Fireworks Wednesday

Chahar Shanbeh Suri (Original Foreign title)


Fireworks Wednesday



Dir: Asghar Farhadi
Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, Mani Haghighi.
(the later is the director of Men at Work,
a much reputed iranian film)
Cinematography: Hossein Jafarian
Editing: Hayedeh Safyari
Produced by Seyed Jamal Sadatian.
Duration:102 min.
Year: 2006

Cast:

Mojdeh - Hadieh Tehrani
Rouhi - Taraneh Alidoosti
Morteza - Hamid Farrokhnezhad
Mrs. Simi - Pantea Bahram


International Credits:

42nd Chicago Film Festival:
Fireworks Wednesday won the Golden Hugo prize
24th Fajr International Film Festival:
Crystal Simorghs for best director, best editing,
and best actress,audience favorite award.
59th Locarno International Film Festival:
Junior Jury 3rd Prize


About the cinema

Few Iranian films have tried to realistically depict both the urban middle and lower classes, and fewer still with the complexity of story telling and depth of characterization. Fireworks Wednesday, beautifully paced drama about marital infidelity, seen through the eyes of a young housemaid about to get married, is psychologically intricate and dramatically engrossing. It could prove a break-through film for Farhadi, whose "Dance in the Dust" and "Beautiful City" have prepared the way to international arthouse auds.As this sophisticated work demonstrates, Iranian cinema has matured into far different genres than the quasi-documentaries about children and movie-making for which it is widely known. Though not overtly concerned with social issues, "Fireworks Wednesday" breathes the class gap in Iranian society into almost every upstairs/downstairs scene, with an unexpected ending that reinforces the divide.


Synopsis

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's third feature, Fireworks Wednesday, follows Rouhi (Taraneh Alidoosti), a betrothed woman who works for a local housekeeping agency. When she accepts an assignment cleaning the home of an affluent married couple about to leave on vacation, this newcomer to the household is quickly sucked into a virulent nuptial conflict of deceit, treachery, and vitriol that challenges all of her presuppositions about the nature of married life. By cloaking the events of the household (and their precipitants) in ambiguity, and constantly shifting the central
perspective of the film from one character to another, Farhadi adds depth and complexity to the work and continually challenges the audience, forcing each viewer to rewrite his or her presuppositions about the characters. Though the film's title refers, in the metaphoric sense, to the explosiveness of domestic strife, the events in the film coincide with the firework-strewn Persian New Year of March 21, which lends the title a literal significance as well.

* Title refers to the Iranian New Year's holiday, Chahar Shanbeh Suri. While middle-class families prepare to leave for the holidays, for the working class it's business as usual.

About the Director

Asghar Farhadi (born in 1972) is a notable Iranian screen writer and film director. Asghar Farhadi is a graduate of Theatre (BA in in dramatic arts and MA in stage direction) from Tehran University and Tarbiat Modarres University. Farhadi made some 8mm and 16mm films, in Isfahan branch of Iranian Young Cinema Society. Consequently, he wrote plays and screenplays for IRIB. He has also directed some V series including A TALE OF A CITY and co-wrote the script of Ebrahim Hatamikia’s LOW HEIGHTS. DANCING IN THE DUST is Farhadi’s first feature film.

Director
Beautiful City (2006) Fireworks Wednesday (2006) Dancing in the Dust (2003)
Screenplay
Beautiful City (2006) Dancing in the Dust (2003)Ertefa-e Past (2002)

Full or Empty

FULL OR EMPTY- IRAN

Gol Ya Pouch (Original title)

Directed, edited by Abolfazl Jalili.

Screenplay: Abolfazl Jalili, Milad Jalili.

Camera: Abolfazl Jalili

Music: Abolfazl Jalili

Produced by Maryam Ashrafi.

A First Film Milad Co. production.

Running time: 98 MIN.

Credits:

Reviewed at Fajr Film Festival (noncompeting),

Tokyo Filmex, Pusan, Rotterdam film festivals.

Won the best film award at Durban filmfest, TEHRAN.

Cast:

Navid - Navid Raisi

Mahrokh - Jamileh Baluchi

Madame Sakineh - Sakineh Azadi

About The Film:

A charmingly offbeat social comedy about an ingenious Iranian boy thwarted in his twin ambitions to become a village teacher and marry a girl he has glimpsed, "Full or Empty" (also known as "Null or Score") brings out the gentle wit of filmmaker Abolfazl Jalili, best known for dramas like autobiographical "The First Letter." Here again a young man bucks society, tradition and everything else in the stubborn pursuit of his dreams. This small film, practically a one-man production, has earned a cheer and a laugh from festival audiences wherever it plays. It should slip quietly into small artfilm niches.It is an 'underground,' shoestring-budget production, and it shows: performances and direction are rudimentary, though the (DV) camerawork and editing (both by writer-director Abolfazl Jalili) are surprisingly slick. He favours short, laconic scenes - peppered with running visual and verbal gags - which propel the plot along at a fair rate of knots, even if this material does feel somewhat overstretched at 98 minutes.

Synopsis:

Navid (Navid Raisi), who is 17, leaves his village for a port city near the Pakistan border, seeking employment as a teacher of Persian literature. Told he needs two letters of recommendation from local citizens, he finds an old sheep farmer and a widow living in a hovel, Madame Sakineh (Sakineh Azadi), to vouch for him. Then he's told to produce police documents showing he has no criminal record. While waiting for authorization to teach, he demonstrates his can-do spirit in a host of odd jobs, from animal guardian to pool hall bouncer to barber. Almost everything lands him in trouble, especially his insistent courtship of pretty Mahrokh (Jamileh Baluchi), whom he barely knows. But Navid, part poet and part businessman, never loses hope.The climactic scene, when at last he gets called before the school authorities to face the final hurdle, ironically caps this droll tale with a toss of the dice -- and a nod to the children's game from which the film takes its title.Jalili develops the story with a light tone and a lot of local color.

Set in the region of Baluchistan, the film offers a different view of non-urban Iranian society, where poverty is accepted by villagers.A deadpan nonpro cast, often playing characters with their own names, lend their faces to the fable-like adventures of the crazy idealist Navid, his landlady and confidante Sakineh, and other village characters. Jalili tends to keep his camera close to the action and uses sets like the schoolroom or the gate in front of Mahrokh's house repeatedly, to simple, comic effect. In contrast, a few long shots stick in the memory, particularly the sandy beach where Navid sets up his outdoor "International Barbershop" and Sakineh's lonely hovel, where he plants a plastic palm tree.

About The Director:

Born in Saave in 1957, Jalili began filmmaking while he was a teenager, and created a number of short documentary films on social issues and the war. The first feature film he directed was entitled Milad and his subsequent films were presented in numerous world festivals and won several awards.

Director’s statement

There are some people who always keep their smile, a Mona Lisa-type smile, even if they are very disappointed and sad after struggling through life and running around in vain. One cannot easily understand the true meaning of this kind of smile: does it indicate the pain behind it, or is it a sign of hope? Full or Empty is, for me, a Mona Lisa kind of smile

Filmography:

2005 Full or Empty

1998 Dan

1995 A True Story

1993 Det Means Girl

1991 Dance of the Earth

1988 La Gale

1985 The Spring

1983 Milad

1981 The Sacrifice

to Sum up:

Jalili said that “Full or Empty” is a surreal film with a comic theme. He thinks “Full or Empty” has a comic theme, despite his other works, because his son had begun the work, and Jalili was only assisting him, with no restrictions on forms and techniques. He once said that when he was in Chabahar making the movie “Hafez”, he asked his son Milad to make a film. Milad agreed and gradually the film “Full or Empty” was created. However, in the middle of the work, Milad decided to stop and handed the job over to him, he added. Jalili’s previous films did not receive public screening licenses. However, some of his other works were broadcast by IRIB in a series a few years ago. The English-language subtitles are often frustratingly illegible, however, and in the saggy final third the film does come perilously close to overstaying its welcome.

SNOW IN THE WIND- china

Ni Ping, leading actress of Chinese film "Snow in the Wind"(L) and its director Yang Yazhou (R) pose with Serge Losique(C), the president of Montreal World Film Festival for a photo in Montreal, Canada, September 4, 2006. The film "Snow in the Wind" won the trophy of "Special Prize from the Jury" and Ni Ping was awarded the best actress at the 30th Montreal World Film Festival which closed on Monday. (Xinhua Photo)


PRODUCTION TEAM

Director : Yang Yazhou
Script : Wang Liang
Photography : Wang Dong
Editor : Xu Wei, Ding Ruan

CAST:

Ni Ping, Liu Wei, Miao Pu, Yan Lishu, Liu Yan,
Li Yarong, Su Tingshi, Wang Qunying, Yuan Jin,
Huan Xinyu, Zhao Qianzi, Wang Ying, Xing Xinxin




About the Film:

The troubled marriage of two rural cinema projectionists plays out in visually arresting but dramatically padded Chinese drama "Snow in the Wind." Latest common-people epic from medico-turned-actor-director Yang Yazhou has enough mischievous distinction to garner attention on the fest circuit and in limited arthouse play. Pic earned the Special Jury Grand Prize at the recently wrapped Montreal fest, with Ni taking home the actress honors, solidifying the helmer's rep.

Synopsis:

Fish Zhang is a country girl in northwest China who raises donkeys with her father. Her only passion is the movies and in order satisfy it she even goes so far as to defy her father and get married to Film Wang, a cinema projectionist. At the start, all goes well.

They make a living showing movies. Film Wang is easygoing and people like him, especially the young girls who follow him around to see films. Fish is a bit jealous but she's too busy with her three daughters to worry. One day Film Wang has an accident. The business falters until Fish decides to get the projector back and show the films herself.

Film Wang demonstrates how from his bed. Fish learns quickly and business picks up; theirs is a happy household once again. When Film Wang has recovered enough to walk, Fish looks for something to keep him busy. She suggests that he help out in Lady Hu's restaurant. Before long, however, Film Wang's assistance to Lady Hu extends to more than just the restaurant...


About the Director:



Born in Harbin, China in 1956, Yang Yazhou practiced medicine for four years before enrolling in the Central Academy of Drama. He began his career as an actor at the Xi'an Film Studio before becoming a director. Known as ""the people's filmmaker"", for his skill at reflecting social changes via chronicles of the lives of common people, Yang also directed the popular TV series, Empty Mirror, which won the Golden Eagle, China's most prestigious award for a TV drama.
His 2002 feature PRETTY BIG FEET was shown at the Montreal World Film Festival. His film LOACH IS ALSO A FISH was also present at this year's Festival, with snow in the wind, the film to be screened in trivandrum.



a line from the film, as told by the heroin:


"Film is a window on the world."
"Don't cry," counsels one of her children,
"there will be good films."

Interview....

This is an Interview with Director of 'Kiss Me Not On The Eyes' film, Jocelyne Saab.

In this interview at Sundance with Indie Wire, Jocelyne Saab talks about her early life in Lebanon and her experience as a film maker. She also talks in great detail about the difficulties she had to overcome in directing this film...

• Please give us information on your background, and what were the circumstances that lead you to become a filmmaker?

I was born and raised in Beirut in the '50s, the golden age of a Lebanon in "dolce vita mode." I started my career hosting a pop music program on the national Lebanese radio that I called "Marsipulami got blue eyes" and from there moved on to become a newsreader for television. When the notorious Lebanese civil war took place , I started working on various independent documentaries until I landed the job of second unit director on Volker Schlondorff's movie on the Lebanese civil war, "Circle of Deceit" in 1981. I continued covering the events of the war as a reporter and filmmaker until I lost everything I had in Beirut, material and not: friends, family, house. I then moved to Paris, France and continued, while being based there, my coverage of conflicts in the Arab world and the Middle East.
Today I live between Paris and Cairo where I wrote, directed and produced the feature film selected for Sundance, "Kiss Me Not on the Eyes" (original title "Dunia"). I learned everything I know about filmmaking on the field. I wrote and directed all of my films, except my first feature film "A Suspended Life," written by Gerard Brach. I studied economics in college, even for my graduate studies, but in parallel, I built a "film culture" due to watching as many films as possible, from the American classics, to the nouvelle vague.
Having reported and witnessed some of the most violent conflicts of the second half of the twentieth century I became extremely concerned with human rights, a theme that I carried with me through my fiction work, and which remains the focus of my latest fiction feature.

• Where did the initial idea for your film come from?

About seven years ago, I conducted a study on youth sexuality in Egypt. The idea came to me through similar studies conducted in France and I initially thought that my findings would make a good basis for a three-hour documentary on the topic. As my research progressed though, the findings became harrowing by Arab cultural and moral standards, so much so, that the person in charge of typing the findings refused to do so. Actually it was pretty "out there" by any standard, so I realized that it was impossible to get any of the people interviewed to disclose this information for the camera.
I [then] let it go. I left Egypt for Vietnam, and shot a documentary called "The Lady from Saigon." Yet, as I was sitting there one day, one particular anecdote came back to me... I could not forget this girl, what she talked about and how, framing her head with her hands, the source of many of her pleasures. And I remembered a quote from one of the 14th century Arab poets, "Pleasure is a small death." And I started revisiting these texts, that praised freedom, love and their politics as a way of being, a way of dying, a cultural heritage that we seem to have forgotten.
This led to a new perspective, a potential fiction from all these witness accounts. The stories surrounding FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and its repercussion on the sex life, and sensuality of women , was my second starting point, and I conducted fresh research with the help of international organizations about the [topic] itself and its related traumatic effects. [Combined with a lot of other] research down the line (concerning the architecture of Cairo, Arab poetry and dance), and the script was awarded the special jury prize for best screenplay at the annual screenplay competition organized by the French National Cinema Centre.

• What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in either developing the project or making the movie?

The challenges in making my film... Where to begin..? The struggles and difficulties surrounding the making of "Kiss Me Not on the Eyes" were unfortunately of epic proportions. It would take pages and pages just to headline each one of them. Suffice it to say though that my main challenges were: To obtain permission to shoot the film on location in Cairo, Egypt as the censorship body fought the scenario fiercely... Considering it to be pornographic. [After the] permission was obtained, the next challenge was to set up production, which usually is quite a task, and being weighed down by such controversy only made it harder.
Then came finding actors, who had to be convinced of assuming responsibilities for their roles. It was a long and hard process as all [the actors were] concerned about their reputation and also their safety. Once casting [was completed], the challenge of having them work in an acting methodology that steers away from the melodramatic school that [dominates] Egyptian cinema is deserving of a headline itself.
Then came post-production. When the controversy first arose before the shoot, our Arab backers walked out on us with all the money [earmarked] for post-production. Finishing the film was only possible due to the help of many people and institutions who believed in the potential and importance of the work.
Today, a new wave of violence and controversy is surrounding the film, [in which] polarized Egyptian public opinion [is resulting in] a love or hate stance and propelling debates concerning freedom of speech and FGM into the public sphere. This whole frenzy culminated with an article recently condemning me to death for tarnishing Egypt's reputation.

• Tell us about the moment you found out that you were accepted into Sundance.

I was busy preparing for the premiere of the film in Egypt at the Cairo International Film Festival. I woke up this one fateful morning and sat on the balcony of a friend's houseboat where I stay during my Cairo trips. I was sipping my coffee and staring at the Nile. The sun was shinning, and that instant coffee just tasted better, as I was asking myself, 'why is everything so hard?'
I had been working on this film for over five years now, and every moment had been a struggle. I put an end to my reverie and dragged myself back to the computer screen. I started by checking my mail, and I opened the letter addressed to me by Sundance's Caroline Libresco informing me of my selection. I stared at the screen in disbelief and after a few seconds of utter shock I started banging on the table and screaming. My excitement was beyond words. I was being fought by everyone for daring to dream and realizing this film, and all of a sudden, the best thing that could ever happen to me, happened -- professional recognition by the beacon festival of independent cinema.
My friend came running, asking if I was okay and I could not speak, instead I started banging on the table again simulating the percussion music of my film. I closed the email and kept this a secret for three days. I needed to savor it alone for a while -- to allow it to heal some of the wounds the fight for this film had inflicted upon me. Then I shared it with my crew who had long supported me and believed in this film. Their joy was out of this world. Our efforts and the love that went into making this movie were finally recognized.

• What do you hope to get out of the festival, what are your own goals for the experience?

I want to watch all the movies. To be honest this is what excites me most about the prospect of being invited to the festival... the chance to screen and listen to all the experiences of the other filmmakers that found their way into the Sundance family. I am also dying to meet Robert Redford in person. He's always been a favorite of mine. Of course I do hope that my own movie will be well-received, and sold and distributed internationally -- an Arab movie breaking into the international market for its artistic and cinematic value. Maybe the graceful look I carry from the east, beyond the veil of cliches that usually stigmatizes the occidental point-of-view, will allow the orient to be restored in its just and rightful place and value. But all said and done, I still want to watch all the movies and meet everyone above everything else.

• What is your definition of independent film?

An independent film is an audiovisual creative process that escapes the norms and boundaries imposed by the industry aspect of filmmaking. It is a film that gets funding from various sources, enough to have it exist, but never to impose any creative decisions. And this is what I tried to achieve with "Kiss Me Not on the Eyes"-- primarily, creative freedom and choice. Of course it wasn't easy

• If you were given $10 million to be used for moviemaking, how would you spend it?

Ten million dollars in the Arab world... That would be five movies if I took my latest film as the bar. In the states, ten million is a pretty tight budget though... from what I hear at least. I would have to find the right story for it. But ultimately, with such money I would love to write and direct a modern, highly stylized and political musical, based on the paradigms of Western and Arabic musicals -- modernized, combined, with artists from both worlds singing together.

• What are one or two of your New Years resolutions?

My New Year's resolution is two fold. One of which is a bit unrealistic, but they do not call them resolutions for nothing. I want to finish a film in 18-months. A brand new one written and directed [by me] but certainly not produced. And, I want to be surrounded by an excellent crew. I already have the core of it and I wish to [maintain] that feeling of creative bonding.

• What are some of your favorite films, and why? What is your top ten list for 2005?

Some of my favorite films : Robert Altman's "Shortcuts" because I love its narrative lines and character constructions, this feeling of having to surrender to his world to "get it " ; Kim ki duk's "The Isle" is a masterpiece of love and death ; "La regle du jeu" by Renoir. I love how he perceives a film as a work-in-progress until the last minute; "In the Mood for Love" by Wong Kar-wai for the sensuality [and] his use of movement and repetition [and] the music the colors, I just love this film. "Seven Samurai" is my favorite epic.
"L'eclise" by Antonioni. For few people have been able to put in images like he has a metapysical feeling of alienation ; Fellini's " La dolce vita " for his portrayal of a Mediterranean lust for life; Kieslowsky's "Thou shall not Kill. Godard... anything by Godard. Don't ask why he just does it for me. [And], "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" is the most entertaining and aesthetically fulfilling film I have seen recently.

It took five long years for Jocelyne Saab to finish "Dunia, Kiss Me Not on the Eyes".

'Kiss me not on the eyes,

a kiss on the eyes tears people apart'

- title comes from the lyrics of an old Abdel-Halim Hafez song.

Kiss Me Not On The Eyes

Kiss Me Not on the Eyes

Also known as : "Dunia"








Directed, written by Jocelyne Saab.


Cinematography: Jacques Bouquin
Editor: Claude Reznik
Music, Jean-Pierre Mas, Patrick Legonie
Lyricist, Kawsar Mustapha
Original Version: Arabo, francese

Cast:

Actors , Charecters

Mohamed Mounir - Dr. Beshir
Hanane Turk - Dunia
Fathi Abelwahab - Mamdouh
Walid Aouni - instructor




Controversial but also a must see!!!!!


International Credits:


2005 Montréal International Film Festival: American Grand Prize
2006 International Festival of Film, Fribourg Switzerland: Audience Award and Youth Jury Award
2006 Milan International Festival: Province of Milan Award
2006 Algarve, Portugal International Film Festival Mediterranean Award, Best Feature Film
2006 Sundance Film Festival: World Competition
Co-presented with the San Francisco Int'l Film Festival
Co-presented with the International Museum of Women Reviewed at World Film Festival, 2005. Opening Film of 19th singapore international film fesitival\Women's India Film Festival in NEW DELHI


Synopsis:

A Middle Eastern woman is stranded between new freedoms and old traditions in this drama from writer and director Jocelyn Saab. Dunia (Hanane Turk) is an Egyptian woman in her early twenties whose mother was a famous belly dancer. Dunia has inherited her mother's beauty and talent, but is also keenly intelligent and is studying toward a master's degree in literature. Dunia studies dance under an instructor (Walid Aouni) who obviously is drawn to her as well as her skills, and she's also caught the eye of Beshir (Mohamed Mounir), an instructor at her college who is also helping her with her thesis on romantic poetry of the Arab world. However, Dunia is swept off her feet by Mamdouh (Fathi Abelwahab), a handsome young man who values her intelligence and independence. However, when Dunia marries Mamdouh, his attitude changes as he makes it his business to stifle her forthright nature, while Dunia's mother fears he may force Dunia to undergo the clitoral circumcision that was common to women of her generation. Wanting to express herself, Dunia signs up to take part in an international dance competition, but rather than traditional Egyptian belly dancing, she presents a bold performance piece inspired by the repression of women in her homeland.


What is it all about....


The graceful curve of a woman's neck. The seductive jangle of bent gold bracelets sliding onto an arm. Welcome to the world of Dunia, a student of poetry and belly dancing, whose artistic expression is inhibited because she cannot experience desire. Dunia begins an all-consuming search for ecstasy in poetry, dance, and music–taking us into the world of women in a society that both fetishizes and oppresses female sexuality. Ultimately, Dunia must confront the traditions that have destroyed her capacity for pleasure before she can experience it. This film tackles taboos with an honesty and subtlety seldom seen in contemporary Arab cinema.
That the filmmaker is a woman, a rarity in the Middle East, makes it even more extraordinary. Writer/director Jocelyne Saab deftly evokes the flavor of Egypt, where crowded bazaars pulse with the rhythms of tabla (drum) and heated political argument alike.

"Kiss Me Not on the Eyes" offers a colorful package obsessed with sensual surfaces, to the exclusion of a fully developed plot, character or social-commentary elements. Likely to stir interest and some controversy in Arab markets, it's too frustratingly diffuse to warrant travel beyond fest gigs elsewhere.


About the Director:

Jocelyne Saab was born 1948 in Beirut. She studied economics, eventually receiving her Ph.D., and in 1975 became a war reporter and began directing independent documentaries in the Middle East. After more than 20 films and numerous international awards, Saab moved into fiction as a second-unit director on Volker Schlondorff's Circle of Deceit. In 1985 her first feature film, Suspended Life, was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes International Film Festival. Once Upon a Time in Beirut followed in 1995. Today Saab lives between Paris and Cairo, where she filmed Kiss Me Not on the Eyes.First a journalist and war reporter in Arab countries and in Iran for fifteen years, Jocelyne Saab, has directed over 20 documentary films shown worldwide on French and European channels, on NBC in the United States and NHK in Japan. To date, she has shot in Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Kurdistan, Ex-Spanish Sahara, and Vietnam. She has written all of her films except SUSPENDED LIFE, written by Gerard Brach.once said she initially found making feature films difficult because they are so "talkative," that she preferred to focus on the image, and on charging the image with challenging material.


Filmography:


1975- Le Liban dans la tourmente, doc/
1976- Beyrouth jamais plus, doc/
1976- Les Enfants de la guerre, doc/ 1978- Lettre de Beyrouth, doc/
1982- Le bateau de l’exil, cm/
1983- Beyrouth, ma ville, doc/
1984- Une vie suspendue, lm/
1994- Il était une fois Beyrouth, doc/
2005- Dunia- Kiss not on my eyes, lm

Total list of films

First list of films selected for Competition Section-11th IFFK.


1) The Violin / El Violin (Mexico 35mm B/W 98min Spanish)Dir: Fracisco Vargas
2) Dry Season / Daratt (Chad 35mm Colour 95min French/Arabic)Dir: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
3) Opera Jawa (Indonesia 35mm Colour 120min Indonesian)Dir: Garin Nurgoho
4) Angel's Fall / Melegin Dususu (Turkey/Greece 35mm Colour 90min Turkish) Dir: Semih Kaplanoglu
5) Four Women Barefoot / 4 Mujeres Descalzas (Argentina35mmColour90min Spanish) Dir: Santiago Loza
6) Road Under the Skies (Uzbekistan 35mm Colour)Dir: Kamara Kamalova
7) Kiss me not on the eyes / Dunia (Lebanon/Egypt/France 35mm Colour 112mins)Dir: Jocelyne Saab
8) Snow in the Wind (China 35mm Colour 106mins Mandarin)
Dir: Yang Ya-Zhou
9) Full Or Empty / Gol ya Pooch (Iran 35mm Colour 98min Persian)Dir: Abolfazl Jalili
10) Fireworks Wednesday / Chahar Shanbeh Souri (Iran 35mm Colour 104min Persian)Dir: Asghar Farhadi (Debut)
11) Forever Flows / Nirontor (Bangladesh 35mm Colour 112min Bengali) Dir: Abu Sayeed
12) Sankara (Sri Lanka 35mm Colour 85min Sinhala)Dir:PrasannaJayakody
13) The Vision / Drishtantham (India 35mm Colour 96min Malayalam)Dir: M.P.Sukumaran Nair
14) The Dance of Life / Aadum Koothu (India 35mm Colour 110min Tamil) Dir: T.V. Chandran


List of films selected for Malayalam Cinema Section-11th IFFK


1)Saira (India 35mm Colour 90min Malayalam)Dir: Dr. Biju
2)Narrations ever Untold / Paranju Theeratha Visheshangal(India 35mm Colour 100min Malayalam) Dir: Harikumar
3)Thanmatra (India 35mm Colour 142.17min Malayalam)Dir: Blessy
4)The Gaze / Nottam (India 35mm Colour 110min Malayalam)Dir: Shashi Paravoor
5)Tiger Life / Pulijanmam (India 35mm Colour 92min Malayalam)Dir: Priyanandanan
6)Achanurangatha Veedu (India 35mm Colour 130min Malayalam) Dir: Lal Jose
7)Wonder / Adbhudam (India 35mm Colour 77min Malayalam)Dir: Jayaraj
8 Black Birds / Karutha Pakshikal (India 35mm Colour 120min Malayalam)Dir: Kamal



List of films selected for Indian Cinema Section-11th IFFK.



1 Grave Keeper's Tale / Maati Maay Dir: Chitra Palekar(India 35mm Colour 98min Marathi)
2 The Companion / Dosar Dir: Rituparno Ghosh(India 35mm Colour 127min Bengali)
3 In the Shadow of the Dog / Naayi Neralu Dir: Girish Kasravalli(India 35mm Colour 132min Kannada)
4 Are you There / Kya Tum Ho Dir: Anish Ahluwalia(India 35mm Colour 103min HIndi)5 Another Story / Kathantara Dir: Himanshu Khatua(India 35mm Colour 116min Oriya/Bengali)
6 Shevri Dir: Gajendra Ahire(India 35mm Colour 104min Marathi)
7Vanaja Dir: Rajesh Domalpalli(India 35mm Colour 111min Telugu)


First list of films selected for Short / Documentary / Short Fiction Section -11th IFFK.


Long Documentaries

1)A Secret Genocide / Dir: Alexandre Dereims (France)
2) Ra Choi / Dir: Michael Frank (Australia)
3)Avenge but one of my two Eyes / Dir: Avi Mograbi (France/Israel)
4) Before Flying back to the Earth / Dir: Arunas Matelis (Lithuania/Russia)
5)News from Home / Dir: Amos Gitai (Israel)
6)Woman with Movie Camera / Dir: Geetha J. (India)
7)Objects / Dir: Valsalan Kanara (India)
8)Abhinetri / Dir: A.V. Sashidharan (India)
9)Minukku / Dir: M.R.Rajan (India) (India)
10)Hans Akela / Dir: Jabbar Patel (India)


Short Documentaries


11) Children of Leningradsky / Dir: Hanna Polak (Poland)
12) The Great Depression / Dir: Konstantin Faigle (Germany)
13) Fair Trade / Dir: Michael Dreher (Germany)
14)J, a photographer in a strange village / Dir: Sangyup Lee (South Korea)
15)Women Workers leaving the Factory / Dir: Jose Luis Torres Leiva (Chile)16)A Land Told a Man / Dir: V.B. Nandakumar (India)17)Safar: Journey of an Indian Farmer / Dir: Joshey Joseph (India)



Short Fiction



18)Amor Fati / Dir: Dennis Todorovic (Germany)
19)The Border / Dir: Marat Alykulov (Kyrgyz)
20)Two Good Fellas / Dir: Tony Palazzo (Italy)
21)Waiting Calendar / Dir: Safarbek Soliev (Tajikistan)
22)Life is a Diamond / Dir: Cecilia M. Scholtz (Botswana)
23)A Cigar at the Beach / Dir: Stephen Keep Mills (USA)
24)She He / Dir: Massimo amici (Italy)
25)Security / Dir: Lars Henning (Germany)
26)Rx / Dir: Sajeev Pazhoor (India)
27)A Requiem to Mother Earth / Dir: R. Sarath (India)
28)Key / Dir: Gautam Baruah (India)
29)Cineku / Dir: Ramachandra Babu (India)
30)Nekyia / Dir: Elias Chatzichristodoulou (Greece)
31)Fernando's First Snow / Dir: Jared Katsiane (USA)
32)Gaze / Dir: Suraj Duwarah (India)
33)Closer / Dir: Priya Beliappa (India)
34)...And So Came a Day / Dir: Ani Thomas (India)
35)A Far Horizon / Dir: Binitesh Baruah (India)
36)Their Story / Dir: Reema Bohra (India)
37)In Thin Air / Dir: Indraneel Kaul (India)
38)Few Grains of Rice / Dir: Sanjib kumar Behera (India)
39)Tetris / Dir: Anirban Datta (India)
40)Romanian Package
41)Spanish Package
42)Checkpoint / Dir: Ben Phelps (Australia)

Road Under the Skies

Doroga pod nebesami

(Uzbekistan)

also known as

A path beneath the skies

or

Road Under the Skies

Dir: Kamara Kamalova

'A path beneath the skies' ...aka 'Road under the skies'- the former title used by european film clubs, and the later by iffk authorities- is directed by Kamara kamalova, a legendary Russian director who began her career in early 1970's. Unfortunatly not much could be traced after the film, Doroga pod nebesami, which is to be screened in the 11th IFFK. Even so, i do manage to post some details on her filimography and some on her self.

Road Under the Skies bagged the Best Director prize in Central Asian Competition section of the 3rd Eurasia Int'l Film Festival. ( 25 Sept - 1 Oct)

The film, from Uzbekistan- a part of former USSR, has a post- Kazakh new wave line up. remember the films like - The Adopted Son ( Krygystan), Cardiogram (Kazakhstan), The rock star etc... that played the needle of Kazakh new wave. the tradition is lost. after 1990's and in the begining of the new century a new sectarian cinema culture devoleped in the Eurasia, the land where East and West meet.
Eventhough the Western scholars proposes the need for a new paradigm instead of the terms "East" and "West". they are of the opinion that the terms "East" and "West" are already outdated. but shifting the terms of reference merely mask the same issues. The terms East and West exist to show the gulf of knowledge and understanding, that there is so much to know about that we don't.

Okay, i think i am deviating from the issue. sorry. let's get back to the movie. A tale of love and misfortune, the film's surreal scenes of colourful but abstract local mythology smacks of the master, Sergei Paradjanov. but there is a serious issue to be disussed- while we acclaim the Iranian films, the latin american films and even our national films, we forget that Eurasia, especially the countries like Turky, Uzbekistan,Kazakhistan and many sects of former USSR, produce brilliant movies, that never gets international reputation.

Let me introduce the director:

Graduated in 1964 of the cinematographic Institute, Kamara Kamalova works with the studio "Uzbek-film" until 1992. It carries out ten drawings animated before turning of the full-length films in 1975. the films of Kamara Kamalova, one of the few successful female film directors in her country, have been considered to address a young public only. For many years spent in working her way up in the cinema world, she has chosen children and adolescents as heroes, representing both moral strength and the battle against arrogance.

Catalogue of films:

1975: Bitter bay

1978: Happiness others

1980: Tomorrow, you leave?

1983: In connection with what did not occur

1986: My Grandson who works with the police force

1990: The Savage

1995: Vsyo vokrug zasypalo snegom

2006: Doroga pod nebesami

( the list is incomplete, i'd missed some film's in the list)

'My intention, as always, is to be straightforward without being superficial.'

-Paulo Coehlo

THE WHISPERING OF THE GODS

THE WHISPERING OF THE GODS

(GERUMANIUMU NO YORU)

Director: Tatsushi Omori

Country: JAPAN

Producer: Genjiro Arato

Camera: Ryo Otsuka

Editor: Yoshiyuki Okuhara

Music: Syuichi Chino

Running time: 106 MIN.

Year: 2005

Screenplay: Yoshio Urasawa

( Based on the novel “Germanium Nights” by Mangetsu Hanamura)

THE FIM IS FULL OF SEXUALY EXPLICIT IMAGES

Priest Father Komiya (Renji Ishibashi) being masturbated by Rou (Hirofumi Arai, pig castrations to masturbating nuns.

'The Whispering of the Gods' is, I believe, the most powerful Japanese film I have seen during 2005. Certainly, in it, director Omori Tatsushi makes the memorable debut." - world-renowned film critic Donald Richie, as quoted on the official subsite for The Whispering of the Gods. ( the official subsite is not working now)

Cast:

Hirofumi Arai .... Rou

Reona Hirota .... Sister Theresa

Megumi Sawara .... Kyôko

Keita Kimura .... Tôru

Nao Omori .... Ukawa

Genta Dairaku .... Scout Master

Masashi Yamamoto .... Brother Akabane

Akifumi Miura .... Arakawa

Akaji Maro .... Shopkeeper

Renji Ishibashi .... Komiya

Kei Sato .... Father Togawa

Takayuki Tsuwa .... Kita

About the Film:

A determined nihilism holds the hand of religious and sexual rage to depressing, sometimes sickening effect in "The Whispering of the Gods," a bleak piece of Cinema of Despair from Japan.

Synopsis:

After killing two people in a car scrapyard, a young man, Rou, returns to the mountain monastery he grew up in. In this religious centre terrible abuses are committed every day, and Rou is forced to repeatedly satisfy the priest's perverse desires. Whilst he listens to the so-called whisperings of the gods who apparently direct his actions through the medium of small radios, his days are spent working in the henhouse or the kitchen and having sex with various people who frequent the enclosed monastery. Although Rou sleeps with Kyoko, a female novice, he has no qualms about forcing himself on a nun with whom he prepares meals. Despite the murders he has committed and the brutality of his sexual practices, which he confesses to the imperturbable and devoted abbot, Rou shows no remorse. But soon old tensions resurface between inmates who grew up together and from then on, no safeguard nor regulation can stop the divine offences. Based on [the novel Gerumaniumu no yoru by Mangetsu Hanamura, The Whispering of the Gods is a striking and shocking film.

Finally...:

Tatsushi Ômori explores the perversions that can occur in human relationships when they are hidden from the eyes of the world. There is no longer any notion of good and evil, and when one of the characters has a moment of compassion, or acts to make amends, he then compromises himself in further immoral behaviour. Yet the film emanates a degree of tranquillity, particularly in the opening scene of majestically falling snow on oxen laboriously yet serenely trudging across the countryside - an image that contrasts with the sequences of daily violence. The director reveals the depression of his main character, who seems caught between depravity and religion, seeking to find a way out of this enclosed world of sin and punishment.

- as reviewed by Locarno International Film Festival commitee.

About the Director:

Omori was born in 1970 into an acting family; his father is renowned butoh actor Maro Akaji, and his brother is acclaimed actor Omori Nao. Omori worked as assistant director for Sakamoto Junji and Izutu Kazuyuki before working for producer/director Arato Genjiro on "Akame 48 Waterfalls." (2003) In 2001, Omori recieved the NETPAC Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival for "Wave," a film in which he served as both producer and actor. In 2005, he makes his much-awaited directorial debut with "The Whispering of the Gods."

4 Barefooted Women

4 Barefooted Women

4 Mujeres Descalzas(Argentina)

Director: Santiago Loza

Language: Spanish

Year:2005

Cast:

Barbara : Eva Bianco

Sandra : Maria Onetto

Veronica : Maria Pessacq

Marta : Mara Santucho

Crew:

Producer: Francesca Feder, Martin Loza

Screenplay: Santiago Loza

Photography: Willi Behnisch

Editor: Stephanie Mahet

Music: Ferndando

Technical Details: 90´/ 35 mm / color / Dolby

The Film:

Four women searching for their place in the world come together to share their fears, hopes and the intensity of their faith. What they find is more than trust and friendship: it is the simple joy of being alive.- that is what the cinema is about.

As told in a Film Review page:

In a Buenos Aires apartment devoid of furniture, four very different women are drawn together to share secrets, find support and overcome their “fear of life.” Director Santiago Loza’s intimate, bittersweet approach creates magic from some deceptively simple elements.

From the Film:

"Some time in the future, I´ll remember
this day. I like being here, with you,
getting to know you... I´m almost
ashamed to be so happy!" Marta´s
words radiate happiness, but before
she can utter them, she and her friends
will have explored some of the darker
landscapes of the soul. Four women
searching for their place in the city, in
Argentina, in the world. Breaking
down barriers to confront and share
their innermost fears... Demonstrating
the mechanics of laughter and of lunar
eclipses... Grappling with their faith,
whether Christian, Jewish or uniquely
personal... Ultimately it is their faith -
along with their friendship - that helps
them take the decisions that will
change their lives. And that helps them
find something they were not
expecting: the simple joy of being
alive.

About the director:

Argentinian director Santiago Loza, born in Cordoba in 1970. His first feature film 'Extrano' won the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR) 2003, an award for the Best Newcomer at the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival. "Humane and magical small film with shrewd observations. For whether support each other in their battle against fear of life." Accounted the award committee. After his first fim, a South America hit , the young Argentinean director Santiago Loza created an intimate, revealing, intensely personal and sometimes disturbing study of a magical, cathartic moment in the lives of four women.

'My film...' says Santiago Loza

"I think it is a film about faith. In fact, it is an attempt to consider faith in this very confusing time that is not clear for Argentina and for the rest of the world. In that context, the film has naturally evolved into a real necessity with great urgency for me.In this film, I am the four women and they are part of me… deeply in me. They are living in me.I wrote the script for these particular actresses. I feel I know each of them through their strengths both as actresses and as women. All during the making of the film, I felt that I knew their bodies and their vitality...I hope that through this film, I can give back to the people who helped me all that I asked them for in making this film possible. "

winding up

It seems to be like a Paulo Coelho book. Has got a sense in it. a lively, life enchanting piece of story line. i think it is 'hot movie'. i 've seen the preview clip in one of the film sites. any way hope for the best. to sum up, no doubt, it will be a definite contestent for the suwarna chakoram award.

bye for now..

luv,

shine

Opera Jawa

Opera Jawa

A FILM BASED ON INDIAN EPIC RAMAYANA

Country: Indonesia-Austria

Production:JAY WEISSBERGA SET Film Workshop

(Indonesia)/New Crowned Hope (Austria)

Year: 2006

Music: Rahayu Supanggah

Produced, Directed and written by Garin Nugroho.

Charecters and Actors:

Artika - Sari Devi,

Martinus- Miroto,

Eko- Supriyanto,

Retno - Maruti,

Slamet- Gundono,

Nyoman- Sura,

Jecko - Siompo.

About the Film

A film opera inspired by a story from the classical epic Ramayana. From Indonesia, Garin Nugroho often deals with issues of cultural and religious difference while exploring diverse story-telling styles. The film, with orginal title, Requiem from Java is a film opera, a collaboration with musicians and artists, with Javanese gamelan, songs and dance.
A beautifully mounted musical epic combining traditional myths with contempo meditations on violence and social inequality, "Opera Jawa" is bold and innovative. But it is so chock-a-block with metaphor and over-decorated with artists' installations that it veers into the too-earnest waters of an ethnic fringe "happening" at Lincoln Center. International performance fests and Euro arthouses had given it some mileage, though Stateside prospects are weak. The film, according to some website i've searched, is dedicated to the victims of natural disasters, though it's extended to all those suffering under oppression. Nugroho tells his tale using the traditional stylized Javanese dance-dramas known as "wayang orang," combined with "tembang," a singing declamatory narration. "Opera" is part of the New Crowned Hope tribute to Mozart's anniversary and very much in tune with artistic director Peter Sellars' own visionary productions. Story's gist is taken from "The Abduction of Sita," one of the most popular tales in the Hindu epic "Ramayana." So it is better understood in this part of the world.Nugroho updates the legend and sets it closer to the present day, with Slamet Gundono as a singing storyteller to give background and explain the action.
Story Line....
Before her marriage, Siti (Artika Sari Devi) was a Javanese dancer known for interpreting the role of Sita, the beautiful wife of Rama seized by Ravana. Out of respect for hubby Setio (Martinus Miroto), also a former dancer, she gave up performing and works with him in his earthenware business, which has fallen on hard times.Called away on business, Setio is unaware that local kingpin Ludiro (Eko Supriyanto) is determined to have Siti for his own. Feral and dripping in sexual enticements (Supriyanto is one helluva dancer), Ludiro tries luring her with incense, sparking her inner desires in an extraordinarily erotic scene.Ludiro isn't the village's favorite son: He terrorizes locals and makes sure that businesses are in thrall to him and his gang of dancing hoodlums. Mom Sukesi (the elegant Retno Maruti) knows her boy is trouble, but helps him woo Siti anyway with an enormous red cloth that Christo would envy.Wanting to be true to her husband but undeniably attracted to Ludiro's forceful charms, Siti winds up a pawn between the two and their escalating conflicts.

and the review continues...

... All this is fleshed out by multiple dance troupes, 400 extras, and a bewildering array of props made by some of Indonesia's foremost conceptual artists. Conical rice scoops become masks to terrorize; an extraordinary maze made of coconut shells (by Nindityo Adipurnomo) acts as a trap; and everywhere, white corpses and red wax heads are meant to remind auds of the human toll behind all acts of violence.No doubt there's more that a keen-eyed student of Javanese theater would catch, but even as it stands the identifiable symbolism winds up burying the characters, who have enough to say -- or rather, sing and dance -- without the need for such distractions. Demonstrators with banners proclaiming "Down with exploitation!" are much too unsubtle a form of social commentary and just don't integrate into the rest of the story. Rahayu Supanggah's specially composed score, accompanied by a gamelan orchestra, plays within traditional forms while creating a work that feels equally contemporary. Lyrics that may have a certain poetry and flow in Javanese, however, often get lost in translation.

You may recall the ballaniese version of Ramayana, staged in Kochi a few years before. atleast some of you might have seen it. I think the film has got something to do with the Play, which i am not sure of. Any way you can see a 'heavy' use of Indian epics in the Island nation.

On Garin Nugroho

Garin Nugroho was born in Yogyakarta. He spent several years as an instructor of film and television at Institut Kesenian Jakarta. He has directed several documentaries, including Tepuk Tangan (86), Menyuling Minyak (88), Tanah Tantangan di Nusa Tenggara Timur (89) and Icon Sebuah Peta Budaya (02). His dramatic features include Love on a Slice of Bread (91), Letter for an Angel (94), And the Moon Dances (95), Bird Man Tail (02), Of Love and Eggs (04) and Serambi (06). Opera Jawa (06) is his most recent film.

At Last...

"Opera Jawa is that rare film that can accurately be said to be unlike anything you have ever seen or heard before".-

Opines the official site of New Crowned Hope festival.

'it is, finally, a requiem too, for a nation that recovered from decades of man-made strife just in time to incur nature’s own fury.'

- An Anonymous Comment

I don't say this is a Must watch film. But don't forget, bias in viewing may result in huge loss. so, lets wait... and see... love and thanx

Angel's Fall

Angel's Fall

Directed and written by

Semih Kaplanoglu

Cast:

1. Tulin Ozen
2. Budak Akalin
3. Musa Karagoz
4. Engin Dogan
5. Yesim Ceren Bozoglu
6. Ozlem Turhal
7. Can Kolukisa

Year:2004, 93 minutes

In Turkish with English subtitles

Synopsis:

Every day, young Zeynep performs her duties as a chambermaid in an expensive city hotel. But she feels oddly disconnected - from her violent, unpredictable father, from the shy workmate who tries (awkwardly, ineptly) to date her, even from her former friends... until a chance encounter with a recently abandoned husband leads her to a sudden, shocking act of rebellion.
"Angel's Fall is the second feature film by Semih Kaplanoglu. After a successful TV series during the 90's, he started in cinema with Away from Home / Herkes Kendi Evinde (2001), which focused on themes like identity and the need to belong to somewhere. His debut feature was mainly built around the steps in the story. This time he has a more minimalist style and lets the film find its route through the characters.
Angel's Fall's heroine is a young girl named Zeynep (Tulin Ozen), who works in a hotel as a housekeeper. She lives with her father (Musa Karagoz) and they have a traditional, distant relationship. Zeynep doesn't have many friends. She is somehow disconnected with her own life and the things surrounding her, waiting desperately for something to happen which could give her a new direction, also relying on religious superstitions. The savior doesn't come in the shape of a charming prince, but with the assistance of someone closer, she finds a sharply dramatic solution to start a new life. That's when the angel falls to the earth. Not much hope is promised in the end, but at least she is going to continue a ghostly existence.
There is also another story intersecting with Zeynep's, though she remains as the film's main focus. One of Angel's Fall's inspirations is, as Kaplanoglu puts it himself, Tsai Ming-liang. He doesn't share his dark humor and surprising elements, but you could find the similarities in the unforced, natural minimalism of it. There is little dialogue and many long silences, but most of the scenes add to the portrayal of the situation. That's partly because of the authenticity it catches, in the language the characters use and the world they inhabit in Istanbul.
The camera captures the scenes mostly from a far distance, calmly observing the story. None of the scenes are presented as a climax. As 'nothing much' happens on the screen, the film takes a bleak view of life's lack of glamour. "

Courtsey: Yesim Tabak, FIPRESCI

(he is a Turkish Film writer)

About the Director

Semih Kaplanoglu holds a BS degree in cinema-television from the Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey. He started his cinema carrier as a camera assistant in the documentaries, "Old Houses Old Masters: Houses of the Western Mediterranean" and "Mimar Sinan" by Suha Arin. He has created and directed successful television series and television commercials. His first feature film, Away from Home (Herkes Kendi Evinde), was screened in the 3rd Boston Turkish Film Festival in 2004. He received many distinguished awards for his television commercials. He also writes essays on arts and cinema in various newspapers and magazines. Angel's Fall (Melegin Dususu) is his second feature film.

Filmography:

1. Angel's Fall (Melegin Dususu, 2004)
2. Away from Home (Herkes Kendi Evinde, writer and director, 2000)
3. The Elevator (Asansor, short, writer and director, 1993)
4. MOBAPP (Short, 1984)

Actually the 3rd and 4th films do not fall in feature film category. one is a Telivision serial and the other a short film.