Film Series: “Orient Express” at Betevé and Movistar+ (Jan.-Mar. 2022)

Betevé and Casa Àsia continue to collaborate to make possible a new programme of Asian cinema that will consist of twelve titles, from the 7th of January 2022. The programme “Orient Express”, which is broadcasted weekly on Fridays, at 22 o’clock, will present twelve films in succession from Afghanistan, China, Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and New Zealand.

Films like A Letter to the President and Rockabul from Afghanistan, The Rib from China, Dust from India, Wild Jonquils and Yeva from Iran, Only the Cat Knows from Japan, and Ms. Purple from Korea are only a paradigm from the new Asian cinema and its geographies. In this new edition, Casa Àsia keeps its commitment to genre, experimental and independent cinema, of undeniable potential, as is shown not only in the aforementioned titles but also in Out of Paradise from Mongolia, 27 Steps of May from Indonesia, The Girl and the Sea from Kazakhstan, and Broken from New Zealand, all representative of a more peripheral cinema. The growth of the cinematographic industry, to a greater or lesser degree, is unstoppable in these and other countries, and it is because of it that the presence of its respective cinematography is ever more relevant at every national and international festivals.

PROGRAMME:

For the sake of a dream of creating a family and having a baby, Assel, despite an incurable disease, is ready to go through all the trials and make any sacrifices. And even having lost hope for the realization of her dream, she still retains faith in her to the end.

Eight years ago, a 14-year-old May was gang raped. Traumatized significantly by this incident, May withdraws completely from life. While May lives her life without connections, emotions, or words, her father, trapped by feelings of guilt leads a double life. With May, he is a gentle soul who sacrifices everything to provide comfort and protection for his daughter. But in the boxing ring, he is a boxer who fights to channel his rage. Father and daughter have lived this way for 8 years until a stranger, a magician, moves in next door and creates a small crack in May’s carefully erected protective wall. The film was presented at the Göteborg Film Festival 2019 and the Busan International Film Festival 2018.

In rural heights, a school receives a warrant from the Ministry of Education, stating that if the required capacity is not fulfilled, the school should shut down. The teacher decides to go to the neighbouring villages, heights and forests in person to convince all the parents that is a must for their children to get educated. When he falls ill, his fiancée steps forward to assist him. But everything gets more complicated and eventually one of the students volunteers to take responsibility for keeping classes running smoothly.

While Chinese queer directors have explored trans characters and featured trans actors before, Zhang Wei’s The Rib is the first mainstream feature film to interrogate contemporary Chinese society’s transphobia. Trans woman Huang Yi braves coming out to her patronizing male roommate and her devoutly Catholic father, whose signature she needs for male-to-female surgery. Meanwhile, Huang’s defiantly proud post-op friend, Liu Mann, reminds us all that the greatest challenges are of the heart, not the body. The director of passionate, socially topical films Zhang Wei has created a queer-positive film that details patriarchy, heterosexism, and transphobia while following a father’s gradual recognition of his daughter’s struggle and his embrace of a new meaning for family. The film was presented at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2018, and it won the 2018 Busan International Film Festival’s Kim Jiseok Award.

Today, Afghans are one of the largest migrant populations fleeing their country for Europe or the West. Since 2002 the international community has injected more than a trillion dollars into Afghanistan. What went wrong? This film examines the counter-insurgency, the culture campaign that the US government, within and others, waged. Told through the eyes of Afghan youth, who start the country’s first ever heavy metal band and an adventurous Australian, who created a Western style music scene in the capital – Kabul. Will head banging, disenchanted Afghans win the hearts and minds of their peers or will the Taliban come back from the grave?

Masaru just retired and he and his wife Yukiko are expecting to have a quiet life with their cat, CHIBI, after their kids have left home. Yukiko feels that she was abandoned by her husband, who has never expressed appreciation for her years of support, let alone his love for her. One day, their loving cat CHIBI disappears. However, Masaru does not seem to care about it at all. His attitude triggers Yukiko to decide that it is time for them to divorce. After a long, intense discussion, Masaru confesses a story to her, which he has held in secret for years. The film was presented at the Far East Film Festival 2019.

David retraces the footsteps of his lost love and embarks on a journey to the troubled heart of India, where his girlfriend Mumtaz was last seen. Mumtaz was a photographer and David’s only remaining clue as to how she spent her final days is one of her photos which depict a small boy. In search of the boy, he meets the ageing, cynical Dr Sharda whom he asks for help. But before long David finds himself confronted with Sharda’s dark past – a past that Mumtaz documented in her photographs. The film was presented at the Berlin Film Festival 2019.

Friday the 25th of February, at 22.00 h
Beautiful Pain (Belle Doleur) | Dir: Joji Villanueva Alonso | 2019 | 99’ | Romance

Elizabeth is a self-made woman. She is in her 40’s. She is bent on living on her own for the rest of her days. After her mother passes away due to a lingering and suffering disease, she meets Jon. He is a young man, 20 years junior. When love blooms between them, he tries to convince her about the not age boundaries at love. The love story seems to be ok, but Liz realizes that she can not to be part of the Jon’s dreams.

COMING SOON:

In this documentary, the director followed the lives of two extraordinary Afghan women for four years: Nilofar, a member of parliament, and Shakila, a television journalist. The withdrawal of American forces and international aid to Afghanistan leaves democracy and women’s recent victories hanging by a thread, so Nilofar and Shakila must choose between motherhood and their professional ambitions in the face of growing threats to them and their families.

Yeva | Dir: Anahid Abad | 2017 | 96’ | Drama

Yeva is a young woman who escapes her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh, after her husband’s tragic death and takes refuge in one of the villages of Karabakh, Armenia. However, Yeva is a complete stranger in this village and is obliged to live her daily life in disguise. Anahid Abad, claims he has found his characters in an area as remote as Karabakh, in which the insecurity of war forces its inhabitants to behave with honesty and transparency. The main character in Yeva, is forced to face alone the problems, threats and even their own weaknesses. Humans are human anywhere in the world, but what makes them different are the cultures to which they belong.

07/01/2022
From the 7th of January 2022 to the 25th of March 2022. Fridays at 22.00 h.
Betevé (on TDT and Movistar+’s 160 channel)
Casa Àsia and Betevé.