58th San Sebastián Int. Film Festival: Mullan’s Neds Takes Golden Shell

Peter Mullan triumphed this past Saturday at the 58th edition of the San Sebastian Int. Film Festival when his third film, Neds won the Golden Shell for Best Picture. “Neds” is the story of John McGill, who is just about to start high school, where he fully expects to continue his so-far glittering academic career. But there are dark clouds on the horizon. His friendship with middle-class Julian shines a light on the abusive and dysfunctional status of his home life, where his father is a drunk, violent and ineffective, his mother is troubled and repressed and his elder brother is always in trouble with the law. At school, there are a pair of good teachers, but most are uninterested and unhelpful in the face of the brutal and territorial gang culture which has spread from local housing estates to the schoolyard. The film, a social commentary on education and violence in 70´s Glasgow, also won the Silver Shell for Best Actor.

This has been a good year for Spanish films at the festival. The president of this year’s edition Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic (“Honeymoons”) handed out prizes to three out of the four films presented at the fest. Pa Negre (trailer) from cult filmmaker Agustí Villaronga (Behind The Glass) won the Silver Shell for Best Actress (Nora Navas). The film is about a murder investigation held this time by the son of the supposed culprit, who will do anything to prove the innocence of his father, set on the background of Spanish Civil War, it is an adaptation of an Emili Teixidó novel.

The Special Jury prize went to Elisa K (trailer) by Judith Collel and Jordi Cadena. A film tells the story of a twenty-five year-old woman who suddenly remembers that she was raped when she was eleven. The film was praised by the good taste the subject matter was treated by the directors, not falling into using clichés or being explicit on the portrait of it. The style of the film attracted quite the attention since one of the directors is in charge to portrait the life of the titular character during her childhood while the other does the same during her adulthood. Two sides of the story, two directors, two styles, two films in one.

Aita by José María Orbe was awarded Best Photography for the work of cinematographer Jimmy Gimferrer. An experimental film that portrays the life and secrets of the inhabitants of a basque rural town, this was shot without a script and over the course of a three-year period. It was produced by Luis Miñarro, a Spanish producer that is being much talked about lately due to his involvement, also as producer, on the award winning thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

The Silver Shell to Best Director went to Chilean Raúl Ruiz for his work on Misterios De Lisboa – which I briefly discussed in my previous update. And finally, A Jamaâ by Daoud Aoulad-Syad, a French-Moroccan co-production, received the Special Mention of the Jury. The film is a study about the limits of religion and the differences between city and country told in a humoristic way.