The San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled part of its lineup for its 63rd edition with a variety of Latin American titles. The official competition this year includes The Apostate / El apóstata (pictured left) by the Uruguayan filmmaker Federico Veiroj; Eva Doesn’t Sleep / Eva no duerme by Argentinean filmmaker Pablo Agüero; and the Dominican-Spanish production The King of Havana / El rey de La Habana by Agustí Villaronga.
The Apostate follows Tamayo, who struggles with his parent’s expectations and has formally had his name struck from the Catholic church’s baptismal record, strives to settle on his own path. This is Veiroj’s third feature film and the San Sebastian Film Festival will mark its official World Premiere
Aguero’s Eva Doesn’t Sleep (pictured right) is a reimagining of the 25-year odyssey of Eva Peron’s embalmed corpse beginning in 1952, based of Aguero’s own research. After her corpse was embalmed she was secretly sent to Italy with the Vatican’s compliance, later returned to Spain and finally to Argentina where Colonel Emilio Massera (Gael García Bernal) finally officially buried Evita after the junta’s 1976 coup d’etat – under six meters of cement.
The King of Havana is based on the same-titled novel by Cuba’s Pedro Juan Gutierrez in 1990s Havana, a city punished by shortages after the collapse of Soviet support for the Island. Reinaldo, a teenager who escapes a correctional facility begins to hustle for money and falls in love with Magda. Their relationship unfolds amongst a Havana in turmoil.
The New Directors section features two Latin American titles: Paula by Argentinean director Eugenio Canevari, which tells the story of a young girl working for a wealthy family who becomes pregnant and unsure who the father is, and the Chilean film Sex Life of Plants / Vida sexual de las plantss by Sebastian Brahm, which follows Barbara who is in love with Guille but after a tragic accident his entire personality changes.
The Horizontes Latinos section will feature Salvador del Solar’s Magallanes, in which Magallanes' life is flipped upside down when he meets Celina, a women he met in the violent years when he was a soldier with the Peruvian Army. Magallanes is a Peruvian-Argentine-Colombian-Spanish production.
Patricio Guzmán’s latest documentary The Pearl Button / El botón de nácar will also screen in this section. The Chilean-Spanish-French production documents the settlement of Chile’s Tierra del Fuego, including some of the last surviving descendants of the original Alacalufe and Yaghan inhabitants. The film took home the Silver Bear for Best Script earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Outside of the competition the Spanish-Argentinean production Truman by Cesc Gay will also be screened.
The San Sebastian Film Festival will take place September 18 - 26 in Spain.
