Roberto Bueso's family drama has received a strong response in San Sebastián. Eduard Fernández leads a story about absent parenthood, family resentment and the hard work of reconciliation.
A fractured family has emerged as one of the strongest Spanish contenders at this year's San Sebastián festival. El mal padre received a warm response at its official competition screening. It now enters the final stretch with serious prospects for the awards ceremony next Saturday.
Roberto Bueso's film was presented on 22 September 2026 in the official competition of the 74th Festival de San Sebastián. It turns a Christmas gathering into a sharp look at absent parenthood, family resentment and the chance of repairing damaged relationships.
The story follows Santiago Balmes, played by Eduard Fernández. He is an acclaimed academic and writer whose illness leads him to bring his three estranged children back to the family home where they spent their childhood summers.
The reunion soon exposes the cost of the years Balmes spent putting himself above his family. His charisma does not erase the damage. The film also refuses to portray either the father or his children as entirely innocent.
El mal padre es третий полнометражный фильм Роберто Бусо и его первая конкурсная заявка за Золотую раковину на фестивале в Сан-Себастьяне.
That balance is the film's main strength. Bueso wrote the screenplay with his regular collaborator Óscar Díaz Cruz. Together, they built the drama around pain, anger, silence and moments of humour.
The house in the Comunidad Valenciana is more than a setting. It becomes the place where old reproaches meet nostalgia, shared meals and the presence of the father's friends and relatives.
Fernández carries the central conflict with an intentionally uncomfortable performance. Balmes can be unpleasant and self-absorbed, yet he remains recognisable as a man trying to control a family he has repeatedly neglected.
The actor has said the film holds a difficult balance between silence and speech. He also said it resembles life because personal histories shape every relationship.
The role brings Fernández back to a festival where he has already won major recognition. He won the Concha de Plata for best actor a decade ago for El hombre de las mil caras. He returned to the Zinemaldia in 2025 to receive the Premio Nacional de Cinematografía.
A second acting prize is now a realistic possibility after the response to his latest work. As reported by EFE, Fernández described the film's tone as a difficult balance between silence and words, and between humour and tragedy. He said that combination makes the story resemble real life.
В актёрский ансамбль также входят Cristina Plazas и Francesco Carril, а рядом с Эдуардом Фернандесом в фильме играют Adam Jezierski и Meritxell Calvo. Фестивальные обзоры RTVE и Academia de Cine относят картину к заметным испанским ставкам главного конкурса 2026 года.
The children bring different kinds of family anxiety into the story. Alberto, the youngest, is played by Adam Jezierski. He is facing the prospect of becoming a father and is unsure whether he knows how to take on that responsibility.
His older sister, played by Meritxell Calvo, wants children but has been unable to have them. She begins to question whether she should keep trying.
Her resemblance to Balmes makes the conflict sharper. She has inherited his personality and his difficulty with love.
The family history becomes even more complicated when Balmes's second family joins the reunion. He left his first wife after having three children with her. He later had another daughter, who studies in Boston and arrives as a pampered outsider.
Her presence triggers jealousy in her half-sister. It also forces the old family structure into the open.
Bueso previously directed La banda and Llenos de gracia. He presented both films in the festival's parallel Made in Spain section.
His new film moves into the official competition but keeps his focus on emotionally exposed characters. The wider Spanish cinema programme has also drawn attention through another festival story centred on Penélope Cruz.
Fernando Bovaira produced the film again and had Fernández in mind for the leading role. El mal padre was filmed entirely in the Comunidad Valenciana.
According to EFE, its cinema release is scheduled for 20 November 2026. That gives the film a clear path beyond the festival.
Its subject is intimate, but the conflict is easy to recognise. The story deals with the damage caused when parenthood is treated as less important than personal ambition.
El mal padre works best when it avoids easy judgement. Its characters speak from years of pain and anger, yet the film leaves room for repair.
That helps explain the response in San Sebastián. The family drama does not offer a simple lesson. Fernández and Bueso have instead turned an uncomfortable domestic conflict into a precise Spanish competition film with a credible place in the palmarés.
