"The Belt and Road" Unit

screening List：Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait，Singing in Graveyards，Saving Sally，Parting，Simulation，The Constitution，Train Driver's Diary，The Liberation of Skopje，Scarred Heart 

Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait

Director: Khyentse Norbu

Country/region: Bhutan

Deep in the forests down the Himalaya Mountains, there is a secret ritual taking place once every 12 years. The chosen ones should put on masks, leave their lives totally behind and start an unusual 2-week practice in an isolated place. During the practice, some people could calm themselves down and concentrate on the meditation, but some couldn't complete separate themselves from the desires humans have. On the boundary of reality and fantasy, one shall be destroyed if he takes off his mask. Chinese actors and actresses, such as Zhou Xun and Tony Leung, also guest-starred in the film, which is another attraction for the Chinese audience.

Singing in Graveyards

Director: Bradley Liew

Country/region: Malaysia

Pepe is a 68-year-old impersonator of a Filipino rock legend. As an impersonator, Pepe has a hard time finding who he is on the borderline of fantasy and reality. To seek for the answer, Pepe goes on a journey to save himself from the shadow of his idol. Only when he finds himself could he write a song of his own.  

Saving Sally

Director: Avid Liongoren

Country/region: the Philippines

Marty is an ambitious comic-book artist who has romantic feelings for his best friend Sally. Sally is a beautiful and funny girl, a passionate gadget inventor who has never noticed Marty’s feelings. Like every love story, theirs has obstacles, too. Sally has abusive parents and a bad boyfriend. Although Marty couldn't do anything about it, he is determined to save the love of his life from the ugly side of the world. 

Parting

Director: Navid Mahmoudi

Country/region: Afghanistan

Fereshteh and Nabi, two young Afghans, fall in love with each other. Fereshteh has to leave Afganistan for Iran with her parents. Nabi decides to take the risk of crossing the border and eloping with her to Europe through Turkey for a better life. The film tells a story in the refugee crisis that the audience don't know of through the perspective of two young lovers. 

The Constitution

Director: Rajko Grlić 

Country/region: Croatian 

Train Driver's Diary

Director: Miloš Radović

Country/region: Serbia

In every train driver’s career, he may encounter 20-30 deaths on average. Among these “victims”, some commit suicides, some lose their lives by crossing the rails and some are drunk. In such repeated tragedies, train drivers are made to become the “killers”, which is against their own wills. How would these deaths affect these train drivers’ lives?

Scarred Hearts

Director: Radu Jude

Country/region: Romania 

The movie is inspired by Romanian author Max Blecher's biographic novel, which is set in 1937. It centers on Emanuel, a man in his early 20s, who spends most of his days at a sanatorium on the Black Sea coast, suffering from bone tuberculosis. He falls in love there and tries to bravely live on. Their bodies slowly wither, but their minds refuse to give in. 

The Liberation of Skopje

Director: Danilo Serbedzija 

Country/region: Republic of Macedonia 

In 1941, with the help of allies from Bulgaria, Germany occupied Skopje, capital of Macedonia. From the perspective of the 8-year-old boy, Zoran, the movie depicts the city of Skopje and its poor and devastated destiny after the occupation as well as the brutality of wars.

Simulation

Director: Abed Abest

Country/region: Iran

One night, three bored young men suddenly decided to visit an old man they barely know. At first, the old man is happy to see them, but slowly he realizes that the three men are there to rob him. The old man takes out his gun, hold them still and calls the police. The three men are then held in custody. But it turns out that the whole thing is nothing but computer-stimulated ”melodrama”.