Orient Express: CASA ASIA in BETEVÉ January 6th to March 30th, 2024

ORIENT EXPRESS 

 CASA ASIA in BETEVÉ Jan-Mar 2024

This first trimester goes from January 6th to March 30th, 2024 

PROGRAMME

Saturday, January 6th, at 9 PM

Kyrgyzstan

A famous retired writer, Kubat Aliev, spends his final days in absolute precarity in a society where wealth is increasingly the only thing valued. He is a widower with no children, and his only desire is for literature to continue illuminating the disenchanted and small nation to which he belongs. He believes he sees in his friend Sapar, a talented young writer, an heir to his legacy. However, Sapar is very ill and needs expensive treatment. When Kubat decides to sell his apartment to save the life of the bedridden writer, he learns that his younger brother, a businessman, is being pursued by the tax authorities due to his debts. Kubat finds himself torn between his desire to save the life of the sick writer and the pressure to save his family.

Bakyt Mukulis has been awarded in several international festivals and has been recognized in his country as an actor, writer and director. He graduated in 1991 from a Theater School as an actor and film director and is a member of the Union of Directors of Photography of his country. His first feature film was A Father’s Will (2016), which he co-wrote and directed with fellow filmmaker and cinematographer Dastan Zhapar Uulu, with whom he has continued to work on his latest film, Road to Eden (2020).

Saturday, January 13th, at 9 PM

Iran

Barakat, a Baluchi teenager, dreams of cinema and the idea of making cinema a reality. His obsession is focused on Bollywood images, which he sees as the ultimate expression of his aspirations, but also as an answer to all sorts of questions he has had since childhood.

Born in 1978, Zahedan, Hossein Rigi started his career as a short filmmaker in 1995. By 2000, he directed more than 20 shorts, documentaries and animated movies, which were screened at many international and national film festivals. Most of Rigi’s art works are dedicated and focused on the culture, society and geography of his hometown province. “Lipar” is his debut directing experience.

Saturday, January 20th, at 9 PM

India

Pig | Dir: Thamizh | 2021 | 117’ | VOSC | Drama

Poochi is a friendly basket seller who lives with his grandson, Kumaresan, in a small hut located on the land of their landlord, Vellaiyan. Kumaresan’s parents were killed in a caste riot a few years ago, and now Poochi takes care of the orphaned boy whom he wishes to see succeed in the future. To achieve this, Poochi takes on various jobs to save money and send Kumaresan to a private school. However, his relationship with one of the landlords in the area, from a higher caste, whom he serves to achieve his goal, will be the source of a conflict that jeopardizes his aspirations.

Thamizh has been passionate about cinema since childhood. He has directed three short films: June 12, A Received Message and Selfie. Many of his short stories are also published in Tamizh Magazines Ananda Vikatan and Bhagya. Seththumaan (Pig) is his first feature film.

Saturday, January 27th, at 9 PM

Mongolia

The student Namuuna slips on a banana peel and breaks her leg. She must find a discreet substitute and thinks about her classmate Saruul. It is not difficult to convince her because the salary attracts her interest, and the job is effortless. The job consists of attending to a sex shop, selling all kinds of pleasure stimulators, and making occasional deliveries. At the end of the day, she must hand over the proceeds to Katya, the owner of the store, an eccentric middle-aged woman who lives with a cat in a sophisticated apartment.

Sengedori Janchirjorj (1976, Mongolia) is a theatre and film director. Between 1995 and 1999 he studied at the Faculty of Media and Film Arts, graduating with a degree in film and film directing. He was also director of the Film Institute of the National Youth Theatre between 2000 and 2003. He has been directing the Sun Group since 2013 and is a member of the Mongolian Film Industry Association. He thus has a long career in which he has frequently managed to capture the interest and recognition of the public since 2010 with Adam/Oxygen.

Saturday, February 3rd, at 9 PM

Sri Lanka

The film narrates the story of the alleged sexual assault committed by the poet Pablo Neruda when he was Honorary Consul of Chile in British colonial Ceylon from 1929 to 1931. Based on Neruda’s own account in “Confieso que he vivido” (1974), in the chapter “La soledad luminosa,” in seven lines, the reader learns how he abuses a Tamil girl from the lowest castes of the Sakkilie, who are considered “untouchable.” She is an innocent woman who unknowingly becomes involved in a strange story that still has much to be uncovered.

Asoka Handagama (Sri Lanka, 1962) is considered one of the leaders of the third generation of Sri Lankan cinema. He studied Mathematics at Kelaniya University, and he obtained his Masters in Development Economics from the University of Warwick in 1995. His films like This is My Moon (2000), Flying with One Wing (2002) explore new narrative forms. The Amiens International Film Festival paid tribute to him for his contribution to the development of independent cinema in Asia. He recognizes himself as an admirer of Pablo Neruda’s work, so reading that passage had a strong impact, leading him to create his own version of events.

Saturday, February 10th, at 9 PM

Pakistan

A young married woman, who lives with her blind sister-in-law, has been waiting eight years for her husband to return home. One day, she is about to drown in the nearby pond when a mysterious wanderer named Amaltas rescues her. This unexpectedly changes her life and puts her in a dilemma between her husband and her saviour. Will she be able to restrain the force of desire, or will she give in to temptation?

Sarmad Sultan Khoosat (1979, Pakistan) is a director producer and screenwriter and actor, known for Zindagi Tamasha (Circus of Life) (2019), Manto (2015) and Joyland (2022). His movie Zindagi Tamasha (Circus of Life) (2019) was selected as the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. It, also, premiered at the 24th Busan International Film Festival under the section ‘A Window on Asian Cinema’.

Saturday, February 17th, at 9 PM

Iran

When there is no hope left to save her son with leukemia, Bahar discovers that there is still a small chance to prevent his death: using umbilical cord blood. However, she has little time, and must make a vital decision: to stay with her beloved second husband or remarry her first husband and give birth again to obtain the cord blood. Things get more complicated when she finds out that her first husband is out of the psychiatric hospital but sentenced to death for murder.

Born in 1968 in Tehran, Hamid Reza Ghorbani has a degree in Communication Sciences. He has been active as an editor and director of documentaries and television series. After working as an assistant director with Asghar Farhadi on such films as About Elly and A Separation, he made the television movie Three Fish, which earned him several national and international awards. In 2016, he made his first feature film, A House on 41st, which was well received on the international scene. Bone Marrow his second feature film.

Saturday, February 24th, at 9 PM

Philippines

Pursued by the police, the bicycle thief, Isaac, seeks help from his boss, but he is unwilling to assist. This refusal leads Isaac to conceive a revenge plan against his boss, but this won’t help him escape the network of crime in the low-income neighbourhoods where he is trapped.

Brillante Mendoza (Philippines, 1960) is a director and producer. He is the first Filipino to receive the best director award at Cannes for his film Kinatay in 2009. He is also the only Filipino to have received the distinction of “Chevalier de la Orden de las Artes y las Letras” from France in 2014. He was more than forty years old when he directed his first film, Masahista, which won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2005. His films have repeatedly received awards and nominations at the main festivals such as Venice, Berlin, Cannes, San Sebastián and Cairo.

Saturday, March 2nd, at 9 PM

Japan

Ai wants to become an actress despite her failures in trying to do so. One night, she meets Hashimoto, a mysterious man. Ai goes to Hashimoto’s house, and they have sexual intercourse. One day, she finds a pornographic video whose characters look exactly like her and Hashimoto. Ai goes in search of Hashimoto and discovers that the apartment where they were together had been rented out on Airbnb and that he has disappeared. The pornographic video continues to circulate on the internet, and despite her doubts, she begins to lose control of her life.

Daisuke Miyazaki is graduated at Waseda University and has participated at the Summer New York university. He started his career as a director assistant of directors such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa. His first movie arrived in 2011 named “End of the night”

Saturday, March 9th at 9 PM

South Korea

Do-gyeong jumped in to save his student Jiyong from drowning, but both died in the attempt. After the accident, Myeongji, Do-gyeong’s wife, and Jieun, Jiyong’s sister, were left alone in the world, having to deal with the loss of their loved ones. Myeongji travels to Warsaw to escape the harsh reality. She reunites with a friend and hides her husband’s death, trying to reject the tragedy.

After studying at the Polish National Film School in Lodz, Kim Hee-jung made her first feature film The Wonder Years (2007), the story of a girl who embarks on a journey to find her real mother. Her second feature, Grape Candy (2011) is a rumination of memories which dominate the present. Her third feature Snow Paths (2015) is the story of a man attempting to overcome trauma who is sent to a Catholic sanatorium for alcoholism and meets a nun who can spiritually commune with dead souls. Her latest feature, A French Woman (2019) follows the delirium of a woman who confronts her painful past through a mysterious time gate.

Saturday, March 16th, at 9 PM

India

After spending 15 years in prison for a murder committed to revenge his father’s humiliation, Modan returns to his village in Punjab. The power structure of the village has shifted towards a landlord; Modan is forced to rebuild his life with his frail mother and a new wife who is already a mother to a son. Meanwhile, his brother is fierccely loyal to the landlord who now holds power. Despite containing the hatred of the past, in Crescent Night anger and resentment resurface with renewed violence.

Gurvinder Singh (Mumbay, 1973) is a director known for Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse) and Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) premiered at the Venice Film Festival and Cannes, respectively. Gurvinder studied at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), where he graduated with a degree in filmmaking.

Saturday, March 23rd, at 9 PM

Iran

After a long time, three sisters return to the house where they grew up, to visit their parents. When they get there, they must confront the deterioration of their mother due to Alzheimer’s and the unexpected disappearance of their father, who left one morning and never returned. One day, the police find a body that could be their father, but all the sisters refuse to identify it. However, the darkest family secrets continue to haunt them in this story of intrigue and pain.

Reza Gouran has been considered by international critics as one of the most promising voices of the new generation of Iranian filmmakers, without forgetting that he is also one of the great theatre directors of his country. His productions, related to classical literature, Hamlet, Man Equals Man and Medea, have been considered masterpieces.

Saturday March 30th at 9 PM

China

Dongzi must find money to pay for his father’s hospital. To seduce the woman he loves, even though she is the ex of a gang leader, he becomes a debt collector. At night, at the streets of Zhenwu, anything can happen.

Na Jiazuo is a young male director known for this film. Na Jiazuo is of Manchu ethnicity, born in 1989 and raised in Beijing. In 2006 he entered the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts. Upon graduation, he hoped to go to the Dunhuang Grottoes to sculpt or work on mural restoration, but he failed to make the final selection list for the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts. In 2010, he was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy and majored in cinematography. Streetwise is his first feature film.

ORIENT EXPRESS

CASA ASIA in BETEVÉ Jan-Mar 2024

This first trimester goes from January 6th to March 30th, 2024

PROGRAMME

ORIENT EXPRESS 

 CASA ASIA in BETEVÉ Jan-Mar 2024

This first trimester goes from January 6th to March 30th, 2024 