Matt Dillon’s “El Gran Fellove,” Julien Temple’s “Crock of Gold” and Harry Macqueen’s “Supernova” have been added to San Sebastian’s Official Selection, along with two other main competition players, from French-Lebanese director Danielle Arbid and Argentina’s Eduardo Crespo.
The five new features will all bow at San Sebastian as world premieres, the festival announced Thursday. Arbid’s “Passion simple” was confirmed in June as a Cannes Official Selection title.
U.S. actor Dillon’s second outing as a director after “City of Ghosts,” “El Gran Fellove” is a Dillon passion project, announced back in 2015. The doc feature centers on Cuban musician Francisco Fellove, a leading light of the jazz/Cuban bolero ‘Filin’ movement which expanded from Cuba to Mexico in the 1950s. It will play at San Sebastian as a special screening.
Produced by Johnny Depp and screening in main competition, Temple’s “Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowen” profiles another musician, the lead singer of Celtic punk rock band the Pogues.
“Supernova” stars Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci as partners of 20 years confronting a diagnosis of early-onset dementia for Tucci’s character. Macqueen’s second feature after the well-received “Hinterland,” the romantic drama has racked up bullish pre-sales by the Bureau Sales to major international distributors, including Studiocanal for France, CDC for Latin America and Madman for Australia.
Adapting the novel of the same title by France’s Annie Ernaux, main competition player “Passion Simple” revolves around a woman who falls head-over-heels in love with a Russian diplomat. Arbid caught attention with her first two features, 2004’s “In the Battlefields” and 2007’s “A Lost Man,” both selected for the Cannes Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight.
Also in competition, Crespo’s third feature, “We Will Never Die,” is a coming of age tale, turning on a child who accompanies his mother to their village, where his older brother has just died.
The Great Fellove
Courtesy: San Sebastian Festival