July 21st and July 28th 2018

It is an occasion to show a kind of cinema in which social gaze, defence of pluralism, equality of opportunities, human rights and gender policies. Actually, they are like two windows to worlds, that we have no chance to see and to know and that we are only allowed to access to them through cinema. Despite the distance in time that mediates between the production of both films, the social reality and the critical eye is imposed. It is always interesting to recover cinematographic realisms as the one that is defined as a sector of directors that see cinema as an instrument of protest to raise awareness among all audiences.

Programme:

PIED PIPER, Dir. Vivek Budakoti | India | 2013 | 113’ | Drama | July 21st, 8pm

WALKING WITH THE WIND, Dir. Praveen Morchhale | India | 2017 | 79’ | Drama | July 28th, 8pm

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

Ticket: 

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

Organizer: Casa Asia, ImagineIndia International Film Festival and Cinemes Girona

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:

DAWN OF THE FELINES | Dir. Kazuya Shiraishi | Japan | 2016 | 84’ | VOSE | Tuesday July 3rd, 7pm

A FATHER’S WILL | Dir. B. Mukul, D. Zhapar Uulu | Kyrgyzstan | 2016 | 120’ | VOSE | Thursday July 5th, 9.30pm

CHILDREN OF GENGHIS | Dir. Zolvayar Dorj | Mongolia | 2017 | 101’ | VOSE | Friday July 6th, 6pm

WOLF AND SHEEP | Dir. Shahrbanoo | Afghanistan | 2016 | 86’ | VOSE | Tuesday July 10th, 8.15pm

RAILWAY CHILDREN | Dir, Prithvi Konanur | India |2016 | 120’ | VOSE | Wednesday July 11th, 7.30pm

A FLICKERING TRUTH | Dir. Pietra Brettkelly | New Zealand | 2015 | 91’ VOSE | Wednesday July 18th, 6pm

HOURA | Dir. Gholamreza Sagharchiyan | Iran | 2015 | 79’ | VOSE | Friday July 20th, 6pm

A HOUSE OF 41ST | Dir. Hamid Reza Ghorbani | Iran | 2016 | 90’ | VOSE | Tuesday July 24th, 8.15pm

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.

June 22 – 30, 2018

Casa Asia collaborates once again with the International Display of Gay and Lesbian Cinema of Barcelona FIRE!! screening the series “East of Eden.” With these four titles displaying the current panorama of Asian films, they join in the need to show the problems of LGTB communities that are often hidden or are deliberately ignored.

The series begins in Pakistan with Unveiled (2016), a story about Maria Toorpakai and her passion for the sport that leads her to challenge her own religious beliefs in order to be a professional squash player. We travel to India with the beautiful White Nights (2015), a lesbian adaptation of the novel by the same name by Fyodor Dostoevsky. We journey on to Thailand to understand that love begins with two people, but family can be greater than two, with the magnificent film Fathers (2017). Finally, the series finishes with Dad Is Pretty (2017) that tells of the degree of integration of transsexual women in today’s society. It is a cinematic experience that uses reality as its model. Although it is not always visible, it constitutes our immediate environment, forming part of social life in a global and simultaneously local world, like the one in which we live.

Program:

Unveiled | Pakistan | Dir. Erin Heidenreich | 2016 | 76’ | VOSE

Sisak | India | Dir. Faraz Arif Ansari | 2017 | 15’ | VOSE

White Nights | India | Razi Muhammed | 2015 | 131’ | VOSE

Fathers | Thailand | Dir. Palatpol Mingpornpichit | 2017 | 95’ | VOSE

Dad is pretty | Korea | Dir. Kim Seung-Hyeob | 2017 | 92’ | VOSE

June 13- June 26, 2018

The programming of Casa Asia for PHotoESPAÑA 2018 on the one hand addresses the state of photography in the Philippines and the outcomes of its expansion through several case studies with the participation of a special guest, Briccio Santos, whose photographic and cinematographic work will be shown during sessions detailed below. On the other hand, it will show photography from Japan, through the recovery of a mythical figure, like the one represented by the photographer Takuma Nakahira (1938-2015).

Casa Asia will host this presentation with the inclusion of Filipino photographer and film director Briccio Santos, president of the FILM ASEAN foundation. Furthermore, this will be part of the round table on the here and now of photography in the Philippines, in the context of Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific, along with Alejandro Castellote, Manuel Asín and Menene Gras Balaguer (Casa Asia Director of Culture and Exhibitions). In turn, during a special session Briccio Santos will present his work, which for years has explored what unites and separates photography and moving image. Finally, four titles of his cinematographic work made between 1982 and 2017 will be shown at Círculo de Bellas Artes.

Program:

When Heaven Wept | Philippines | 2017 | 85’ | VOSI

Shadows of September | Philippines | 2006 | VOSI

Damortis | Philippines | 1984 | VOSI

Ala verde, ala pobre | Philippines | 2005 | VOSI

June 2 – July 14, 2018

Casa Asia focuses once again on bringing some of the most recent titles of Central Asian film to the public. These films are still unknown by most of the public. This series discovers the narratives of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, through which we experience worlds we would not get to know any other way.

It should be noted that in the last edition of the Asian Film Festival Barcelona (November 2017), the Best Photography Award was awarded to Districts in the Panorama Section, and the Cathay Pacific Award for Best Director went to Zhapar Uulu and Baky Mukul for A Father’s Will.

Program:

TASFIYA Dir. Sharofat M. Arabova| Tajikistan | 2015 | 73’| Drama

DISTRICTS Dir. Akan Satayev| Kazakhstan |2016 | 90’| Drama

TARAZ Dir. Nurtas Adambay | Kazakhstan | 2016 | 82’ | Drama

A FATHER’S WILL Dir. Baky Mukul, D. Z. Uulu | Kyrgyzstan | 2016 | 120’ | Drama

RETOURNÉE Dir. Sabit Kurmanbekov | Kazakhstan | 2017 | 95’ | Drama

Place: Cinemes Girona – c/ Girona, 175 Barcelona

Entrance: General: 3,5 euros | Subscribers and partners of Cinemes Girona: 2 euros

Organized by: Casa Asia, Cinemes Girona, Embassy of Kazakhstan in Spain, Kazakh Film and Aitysh Film