A Long Overdue Visit

After nearly two years since our last visit to the U.S. (November/December 2019), we finally were able to return to California in late September. It goes without saying that the vaccine gave us this opportunity to see family and friends and to attend a very special bat mitzvah.

We started out in Northern California where we celebrated the Zoe's bat mitzvah with her and Debbie. It was a spectacular event full of joy and friendship.

We had a terrific day hanging out with the Holl clan. My brother Adam gets a shout out for making the special effort to meet up with us as well.

We then spent a week in Kauai with Jeff’s parents doing absolutely nothing in one of our favorite places on the planet. It was nice to see that the north shore hasn’t changed too much since we were there last. We hung out with Loki – a very loony nene (the Hawaii state bird) – by the pool, played cards, ate well, and relaxed.

After catching up with several other special friends in Northern California we headed to Los Angeles to catch up with our “cuadrillo” – which is how the Spaniards refer to their closest group of friends. We always run out of time before we can see everyone we’d like to see. We are grateful to everyone who made the effort to work with our packed calendar of “meet ups.” And special thanks to our hosts with the most, Dena & Jay. We can’t express how much we enjoyed drinking good wine, eating good food, and watching the MLB playoffs live on a screen bigger than our laptops! We didn’t take a lot of photos in LA, but we did get one with our old ‘hood in the background.

These trips just fly by and before we knew it our return date arrived. We did get lucky as nearly every flight we took was not even close to full. Our next trip to the U.S. will be to Seattle in May 2022. It is hard to believe that we have not been back to the PNW since we left in July 2017.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff 

San Sebastian International Film Festival 2021

 

Although we could write more about our Irish journeys, we’re moving on to other experiences. September brings our favorite event in San Sebastian – the film festival, which means it’s time for our annual summary. This year I saw a total of 9 movies, while Jeff saw 8 – not as many as we might normally see, but we were only available for five of the nine festival days. For the first time we did not see a single movie in English. That meant A LOT of subtitles, which we don’t mind because we always watch Netflix with Spanish subtitles turned on. This year’s festival included similar COVID precautions to 2020 – limited capacity in the theaters, assigned seats, and obligatory faces masks. Overall, we thought we fared well with the films we selected. Here is a brief summary:

One Second: A Chinese film set during the Cultural Revolution about an escaped prisoner who wants to see the one second appearance of his daughter in a propaganda newsreel and the challenges he faces in getting to see it. The film highlights the value of the communal experience of movie watching. It had some very comic moments and some very brutal ones.  

Rosa Rosae: A Spanish short film (shown before One Second) based on the filmmaker’s childhood during the Spanish Civil War. It was visually beautiful and haunting in its message.

Official Competition: A Spanish comedy starring Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas in which she plays a non-conventional director putting her two lead male actors through the ringer with hilarious challenges as they prepare to shoot a movie. We laughed out loud throughout. Comedy is tough to do well, but this film really nailed it. Extra bonus: we were at the showing where Cruz and Banderas, with others, presented the film.

Maixabel: In 2019 we saw a documentary about the title character in this movie and her meetings with one of the former members of ETA who assassinated her husband. This year’s film was a dramatization of her story (in Spanish and Basque) starring well-known Spanish actors. Having seen the documentary, Jeff decided to skip this one, so I went with one of our former teachers. This movie was incredibly powerful and its message about restorative justice is fascinating. If you get an opportunity to see it, I can’t recommend it enough.

The Crusade: A French movie about efforts by children around the world to solve the climate crisis by selling their parents possessions to pay for solutions. The first 20 minutes were fast-paced and highly clever. At 67 minutes the film packed quite a punch. Louis Garrell, the star and director, presented the film with his young co-stars.

Hilda’s Short Summer: A Uruguayan movie that was the loser of the bunch. Suffice it to say that it’s not even worth describing.

Inventory: A Slovenian movie whose protagonist, a regular everyday guy, is shot at twice one evening while in his home. As the police try, without much success, to find the shooter, he is left to ponder his relationships and whether he is as “well-liked” as he thought. It posed an interesting psychological question: how would you react to a seemingly random attempt on your life? Would you suspect those closest to you? How rationally would you respond?

Wheel of Fortune: A Japanese collection of three short, thought-provoking vignettes about relationships. In the first a young woman realizes that her friend is dating her former boyfriend; in the second a student’s attempt at seducing a professor takes a strange turn; in the third a woman goes to a high school reunion and thinks she has met the former classmate she came to see. Each was interesting and included a fun plot twist.

The Good Boss: A Spanish comedy starring Javier Bardem as the owner of a company competing for a regional government honor and the trials and tribulations he experiences in the week leading up to the inspection by the award committee. A fun film that kept us entertained by the lengths Bardem’s character would go to get what he wanted. Apparently, it will be Spain’s Oscar entry. Because it was predictable, we don’t see it going far in the competition.

Aloners: A South Korean film about a young woman who is a loner and is faced with interacting with her father, a new employee, and a new neighbor in her building. The film explores how being a loner is often not the best defense to your insecurities.

There were several other movies we would have liked to see, but alas we were leaving town. Still, it was a good festival, and it was nice to see the city get back it’s “vibe” a bit.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff