San Sebastian announces first Competition titles

Claire Denis, Naomi Kawase and Kim Jee-woon join line-up

by Amber Wilkinson

Robert Pattinson in Claire Denis' High Life
Robert Pattinson in Claire Denis' High Life Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival

San Sebastian Film Festival has announced the first seven of its Competition titles for this year's festival - including Claire Denis' High Life, Kim Jee-Woon's Illang: The Wolf Brigade and Naomi Kawase's Vision.

Veteran Valeria Sarmiento will also compete for the Golden Shell with The Black Book, alongside Benjamin Naishtat's third feature Rojo, Markus Schleinzer's second film Angelo and The Innocent by Simon Jaquemet.

Sci-fi tale High Life marks Denis' English language debut, and stars Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche. Kim's film is also science-fiction - a live-action remake of anime Jin-Roh, set in a future Korea. Sarmiento's drama, meanwhile, steps back in time for the turbulence of the late 18th century to tell the story of an orphan and his Italian nurse. Binoche doubles her chances of Silver Shell winning with a role in Kawase's Vision, which sees her play a journalist in search of a miraculous herb.

Naishtat may only be on his third film, but he has a firm association with the festival, where his History Of Fear (Historia del Miedo) was one of the Films in Progress 24, and went on to screen in the Horizontes Latinos section. Starring big-hitter Alfredo Castro, the film is sent in Argentina in the 1970s, on the eve of the military dictatorship.

Alfredo Castro in Rojo
Alfredo Castro in Rojo Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival

Markus Schleinzer - whose debut Michael was in competition at Cannes in 2011 - brings his second film Angelo, which focuses on the story of an African who is "Europeanised" by force in a story starring Makita Samba, Alba Rohrwacher and Larisa Faber.

Jaquemet previously brought his debut War to the New Directors section of the festival and returns with The Innocent, a portrait of a woman trapped by her past in a religious community.

The remaining films in the Official Section - which will run from September 21 to 29 - will be announced in the next few weeks.

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