What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 21st September 2023.

The 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF) kicks off on Friday 22nd September and runs through until Saturday 30th September. Held in the coastal city of San Sebastian in the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain it lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay about 20kms south of the Spanish and French border. 

This year, Actor Javier Bardem was announced as a recipient of a Donostia Award, as well as Spanish Director Victor Erice and Japanese Director Hayao Miyazaki would also receive a Donostia Award, presented to him virtually, while the award for Bardem would be postponed to next year's festival due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which forbids the US-unionised Actor to attend to the media or to record thank-you videos. 

The Opening Night Film is the Japanese animated fantasy film 'The Boy and the Heron' Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The Closing Night Film is 'Dance First' and this UK, Hungarian and Belgian film is Directed by James Marsh and stars Gabriel Byrne and Aidan Gillan with the former starring as the literary genius Samuel Beckett.

In this years main competition, those films vying under the headlining Official Selection, there are sixteen titles, presided over by Jury President Claire Denis with members being Actress Fan Bingbing and Director Christian Petzold among others. Those films are :-

* 'All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt' - from the USA and Written and Directed by Raven Jackson. A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman's life in Mississippi.

* 'A Journey in Spring' - from Taiwan and Directed by Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang. An old man with a limp has depended on his wife over the years, but when his wife suddenly passes away, he puts her into an old freezer and goes on living a seemingly peaceful life, until their long-estranged son and his new partner suddenly appears.

* 'Sultana's Dream' - from Spain and Germany and Co-Written and Directed by Isabel Herguera. Taking her inspiration from a feminist sci-fi short story written in Bengal in 1905, a woman sets out on a voyage of discovery around India in search of Ladyland, the Utopian land of women.

* 'Ex-Husbands' - from the USA and Written and Directed by Noah Ptrizker and starring Griffin Dunne, James Norton, Rosanna Arquette and Elsa Davis. Peter’s parents divorced after 65 years, his wife left him after 35, and his sons, Nick and Mickey, are off leading their own lives. When Peter flies to Tulum, crashing Nick's bachelor party hosted by Mickey, he realises he's not the only one in crisis.

* 'Fingernails' - from the USA and Co-Written and Directed by Christos Nikou and starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Luke Wilson. Anna and Ryan have found true love. It's been proven by a controversial new technology. There's just one problem, Anna still isn't sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute, and meets Amir.

* 'Great Absence' - from Japan and Co-Written, Directed and Edited by Kei Chika-Ura. Follows the story of the reconciliation of a father and son who had been estranged for many years among lost memories and dispersed pieces of lives.

* 'Kalak' - from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland and the Netherlands and Co-Wriiten, Directed and Co-Edited by Isabella Eklof. A man is on the run from himself after being sexually abused by his father. Living in Greenland with his little family, he yearns to be a part of the open, collectivist culture and become a Kalak, a 'dirty Greenlander'.

* 'Red Island' - from France and Belgium and Written, Directed and Co-Edited by Robin Campillo. Set in Madagascar in the early 1970's, on one of the last air bases of the French army, where military families live the last throes of colonialism, a ten-year-old lad sweeps with a curious glance what surrounds him, while the world gradually opens up to a different reality.

* 'The Practice' - from Argentina, Chile, Portugal and Germany and Written and Directed by Martin Rejtman. Gustavo, an Argentine yoga instructor living in Chile, recently divorced from his Chilean wife, leaving him homeless and complicating his yoga company following a knee injury.

* 'The Successor' - from France and Directed by Xavier Legrand. Thirty year old Ellias Barnes, is the newly-announced Artistic Director of a famed Parisian fashion house. But as expectations are high, he starts experiencing chest pains. Unannounced, he is called back to Montreal to organise his estranged father's funeral and discovers that he may have inherited much worse than his father's weak heart.

* 'MMXX' - from Romania, Republic of Moldavia and France and Written and Directed by Cristi Puiu. The film follows Oana Pfifer, her brother Mihai Dumitru, Oana's husband Septimiu, and Narcis Patranescu, an organised crime detective, showing moments that capture their wanderings.

* 'The Rye Horn' - from Spain, Portugal and Belgium and Written and Directed by Jaione Camborda. Maria earns her living fishing and also helps other women in their birth of their newborn babies. After an unexpected event, she is forced to flee and begins a dangerous journey that will make her fight for her survival.

* 'Puan' - from Argentina, Italy, Germany, France and Brazil and Written and Directed by Maria Alche and Benjamin Naishtat. This films tells the story of a philosophy teacher at a public university in Buenos Aires who must face a new reality when everything he knew begins to crumble.

* 'The Royal Hotel' - from Australia and Directed by Kitty Green and starring Julia Garner, Jessica Henwick, Hugo Weaving, Daniel Henshall and Toby Wallace. American backpackers Liv and Hanna take a job in a remote Australian pub for some extra money and are confronted by unruly locals and a situation that spirals out of their control.
* 'Un Amor' - from Spain and Co-Written and Directed by Isabel Coixet. Upon settling in the countryside village of La Escapa in deepest rural Spain, Nat accepts a disturbing sexual proposal by neighbour Andreas, paving the way for a self-consuming passion.

* 'A Silence' - from Belgium, France and Luxembourg and Co-Written and Directed by Joachim Lafosse, and starring Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Devos. Astrid is the wife of an acclaimed lawyer. Silenced for 25 years, her family balance suddenly collapses when her children initiate their search for justice. 

For the complete run down of all the other film strands being showcased and the awards being presented, you can go to the official website at : https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/in/

This week there are just three new movies coming to a big screen Odeon close to home, kicking off with a supernatural horror offering about an Indian-American teenager struggling with her cultural identity has a falling out with her former best friend and, in the process, unwittingly releases a demonic entity that grows stronger by feeding on her loneliness. This is followed by an action thriller surrounding a bank executive who receives a bomb threat while driving his children to school, saying that his car will explode if they stop and get out. And closing out the week we have a biographical doco exploring the work and life of Nam June Paik, who used technology as an artistic canvas and is called the father of video art.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the three latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'IT LIVES INSIDE' (Rated M) - this American supernatural horror film is Written and Directed by Bishal Dutta in his feature film making debut, although he has enjoyed much former success Directing short films. This film saw its World Premiere screening at this years South by Southwest Film Festival in mid-March where it took out the Audience Award in the Midnighters section, and is released in the US this week too.

Here, Sam (Megan Suri) is an American high school student of Indian origin who lives in an idyllic suburb with her conservative mother and her assimilated father. Sam grows to reject her Indian heritage in order to fit in at school, like everyone else. When a demonic spirit known as a Pishach (flesh-eating demons appearing in Hindu and Buddhist mythologies. A pishacha is a malevolent being that has often been referred to as the very manifestation of evil) latches onto her former best friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), she, her parents and a sympathetic teacher must band together to save Tamira and bring to an end the demon's reign of terror. 

'RETRIBUTION' (Rated M) - is an action thriller film Directed by Nimrod Antal who made his debut feature film 'Control' in 2003 and went on to Direct 'Vacancy' in 2007, 'Armored' in 2009, 'Predators' in 2010, 'The Whiskey Bandit' in 2017 with several episodes of 'Stranger Things' and 'Servant' in the meantime. Here then, while driving his kids to school, Berlin-resident and financier Matt Turner (Liam Neeson) is threatened by a mysterious bomber who calls him on a mobile phone. Turner and his son Zach (Jack Champion) and daughter Emily (Lilly Aspell) must stay in the car or the bomber will detonate a device under the driver's seat. Unable to exit the vehicle, he must now follow a series of twisted instructions while trying to figure out how to survive. The film was released Stateside at the end of August, has so far grossed US$14M from a production budget of US$20M and has generated mixed or average reviews. 

'NAM JUNE PAIK : MOON IS THE OLDEST TV' (Rated CTC) - this American biographical documentary film is Directed and Co-Produced by Amanda Kim in her screen debut, and tells the story of South Korean born Nam June Paik who lived from 1932 until his death in Miami, Florida in 2006 following complications from a stroke. Paik was the first video artist who experimented with electronic media and made a profound impact on the art of video and television. He coined the phrase 'Information Superhighway' in 1974, and has been called the 'father of video art'. He was a highly creative member of society, a provocative experimental artist and thinker whose ideas and performances made a profound effect on the art of video and television. Narrated and Executive Produced by Steven Yuen, the film contains testimonials from David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Allen Ginsberg, John Cage and Ryuichi Sakamoto. 

With three new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-