Casa Asia at BCN Sports Film Festival

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Casa Asia collaborates for the second time with the BCN Sports Film | Barcelona International Ficts Festival (2019), sharing a part of its program dedicated to the festival’s theme relating to South East Asian cinematography. It deals with a full-length film from South Korea about the past Winter Olympics thanks to which new relations between the two Korean nations were initiated, bringing closer strategies and setting the basis for a new phase. Within the framework of the collaboration, there are a number of short films which need to be taken into account, most of them filmed in Japan, which have been put together in the Ganbaru Section – 頑張る, dedicated to the culture of effort in Japan sports. It will be concluded with a Kendo demonstration, a Japanese origin martial art, which will be offered to the general public on Wednesday, 5th of June.

 

PROGRAMMING

Wednesday 5th of june, 19h

Museu Olímpic i de l’Esport Joan Antoni Samaranch

Ganbaru – 頑張る. Effort culture in Japanese sport.

In Japanese culture, effort, respect for tradition and its symbiosis with modernity are inseparable. Under this title, a series of short films are put together showing us the strength of these values through sumo, baseball, athletics and climbing:

 

LITTLE MISS SUMO | United Kingdom, United States and Japan | 2018 | 18’

Hiyory, a women’s sumo champion, faces obstacles as much from the inside as from the outside of the ring when trying to permanently modify some aspects of the Japan’s national sport.

DEAD RUN | Japan | 2018 | 10′

Hana is a part of the athletics team. To forget repressed feelings about her parents, her best friend and their love story, she runs. The passion for running is what allows her to keep moving on.

STUD | United States | 2017 | 12’47’

A 14 year old kid, pressured by everyone’s expectations around him and his dream of becoming a sports star, he suffers the pressures of baseball in competition.

MITAKA SUMO SCHOOL | Catalunya | 2017 | 8′

At Mitaka Sumo School, situated a few kilometers away from Tokyo, kids learn sumo: a thousand year old sport with essential values, like respect and nonviolence.

REEL ROCK 13: UP TO SPEED | United States | 2018 | 20’35”

When it was announced that the sporting practice known as climbing would be a part of the 2020 Olympic Games, many climbers were surprised on knowing that one of the three categories in which they would be competing in to earn an Olympic medal would be fast climbing. Zachary Barr, REEL ROCK’s correspondent, analyzes this sub-discipline and its role on the future of climbing.

 

Club members of Associació Catalana de Kendo (ACKEN), Associació Esportiva Renshinkan, Club de Kendo de Ryoshinkai and Club de Kendo UPC will offer us a demonstration of Kendo, the Japanese origin martial art.

 

Thursday 6th of june, 19h

MUSEU I CENTRE D’ESTUDIS DE L’ESPORT DR. MELCIOR COLET

CROSSING BEYOND | South Korea | 2018 | 100′

Official Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 film.

Accompanied by the acclaimed documentalist Yi Seung-jin, we discover how the Olympic values overcome boundaries. Five competitions, one ambition: this is the story of five young athletics forced to face personal, social, political and geographical limitations and barriers. Yi Seung-jun captures the Olympic spirit and soul of this Olympic Games edition, setting out important questions about sport’s value beyond the podium.

 

KENDO DEMONSTRATION AND SHORT

Date and schedule: Wednesday, 5th  of june of 2019, at 19h.

Free entrance until full capacity. No registration required.

Place: Museu Olímpic i de l’Esport Joan Antoni Samaranch

Avinguda de l’Estadi, 60, 08038 Barcelona

 

DOCUMENTARY SCREENING

Date and schedule: thursday, 6th of june of 2019, at 19h.

Free entrance until full capacity. No registration required.

Place: Museu i Centre d’Estudis de l’Esport Dr. Melcior Colet

Carrer de Buenos Aires, 56, 08036 Barcelona

Film Cycle: “IMAGINEINDIA International Film Festival”

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Casa Asia is once again one of the official headquarters of ImagineIndia International Film Festival. At this edition, the three titles will be screened – The Flight (2018), Khandar (1984) and Newton (2017) – that can be classified within what is considered independent cinema and gender cinema, with a vindicative purpose that involves reports and sexist violence and power abuse in general.

It consists of films that are not usually in commercial routes and that is normally only presented at festivals. Criticism of subordinates, gender policies, resistance against is in the core of all these films, which are windows to worlds, that we cannot normally see or learn about, and we can only access them with films. This is why social realism is imposed in narratives from a critical perspective, that turns to different registers of everyday life with the purpose to raise awareness among spectators.

PROGRAMME

Tuesday 21st of May 2019, 7.00pm

The Flight, Dir. Buddhadeb Dasgupta | India | 2018 | 82 min

Bachchu Mondal is a car mechanic and a dreamer. His aspiration consists of managing to fly one day. He shares this dream with his wife and especially with his son, who really enjoys the father’s attitude because Bachchu often behaves like a boy. Bachchu eventually discovers where a Japanese plane of the 2nd World War and decides to rebuild it, despite not knowing how to do it. The place where the plane is is haunted by ghosts. However, Bachchu travels to Calcutta in search of crashed planes, which makes authorities suspect and he starts being investigated. The Flight is separated from the brutality and violence of his best known film, Luchadores (Uttara), which was awarded at the Venice Festival in 2000. Here, violence is in the heart of people who are not able to turn away from their dreams even if they can destroy them.

Wednesday 22nd of May 2019, 7.00 h

Khandhar, Dir. Mrinal Sen | India | 1984 | 106 min

Three friends of the city visit ruins where an elderly mother (Gita Sen) and her daughter Jamini (Shabana Azmi) live. The mother is expecting the arrival of a distant cousin to marry Jamini, but the main is already married and lives in Calcutta. The photographer Subhash (Naseeruddin Shah) feels sorry for the family and pretends to be the expected suitor. So they hold the farce together during the visit, but Subhash and Jamini are fatally attracted to each other in silence, despite the fact that she knows the destination that expects her. When friends leave, Jamini stays behind before a life of loneliness in the ruins.

Thursday 23rd of May 2019, 7.00pm

Newton, Dir. Amit V.Masurkar | India | 2017 | 104 min

Newton is a serious young civil servant who decides to show his devotion to the democratic ideal offering himself as a volunteer for a job nobody wants, supervising a shaky voting boothe in hell, in the middle of nowhere. So a group of locals can take part in elections without knowing anything about candidates who he doesn’t care about. Newton is a man of inflexible principles trapped between tradition and progress. He rejects a marriage organised by his parents when they discover that she is a minor. But the main character will struggle against himself until he makes decisions that will change his life.

 

Date
2019/05/21 > 2019/05/23
Timetable
From the 21st to the 23rd of May 2019.
Venue
Casa Asia Centre-Madrid
Palacio de Cañete
c/ Mayor 69, 1ª planta
Madrid
Ticket
Free admission.
Organiser
Casa Asia and ImagineIndia International Film Festival

Film Series: “East of eden”

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Casa Asia collaborates one more year with the International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival of Barcelona Fire !! programming the East of Eden cycle with three titles of the current Asian film scene, which coincide in the need to publicize the problems of LGBT communities, which are sometimes hidden or deliberately ignored.

We will begin the journey of this collaboration in a country like Japan. Portraits of the Rainbow (2018), the first film, will reveal the story of Leslie Kee and her photographic project with the aim of portraying ten thousand LGBTQ people. We will travel to Vietnam with the beautiful Song Lang (2018), a love story built from the fatality that feeds on the narrative of the classic Vietnamese opera. Finally, we will also go to Australia to relive one of the key moments for the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1975, with the magnificent film Riot (2018).

PROGRAMMING

Thursday, May 30, 2019, 8 pm at Cinemes Girona

Portraits of the Rainbow | Japan | Dir. Ayumi Nakagawa | 2018 | 79 ‘| VOSE

The famous photographer Leslie Kee is mostly known for his fashion photographs and portraits of celebrities such as Madonna. He works all over the world and has been living in Japan for 25 years, a country that knows a boom in the movement for LGBTQ rights, although there are many who must continue to keep his sexual orientation hidden there. Leslie himself, being gay, can not tell his family, who resides in Singapore. Even so, he embarks on an ambitious project to photograph ten thousand LGBTQ people, in order to make the exhibition Out in Japan. The first time, in the conservative Japanese city of Nara, there is little assistance, but Leslie continues to make portraits.

The filmmaker Ayumi Nakagawa followed this photographer for a year, while making the first thousand portraits. It focused on the lives of four people: a couple of women who were trying to be mothers, an advocate for people with HIV and a transgender man who was grieving after his partner’s suicide. Along the way, Leslie himself was transforming little by little too, thanks to this moving experience.

Friday, May 31, 2019, 20.00 at Cinemes Girona

Song Lang | Vietnam | Leon Le | 2018 | 90 ‘| VOSE

Saigon, in the 1980s. Linh Phung is the star of an itinerant company of cai luong (traditional folk opera) and is heavily indebted to a lender called Dung, El Rayo. Despite apparently having nothing in common, the two engage in a game playing a video game and discover that they have similar minds and many points of connection. Linh Phung knows that a well-lived life is necessary for his art and Dung yearns for art to return to a life more worthy of being lived. History, rooted in fatalism and fatality, is inspired by the classical narrative structure of Vietnamese opera.

Born and raised in Saigon, Leon moved to the United States as a teenager and is a dancer, singer and actor. Song Lang, his first feature film, can be considered a very mature work, resulting from personal experience committed to his vocation, uniting his sensitivity as a photographer and actor.

Thursday, June 13, 2019, 22.0 0h in French Institute

Sunday, June 16, 2019, 8:00 pm at the French Institute

Riot | Australia | Dir. Jeffrey Walker | 2018 | 105 ‘| VOSE

In 1978, when the urge to decriminalize homosexuality in Australia had stalled, a group of activists decided that they should make a last attempt to celebrate who they are. Led by a former union leader, Lance Gowland, they obtain a permit from the police and spread the word. On a cold winter night, they disguise themselves, shake hands and parade down Oxford Street. But, they completely ignore that the police, furious, are on the lookout, and the courage they find that night will finally mobilize the whole country.

Riot sheds a revealing light on the movement for gay and lesbian rights in Australia and makes us relive the enthusiasm of people who, despite their enormous daily difficulties, managed to celebrate diversity at a key moment in the history of the LGBTQ community .

Date

30 / 05/2019> 06/16/2019

Schedule

From May 30 to June 16, 2019.

Place

Girona Girona

c / Girona, 175

Barcelona

French Institute

Moià 8

Barcelona

Entrance

General entry: 6 euros | Price paid and partners of the Cinemes Girona: 5 euros | French Institute entrance: 5.36 euros

Organizer

Casa Asia | French Institute | Cinemes Girona | International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival of Barcelona Fire !!, with the collaboration of Cinhomo and Fundación Triangle Castilla y León

Iranian Film Series: “Films of AFFBCN 2018”

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Casa Asia programmes another Iranian film retrospective for CaixaForum Madrid, consisting of 8 films made in 2017 by the new generation of film makers trained in Iran and whose contribution has consolidated the existence of an Iranian national cinema.

This cinema is not only interesting for the number of titles it offers per year, but for the narratives and contents it refers to. Most productions are full of topics, landscapes and figures of local everyday life, even though the historic topic of Iran-Iraq war (Villa Dwellers) or certain sensitive periods of the Islamic Republic (High Noon Story) also play an important role showing the ability of its authors to go to the past from a more and more open present and where cinema plays a first order role. This proposal approaches different sides of a society that surprisingly is not as well known as believed, despite the cultural potential of this country, whose discovery in many aspects is to be done. Cinema approaches worlds we could not access any other way and that however we can share easily. This is why it is interesting and attractive for our audience. As well as mentioned films you can see Mothering, Leaf of Life, Azar, Forty Baldies, Lina and Appendix that received the Award to the Best Script, granted by the Jury of the Official Section. These films were screened at the last edition of Asian Film Festival Barcelona | AFFBCN.

Saturday 25th of May 2019

6.00pm VILLA DWELLERS, Dir. Monir Gheydi | Iran | 2017 | 100 min

During the war between Iran and Iraq, many relatives of Iranian soldiers lived in residential villas close to the conflict, trying to see the relatives opposite them. Aziz goes with his grandchildren to have the chance to see her son Davoud. What’s unexpected happens as soon as they reach the core of the conflict, where episodes are multiplied until the end. Monir Gheydi was born in 1972 in Shemiran, Iran. She holds a university degree in Cultural Management by University of Azad. For a while, she was a script writer and then she worked as a director’s assistant of directors such as Majid Majidi, Kamal Tabrizi and Ebrahim Hatami, among others. She has made several short films and films for television. Villa Dwellers is her first long film.

8.00pm MOTHERING, Dir. Roqiye Tavakoli | Iran | 2017 | 84 min

Mothering is a film about two sisters who live in Yazd, a city in the desert of Iran. One of the sisters has left her partner and the other has been left by hers. So both sides of a conflict can be contemplated in the roles of victim and persecutor. It is interesting to know the circumstances of breaking up and separation in both cases, as well as corresponding locations where the action took place. This 2018 the film has been screened in festivals such as the International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels, Tirana International Film Festival and Malatya International Film Festival. Roqiye Tavakoli was born in 1985 in Yazdan. She has made more than 30 short films and documentaries that have been acclaimed in more than 50 local and international festivals and have been awarded at festivals such as the Armenia International Women’s Film Festival Kin, Dubai Ibda Awards, Royesh Film Festival and the Parvin Etesami Festival, among others.

Friday 31st of May 2019, 8.00pm

HIGH NOON STORY, Dir. Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian | Iran | 2017 | 110 min

It’s the official narration of a historical era of the Islamic Republic that authorities consider very sensitive. The film portrays the violence of the members of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), including the attacks, killings and respectively the efforts of the intelligence officials to identify and arrest the leaders of the group and the events taken place until the 8th of February 1982. The film won the Crystal Simorgh award to the best film at the 34th Fajr National Film in 2017. Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian, born in 1981 in Babol was graduated in TV Production at the Iran Broadcasting University. He made his debut with the long film Standing in Dust, which was very well received in the country.

Saturday 1st of June 2019

6.00pm LEAF OF LIFE, Dir. Ebrahim Mokhtari | Iran | 2017 | 86 min

A film director is making a documentary about the cultivation and harvest of saffron in a small village, without enough enthusiasm. He has accepted to job for money, because he wants to buy a house in Teheran, but prices of housing are going up and instead of trying to make a good film, he asks his producer to buy him a house. However, he receives a telephone call and has to quit his job to go back to Teheran, after a few incidents, he goes back to the village to make a memorable film. The film has been screened in 2017 at the Fajr International Film Festival, at the Festival International des Cinémas d’Asie and in 2018 at the Santa Cruz International Film Festival. In addition, it has been winner of the INALCO Prix at the 24th edition of the Vesoul Festival of Asian Cinema (2018). Ebrahim Mokhtari was born in 1947 in Babol. Among his most important documentaries we can find Caviar, The Baluchi Bread, A fishin voyage and Saffaron. He made a debut in 1994 with a long film at the Film Critics Week, at the Cannes Festival. Also, Mokhtari has made many other films that have been presented and awarded at international film series all around the world.

8.00pm AZAR, Dir. Mohammad Hamzei | Iran | 2017 | 85 min

Azar is not the typical Iranian traditional woman and mother. Together with her husband Amir, they manage a pizza restaurant and take part in motorbike races. Azar must make a strange decision in middle of a difficult and complicated situation when a sudden catastrophic event happens. The film has been screened at the 15th Dubai International Film Festival (2017) and at the CineIrean Festival (2018). Mohammad Hamzei was born in Arak in 1979 and was graduated in film direction. Hamzei has directed a large number of short films such as As Always, Near of Far and According to a Habit or videographic works such asScratch, The Sound of Raining and Habib Agha. In 2017, Hamzei directed her first long film with Azar.

Friday 7th of June 2019, 8.00pm

FORTY BALDIES, Dir. Sadegh Sadegh Daghighi | Iran | 2017 | 86 min

Due to intense rain, the only bridge that connects the village with the city remains cut off, which causes problems to inhabitants of the village. One of the inhabitants has an illness and needs medicine urgently. The cut off bridge will cause the ill person’s family a serious problem. This film was screened last year at the Zlin Film festival for Children and Youth of the Czech Republic. Sadegh Sadegh Daghighi has not only made short films and documentaries, but he also has experience in sound recording, edition and special effects. His first film, Hero Boy (2012) won 15 awards at the Fajr Film Festival and at the International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults.

Sunday 9th of June 2019

6.00pm APPENDIX, Dir. Hosein Namazi | Iran | 2017 | 81 min

Reza takes Zari, his wife, to the hospital, where he is diagnosed with appendicitis and must be operated on. As Zari doesn’t have a medical insurance, Reza asks his wife’s friend, Leila, for her medical chart. So, Leila pretendes to be Reza’s wife, and there is tension in hospital. Hosein Namazi is director and script writer. He began to make films when he was 13 at the Youth Film Society. He has shot several short films such as Medianoche, El camerino, Dios que está cerca, Con el color del agua and La novia ganadora. APPENDIX, his first long film, has granted him the award to the best script at the 2018 Montreal International Film Series and is part of the 2019 Fajr International Film Festival. He received the Award to the Best Script, granted by the Jury of the Official Section of the latest edition of the Asian Film Festival Barcelona | AFFBCN.

8.00pm LINA, Dir. Ramin Rasuli | Iran | 2017 | 88 min

After a blood analysis, Maryam discovers that her parents are not his biological parents. Maryam has decided to discover who her real father is and why he never went back to get her. After searching she receives a phone number from Afghanistan. Ramin Rasuli has directed long films, short films and documentaries, among which we highlight El cinematógrafo, Novena planta, El accidente, El vecino and Mi muñeca. Lina is his first long film, which has been screened at the Sofia MENAR Film Festival.

 

Date
2019/05/25 > 2019/06/09
Timetable
From the 25th of May to the 9th of June 2019.
Venue
CaixaForum Madrid
Paseo del Prado, 36
Madrid
Ticket
General admission: 4 Euros | Clients de la Caixa: 2 Euros.
Organiser
Casa Asia, CaixaForum Madrid, Farabi Foundation de Teheran and the Cultural Department of the Embassy for the Islamic Republic of Iran

Film Series “China: 5 Perspectives of Women”

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Casa Asia collaborates with Fundació Institut Confuci de Barcelona in this series devoted to 5 female Chinese directors that have directed some of the most important films made in China since 2007 to 2017. Interest in this series is obvious given the sensitivity of the authors, who are not unique in their country, but are among the most representative such as Ann Hui, Xu Jinglei or Vivian Qu.

 

Films like Buddha Mountain by Li Yu, Ella, una joven china, by Guo Xiaolu or Love Education by Sylvia Chang are representative of this good practice and of an almost autobiographic narrative because they talk about themselves and about all the women of their country. With the five films screened during the series, the public will be able to understand the importance of a gender cinema offered with the perspectives of their directors.

The series begins on the 22nd of May 2019 with the presentation of the book Historia del cine chino (Editorial Berenice-Almuzara, 2019) with the participation of Ricard Planas, author of the book, Quim Crusellas, Director of Festival Nits de cinema oriental de Vic, and Gloria Fernández, Director of CineAsia.

Presentation of the films and film-fórum
Gloria Fernández y Enrique Garcelán, CineAsia.
Ricard Planas, teacher at the deparment of Humanities of Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

PROGRAMME

Wednesday 29th of May 2019, 6.30pm

Buddha Mountain 观音山, Dir. Li Yu | China | 2010 | 105 min
In Chengdu, China, a retired opera singer, Ms Zhang, hosts a trio of young people as tenants, a rock singer and two waiters, who have run away from home after leaving school. They will have to share their house trying to search for love in their desperate and chaotic lives. (2010. Best Film at the first edition of the Casa Asia Film Week).

Wednesday 5th of June 2019, 6.30pm

Una vida sencilla 桃姐, Dir. Ann Hui | China | 2011 | 117 min
Chun Tao-Chung has worked as a servant for the Leung family for 60 years. Now she looks after Roger, the only member of the Leung family who still lives in Hong Kong. One day, after work, Roger discovers that Tao has suffered a stroke and takes her to hospital. When she says she wants to quit her job and go to a home, he finds her a room in a centre that belongs to an old friend of his. Dedicating time and attention to Tao’s needs and cravings, Roger discovers what the old servant means for him. (2011: Venice Festival: Copa Volpi to the best actress (Deanie Yip).

Wednesday 12th of June 2019, 6.30pm

So Young 致我们终将逝去的青春, Dir. Zhao Wei | China | 2013 | 117 min
The film shows the experiences of a group of young students of university. Set in China in the 90’s it is a reflection of what love and friendship is in contrast with ambition, omissions and broken dreams. (2013. Best New Director at the Golden Roster Awards).

Wednesday 19th of June 2019, 6.30pm

Ella, una joven china 中国姑娘, Dir. Guo Xiaolu | China | 2009 | 98 min
Mei is a young Chinese woman who decides to leave her boring life in a village for the rush of Chongqing, the closest city. But nothing turns out as expected. After being fired from the factory where she works, she falls in love with Spikey, a hit man whose past soon catches his with him. Without thinking twice, she goes to London where she marries a man older than him, Mr Hunt.

Wednesday 26th of June 2019, 6.30pm

Love education 相爱相亲, Dir. Sylvia Chang | China | 2017 | 120 min
Sensitive generational drama about love through three women who represent the past, present and future of China. Their daughter, Hui Ying, decides to move her father’s grave from his hometown to their mother’s grave. However, his first wife, who has looked after the grave for years, does not accept it, and her disagreement ends up becominga problem for the whole city. (2019: 9 Nominations to the Hong Kong Film Awards among which we highlight the best film, director, script, actor and actress).

 

Date
2019/05/22 > 2019/06/26
Timetable
From the 22nd of May to the 26th of June 2019.
Venue
Fundació Institut Confuci de Barcelona
Sala Polivalente
c. Elisabets 10, -interior-
Barcelona
Ticket
Free admission with prior registration.
Organiser
Fundació Institut Confuci de Barcelona and CineAsia, in collaboration with Casa Asia.

Film Cycle: India – Bangladesh Selection from AFFBCN 2018

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From the 20th of April to the 15th of June of 2019

This selection of movies from India and Bangladesh (2016-2018) explores the quotidian life of humans and environments in which life lessons constitute for the drama experience. The images are particularly explicit which narrate and whose cultural identity of the models are referred to. Uniting India and Bangladesh in the same program has the advantage of being able to associate narratives although not identical, are similar in many aspects culturally. Bangladesh, a country created in 1971 after the dramatic partition from India with Pakistan to the north, east and west, divided by Indian territory until the creation of a Bangladeshi state and nation. With a total of 8 films screened in the Asian Film Festival Barcelona 2018, this program sets out the possibility to recover for all kinds of audiences the narratives that commercial cinema usually cannot male available. Works that already are classics like “Lipstick Under My Burkha” (India, 2018) or “No Bed of Roses” (Bangladesh, 2017) are the basis to later go in depth into exploring stories that cinema knows how to narrate with the intensity that the experiences demand of the protagonists. The cruelty of those who possess some kind of power, the defenselessness of the victims and impossibility to respond to situation and the humiliating and undeserving circumstances of humans are what converts these movies into the incomparable testimonies of a group or community’s life. In most of the cases, it is the social structure which consume the inferior that have no right to talk. The fight for survival and equality, women’s empowerment, couple’s crisis, social prejudices, despair and death lend a hand in the various occasions that are represented on screen bringing us closer to the figures which we finally identify ourselves with.

 

PROGRAMMING

Saturday 20th of April of 2019, 20h 

LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA, Dir. Alankrita Shrivastava | India | 2016 | 117 min | OVSTSP

Set in the crowded streets of a small Indian city, a college girl wearing a burkha fights against the cultural identity problems, aiming to become a pop star. A young beautician tries to escape from her small town’s claustrophobia. An oppressed housekeeper and mother of three child lives the alternative life of an entrepreneur seller. And a 55 year old widow rediscovers her sexuality through a telephonic romance. Trapped in their worlds, all of them claim their desires by performing secret acts of rebellion that take place in this coral movie.

 

Saturday 27th of April of 2019, 20h

NO BED OF ROSES, Dir. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki | Bangladesh | 2017 | 86 min | OVSTSP

The famous cinema director Javed Hasan goes through the middle age crisis wondering if marriage and his career have demanded him too much. A date with Nitu, a childhood friend of his daughter, makes the rest. The protagonist lets himself be seduced by her and what comes next becomes a national scandal. Javed’s family cannot avoid disgrace. Finally he gets divorced from his wife Maya and ends separated from his daughter Saberi and his son Ahir. Javed and Nitu get married, but the new union is not a bed of roses since they must face the Bangladeshi social prejudices. Time before, Saberi and Nitu were close friends but, because of the public humiliation, their friendship weakens. In addition, Saberi realizes that Nitu has always competed against her since her childhood. Now she must get closer to her mother and encourage her to discover the positive things of being single. In the middle of despair they give support to each other.

 

Saturday 4th of May of 2019, 20h

AJJI, Dir. Devashish Makhija | India | 2017 | 144 min | OVSTSP

Little Manda gets rapped and left on the top of a pile of garbage in her neighborhood. Her parents are more worried about her survival rather than her dignity; they prefer to forget that she has been rapped and to move on. The police feel powerless because the rapist is the son of a local politician. But Manda’s grandmother, Ajji, refuses to accept such an injustice. Can a fragile, arthritic and impotent elder woman deal with the bad wolf? Is there any hope of making justice in this cruel world? How to dissuade a rapist? “Ajji” is a parable of our times. There are no easy answers.

 

 Saturday 11th of May of 2019, 20h

KUCHH BHEEGE ALFAAZ, Dir. Onir | India | 2017 | 116 min | OVSTSP

Every night at 22h, Kolkata tunes in the radio to listen ‘Kuchh Bheege Alfaaz’, a series of chapters of unrequited love stories introduced by RJ Alfaaz who, despite of having many followers, prefers to keep distant and anonymous. Among his many fans there is Archana, a girl who works in a creative agency developing memes for trademarks. She is leucodhermic but still she lives life to the maximum. They meet; better said they speak for the first time through a lost phone call, when Archana accidentally dials Alfaaz’s number while she tries to contact her last blind date. A friendship blooms between the two strangers who hide behind their screens and it does not take too much time for the volcano to explode when they know exactly what they are.

 

Saturday 18th of May of 2019, 20h

KALER PUTUL, Dir. Aka Reza Ghalib | Bangladesh | 2017 | 125 min | OVSTSP

Ten apparently unknown people arrive to a remote village. Instead of being welcomed by the host during breakfast, the group finds a strange message in which they are all accused of being murderers. Some of the guests seem to recognize the premise since it is similar to a very famous mystery novel’s plot. Believing it is a joke, the group decides to abandon. But the only way to leave the complex has been destroyed. Panic, suspicion and accusations take over all of them. Look into the past of every guest does not help at all. Neither the similarity with the novel’s plot since the real events do not seem to follow the sequence of the fiction. Will someone survive or will it end like the original narration: with no survivors?

 

Saturday 25th of May of 2019, 20h

NOBLEMEN, Dir. Vandana Kataria | India | 2018 | 108 min | OVSTCAT

It is winter in a prestigious boarding school for young people, where kids still perform rituals and hierarchic codes. Shay is constantly attacked. Shay and Pia, the impulsive daughter of the new principal of Junior School are chosen Bassanio and Portia in the production of the Venice’s Marchant’s Founder’s. Murali, the charismatic theatre teacher, with no bad intention, puts Baadal as Shay’s understudy. Angry, Baadal swears to obtain Shay’s role at any cost and addresses to his friends Arjun looking for help. Events will make a sinister twist.

 

Saturday 8th of June of 2019, 20h

SIDE A & SIDE B, Dir. Rahat Kazmi | India | 2018 | 115 min | OVSTCAT

A comedy about Kashmir? Probably not. Well, not entirely. The last movie of the director and co-writer Rahat Kazmi is a fascinating, captivating and moving drama about growing up in a conflict zone. Between bombs and bullets, a group of university friends are trying to take maxim profit to their lives but they need a break… Just like anyone would in their situation. Starting from a group of four intrepid friends (following the style of the Inbetweeners), who are bound by the love for cinema, they buy VHS Bollywood movies, but when the prohibition of TV and many movies appears (just like happened in 1994) the four friends do not give up. What happens then turns to be funny, totally credible and very entertaining. It ends, maybe, in more tense circumstances. But, as Kazmi said in the Mantostaan presentation during last year’s festival “It is a beautiful place with intelligent, cultured and polite people. They deserve the best. And this movie is a love letter to the people of Kashmir”.

 

Saturday 15th of June of 2019, 20h

KIA & COSMOS, Dir. Sudipto Roy | India | 2018 | 123 min | OVSTSP

Kia is an autistic 15 years old girl who lives with her mother Diya in the south of Calcutta, her father died some years ago because of a heart attack. One day, Cosmos, a cat from the neighborhood, dies suddenly, which awakens Kia’s curiosity to discover the reason why. During an investigation at his own house, she finds many letters from her father in which there is his name written. Diya had concealed the truth to her daughter during all these years and her father is alive, for that she decides to start looking for him and to solve the mystery of his disappearance. Why did her father leave them? Will she find him?

 

Film cycle: From the 20th of April to the 15th of June of 2019

Cinemes Girona · C/ Girona, 175, 08025 Barcelona

Ticket price: 3.5 € | Cinemes Girona’s subscribers and partners ticket price: 2 €

*OVSTCAT| Original Version Subtitled in Catalan – OVSTSP | Original Version Subtitled in Spanish

Taiko Film | Healing Beats

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Friday 5th of April 2019, at 20h

Taikofilm is a documentary directed by Iván Muñoz Ureta, whose aim is to introduce the spectator into the surprising world of taiko through renowned group and solo performances. He also draws upon interviews with some of its performers so taht we can get to know about its origins, its expansion and its capability to transmit diverse emotions. It is about stimulating the desire to explore taiko not only as a musical instrument, but also as an artistic discipline, a philosophy of life and as a culture. This apparently limited instrument manages to connect all those people around the world that make its discovery. This documentary will be presented by its author along with a live demosntration by Chieko Kokima. Casa Asia collaborates with Cinemes Girona of Barcelona, Begin Again, Cines Golem of Madrid and Cine Golem of Pamplona.

IVÁN MUÑOZ URETA

Iván Muñoz ureta was born in Pamplona in 1976. After taking up various courses and workshops in navarra and Guipúzcoa, he moved to Madrid where he studied scriptwriting and cinematography. He has worked as an extras coordinator, casting asistant, first and second assistant to the director and as a cinematographer. His love for music since his childhood led him to discover taiko in 1996 and, since 2000; he is one of the greatest scholars of this artistic discipline. His short film Taiko: Inochi no Kodo (2011) was selected in many festivals around the world. TAIKOFILM: HEALING BEATS is his first feature film.

 

 

TAIKO FILM | HEALING BEATS, 2018 (OVSTSP, 74’).

Presentation and screening in the presence of the director Iván Muñoz Ureta and

Menene Gras Balaguer, Culture and Exhibitions Director at Casa Asia +

Live Taiko demonstration by Chieko Kokima

 

Cinemes Girona · C/ Girona, 175, 08025 Barcelona

Ticket price: 10 € | Cinemes Girona’s subscribers and partners tiket price: 9 €

Course “Korean Cinema: a Walk around Korean History”

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From the 8th of April to the 1st of June 2019

South Korean cinema has been invisible throughout its recent history that separated the Korean peninsula into North and South and the years of dictatorship. What has happened to Korean films since 1999? We will get to know about the development cinematography has experimented from the end of the 20th century and the international projection its directors have.

Also if students are interested the course “Korean Cinema: a Walk around Korean History” is complemented with 6 screenings at Filmoteca de Catalunya of a selection of Korean films, with free access for registered students. There will be a presentation given by CineAsia and a film-forum after the screening. The 6 films will be chosen from the following proposals, which will be screened in their original version with subtitles in Spanish and Catalan, are the following The Housemaidby Kim Ki-young, 1960,Aimless Bullet by Yoo Hyun-mok, 1961, The Surrogate Woman by Im Kwon-taek, 1987, Barking Dogs never Bite, by Bong Joon-ho, 2000, Il Mare de Lee Hyun-seung, 2000, My Sassy Girl by Kwak Jae-young, 2001, Oasis by Lee Chang-dong, 2002, Burningby Lee Chang-dong 2018, La doncella by Park Chan-wook, 2016, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance by Park Chan-wook, 2005; Shiriby Kang Je-kyu, 1999; The Spy Gone North by Yoon Jong-bin, 2018.

SESSION 1

Monday 8th of April 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Presentation. Structure of the course. Ten keys to see Korean films: Introduction to Korea and Korean films: evolution of Korean society, politics and economy. General vision, how has it progressed, which are its influences, genres, position in the world, importance in Korean economy.

SESSION 2

Monday 15th of April 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Korean films before and after the War: from the birth of cinema to ghe Golden Age of Korean films. How do films reach the Korean peninsula? Japanese occupation. First films. The arrival of sound. Korean War. One of the fundaments for the knowledge of the Korean people is to deepen into the war analysis that separated Korean into 2: North Korea and South Korea. We will approach the characteristic features of Korean cinema before and after the war. The golden age of Korean cinema.

SESSION 3

Monday 29th of April 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

The decline, censorship and commercial Korean cinema: (1970-1980-1990). From the censorship and commercial cinema of the 70’s and 80’s we move on to a new economic leap. Political opening (1993 first democratic elections). Opening of exhibition halls. Development of chaebols. Audience share. Creation of the Pusan Festival (1996). In general: establishment of a “Korean film industry”.

SESSION 4

Monday 6th of May 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

The New Wave of Korean cinema (1999-2018). South Korean cinema has been invisible throughout history for conflicts and wars. What has happened with Korean cinema from 1999?

SESSION 5

Monday 13th of May 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Genres in Korean cinema. Commerciality vs auteur cinema. Genres in general: introduction. Korean melodrama: romantic comedy and drama are the genres par excellence. Action, thriller, horror, martial arts, war films. The genre mix in Korean cinema, as well as the mix in society (for example, in its gastronomy).

SESSIÓN 6

Monday 20th of May 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Great names of Korean cinema. Part I (1950-1998). Korean cinema before the turn of the century has been hidden due to political and military changes the Korean peninsula had to face. We will analyse the work of 5 key names to understand classic Korean cinema: Kim Ki-young, Sing Sang-ok, Lee Man-hee, Im Kwok-taek, Park Kwang-soo.

SESSION 7 and 8

Monday 27th of May and 3rd of June 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Great names of Korean cinema. Part II (1999-2018). After the screening of the film The Isle by Kim Ki-duk at the Venice Film Festival, Korean cinema begins to soak into the West. Since then, its directors have been around international festivals all over the world showing its cinema. We will analyse the work of 5 of them: Kim Ki-duk, Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, Lee Chang-dong and Kim Ji-woon.

SESSION 9

Monday 10th of June 2009 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Korean Series: the success formula that succeeds all over the world. Doramas or Korean series make up a industry of its own. New or acclaimed directors and actors and actresses appear in cinematographic productions and in the market of series. A market that is not only limited to Korea, but is exported to the whole world.

SESSION 10

Monday 17th of June 2019 from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Current and future situation of Korean cinema. Korean cinema currently has a share that is over 50%. A share that has been maintained from the beginning of the century. What’s the future of Korean cinema? New market expansion. Box Office and independent cinema.

Film series in collaboration with Filmoteca de Catalunya:

The course is complemented with a selection of Asian films that are screened at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, the last Thrusdays of the month (2 sessions per month) at 5.00pm, between the months of April and May 2019. Students will have free access to sessions, which will count on a presentation by CineAsia, as well as a film-forum or debate, at the end of session. Scheduled films (to be confirmed by the Filmoteca depending on availability):

The Housemaid/Aimless Bullet: Thursday 18th of April at 5.00pm at Filmoteca de Catalunya

Barking Dogs Never Bite/The Surrogate Woman: Thursday 25th of April at 5.00 h at Filmoteca de Catalunya

My Sassy Girl/Il Mare: Thursday 23rd of May at 5.00pm at Filmoteca de Catalunya

Oasis/Burning: Thursday 30th of May at 5.00pm at Filmoteca de Catalunya

La doncella/Sympathy for Lady Vengeace: Thursday 20th of June at 5.00pm at Filmoteca de Catalunya

The Spy Gone North/Shiri: Thursday 27th of June at 5.00pm at Filmoteca de Catalunya

Teachers:

Gloria Fernández

Enrique Garcelán

Victor Muñoz

Eduard Terrades Vicens

 

Date
2019/04/08 > 2019/06/27
Timetable

10 sessions of 2 hours at Casa Asia: from the 8th of April 2019 to the 17th of June 2019, every Monday from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

The 6 screenings at the Filmoteca de Catalunya: from the 18th of April to the 27th of June, the two last Thursdays of the month (January, February, March).

Total length of the course and number and length of sessions: 20 hours, 10 sessions of 2 hours (10 sessions at Casa Asia) + free access to the 6 screenings of Filmoteca de Catalunya.

Venue
Can Jaumandreu
c/ Perú, 52
Barcelona
Ticket
130 Euros for the 10 sessions of 2 hours at Casa Asia. The first 10 students who register will receive the Anuario CineAsia Vol.2 (on the first day of the course).
Organiser
Casa Asia, in collaboration with Filmoteca de Catalunya and CineAsia.

Film Cycle: “ImagineIndia: Indian Cinema 2017-2018”

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Saturdays from the 2nd of March to the 13th of April 2019
Casa Asia presents a new film cycle with a selection of movies directed between 2017 and 2018, with India as the panoramic axis, of the daily lives of individuals that represent the vast majority. The geography of the poverty dominates the successive dramas that are depicted in each of these 5 movies, which are being projected during this month of March.
The landscape of insecurity constitutes the setting of all the stories narrated, with the intention of discovering the hidden and silenced lives although not any less significant for this reason. Only one of the five films is from Sri Lanka, but we have created this opportunity for its inclusion in this monographic because of the proximity to the themes its deals with. None of these movies usually gains access into the commercial circuits, and for this reason it seemed interesting to repeat the collaboration that we have been maintaining since a while with ImagineIndia International Film Festival to gain access to this minority cinema. It is a cinema that is a long way from the Bollywood genre and clearly tends to assert its view about the society based on the defence of pluralism, human rights and gender politics. A necessary cinema but that is not always within reach, since the cinematographic industry prefers to identify leisure with entertainment. The critical look that covers the films: Light in the Room (2017), Purdah (2018), Earth (2018), The Death of Us (2018) y Unsaid (2018) dedicatedly talks about the strength of a political cinema as this one as an instrument of denunciation that should interest all audiences.
PROGRAM
LIGHT IN THE ROOM, Dir. Rahul Riji Nair | India | 2017 | 102 min | 2nd of March 2019, 8pm
PURDAH, Dir. Jeremy Guy | India, USA | 2018 | 71 min | 16th of March 2019, 8pm
+ THE PEANUT SELLER, Dir. Etienne Sievers | India, Germany | 2018 | 19 min
PAANGSHU (EARTH), Dir. Visakesa Chandrasekaram | Sri Lanka | 2018 | 85 min | 23rd of March 2019, 8pm
THE DEATH OF US, Dir. Vani Subramanian | India | 2018 | 76 min | 30th of March 2019, 8pm
UNSAID, Dir. Arjun Dutta | India | 2018 | 85 min | 13th of April 2019, 8pm
Place
Cinemes Girona
C/ Girona, 175
Barcelona
Tickets
Price: 3,5 € | Prices for members of Cinemes Girona: 2 €
Organizers
Casa Asia, ImagineIndia International Film Festival and Cinemes Girona

Film Series: ‘Retrospectiva Kore-eda’

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Saturdays from December the 1st to the 22nd 2018

Casa Asia continues with the programme of the Asian Film Festival | AFFBCN projecting in Cinemes Girona part of the Restrospective of Kore-eda with the films: I Wish (2007), Still Walking (2008), Air Doll (2009) and Our Little Sister (2016) which were missing to complete the tribute to this big filmmaker.

Hirokazu Kore-eda was born in 1962 in Tokyo. After graduating from the Faculty of Literature at Waseda University, he started to work for TV Man Union, an important production company for television, where he directed many documentaries awarded internationally. His first feature film Maboroshi no hikari won the Golden Osella at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. His second film, Wandafuru Raifu (After Life) (1999) was released in more than 30 countries. His third film, Distance, was selected for the Cannes Film Festival (2001). Nobody Knows won the Best Actor Award (Yagira Yuuya) at the Cannes Film Festival (2004) and was highly acclaimed all over the world. In 2006 he wrote and directed Hana; his first film based on a period, in which he explored the world of the samurais and the revenge in the Edo Period. In 2008, Still Walking, which talks about a personal experience, was released at the Toronto Festival and won the Best Director Award at the Asian Film Awards and the Golden Astor Award at the International Mar de Plata Festival. That same year, he directed his first full-length documentary, Daijobu de aruyo ni: Cocco owaranai tabi, in which he follows the Japanese singer-songwriter Cocco during a tour. It is undoubtedly an opportunity to see the production of this Japanese filmmaker, taking into account that the project is a collaboration with Filmoteca de Cataluña where the five titles that make up the  retrospective.

Programme:

I WISH, Dir. Koreeda Hirokazu | Japan | 2017 | 127 min | December the 1st, 8pm

STILL WALKING, Dir. Koreeda Hirokazu | Japan | 2008 | 114 min | December 8th, 8pm

AIR DOLL, Dir. Koreeda Hirokazu | Japan | 2009 | 125 min | December 15th, 8pm

OUR LITTLE SISTER, Dir. Koreeda Hirokazu | Japan | 2016 | 128 min | December 22nd, 8pm

Place: Cinemes Girona. C/Girona, 175. Barcelona.

Ticket:

  • General: 3.5 euros.
  • Cinemes Girona’s subscribers and members: 2 euros.

Organizer: Casa Asia, Retrospectiva Kore-eda and Cinemes Girona