Four acclaimed queer films arrive at the 25th San Diego International Film Festival with awards, buzz and stories that stretch far beyond the usual festival fare.
by claire delgado
Film festivals present a very specific problem. You open the schedule, see dozens of films you’ve never heard of and somehow convince yourself you’re going to see all of them.
You’re not.
The San Diego International Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary October 13–18 with 90 films from 22 countries, including eight world premieres. Screenings, filmmaker Q&As, panels, red carpets and parties stretch across six days, with most independent films and studio premieres settling into AMC UTC 14 for the long weekend.
That still leaves the question of what to see.
Four LGBTQ+ films immediately moved onto our list. They come from Spain, Germany, Nepal and the UK, and between them have collected prizes at Cannes, Berlin and Toronto. More interestingly, the four have very little in common beyond being queer stories. One spans generations, another unfolds on an isolated island, another takes us to Nepal and the fourth looks back at an actor facing the final months of his life.
LA BOLA NEGRA
If there’s one title arriving in San Diego with serious momentum, it’s La Bola Negra.
Directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, collectively known as Los Javis, the Spanish epic connects three generations of gay men across pivotal periods in that country’s history. Carlos longs to find his place in a fractured Spain. Sebastián finds an unexpected connection across enemy lines. Decades later, Alberto uncovers a family secret that gives voice to truths that were buried long before him.
The cast alone gets our attention, including Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Lola Dueñas, Julio Torres, Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close. But the scope is even more interesting: gay lives separated by decades, connected by things earlier generations were forced to hide.
Audiences are responding. La Bola Negra won the People’s Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival in September after premiering at Cannes, where Los Javis shared the Best Director prize. Netflix has acquired the film for U.S. distribution.
At 155 minutes, it’s also the longest of our four picks. Maybe skip the giant soda.
La Bola Negra screens at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, October 15, at AMC UTC 14.
ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG
Kinship built through care rather than blood is a familiar idea to LGBTQ audiences. It’s the beating heart of Elephants in the Fog, arriving from Nepal with a story rarely seen on American screens.
In a Nepalese village surrounded by forests inhabited by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a Kinnar community. She dreams of leaving and building a life with the man she loves. But when one of the young women in her care disappears, Pirati puts those plans aside and begins searching for her, forced to choose between her own freedom and responsibility to the family she has built.
The film made history at Cannes as the first Nepalese feature selected for Un Certain Regard, then left with the section’s Jury Prize. It is also writer-director Abinash Bikram Shah’s first feature.
This one could easily have slipped past us in a 90-film program. We’re glad it didn’t.
Elephants in the Fog screens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, October 16, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, October 18, at AMC UTC 14.
ELSINORE
Our second pick comes with Andrew Scott, which admittedly made getting our attention somewhat easier.
In Elsinore, Scott plays gay Scottish actor Ian Charleson, remembered on film for Chariots of Fire but revered in British theater for a remarkable performance near the end of his life.
Charleson was living with AIDS when he stepped into the role of Hamlet at London’s National Theatre. Seriously ill and facing his own mortality, he delivered what became one of the most celebrated performances of his career. He died in January 1990 at age 40.
Directed by Simon Stone and written by Stephen Beresford, who wrote Pride, Elsinore, centers on Charleson as he prepares for that final theatrical triumph. Olivia Colman, Billie Piper and Johnny Flynn join Scott in the cast. Focus Features will release the film theatrically beginning November 20, making San Diego an opportunity to catch it early.
It also arrives with an audience endorsement: Elsinore won TIFF’s International People’s Choice Award in September.
Andrew Scott, who plays Charleson, still isn’t sure how he pulled it off — some mornings meant a treatment appointment and that same night meant taking the stage as Hamlet. “I don’t know how he did it,” Scott has said.
Elsinore screens at 6:15 p.m. Saturday, October 17, at AMC UTC 14.
TRIAL OF HEIN
Trial of Hein begins with a homecoming that goes very wrong. Fourteen years after leaving the remote North Sea island where he grew up, Hein returns. His mother has dementia, his sister was too young to remember him and the rest of the close-knit village refuse to accept that he is who he says he is. Even Friedemann, his former best friend, has doubts.
The villagers’ solution? Put Hein on trial and make him prove his identity.
Writer-director Kai Stänicke uses that mystery to dig into memory, conformity and belonging, along with Hein’s complicated history with Friedemann and the parts of his past the island would apparently prefer to remember differently. The film’s stripped-down sets leave buildings exposed, adding another layer of unease to a place where everyone seems to be watching everyone else.
Trial of Hein won the Teddy Jury Award at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, where the Teddy Awards recognize outstanding queer cinema.
The film screens at 10:30 a.m. Friday, October 16, and at 11:15 a.m. Saturday, October 17, at AMC UTC 14.
AND THEN KEEP LOOKING
Ninety films are showing this week. We’ve only pointed you toward four of them.
The anniversary edition opens with its Night of the Stars Tribute on October 13, followed by Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti as the Opening Night film on October 14. Screenings and filmmaker conversations take over UTC from Thursday through Sunday, while Saturday night heads to the Belly Up for 25 Years After Dark.
Culinary Cinema closes things out Sunday with food, wine, cocktails and, yes, another movie. sdfilmfest.com