Film Series AFFB Awards | Asian Film Festival Barcelona

From the 3rd to the 24th of July, 2018

Filmoteca Española and Casa Asia present a selection of the winning films from the last edition of the AFFB | Asian Film Festival Barcelona (2017). Out of all the films, Filmoteca has selected eight titles that are the most representative of this great geographical area extending from Central Asia, the former Soviet republics, to Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Among the more than one hundred films screened at the festival, the eight Films to be presented at Filmoteca were awarded by some of the five juries of the last edition of the AFFB: the Official Jury, Panorama, NETPAC, Special Sections (Cathay Pacific) and Discoveries (Film Schools). They are experimental and independent films, which is often outside the commercial circuits and somehow only penetrates Europe through festivals that proactively incorporate Asian film in its programming.

The selected titles reflect narratives that are built from its territory, navigating the division between space and place, developing the location and time of the action and happenings. Hence, a production like Dawn of the Felines (Best Screenplay for the Official Section) tells stories that the viewer can relate to not so much by the cinematographic aesthetic but by what is narrated. It is a film that gathers three stories of girls who work as “escorts,” but whose loneliness makes them more fragile, finally humanizing them.

The topics that are referenced in this programme have to do with the domestic and daily life of large cities in developed countries such as Japan, Iran, New Zealand and India or emerging countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Afghanistan. A Father’s Will, Children of Genghis and Wolf and Sheep are films that narrate the great contrasts still existing between urban life and the rural world, trying to show the distance that in theory is closing between the differences of both landscapes. In A Father’s Will, the diaspora in both directions exposes the extent to which large migrations can affect those involved; first, when they arrive at the place of reception, and second, when they return to their country of origin, where changes that have occurred prevent their rapid adaptation.

In Children of Genghis, the Mongolian traditions of wrestling, horse racing and archery defend tradition in the face of change and progress accredited to a second period. Afghanistan, in turn, is one of the most narrated countries in film taking into account what it had contributed to the world history of cinema in the past, although it has scarce native production.

In Wolf and Sheep (Best Film in the Panorama Section) a secret country is revealed that at first glance is not seen, while tradition and customs are imposed on a particularly rural society. The remaining titles of the sample give continuity to topics and problems that lend themselves to the great stories of a contemporary society in which the discrepancias are at the source of great complexity of the conflicts that arise due to the impossibility of integrating tradition and modernity in a global era. For more information about the festival:: http://asianfilmfestival.barcelona

Programme:

Venue: Filmoteca Española de Madrid. C/ Santa Isabel, 32. Madrid.

Ticket:

General: 3 euros per session. 20 euros for 10 sessions.
Student: 2 euros per session. 15 euros for 10 sessions.

Organiser: Casa Asia and Filmoteca Española de Madrid, in collaboration with Consejería Cultural de la Embajada de la R.l. de Irán en España, Farabi Foundation, Aitysh Film, Culture Distributor LLC.