Inspired range of stories enrich Asian New Talent candidate films

By Alex Miao

The talented creators and casts of films shortlisted for the Asian New Talent category of the Golden Goblet Awards opened up about the inspiration for their works at a Shanghai International Film Festival jury meeting on June 18.

A standout among the nominated movies is “The Absent” which is helmed by Xinjiang newcomer director Lu Dan who boldly decided to use a cast with little or no previous acting experience for her debut feature film.

“The Absent,” a story about Ivan, a hotel owner, and a wandering girl who meet unexpectedly in a small town during a harsh winter, is nominated for five awards, including Best Movie.

Debuting cast members Na Dier, who plays Ivan, and Re Fati, who plays the hotel owner, are competing against each other as nominees for Best Actor.

"When the director invited me to be involved, I'd never been in a movie before, I don't even know how to sing," Re Fati said humorously in sharing anecdotes from the film shoot at the jury meeting,

"The producer and director visited my home five or six times, but I was still unwilling to do it. Finally, my wife persuaded me. I didn't realize that once I started acting, I’d fall in love with it and couldn't stop at the end."

Wang Yi, the only professional actor from the cast of “The Absent” participating in the meeting, said she learned a lot during the production. "Sometimes for actors, we have to learn to be more real and sincerity is always a must," he confessed.

"The most attractive thing about this movie is its graphic sense," said Fedor Popov, producer of “Longer Than A Day.” He said each image reflects the theme of the film, showing a sense of fatalism.

The drama is a study of a woman living with her husband and father-in-law on a horse farm on the Kazakh steppe, and how they are all estranged until the arrival of a French photographer.

Director Malika Mukhamejan said she made the film “with a special mission to promote tourism in Kazakhstan.”

“I am from Kazakhstan, a country that is very large and beautiful," she said.

Mukhamejan was shortlisted at last year’s festival for the Golden Goblet Awards for Short Films for her feature film debut “The Swallow.” It explored how women deal with loneliness and showcased the steppe landscapes of Kazakhstan.

Producer Liu Fan explained the tragic inspiration behind the genesis of “The Lost Daughter” when talking about the movie.

"There was a family in China who gave their daughter away to have a son, and then when the son got leukemia, they went back to their daughter and begged her to help them save him,” Fan said.

“We wanted to use this to discuss gender issues, family issues and human nature," Fan added. The dramatic movie focuses on a mother called Li Mei snared in the same predicament.

"I actually started writing this script in 2021," said director Zang Lianrong, "but it was very difficult to understand the emotions behind such an event to make progress.

“It wasn't until I had a daughter during this time that my understanding of women changed completely. I would unconsciously present aspects of the story to my own child," Zang added.

Self-taught director Abhilash Sharma adopts monochrome style for his second feature film which is a drama about the desperate lives of a poor couple living in a remote village in India.

"All the colors in life convey a lot to us and I wanted to express my emotions through black and white and show the struggles of the underclass people of India," the director of “In the Name of Fire” said.

“We left the only set of shots with color at the end of the film," Sharma said.

"I think it is important to give hope when it comes to cinema, and the color in the last scene is what gives a glimmer of hope to the audience."