The San Sebastian International Film Festival is recognizing outstanding contributions to the world of film. This year Judi Dench, Danny Devito and Hirokazu Kore-Eda are the artists acknowledged. China has one film in official competition this year, called Bao Bei Er, or Baby. It's about a woman who tries to save the life of a new-born. CGTN's Al Goodman has sat down with the leading actress, Yang Mi, and the director, Liu Jie.

She's on a mission. Chinese actress Yang Mi portrays a woman who was abandoned at birth because of a genetic disorder. In the new Chinese movie, Bao Bei Er, or Baby, she discovers a newborn baby girl who faces the same fate.

The movie screened at the sixty-sixth edition of the San Sebastian International film festival, in northern Spain. With a storyline, the actress says she couldn't resist being a part of.

YANG MI LEADING ACTRESS IN 'BABY' "In the beginning when I get to know about the film, I thought it was a very interesting topic and I hadn't done some things like this before. So I wanted to try. And when the director asked me to star in it, there is no script yet, so I thought it was a very exciting journey for me because I haven't tried to shoot a movie without a script."

The director, Liu Jie, directed a half-dozen films. Although he says there wasn't a formal script for this one.

LIU JIE DIRECTOR OF 'BABY' "It's my personal habit. I don't think that we need to write conversations in a script. I think that will lose the interest of the character doing their own lines by themselves. But I have a storyline of this movie and I know where the story goes before I start shooting."

AL GOODMAN SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN "There are four Chinese films being screened at the San Sebastian festival. But 'Baby' is the only one in official competition. Each recent edition of the festival has also shown about four Chinese films."

A sign of increasing ties of Chinese films to this festival and to European cinemas. The San Sebastian festival has plenty of stars on its red carpet, like acclaimed British actress Judi Dench, who received a lifetime achievement award this year at the festival, which screened her latest film, a spy thriller.

The "Baby" director and actors had their own set of enthusiastic fans when it was their turn on the red carpet.

LIU JIE DIRECTOR OF 'BABY' "For me, San Sebastian is one of the most important film festivals around the world and it's a great platform. I think it's a great platform for the movie to be seen by more and more people around the world because the movie is about a real thing that's happening in China."

In "Baby", the woman grows up despite her genetic disorder and is a janitor at a hospital. That's where she finds the genetically damaged baby whose father doesn't want treatment for his endangered infant. The police get involved.

YANG MI LEADING ACTRESS IN 'BABY' "The director asked me to be more realistic, and more like the real person in real life. So I was asked to stay in the hospital to perform as a nurse for several days and I went to the market in a countryside and roaming on the streets for quite a while to get to know the real life, to get to see the real life of the people."

LIU JIE DIRECTOR OF 'BABY' "The most difficult thing is the attitude and the end-goal of the movie because through this movie I want to make sure can I be fair and do justice to all kinds of people and all kinds of different stances."

The titanic struggle between the woman and the baby's father finally boils over, as she pleads with him to give the baby a chance for life, with treatment, like she herself had.

YANG MI LEADING ACTRESS IN 'BABY' "There is no good or evil of the two characters. They do the things they do because of their instincts and with their own reasons. And in life, everybody does the same thing, with their own reasons. So if the story is in real life, I think the situation will be much like the story in the movie."

Al Goodman, CGTN, San Sebastian, Spain.