film. In the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section, more films from Japan, a country for which José Luis Rebordinos has a preference and whose selection in this case includes My Sunshine by Hiroshi Okuyama (Tokyo, 1995), who already won the KutxaBank-New Directors Award in 2018 for Jesus, his first feature film; Super Happy Forever by Kohei Igarashi (Shizuoka, 1983), which is based on a short film he made in 2017, Two of Us, and he presented for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section his third feature, The Night I Swam in 2017, which he co-directed with Daniel Manivel; Ulises by Hikaru Uwagawa, who was born in Hiroshima, grew up in Kanagawa and in 2019 settled in Madrid, after making his first short film, Portrait of a Young Man as a Young Man. Ulises is his first feature film and a meeting place for cultures in the family, public, and private spheres, which originates from his own migratory experience. Finally, three recent short films, Leela from India, Milky White and Here comes Sun from China, were included in this same section. Japan’s participation in the festival includes two more titles, Northern Food Story, the first feature film by Tetsuya Uesugi (Sapporo, 1983). Part of the Culinary Zinema section, the film brings together four chefs working in Hokkaido on the basis of traditional Japanese and French cuisine. And in the same section, Grand Maison Paris, by Ayuko Tsukahara, follows Japanese celebrity chef Obana as he opens a new restaurant in Paris in the search of his third Michelin star. 

But four of the best Asian films have been brought together in the Perlak section, with The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, All we imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia, Memoir of a Snail, an animated film by Adam Elliot, and A traveler’s Needs by Hong Sangsoo. All four films are soon to be released in cinemas across Spain. The career of Mohammad Raslouf (Shiraz, Iran. 1972) began in 2002 with his first feature film The Twilight in 2002, and three years later with Iron Island he won the Special Jury Prize at the Gijón Festival. In 2011, with Goodbye, he won Best Director at Un Certain regard at the Cannes Festival, and again won the same award in 2017 for A Man of Integrity. In addition to the awards he received, he won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale for There is no Evil in 2020, and at this year’s Cannes Festival he won the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI for the Seed of the Sacred Fig. In San Sebastian, he received the Audience Award for Best European Film for this same film, in which his director attempts to piece together a story that goes beyond the anecdotal and ends in a conflict without a solution. This coproduction between Germany, France and Iran is a true masterpiece, with a solid narrative structure that attempts to show how the stability of a system of government is guaranteed in a society when the latter, the community and the family unit reproduce the hierarchical impunity that characterizes totalitarianisms of any kind, which according to him always inspires many stories. Germany will submit this film in the Best International Film category to represent its country at the Oscars 2025. 

Payal Kapadia (Mumbai, 1986) has been a surprise, although she had already arrived at San Sebastian with her second feature film, having received the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, competing in the Official section of this festival, as the first Indian director, after A Night of Knowing Nothing, which in 2021 won L’Oeil d’Or for the best documentary debut also at Cannes. All We Imagine as Light, her second film, was co-produced by France, India, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and is of interest not so much for its plot as for the aesthetic discourse it promotes in favour of the images and especially the very close-ups in which she approaches the faces of the two protagonists to encourage a reading both of what they say or seem to say and of their silences. It is clear that the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes was a concession that can be interpreted in many ways, as well as the RTVE-Otra Mirada Award won by this film in San Sebastian. Payal Kapadia still has plenty of time ahead of herself to continue developing a stimulating career, after the good reception at festivals of the two feature films she has made so far. 

The Oscar-winning Australian Adam Elliot (1972) presented his Memoir of a Snail, an animated film that confirms the success of a career he began as a child drawing incessantly, despite suffering from an illness that made him experience strange tremors in his hands and which in some way characterized the shape and physiognomy of all his figures. Asked about the cost of this film, he said that he could not have made it for less than 5,000,000 dollars, its real cost, which he attributed not only to his work, the script, the design and production of the film, but also to the performers, who are usually great actors and actresses, since for him voices are a fundamental condition for communicating what he wants the characters to say and, above all, to humanize them, which he achieves as the enthusiasm generated by his films proves. In the 1970s, two twin siblings, Gilbert and Grace, who are separated when they are orphaned for adoption, star in this drama that will soon be screened in our cinemas. 

A regular at Locarno, the Berlinale and Cannes, Hong Sangsoo (Seoul, 1960) could not be absent from San Sebastian with his latest film, A Traveler’s Needs, which won the Silver Bear and the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale 2024. Isabelle Huppert as the protagonist gives play to an easy plot that she nonetheless approaches with simplicity and the style that usually characterizes her dialogue. She wants to spend some time in Seoul and tries to give private French lessons to cover her stay, thus getting to know a little more about the lives of her students and highlighting the differences between Korean and Western culture. In San Sebastian he has received several awards: in 2016, the Silver Shell for Best Director for Lo tuyo y tú, and a special mention in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera for The Woman Who Ran in 2020. 

But in the last edition it competed with many titles that were also looking for a chance at this festival. It is impossible to make a complete assessment of a festival like San Sebastian with such an immense programme, even if the attempt is not rejected and the aim is to cover thematic areas or sections. Here we wanted to take a closer look at some of the works that have stood out in this year’s programme and, above all, to take into account the presence of Asian cinema on this stage, which has not been less than that of other European countries, but perhaps, on the contrary, especially from countries such as Japan and China and Iran or India, whose films have been enthusiastically received, as can be seen from the awards they have received.