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Swedish pic Mother, Couch! starring Taylor Russell and Ewan McGregor alongside Ellen Burstyn is one of the titles San Sebastian has set to compete for its New Directors award during its 71st edition, running September 22 — 30.

The film is from the debut feature filmmaker Niclas Larsson and follows three estranged children who are brought together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store. The previously unannounced film is a US – Danish – Swedish co-production. Unlike the other titles announced today, the mystery project had no accompanying image.

Eleven productions from nineteen countries will compete for San Sebastian’s Kutxabank-New Directors Award. Of all the selected movies, seven are debut works, while the rest are second features. The Kutxabank-New Directors Award comes with a 50,000 euro cash prize divided equally between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain. Films in the New Directors section are also...

The board of a noble housing complex in Tehran is concerned about hate letters delivered to all tenants of the house. In a terrible tone and full of horrendous accusations, letters target Zoreh Moshiri (Roya Afshar), a woman in her 60’s who’s sharing a nice maisonette with her mother-in-law and her grown daughter Shiva (Neda Jebraeili). The board doesn’t really believe all the nonsense, but the otherwise very peaceful and respectful neighbourhood feels uncomfortable having that kind of gossip making rounds. According to those letters, not only she’s stealing in supermarkets, Zoreh is also hanging around the school with kids, she’s planning to poison her mother-in-law, and there are some wrong things happening in her home-operated beauty parlor.

Dominating the screen of Ali Derakhshandeh’s feature fiction debut “The Enemies”, Roya Afshar delivers a fantastic performance as Zoreh, a mysterious and quiet woman with more secrets than anyone could possibly imagine.