Starting from this year, the World Cinema section of JEONJU International Film Festival will have two parts, one for fiction films and the other for documentary films. In the Fiction part of the World Cinema section, we will screen the highest number of films in the entire sections of JEONJU IFF. We hope everyone enjoy the rich diversity and variety of the 25 films, just like we enjoy a huge array of flavors of Korean table d’hôte, a signature of the city of Jeonju.
Oroslan (Yugoslavia) addresses the question of memories and healing, leading us to meditate upon life and death. Blinds (Argentina) is about a 13-year old boy’s journey to growth and healing with his blind father. Malmkrog (Romania) invites us to a landowner’s manor house to join discussion among people who spend Christmas holidays there. In Sound of Metal, we meet a heavy-metal drummer unexpectedly losing his hearing and the challenges he faces and life decisions he has to make. In This is Cristina (Chile), we meet Cristina and Susana, best friends since high school, and how they find the meaning of friendship through turmoil deep in their 30s. Force of Habit by seven Finnish women directors, follows lives of women and discloses the habitual exercise of power against women.
Set in Galicia after the Spanish Civil war, Endless Night follows Galicians suffering from Francoist regime. With lines adapted from Celso FERREIRO’s writing, stage plays, memoirs, and letters, the film has a very theatrical feel. Death Will Come and Shall Have Your Eyes (Chile), inspired by Cesare PAVESE’s poem of the same title, shows the power of love as death creeps in. Isabella (Argentina and France), written and directed by Matías PIÑEIRO, talks about women by making references to Shakespeare’s plays. Bait shows unique cinematic aesthetics. Both Waves and The Climb (USA) tell stories about love and/or friendship. Anne at 13,000 Ft., written and directed by Kazik RADWANSKI (Canada) shows a directorial interpretation reminding of John CASSAVETES. Regarding interesting directorial touch, please also enjoy the unique directing styles of MS Slavic 7 (Canda) and carefully crafted cinematic maximalism of Bacurau (Brazil) and Sundance winner Monos (Colombia) directed by Alejandro Landes.
There are also following outstanding Asian films in the World Cinema Fiction section. Naomi, a screen adaptation of TANIZAKI Jun’ichirō’s novel by the same name, is set in Osaka back in the Expo 70 days. Three other Japanese films, Videophobia, Forgiven Children, and Don’t Forget the Kids will be screened as well. A Trophy On the Sea is a Chinese film about a failed actor who loves fishing. Also will be on screen at the event to meet the audience are: The Cloud in Her Room (Hong Kong and China), Only You Alone (China), Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down (Hong Kong), Wet Season (Singapore and Taiwan), and The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs (India).
Programmer CHUN Jinsu
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This year, the JEONJU International Film Festival has launched a new section: World Cinema Documentary. The section introduces remarkable and diverse documentaries from all around the world.
First, alongside the special exhibition for this year’s edition of the JEONJU IFF, “Quay Brothers: Masters of Puppet Animation,” we would like introduce Athanor - The Alchemical Furnace, featuring the life and works of the Czech master of stop motion animation who had a huge impact on the Quay Brothers. Then there are homages to the master filmmakers who have shaped the history of modern cinema. Babenco: Tell Me When I Die depicts the last years of Héctor BABENCO, the renowned Brazilian director of Kiss of the Spider Woman, who passed away in 2016.
In addition, there are films that guide us through the traces of the works and lives of musicians and artists, such as Beyond the Visible - Hilma af Klint, a documentary about Hilma AF KLINT, a Swedish artist who opened the door to abstract art much earlier than KANDINSKY and MONDRIAN; Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band, which shows us the age of rock and roll as remembered by Robbie ROBERTSON, a Canadian musician who joined Bob DYLAN’s backup band and also left his mark in the history of music as the pioneer of country rock; and Lydia Lunch - The War Is Never Over, which showcases the images of Lydia LUNCH, a singer, poet, actor, and writers who was active in the New York’s no wave scene in the late 1970s.
This section also presents documentaries on historical events. Vivos is a film about the mass disappearance of 43 Mexican students who were attacked by the police in 2014 during the Mexican Drug War, while The Exit of the Trains brings us to face the Jewish holocaust in Romania, where over 10,000 Jewish people died in 1941. And State Funeral takes us through the three-day funeral of Joseph STALIN, who passed away on March 5, 1953.
Other documentaries featured in this section include Un Film Dramatique, is a four-year record of the growth of students at Dora Maar middle school in Paris filmed by Éric BAUDELAIRE, a filmmaker and artist based in France; Harley Queen, a Chilean documentary of a woman who establishes her own identity; and Space Dogs, a unique documentary that unfurls the lives of abandoned dogs of Moscow from the dogs’ perspective.
Programmer CHUN Jinsu
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