Josip Zuvan: Last News

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentThree buzzy titles, all turning on women carving out their own destinies  – Carmen Jaquier’s “Thunder,” Laura Baumeister’s “Daughter of Rage” and Dinara Drukarova’s “Grand Marin” – feature in the 13-title lineup of San Sebastian’s 2022 New Directors section.Also making the New Directors’ cut – now firmly consolidated as the most important sidebar at the highest-profile film festival in the Spanish-speaking world – is “Tobacco Barns,” the awaited and second feature from Spain’s Rocío Mesa, as well as Jeong Ji-hye’s Jeonju Festival winner “Jeong-sun” which has its director hailed as a talent to track.Eight of the 13 features are directed by women who also serve as protagonists in most of the section’s films. Their themes range wide, however, from the absurdity of Moldova’s past (“Carbon”) to an allegorical portrait of civil conflict (“Carbide”) to cybershaming (“Jeong-sun”) and women’s love of literature (“To Books and Women I Sing”).