The Circuit

"You know, some folk said it was the typical ‘americanada’ - popcorn movie - but I really loved it and had a great time. The only thing I found disappointing was the cop asking the elder son to behave after the son conned an old lady: it's so unlikely!"

Not the reaction you'd expect from a Lindsay-Lohan-lookalike Spanish youngster but it was made by a member of San Sebastian’s Youth Award jury, speaking to a local tv station about "Frozen River."

A lot has been said about "Frozen River" and its take on social issues. This gal's reaction and those of a packed screening room at San Sebastian, suggest that, beyond the pic's indie-arthouse brand,  Courtney Hunt (above) may strike a chord with wider audiences by telling the adventure tale of two smuggler mothers. A vibrating story of outlaws which need to find an open KMart and risk their lives and money retracing their steps on frozen ice to find a lost baby.

"Everyone has a mother," Hunt said at the press conference. "Moms share a language."

"It seems that you're given a happy ending to an issue that isn’t solved at all," a journo asked.

"No," answered Hunt.

She explained that the movie just took on its own life as she was writing showing how this common language of motherhood brings two women together along some passages of what she called  "a long journey to solidarity."

Melissa Leo, speaking in Spanish, connected with the Spanish-speaking attendees at the press conference a recalling an old hit from Chilean folk music group Quilapayun:

"El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido," she said in Spanish.

“Frozen River” talks about how "people united really can change the world," she added.

Exhausting as it would be, Variety Team San Sebastian wishes - at least right now - that there was a festival in every single town:  Hunt, haloed in a curly gold mane, and flanked by thesps Misty Upham and Melissa Leo (right), would persuade an army of young reality show contestant wannabes to defect.


The Variety España team is on the ground in Spain, bringing regular dispatches throughout the San Sebastian Film Festival.