Asian Cinema in the San Sebastián Cinema Festival
Conversation with José Luis Rebordinos, the Festival Director
by Menene Gras Balaguer
The last day of the festival and before announcing the prize winners, José Luis Rebordinos told me this year had achieved an important representation of Asian cinema and that this was going to contribute to a major circulation of this cinema in our country. In the course of the conversation we maintained, Rebordinos made clear what were, in his opinion, the most developed films of the Asian continent and the ones that were making a major contribution to the multicultural scenario identified with the festival. La Concha de Oro of this edition awarded to Feng Xiaogang’s film “I am not Madame Bovary” was not announced yet, neither was La Concha de Plata for best actress to Fan Bingbing, the protagonist of this film. Neither was known la Concha de Plata for best director that received Hong Sang-soo for “Yourself and Yours”. These awards confirm the arguments of Rebordinos, even though they are not the favourites movies, as rumoured. Director and actress had presented last 18th September this film in the Kursaal and returned yesterday to receive personally the following awards; on his part, Hong Sang-soo, a “classic” contemporary of the Korean cinema, was awarded the prize by Jia ZhangKe, who was part of the Official Section Jury of this edition. In this edition, Asian cinema has crowded movie theatres with an heterogeneous audience, addicted to a cinema that usually does not have the chance to be screened yet that is interesting for the discovering and the exploration of other languages and cultures.
Menene Gras. Regarding the whole programming, how would you evaluate the presence of Asian cinema in the festival and the audience here in San Sebastián?
José Luis Rebordinos. The presence of Asia in this edition has gained force and has consolidated. Asian cinema has a significant position in the international scene that we try to display in the programme. Special efforts have been made to achieve this.
M.G. Asian Cinema has been present in almost all the sections in exhaustive form, taking into account the festival must make various options compatible, such as presenting the last Spanish cinema, devote a section as Horizontes Latinos exclusively to Latin American Cinema, and bring cinematographies from Europe, the USA and other countries. I wonder to what extent Asian cinema can occupy more space than the one is already occupying in the programme.
JL.R. Asian films have had a good representation in this edition of the festival and I believe the audience has welcomed our proposal. As you might have seen, in the official section we had two Japanese films, one Korean film and the Chinese film awarded with la Concha de Oro. Proportionally to the whole amount of titles that were part of this section, twenty five in all, though not all of them into competition, the representation of this section is not bad. The same happens with the section “Nuevos Directores” (New Directors), with two Chinese films “Something in Blue” by the very young director Yunbo Li, and “One Hundred and Fifty Years of Life” by Liu Yu; and with one Korean film, “Our Love Story” by Lee Hyun-ju, among the sixteen ones that the section contained. The representation of Asian films has also been taken into account in the “Perlas” section, in “Zabaltegi Tabakalera” (ZT), in “Cine and Gastronomía”, and in “The Act of Killing” (AK).
M.G. When you talk about Asian cinematography, which geography do you refer to exactly? Which field of view is ranged? To Casa Asia, especially the Casa Asia Film Festival, the geographic area that is of our competence comprises Central Asia and the ex Soviet Republics –the six tanes– Meridional Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
JL.R. To me, nor Australia neither New Zealand are Asian countries, strictly speaking. The truth is that it is not easy to reach nor these countries neither others that do not have a developed cinematographic industry, just the opposite as China, Korea and Japan, which have created a real huge industry. These three countries have many things to offer us. The film making of these countries compete in the main international festivals against different local industries of Western countries, which, until a few years ago, were the leaders in the market.
M.G. Might the geography of the festival be expanded to other countries in future editions? And I do not refer to Iran cinema, which has never been excluded in the festival, but to other cinemas of Central Asia, like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh; and South East Asia, like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, for example. I guess that this would be the tendency, bearing in mind that this year the film by the Cambodian director, Rithy Panh, has been included, one of the film makers more politically committed, “S-21 La Machine de mort khmère rouge” (The Red Killing Machine), produced in 2003, in the section of The Art of Killing (AK).
JL.R. We have never discarded any of these options and obviously, we are opened to take advantage of these possibilities. But, as I said before, it is not easy to reach these countries: and by reaching I mean to receive the information that is needed to know what is going on. To this should be added the difficulties in obtaining the rights for screening, translating and subtitling and the fact that they should be films that can compete with the best selection that comes from other countries.
M.G. However, there is a big absence, which is the one of India, one of the countries in which the industry is competent and well developed. What is the cause? I would like to know why and, at the same time, it seems interesting to me that you are taking sides by some film industries rather than some others and that this is reflected in the programme.
JL.R. I watch quite a lot of Indian cinema but we are less in touch with its directors and distributors. What is understood for Bollywood cinema does not interest me. It is pure exoticism and there is no space for it in our festival. Even though, I also want to clear up that the fact that in this edition there is no presence coming from this country it does not mean we have never screened Indian cinema in past editions nor we are not going to do it in the future.
M.G. However, not all Indian Cinema is made by Bollywood. There is an independent and realistic cinema that practically lacks of commercial distinction and that it may be adjusted to the selection guidelines applied in the festival. There is a tradition that goes back to Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Bimal Roy, Tapan Sinha, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Chetan Anand, Guru Dutt and V. Shantaram, who belong to the Golden Era of Indian Cinema and that keep on influencing filmmakers who distance themselves from Bollywood and who try to give continuity to the cinema of whom they consider their predecessors.
JL.R. The lack of distribution of this particular cinema, given the popularity of Bollywood Films that triumph in the market, might be one of the decisive factors when it comes to programming. Moreover, I will take this opportunity to let you know that in a country dominated by inequality, exploitation, abuses, violation of human rights, battered women, caste system and many other issues related to a society extremely complicated, waiting for a modernization that does not process, a response at all levels should occur. But I can not see a compromised cinema as the one which should correspond to educate all audiences of the need of changes that prevent the continuity of the facts people know through media that still seem to be unpunished. It disconcerts me, in a word, that there is no denounce cinema, when there are clear precedents in this country of its possibility and impact.
M.G. The development of the postcolonial speech in India is not new –the reflection of the subalternity as it is introduced in “Can the Subaltern Speak?” by Gayatri Spivak dates from 1985, among other precedents, and it is extended in “The Location of Culture” (1994) by Homi K. Bhabha –neither philosophy, nor literature nor cinema. A correlation of powers exists between each of all these disciplines. There is a cinema that inherits the tradition I mentioned before, simultaneously influenced by the Italian realism, but it is obviously less well known and less developed as a result of its inexistence International distribution for its screening in other landscapes.
JL.R. As I was telling you, India is a really big country, whose productions should cover social issues in greater depth, as women circumstances and the violation of fundamental human rights. The endemic social inequality, the territorial conflict engendered by partition, whose repercussion in population of both sides of the border has generated tensions that have no end, as a result of India and Pakistan’s complaints towards Cachemira, of Muslim majority. When it comes to Afghan cinema, the same happens to me as with Palestinian and Syrian cinema: why there are not more audiovisual witnesses in these countries? Fundamentalism is another current issue that is not covered. Keep in mind that nowadays cinema can be made with cameras that fit in one hand, so it is not because of a lack of resources that it is not done. None of these three countries that I have just mentioned are in the festivals. We do not receive productions which show the world conflicts that affect us globally; however, we have received thousands of movies about emigrants in the Mediterranean, but ultimately we are not a festival of human rights. As well as we do not devote to a world region nor an exclusive theme.
M.G. However, there is an Afghan cinema, as an example, in which the women’s situation denounce, even though it is still insufficient, is starting to perform an important role, which was not considered until now. It is a cinema that uses to be in the suburbs of distribution’s circuits and that only can be watched in festivals such as the ones of Berlin, Locarno or Rotterdam. Despite being more peripheral, it is really active and more present in international festivals than Bangladesh cinema, even though it has a big local cinematographic industry, or the Pakistan cinema. The same happens with the cinema of Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia or Vietnam. In Casa Asia Film Festival, we are trying to have space for these cinematographies, attending to what today is meant by the cultural turn of geography.
JL.R. It is a matter of time. These cinematographies start to develop and to have a bigger presence in the Western world, as the economies in developing countries from which they come are consolidated. However, I insist again on the need to receive information about the respective productions that are taking place and that are within our reach.
M.G. Japanese and Korean cinema are awaited by the public of the festival. As regards this present edition, “Iraki” / “Rage” by the Japanese of Korean origin Lee-Sang-il, to me it looks like a good film with an unconventional narrative structure and despite that, it keeps the tension and intrigue from beginning to the end. “Yourself and Yours” by the Korean Hong Sang-soo is another of the films that have attracted the biggest attention, since both film industries are not unknown to the general public.
JL.R. It is a great movie. With the Japanese Cinema we have established a lot of contacts and as in Japan as in Korea, we try to go to explain them who we are and what the festival is. We are interested in maintaining and that this country, as well as Korea and China, keep on having an important presence in San Sebastian. What is more, Hong-Sang soo is a classic and his cinema import certain recognizable characteristics. It is not surprising that this movie narrows the gap between cultures when addressing very common and domestic issues, as well as very global.
M.G. We have not talked about Philippine cinema, whose uniqueness clearly differs from other film industries of Southeast Asia, because it is clearly identified with the origin culture and a tradition that dates back to the 70s and is still in force nowadays. I mean an independent cinema, not the most commercial productions that have their own market in the country. Names like Lino Brocka, Brillante Mendoza, Raya Martin, Lav Diaz, Mike de Leon or Ishmael Bernal among others, thoroughly familiar in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno and Rotterdam, are part of a film industry that should be taken into account. Obviously, without excluding the presence they have in Busan or Vietnam festivals.
JL.R. In effect. It is a film that interests me, because there are very good filmmakers like the ones you have mentioned and because it is a film that talks about the new urban realities and the transformation of large cities. This year we have screened in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera the film, by Lav Diaz, “A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery” (2016), which duration of almost eight hours is a challenge for many of the audience. He is a representative director of the new Philippine cinema and he has been repeatedly awarded in European and Asian festivals. On the other hand, the theme of the film affects us directly since it is a story shared by the Philippines and Spain, during the Philippine revolt against Spain in 1896 that ended with the independence of the Philippine archipelago. In any case, it is a cinematography that we always consider when it comes to programming.
M.G. San Sebastian festival is known in many Asian countries and is part of the most visited European festivals circuits, and with the greatest affluence of public and media coming from all over the world. I guess what has been achieved is the result of a series of efforts in programming that are being made for years.
JL.R. That’s right. But we want to reach more places; to expand our connections and our contacts to strengthen relations with all these countries with whom we have spoken. It does not only happen to us with Asia; we would also like to have more contact with the film industries of North Africa and Arab countries, although the production there is generally low. Returning to the presence of Asian cinema this year, I think it has been particularly wide in almost all sections, taking into account the number of participant countries, and we look forward to expand it in future editions, because it is a cinema that fosters our vision of the world and promotes tolerance and multiculturalism.