2018-06-05

The ultimate move of the BELT AND ROAD FILM WEEK! Finalists are Unveiled!

Have the films released for the BELT AND ROAD FILM WEEK last week already impressed you? But there is still more to expect – the ultimate move of the BELT AND ROAD FILM WEEK: finalists recommended by audience and the media is unveiled now!

The following 8 short-listed works are for the selection of three honors of the BELT AND ROAD FILM WEEK: the “Most Popular Audience Film”, the “Belt and Road Media Film”, and the “Belt and Road Media Filmmaker”. Among them, voting of the “Most Popular Audience Film” will be held in Hall 1 of the Co-operative Cinema of the Film WEEK, Cinema Palace (ifc). We warmly welcome fans to enjoy these films and score on site.

Finalists of the BELT AND ROAD FILM WEEK

(In alphabetical order of countries’ name initials)

GIRLS ALWAYS HAPPY

Director: YANG Mingming

Country/Region: China

Synopsis

The film tells the story of love and hate between mother and daughter. Xiaowu who has just broken up with her boyfriend is about to usher in her single life, but her mother moves to live with her. The war between mother and daughter is imminent. Mother\'s ridiculous rules of life and paranoid behaviors torture Xiaowu every day with the mother\'s thinking logic affecting the daughter subtly too. The two women feeling extremely insecure attack and defend each other in everyday life, which constantly demonstrates their hate and attachment to each other.

Recommendation

The film is selected for the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival Panorama Section, and has won the Firebird Award of Young Cinema Competition at the 2018 Hong Kong International Film and the FIPRESCI Prize. The film vividly shows the mother and daughter\'s respective tenacity and fragility, as well as their lovely and hateful quality. They influence each other at every moment, which is always reflected in their environment. The urban landscape and the sound are not only the physical existence but the mirror of their moods.

KISS ME NOT

Director: Ahmed Amer

Country/Region: Egypt

Synopsis

The film is a comedy presented in the form of a pseudo-documentary, which traces the rise and fall of "kissing" in Egyptian films through the interception of old Egyptian film scenes and interviews with famous filmmakers. The heroine of a young director\'s debut film refuses to take a kiss scene. This makes the director very crazy and angers the producer, who try to solve the dilemma with compromises. The director\'s friend, a young documentary director, records all that happen and tries to get the audience to understand the root of different attitudes.

Recommendation

The work is of gradations: film crews, celebrities, producers, the documentary director in the crews, religious forces, and Egyptian film history all appear, which brings not only laughers but also meditation.

NAMME

Director: Zaza Kallvashi

Country/Region: Georgia/Lithuania

Synopsis

Ali’s family has inherited a mission – taking care of a local healing water and treating sick fellow villagers with it. Three sons are skeptical about the water, only the young daughter Namme stays as the guardian of family traditions. Namme meets Merab and closeness is developing between them. A hydro power station is being constructed locally, which might be a cause for environmental changes. One day the spring water starts to disappear. Father remembers the old tradition, according to which the water will not return unless the sacrifice is made…

Recommendation

This film is selected for the competition section of Tokyo international film festival 2017. The enchanting poetic scenes knitted by light and mist, water and fire, modernity and everyday life reveal NAMME’s world and her aspiration for growth and freedom. A young girl\'s epic tells the fates of family and country, as well as the love, beauty and eternity.

THE SEEN AND UNSEEN

Director: Kamila Andini

Country/Region: Indonesia / Netherlands / Australia / Qatar

Synopsis

Tantri and Tantra are twin siblings. The brother has a lump in his brain that affects his nervous system, causing him to become blind and deaf, eventually losing all his feeling. In addition to accompany, as the illness continues to worsen, the whole family was shrouded in sorrow. To change this situation, the family takes various measures. Will the miracle arrive?

Recommendation

The film was shortlisted for the Generation section at the Berlin International Film Festival (2018) for its fascinating photography and music. The siblings sing the nursery rhyme in the moonlight, with fields and the stream revealed outside the window…… The plot line knits the narrative structure of the imaginary and the real, and the Indonesian traditional aesthetics blurs the boundary between truth and fantasy.

DAUGHTER OF MINE

Director: Laura Bispuri

Country/Region: Italy / Germany / Switzerland

Synopsis

The film depicts the touching story of three women. To compete for a 10-year-old girl Vittoria, the two mothers wage a “war” of love and hate this summer. Introverted Vittoria is very close to Tina, her beloved mother, but when she discovers that the libertine woman Angelica is her mother in fact, the peaceful life is completely ruined. Angelica begs Tina to have more contact with Victoria and gets permission. As a result, the relationship between Vittoria and Angelica become more intimate, which violates Tina\'s wish...

Recommendation

The film is shortlisted for the competition section of the Berlin International Film Festival (2018). The story of love and containment among three women, namely the foster mother, the biological mother and the daughter, is very interesting. The daughter is completely portrayed as a woman naturally. The script and the perform are quite well. You can\'t wait to enjoy the story by the little girl and Alba Rohrwacher who wins the Golden Lion Award!

SILENT NIGHT

Director: Piotr Domalewski

Country/Region: Poland

Synopsis

Young Adam returns home at Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas and plans to move to the Netherlands with his wife after the holiday, but his families know nothing yet and want him to return to live in the hometown. The conflict of ideas and the estrangement with his brothers and sisters also make him realize that this plan may not be as smooth as originally expected...

Recommendation

The film is granted the Polish National Film Award for best director, best actor and other seven awards. It is a family drama created by excellent performances, ups and downs of plots and the rich scene scheduling.

ARRHYTHMIA

Director: Boris Klebnikov

Country/Region: Russia/Finland/Germany

Synopsis

Oleg is a young paramedic whose wife Katya is a nurse. Katya loves Oleg deeply, but Oleg cares more about patients than her. Katya is unbearable for this relationship and proposes a divorce. At the same time, Oleg’s career is facing a crisis, as he is in trouble with the new boss. Faced with the multiple crises of work, husband-wife relationship and life, Oleg and Katya have to find the binding force that keeps them together.

Recommendation

The film is shortlisted for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2017 and wins the award for Best Actor. How could a middle-aged man in crises of job and relationships with his superiors and wife pursue happiness in life? The two leading actors present very brilliant performance, and both have won the honor of best actor and best actress of the 2017 Russia’s “Oscar”.

BUTTERFLIES

Director: Tolga Karaçelik

Country/Region: Turkey

Synopsis

Cemal, Kennan, and Suzan are all Muhtar’s children. However, having been separated for 30 years, the children and the father are alienated. The children are suddenly called back by their father. Being reluctant and in doubts, they set foot on the way home. When they arrive in their hometown, they learn that their father has passed away. In his will, his father demands that he would be buried only when a group of butterflies fly to the village and die. The three children, brothers and sisters, thus spend time in this village while waiting for the butterflies’ arrival, and begin to learn more about their father and each other and understand themselves further.

Recommendation

The film wins the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. A slight sense of ridiculousness that surpasses reality, coupled with cold humor, allows the audience to have an imaginary room in an eventful kinship adventure.