The Berlin and San Sebastian International Film Festivals and the Basque Culinary Center have unveiled the San Sebastian Fest’s new section, “Culinary Zinema”, a nod to Berlin’s “Culinary Cinema” section. The two fests will collaborate on a number of gastronomy-related activities. SSIFF director José Luis Rebordinos said; “For years we have admired the work of the Berlinale in this field with its Culinary Cinema section. That’s why, now, when we’ve decided to create our own section on cinema and gastronomy, we’ve come to the conclusion that the best way to do it is by working together with one of the biggest festivals in the world, the Berlinale, thus being able to draw on its experience and prestige in both worlds: cinema and cuisine.”
This section of the festival will open with the world premiere of “Mugaritz BSO,” a doc from directors Felipe Ugarte and Juantxo Sardon. Six other features and one short (accompanied by themed dinners) make up the rest of the program, as listed below (with accompanying restaurant/chef). ¡Buen apetito!
San Sebastian’s locale boasts the world’s highest concentration of Michelin stars per square metro, including those held by some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world: Mugaritz (2 Michelin stars), Arzak (3 stars), Martín Berasategui (3 stars), Akelarre (3 stars), Andoni Luis Aduriz, Juan Mari and Elena Arzak, Martín Berasategui, Pedro Subijana.
“Mugaritz BSO”
Dir: Felipe Ugarte, Juantxo Sardon.
Spain, 2011.
Documentary.
OPENING GALA
Restaurant/Chef: Mugaritz / Andoni Luis Aduriz
The musician Felipe Ugarte and the chef Andoni Luis Aduriz set out on a joint project aiming to transform the gastronomic menu into a musical experience. The recipes created at Mugaritz endeavour to reproduce a faithful, transparent world of sound converting the sensations of the palate into musical compositions.
“El Bulli: Cooking in Progress”
Dir: Gereon Wetzel.
Germany, 2010. 109 min.
Documentary.
Restaurant/Chef: Mirador de Ulía / Rubén Trincado
Documentary on the process of creating dishes at the restaurant El Bulli. Each winter, at the end of the season, Ferran Adrià, widely considered the best, most innovative and craziest chef in the world, and his closest collaborators, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, cloister themselves in their experimental kitchen in Barcelona where they work to create their new menu for the following season. This documentary closely observes these months of creation.
“El Camino del vino (The Way of Wine)”
Dir. Nicolás Carreras.
Argentina, 2010. 95 min.
Fiction.
Restaurant/Chef: La brasserie Mari Galant (Hotel de Londres) / Roberto Ruíz, del restaurante El Frontón de Tolosa
The famous sommelier Charlie Artuarola arrives in Argentina’s Mendoza province to participate in the “Masters of Food and Wine”tasting contest. Once there, catastrophe strikes: he completely loses his sense of taste. Desperate to find a cure and recover his most precious sense, he travels all over the province to try the great wines of the region and “wash” his palate in the doing. Although he finds no cure, he does find renewed encounters with his loved ones, his deepest fears and ghosts.
“Les Émotifs anonymes (Romantics Anonymous)”
Jean-Pierre Améris.
France, Belgium, 2010. 80 min.
Fiction.
Restaurant/Chef: Iñigo Lavado / Iñigo Lavado
Jean-René is a chocolate-maker on the verge of bankruptcy, manic and afraid of absolutely everything, particularly women; Angélique is a pretty and gifted creator of delicious chocolates who attends therapy classes for her complexes with a group reserved for “anonymous emotionals”. They meet and fall in love when she’s taken on at the business, but their shared pathological shyness doesn’t make things easy and creates all kind of misunderstandings between them.
“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”
David Gelb.
USA, 2010. 83 min.
Documentary.
Restaurant/Chef: Bokado Aquarium / Mikel Santamaría
Documentary about Jiro, a chef in his eighties, owner of the only sushi restaurant to hold three Michelin stars, located in a Tokyo metro station, with seating for 10 guests who have to reserve a month in advance and pay 300 euros to enjoy the delicacies prepared before their eyes by this exotic character.
“Noma – at Boiling Point”
Christian Vorting.
Denmark, 2010. 58 min.
Documentary.
Restaurant/Chef: Fagollaga / Ixak Salaberria
Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen has recently been ranked number one in the world by the British magazine The Restaurants. This fly-on-the-wall documentary how René Redzepi runs the kitchen with military precision and talent while exploring the tastes and flavours of the Nordic region.
“Perfect Sense”
David MacKenzie.
UK, Germany, Denmark, 2010. 88 min.
Fiction.
Restaurant/Chef: Illarra / Josean Eizmendi
The world is afflicted by an epidemic causing people to suffer the gradual loss of their senses. The film stars a chef and an epidemiologist, inhabitants of a Scottish city, who meet, fall in love and ride out the illness together. Meanwhile, they devise original recipes to keep their clients coming, even if they are losing their sense of taste and smell.
“Il ritorno”
Massimo Bottura.
Italy, 2010. 12 min.
Short film illustrating the gastronomic principles of Massimo Bottura’s cuisine.
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