Glimpses of Asian films

In the Persian language there is no distinction between poetry and songs. The words of Iranian classic music come from poetry. Famous lines of poetry are present in the different idioms of spoken language, All Iranians know by heart the lines of their main poets and know where the poets are buried.
Forough Farrokhzad, one of the best known Iranian poets and film makers, is buried in a small cemetery in north Tehran, among the villas situated on the surrounding mountain slopes. Engraved on her tomb there are the lines of one of her poems, “The gift”:

“I speak from
the depth of the night,
the depth of darkness
and from
the depth of the night I speak.
If you come to my dwelling, you
Generous take with you the lamp
and a glimmer from which
I
Can see the happy crowds of the alley”.

To Forough Farrokhzad, who in Rome perceived for the first time the immortality of art, is dedicated the opening night of the seventh edition of the “Encounters with Asian cinema” festival. Fatemeh Motamed Arya, one of the best known Iranian film actresses will read Forough Farrokhzad poems, before the showing of the documentary written and directed by the poetess.
There will be seven more film works from Iran: four feature films, a documentary and two short films. On the morning of Saturday, November 25, there will be an encounter at the Casa del Cinema with the authors, actors, writers and producers of the films shown.

The seventh edition of the “Encounters with Asian cinema” festival will show over 50 works realised in twenty Asian countries.

A special attention is dedicated this year to films realised in Central Asia, and in particular in Kazakhstan, with four feature films and two short films realised between 1966 and 2005. From this country between Europe and Asia, comes Rustem Abdrashev, director of the film “The Island of Rebirth”, dedicated to the childhood and adolescence of a poet, the director’s own father. The film-maker will be one of the guests of the festival.

A second relevant work from this country is “The Balcony”, directed by Kalykbek Salykov, which narrates the stories of young adolescents growing up in a period in which the country, where Muslims represent a majority of the population, was still part of the Soviet Union.

Among the works of special relevance from other Central Asian countries there is, among others, “Bus stop”, directed by Aktan Abdykalykov, who has been a guest to the festival. It is short silent film, with the fixed camera aimed at a bus stop in Kyrgyzstan, as sort of ”Waiting for Godot” of local public transportation users.

There is a long wait for something that does not arrive also in “Waiting Calendar”, of Safarbek Soliev, from Tajikistan, who will also be a guest of the festival, a film on the sense of loss of a community that does not seem to have any more sure points of reference.
A sense of loss is also the main theme of three works dedicated to middle aged women.“My Mother Is a Belly Dancer” of Lee Kung Lok, “The Postmodern Life of My Aunt”, of Ann Hui, both from Hong Kong and Shangai and “Blue Cha Cha”, of Chen Wen-tang, fromTaiwan, which is currently a candidate film to an Oscar.

From China comes the digital film “Taking Father home”, of a young film maker, Ying Liang, the story of a search for his father by a young man, whose youth ends in blood, in an area which is being threatened by a flood. In digital is also the film “Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers 2006: Talk to Her”. Three authors, Pen- Ek Ratanaruang, from Thailand, Eric Khoo, from Singapore and Darezhan Omirbayev, from Kazakhstan, an examination of man-woman relationships with three different approaches.
In digital is also the film of the very young Japanese authors of “Funky Forest: the First Contact”, a raving and paradoxical running shot on Japanese contemporary world.

From the Philippines arrives “The Bet Collector”, of Jeffrey Jeturian, a guest of the festival, which portrays the life of a woman living in a violent Manila slum who collects the bets of her neighbours.
From Malaysia a film on a terrorist cell with “Monday Morning Glory” directed by Ming Jin Woo.
“If You Were Me 2” is a film in which five Korean film directors contribute to the issie of human rights.

From India comes “Parzania”, of Rahul Dholakia, interpreted by the great actor Nasseruddi Shah, which takes place in the area of Gujarat, where the last terrible massacre of Muslims took place, and “Dombivli Fast”, by Nishikant Kamat, the story of a revolt against the crazy rhythms and the small corruptions of everyday life in Mumbay. And from the subcontinent’s North East, a milestone in the history of Indian cinema: “Joymoti”, first film made in Assam in 1935. The festival presents also two versions of the story of Milarepa. The first one shot in 1974 by Liliana Cavani, guest of the festival, and the second shot this year by Neten Chokling Rinpoche, which will be introduced by the venerable lama Thamthog Rinpoche.

As in previous editions of the festival, also this year the review offers a vision of changing Asia not only by Asian authors but also by non Asian film makers, as in the case of Milena Kaneva, with “Total Denial”, on the violation of human rights by the Burma military junta and European and American oil interests, or Anna Pitscheider, with “Kalasam”, on micro credit to promote sustainable development in southern India. On the same country is also the film voyage “Correspondence on India” by Paolo Brunatto and Emilio Leofreddi. The images of Claudio Frosi, reflect the author’s fascination with Asia, between Laos and Thailand, a country much loved by a great contemporary artist, Luigi Ontani, who with fantasy created the set of a dance, a combination of traditional arts and the masks he himself shaped.

Among the short films presented “Old Mountains, Old Shadows” by Joanna Vasquez Arong, a Philippine director emigrated to Peking, who in her 5 minutes film asks herself “While an always increasing number of young people move to Peking to realise their dreams, what do the old people living in a town hidden in the mountains 90 km from the capital dream?”

For Asiaticafilmmediale the right to dream continues to be the frontier to cross, convinced that without this crossing of borders we would all be poorer.

Italo Spinelli