Kalebegiak
Twelve short films, twelve portraits of the city of San Sebastian.
Julio Medem
Julio Medem
Borja Cobeaga
Borja Cobeaga
Diego San José
Gracia Querejeta
Gracia Querejeta
Daniel Calparsoro
Daniel Calparsoro
Imanol Uribe
Luiso Berdejo
Luiso Berdejo
Antonio Mercero
Telmo Esnal
Telmo Esnal
Asier Altuna
Asier Altuna
Ekain Irigoien
Ekain Irigoien
Izibene Oñederra
Izibene Oñederra
Isabel Herguera
Isabel Herguera
Koldo Almandoz
Koldo Almandoz
Iñaki Camacho
Maria Elorza
Maria Elorza
Maider Fernandez Iriarte
Maider Fernandez Iriarte
Inko Martín
Ekaitz Cruz
Casts & Crew
Marta Etura
Bárbara Goenaga
Miren Ibarguren
Kandido Uranga
Rance Howard
Miguel Melo
Ramón Agirre
Paco Sagárzazu
Alfonso Torregrosa
Nagore Aranburu
Egoitz Lasa
Ane Gabarain
Javier Tolosa
Xabier Perurena
Jon Albisu
Also Directed by Julio Medem
A multi-part feature on the governing body of Spain, the Popular Party under Jose María Aznar. Themes include the bombing of Iraq, immigration, U.S. fire in Baghdad, and the manipulation of the media.
A hotel room in the center of Rome serves as the setting for Alba and Natasha, two young and recently acquainted women, to have a physical adventure that touches their very souls.
An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes violently, in the Basque Country, in northern Spain. In order to do so, the recorded interviews are shown giving a sense of dialogue between parties that refuse to sit down and talk.
The young Martín reluctantly spends the hot summer in Madrid with his parents, porters for a farm in the center of the city where they live. One day Julia arrives, an actress who comes to spend a few days in the vacated apartment of a friend
Ana, a teenager artist, is raised in Ibiza by her German father Klaus in a naturalist lifestyle. She meets Justine, who invites her to move to Madrid and get an artistic education and financial support. Ana befriends Linda, meets the problematic Said, a Saharawi youngster, and later she is hypnotized by Anglo, who opens a door to her memories and past lives.
A film set in the Basque region, beginning in the Carlist war of 1875 and ending during the Spanish Civil war of 1936. The film portrays how one single act of cowardice shapes the life of the next three generations of two families and fuels the intense rivalry which will span the next sixty-one years.
Otto and Ana are kids when they meet each other. Their names are palindromes. They meet by chance, people are related by chance. A story of circular lives, with circular names, and a circular place (Círculo polar) where the day never ends in the midnight sun. There are things that never end, and Love is one of them.
To celebrate her 30th anniversary, Paula invites small Ignacio, a neighbor who lives two floors below.
Angel, an exterminator recently released from a mental hospital, comes to rid a small Spanish town of tiny grubs in the soil. The local wine-making industry has found these pests responsible for giving their product an "earthy" taste that has divided local opinion. While in town, Angel becomes involved with two beautiful and very different women, and impacts their lives on a grand scale. Can either of these women accept the fact that Angel travels with a "ghost" of himself, or that he routinely speaks with the deseased townspeople?
Also Directed by Borja Cobeaga
Somewhere in Spain, four ETA terrorists await a phone call before carrying out a mission, while the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where Spanish soccer team is one of the favorites to win, is being held in South Africa.
Three stories of the West.
Bilbao, Spain. After breaking up with Elisa, his girlfriend for several years, Txema meets Claudia, a gorgeous Argentinian girl, in a very awkward situation. They become friends so soon and so easily that Txema misinterprets Claudia's feelings for him.
The manager of a company proposes a daring plan for keeping the workers’ morale high.
After four months without seeing each other, a girl is visited by her ex-boyfriend.
An older virgin hires a young man to be her first.
Manu Aranguren is a Basque politician who acts as a mediator for the Spanish government in its negotiations with ETA. Far from being a solemn, calculated occasion, unexpected occurrences, slip-ups or misunderstandings soon kick in to influence the dialogue. And the personal relationship between negotiators will be key in solving the conflict.
After his wife leaves him, Joaquín brings his mother-in-law back home to look after him and his son.
Also Directed by Gracia Querejeta
A multi-part feature on the governing body of Spain, the Popular Party under Jose María Aznar. Themes include the bombing of Iraq, immigration, U.S. fire in Baghdad, and the manipulation of the media.
A short film by Gracia Querejeta
Three women. One same age. Three ways to face it.
Angela and her young son Guille travel to the big city to see Leo, her father and the boy's grandfather, when he suddenly takes ill. However, they arrive to discover that he has just passed away. Charo, the dead man's lover, explains the dire traits suffered by the paternal business: a hall with seven billiard tables.
Jon is a troubled teenager who has been expelled from school. His mother decides to teach him a lesson sending him away with his grandfather Max, a retired military man who lives in a village by the seaside. But the time they will spend together won’t be that simple, Jon likes to flirt with danger and bad companies, and the veteran has now settled down into a comfortable life.
Loosely (and controversial) adaptation of the novel "All Souls" by Javier Marias. It tells the story of a Spanish professor at Oxford who witnesses the return of a very popular man there.
When three estranged sisters, Gloria, Ana and Lidia, meet up again on the death of their mother, Adela, they find themselves obeying her somewhat eccentric last wishes. Though their mother has spent the last 30 years without uttering a single word, she has left very clear written instructions of what she wants done after her death.
As he does at the end of every summer, Antonio climbs onto his roof to sweep out his chimney. From this vantage point, he sees that repairs have begun on one of the neighbouring houses - the one formerly inhabited by the "Nazi" (a guy's name), which after ten years of abandonment is known to the whole neighbourhood as the "mystery house". With the arrival of fall, Antonio will uncover love, deception, and death, by watching through his window.
Adolescent Hector faces a major lifestyle change after moving into his aunt's flat in a blue-collar suburb of Madrid.
Ten imprisoned women convicted of different crimes organize a theater play that might serve both as therapy to their own frustrations and as a way of reintegrating in society.
Also Directed by Daniel Calparsoro
Featuring plenty of two-fisted action with romantic and political overtones, this intelligent thriller from Spanish director Daniel Calparsoro is set in the Basque region of northernmost Spain and centers on the clash between two Basque terrorists whose relationship becomes strained when the female starts refusing to kill their enemies. Unfortunately, for someone like her, leaving terrorism can be as dangerous as remaining in the fray.
Mikel will marry Julia, owner of a major jewelry he inherited from his parents. During the party in announcing their commitment, Mikel meets Ari, one of the waitresses catering. The attraction that arises between them will make Mikel is interested in the world of Ari: illegal motor racing. Then, the protagonist of this story decides to leave Julia without knowing the true intentions of the person who has seduced. Ari and her boyfriend, Navas, have hatched a plan to get around Mikel jewelry made with his ex-girlfriend.
During a long weekend, Marina and Julian murdered and dismembered a young married couple. Veronica, the agent in charge of the case, dives into their messy memories to uncover the reasons that led them to commit the brutal crime.
In this talky Spanish thriller, Gabi, a lesbian gang member seeks to convince her middle-aged heterosexual dreamgirl Carmina to become her new lover and crime partner. The story begins as Gabi and her lover burst into another woman's apartment, tie her up and begin robbing her. The police show up and during a shoot-out, one of the robbers is killed. After she escapes, Gabi returns to her fringy friends and begins dreaming of a soul mate. All Gabi knows is that the right woman will be a pair of green high heels. Carmina owns such a pair, and though she is far from Gabi's physical ideal, a soul mate is a soul mate and so she begins her persistent courtship.
A young journalist is forced into a life of crime to save his father and family in this series based on the novel by Miguel Sáez Carral.
A commentary on Spanish society dressed as a thriller about the misadventures of a gang of young petty criminals after the real estate crash.
Ten-year-old Nico receives a threatening letter and now his life is in danger. No one seems to believe him except one person that he doesn't know.
Alex is a young woman with a shaved head and the word 'Void' written in her head that faces an extremely hard social environment thanks to her strong personality. She keeps all her family thanks to arms and drug trafficking, but she is also in love with Javi, a boy from her gang who ignores her.
Valencia, Spain. On a rainy morning, six armed men in disguise assault a bank. But what seemed like an easy heist, quickly goes wrong with nothing unfolding as planned, and mistrust quickly builds between the two leaders of the gang.
Also Directed by Imanol Uribe
Madrid, 1924. A ne'er-do-well in his 30s, perpetual disappointment to his aging military father, hatches a plan to rob the mail train to Andalusia. He intends the hit to be bloodless, but complications arise soon.
A multi-part feature on the governing body of Spain, the Popular Party under Jose María Aznar. Themes include the bombing of Iraq, immigration, U.S. fire in Baghdad, and the manipulation of the media.
Coy, a sailor without ship, banished from the sea by a navigation accident occurred during his guard, knows in an auction of naval objects in Barcelona to an attractive and mysterious woman, Tangier. This, in hard struggle with an Italian adventurer, Nino Palermo, manages to get a cartographic jewel of eighteen, the Maritime Atlas of Urrutia.
Antonio, a taxi driver, his wife, and two chidren arrive one fine afternoon at a solitary beach, looking for sea-shells. However, they will find more than expected: namely, Ombasi and Yambo, two illegal African immigrants, apparently thrown back to the ocean from where they came, in search of a better life in Spain. The sun sets, and the evening, night and morning which follow see other bizarre characters entering the scene, before the Africans' and the other characters' fates are finally decided.
Witchcraft film.
Beatriz is an attractive young lawyer who enjoys an enviable position thanks to the influence of his father, a prominent businessman. Lucas, a young guy with a rather shady past, struggling to emerge from the unfavorable situation in which life has placed him. When Lucas is arrested with a stash of cocaine adulterated becomes a client of Beatrice. The pure cocaine has hidden with intent to distribute it only with your partner Uriarte, for it has had to deceive another of his buddies into thinking that the business has failed.
Reflecting the struggle of the Basque environmental movement of the time against the construction of the Lemoiz nuclear power plant, the documentary directed by Imanol Uribe won the Silver Mikeldi of the XIX Bilbao International Documentary and Short Film Festival.
Opening at the funeral mass for Mikel, we flashback to those that played a part in Mikel's life and death; his estranged wife, his traditional Basque mother, a female impersonator and friend to Mikel in his coming out, and even the local priest.
Spain, 1938, during the Spanish Civil War. Carol, a 12-year-old Spanish-American girl, arrives in her mother's hometown and transforms the secretive family environment. Her innocence and rebellious nature drive her at first to reject a world that is at once foreign and completely new.
A love story between a terrorist and his victim.
Also Directed by Luiso Berdejo
Three stories of the West.
During WW2 a boy tries to save himself and his baby sister from a German soldier.
John James is a writer; his wife has left him. He moves with his two middle-school children to an isolated house off a dirt road in South Carolina. The property has an Indian burial mound, which fascinates his daughter, Louisa, who's entering puberty.
A child, Pacheco, has a phobia of small animals (insects, worms, lizards and so on). His father, in an attempt to help him get over his phobia, exposes him to a very unusual therapy: he makes him sleep with some of these animals closed in a jar and kept in the house. In this way, Pacheco slowly gets used to contact with the animals and is finally able to overcome his initial repugnance to the point of even feeling affection for them. So much so that the final result goes way over his father's wildest expectations.
Also Directed by Telmo Esnal
Sometimes, couple who have children miss Grandma... but only sometimes.
When the rain ends, life sprouts from the earth. A fruit grows and becomes the apple that gives life to the cider. Then comes the time of harvest, toasting and celebrating love. A story about the cycle of life and death, of the struggle for survival. Where the passage of time is marked by the course of nature, music and dance.
Short film in homage to José Luis Rebordinos and Olaciregui Lucia, who had left the direction of the Fantasy Film Horror of San Sebastian, after 21 years in charge
In the course of an ox competition, a whole town loses a lot of money by betting on the favourite couple of oxen.
The city taxi drivers have followed a course on kindness. If you do not make the grade, you will not arrive at your destination.
The misfortunes of a couple who have to take care of the wife’s elderly mother.
In a cider house deep in the heart of the Basque Country, a group of friends in drunken bliss are about to find out the dark side of this special place.
The same day that the Etxebeste Family are leaving for their holidays, they lost all their money. They have to keep up appearances in front of the residents, so they will hide them selves at home. During their stay at home the Etxebestes will throw each other miserys and lies but later they will enjoy the best holidays in their life.
Patrizio Etxebeste decides to resign from the office of mayor for health problems, but few know the real reason: the recent corruption scandals uncovered in nearby towns lead him to believe that his may be the next head to roll. Who better to take up the reins and maintain the control than Mª Luisa, his faithful wife? But it won’t all be quite as simple as it once might have been. His decorative wife decides not to be quite so decorative and starts taking action.
Every day, at the same time, Antonio and Santi have a strange conversation. Three women are witness to it.
Also Directed by Asier Altuna
A shepherd, lost in the city, searches for his flock. His call attracts the attention of some people, who decide to follow him.
'Sarean' is a short documentary about fishing in the Northern Seas.
The men from a small village make a circle in the middle of the town square. In the middle of the circle, a fight between two rams...
Moritats are old folk songs about crimes and are typical of Central Europe. Zela Trovke is a moritat from Slovakia which the Holland Baroque Society has recovered to include in its Barbaric Beauty programme. Maite Larburu, the orchestra’s violinist, unveils the song's hidden secrets.
The countenance of Joseba Sarrionandia is multi-faceted, not only for having dabbled in all literary forms of expression, but for having been capable of creating his own imagery, composed of endless worlds. Thus, several of the elements appearing in the literary world will undoubtedly appear here: the sea, the port, childhood, trains, uprooting, war, destruction, love, drifting, pain, fantasy, mystery, initiation, torture...
In the course of an ox competition, a whole town loses a lot of money by betting on the favourite couple of oxen.
The sculptor Cristina Iglesias has made what is probably the most important work in her career to date, Hondalea. Her intervention in the Lighthouse on San Sebastian's Santa Clara Island. Taking her inspiration from the island's wild nature and the peculiar geology of the Basque coast, the sculpture by Cristina Iglesias transforms the interior of the lighthouse, now restored and converted into a vertiginous sculptural space. The cast-metal geological strata and the water flowing to the rhythm of the waves and the tides will offer the visitor a profound experience. This film looks at the process of building the work.
In a cider house deep in the heart of the Basque Country, a group of friends in drunken bliss are about to find out the dark side of this special place.
The same day that the Etxebeste Family are leaving for their holidays, they lost all their money. They have to keep up appearances in front of the residents, so they will hide them selves at home. During their stay at home the Etxebestes will throw each other miserys and lies but later they will enjoy the best holidays in their life.
The story of a family; the story of a conflict. The rural and the urban, the past and the present, parents and their offspring: opposing ways of life struggle against one another whilst, in eloquent silence, the grandmother ('amama') watches her family’s destiny unfold.
Also Directed by Ekain Irigoien
Also Directed by Izibene Oñederra
I told him I was a filmmaker... and nothing has changed. Amid these landscapes traipses the soul, at times certain, at others uncertain of its own existence, while the body is and is and is and has no place of its own.
As Hélène Cixous would say, we precisely live in this time when the conceptual basis of an age-old culture is being undermined by millions of moles of a species never seen before.
"The Basque word hezurbeltzak does not appear in dictionaries. It is a non-existing word used to describe socially invisible groups. Its literal translation would be «black bones»." Izibene Oñederra
Also Directed by Isabel Herguera
This family story contains a private reading of ten years in the history of Spain, from the birth of two brothers of the author until the death of the Spanish dictator in 1975.
A blind man loses his guide dog in town.
Animated short about a visit to India.
The sailor's luck is drawn on his skin.
Animated documentary which uses the voices and drawings of a group of children who live in a clinic in India. The guitar, the dances, a trip out to sea, the cats Sweety and Kitty, and the sisters who look after them are just some of the treasures and dreams which the children keep hidden under the pillow.
While a couple walks along the river, hunters hide behind a hill and friends in the forest recall the Dancer of Clavesana, a metaphor of free love that slowly vanishes into the winter landscape
Also Directed by Koldo Almandoz
After banishing man from the Garden of Eden, God saw that the poor fellow was so lonely and defenceless that He sent the angel Raziel to look after him.
Some wild pigeons lose their way and take the rest in the wrong direction. Finally, the whole flock, disorientated, dies because of an unsensed flight.
An entomologist is taking part in a conference in Kioto. One morning he decides to go and visit a temple instead of going to a symposium. It is an ordinary spring day until Midori appears in front of his video camera.
The employee comes to the factory every day. He is the only person who is qualified to do his particular job. It is precise, mundane, and repetitive work. Every morning he goes through the same drill, starting up each machine. Today, though, he has made a decision...
A woman steps out of the shower, gets dressed and goes out to the field behind the farmhouse with her son in her arms to hang some sheets out to dry. In the distance, a man is cutting the grass. Suddenly, the child, who was sitting in a basket, gets up and walks off into the grass...
Plague: From the Latin word “plaga” meaning 'blow', 'wound'. Meaning: Massive, sudden appearance of living beings of the same species that cause serious damage to animal or plant populations. Abundance of something harmful.
A sinister tale of ships and shipwrecks, love and cinema, ghosts and vampires. Bram Stoker, author of “Dracula,” his wife Florence Balcombe and her relationship with Oscar Wilde. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and the lurking shadow of Count Orlok, the undead, the nosferatu. A mysterious cruise ship, a profaned tomb, an exciting adventure…
Suddenly, ducks cross the screen.
—You really loved him? —Yes, I stopped loving him recently. (Interferences. Silences. Fissures. Two women talking. A radio-graphy).
A lonely fisherman knows what hook to use for each fish. Now he’s looking for a hook for the impossible catch...
Also Directed by Maria Elorza
The neighbourhood of Housewives. The district of Insomniacs. The newsstand of the Unknown Mother. The underground of The Lonely Women. Our walls pay tribute to the people we love.
In 1972, in one of his best-known articles, Pier Paolo Pasolini spoke of the disappearance of fireflies. A few months later he was murdered. Since then the fireflies have continued to disappear. But there are still people who remember them.
—You really loved him? —Yes, I stopped loving him recently. (Interferences. Silences. Fissures. Two women talking. A radio-graphy).
Also Directed by Maider Fernandez Iriarte
The neighbourhood of Housewives. The district of Insomniacs. The newsstand of the Unknown Mother. The underground of The Lonely Women. Our walls pay tribute to the people we love.
A collective effort about the recent history of Spain. A distorting mirror, a radiography, a rotten but exquisite corpse: the blood, the sweat, the dandruff of a country in the shape of a large and extended bull skin. A parade of freaks. The ridiculous independence of the upstairs neighbor, the sovereignty demanded by an insane parrot prisoner in its open cage. Football, potato omelette, kings and safaris. Things not to do again. Guerrilla cinema. Hysteria of Spain.
The Virgin appeared to Sofía. Then she travelled to Lourdes and was cured of something incurable. In another time and another place, a group of doctors meet to discuss her case. What happens when science and religion meet?
A punk documentary which is, at the same time, a history of Catalonia, an analysis of its political situation in 2017, a comic lamentation on the milestones of the Procés —the broken, unsuccessful path started October 1st which eventually should've ended with a true declaration of independence from Spain—, and a chaotic festival of references to pop culture, from Dumbo to Salvador Dalí.
Jordi was born 51 years ago with cerebral palsy. Although he can’t speak, he tries to communicate using his letter chart. That’s how he tells Maider, the director of the film, that at the age of 21 he felt God talking to him for the first time. But today, now that he has moved out of his parent’s house into a home, he no longer feels God. Once a year, Jordi makes a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, where he searches for his connection with God, despite not knowing if God will come back one day.