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Last Days of Spring to world premiere in San Sebastian

Dutch feature film Last Days of Spring* (original title: La Última Primavera) is selected for the upcoming edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival. Last Days of Spring, Isabel Lamberti’s debut feature, will world premiere in the New Directors competition for first and second features and will vie for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award and the TCM Youth Award.

The Spanish-language film is produced by Steven Rubinstein Malamud and Marc Bary for IJswater Films, and co-produced by Tourmalet Films (Spain). International sales are handled by Loco Films.

In June the selection of Last Days of Spring for the prestigious Cannes ACID 2020 programme was announced (theatrical screenings organised by ACID will follow late September in Paris). Previously the film was part of BoostNL 2017, the joint programme for films in development of co-production markets CineMart (International Film Festival Rotterdam) and Holland Film Meeting (Nederlands Film Festival). The film project was also presented at the TorinoFilmLab pitching event and as a work-in-progress at the Agora Film Market (Thessaloniki) in 2019.

Last Days of Spring is about the inhabitants of a shanty town near Madrid, who are forced to leave their self-build homes because the land they live on is sold. While this process slowly unfolds, the different members of the Spanish family Gabarre Mendoza struggle each in their own way, with their lives in transition.

Isabel Lamberti (1987) grew up in Spain and the Netherlands. She studied film and direction at TISCH School of the Arts in New York and at the Netherlands Film Academy. Her short films Volando Voy (graduation film, 2015), Amor* (2017) and Father* (2019) were selected for international film festivals such as Locarno, San Sebastian, IDFA and Camerimage and have won several awards.

Another Round and The Mole Agent

The San Sebastian programme also includes two Dutch minority co-productions: Another Round *(original title: Druk) and The Mole Agent * (El Agente Topo).

Another Round by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg is co-produced by Topkapi Films. The film, which has received the Cannes 2020 label, will be presented in the Official Selection and compete for the Golden Shell.

Another Round has its starting point in the theory that we should be born with a small amount of alcohol in our blood, and that modest inebriation opens our minds to the world around us, diminishing our problems and increasing our creativity. Heartened by that theory, Martin and three of his friends, all weary high school teachers, embark on an experiment to maintain a constant level of intoxication throughout the working day.

The Mole Agent by Maite Alberdi (Chile) and co-produced by Volya Films is part of the Perlak section. It had its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the last Sundance Festival and is an unusual crossover between traditional police fiction and observational documentary that, while humorous, offers a poignant reflection on the lifestyle of the elderly today.

The 68th San Sebastian International Film Festival takes place 18 – 26 September.

*supported by the Netherlands Film Fund.

Source: See NL