San Sebastian Film Festival 2009

The competition strand of the festival. Films fight it out for the prestigious Golden and Silver Shell awards. No one film can receive more than two prizes.

View other San Sebastian Film Festival Films by strand: Cinema In Motion, Great Films For The Kids, Horizontes Latinos, Made In Spain, Velodrome, Zabaltegi-New Directors, Zabaltegi-Pearls, Zabaltegi-Specials, Zinemira-Basque

Le Refuge Le Refuge
Le Refuge and Blessed
10 To 11 (11'e 10 kala) (Country: Turkey, France, Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Pelin Esmer; Writer: Pelin Esmer; Stars: Nejat Isler, Mithat Esmer, Laçin Ceylan, Tayanç Ayaydin, Savas Akova)
A collector struggles to save his acquisitions when his neighbours lobby to have their homes rebuilt.
Blessed (Country: Australia; Year: 2009; Director: Ana Kokkinos; Writer: Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas; Stars: Frances O'Connor, Miranda Otto, Deborra-Lee Furness, Sophie Lowe, Tasma Walton, Costas Kilias, Harrison Gilbertson, Eva Lazzaro, Dennis Kreusler, Victoria Haralabidou, Samuel Ross Forbes Wright, Monica Maughan, Eamon Farren, Anastasia Babbousouris, Wayne Blair)
Seven children wander the streets at night, before we see the odyssey from their mothers' perspective.
Chloe (Country: US, Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Atom Egoyan; Writer: Erin Cressida Wilson; Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Max Thieriot), Trailer
When a wife hires a prostitute to test her husband's fidelity, trouble isn't far behind.
City Of Life And Death (Nanjing Nanjing) (Country: China, Hong Kong; Year: 2009; Director: Chuan Lu; Writer: Chuan Lu; Stars: Ye Liu, Yuanyuan Gao, Hideo Nakaizumi, Wei Fan, Yiyan Jiang, Ryu Kohata, Bin Liu, John Paisley, Beverly Peckous, Lan Qin, Sam Voutas, Di Yao, Yisui Zhao, Junichi Kajioka), Official Site, Trailer
Dramatisation of the Rape of Nanjing, seen from a dual perspective.
The Damned (Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Isaki Lacuesta; Stars: Daniel Fanego, Arturo Goetz, Leonor Manso, María Fiorentino)
Two former guerillas meet up while trying to find the corpse of a comrade from 30 years before.
This Is Love This Is Love
This Is Love and Hadewijch
The Dancer And The Thief (El baile de la victoria) (Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Fernando Trueba; Writer: Antonio Skármeta, Fernando Trueba, Jonás Trueba; Stars: Ricardo Darín, Abel Ayala, Miranda Bodenhofer, Ariadna Gil, Julio Jung, Mario Guerra, Marcia Haydée, Luis Dubó, Luis Gnecco, Mariana Loyola, Gloria Münchmeyer, Gregory Cohen, Catalina Guerra, Catalina Saavedra, Sergio Hernández)
Get Low (Country: US; Year: 2009; Director: Aaron Schneider; Writer: C Gaby Mitchell, Chris Provenzano, based on a story by Aaron Schneider, Scott Seeke; Stars: Bill Murray, Robert Duvall, Lucas Black, Sissy Spacek, Gerald McRaney, Bill Cobbs, Andrea Powell, Shawn Knowles, Tomasz Karolak, Lori Beth Edgeman, Scott Cooper, Blerim Destani, Rebecca Grant, Jade Moser, Steven Stadler)
Heatwarming tale of redemption, partially based on the true story of a hermit who threw his own funeral... while he was still alive.
Hadewijch (Country: France; Year: 2009; Director: Bruno Dumont; Writer: Bruno Dumont; Stars: Julie Sokolowski, Yassine Salihine, David Dewaele, Karl Sarafidis), Official Site
Exploration of religious extremism as viewed through the eyes of a young woman.
I Came From Busan (Yeong-Do Da-Ri) (Country: North Korea; Year: 2009; Director: Jeon Soo-il; Stars: Park Ha-seon, Kim Jung-tae)
A girl who gives her baby up for adoption finds she can't get the child out of her head.
Making Plans For Lena (Country: France; Year: 2009; Director: Christophe Honoré)
A single mum has to contend with her family of dogooders, desperate to make her 'happy'.
Chloe Chloe
Chloe and Get Low
Me, Too (Yo también) (Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Antonio Naharro, Álvaro Pastor; Writer: Antonio Naharro, Álvaro Pastor; Stars: Lola Dueñas, Isabel García Lorca, Antonio Naharro, Teresa Arbolí, Joaquín Perles, Ramiro Alonso, Consuelo Trujillo, Susana Monje, Pablo Pineda, Ana De los Riscos, María Bravo, Pepe Quero, Daniel Parejo, Roma Calderón, Tania Román)
A man - the first European with Down's syndrome to get a university diploma - falls for a workmate with no apparent disability.
Mother And Child (Country: US, Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Rodrigo García; Writer: Rodrigo García; Stars: Annette Bening, Kerry Washington, Naomi Watts, Samuel L Jackson, Jimmy Smits, David Morse, Carla Gallo, Tatyana Ali, Amy Brenneman, Marc Blucas, Brittany Robertson, Cherry Jones, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Ahmed Best, S. Epatha Merkerson), Official Site
Tale of three women and maternal love.
Le Refuge (The Refuge) (Country: France; Year: 2009; Director: François Ozon; Writer: Mathieu Hippeau, François Ozon; Stars: Isabelle Carré, Louis-Ronan Choisy, Pierre Louis-Calixte, Melvil Poupaud), Trailer
A pregnant woman whose boyfriend dies of an overdose forms an unexpected bond with his brother.
The Secret In Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos, The Secret Of Their Eyes) (Country: Argentina; Year: 2009; Director: Juan José Campanella; Writer: Juan José Campanella, Eduardo Sacheri; Stars: Ricardo Darín, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago, Javier Godino, Guillermo Francella, José Luis Gioia, Mario Alarcón, Mariano Argento, Fernando Pardo, Maximiliano Trento, David Di Napoli)
A man looks back at a crime that happened a quarter of a century previously.
This Is Love (Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Matthias Glasner; Writer: Matthias Glasner, Alex Ross; Stars: Richard Sammel, Soenke Möhring, Jesper Christensen, Jürgen Vogel, Corinna Harfouch, Jens Albinus, Devid Striesow, Herbert Knaup, Marina Bouras, Jördis Triebel, Knut Berger, Matthias Glasner, Hannes Wegener, Marie-Anne Fliegel, Margarita Broich), Official Site
A man who stole a nine-year-old from human traffickers forms an unusual relationship with a police inspector... as she interrogates him about a murder.
Mother And Child Mother And Child
Mother And Child and The Secret In Their Eyes
The White Meadows (Keshtzarhaye Sepid) (Year: 2009; Director: Mohammad Rasoulof; Stars: Hasan Pourshirazi, Younes Ghazali, Mohammad Rabbani, Mohammad Shirvani)
A man travels round a series of islands, collecting tears.
Woman Without Piano (La mujer sin piano) (Country: Spain; Year: 2009; Director: Javier Rebollo; Writer: Lola Mayo, Javier Rebollo; Stars: Carmen Machi, Nadia de Santiago, Tomás del Estal, Jan Budar, Esperanza De la Vega, Luis Antonio Espinosa, Pep Ricart)
Twenty-four hours in the life of a Madrid housewife.
News

59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground

More news and features

Playing Now

Eye For Film continues to support festivals both locally and across the world. At the moment, we're covering:

Sands Film Festival
Weekend film event in St Andrews

Queer East

Visions du Réel
Swiss documentary showcase

Overlook Film Festival

New Directors/New Films
New York's celebration of new voices

In the Archive


Archive of festival coverage.

Daily diary and reviews from 2005-2018.

Coverage of the lynchpin German festival.