NEW PERSPECTIVES ON ASIAN CINEMA

From January 18th to March 29th – 2025  

Asian cinema returns to the Cine Paz theatres with a program running from January 5th to December 29th. Although it may seem a cliché to say that Spanish distributors are increasingly interested in having a growing repository of titles from the Asian continent, generally, Asian cinema is gaining more and more presence not only at national and international festivals but also in our theatres. The eleven titles that Will be shown up between January and March 2025 come from Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the Philippines, and were made between 2006 and 2023. Motherless, by Sayyed Morteza Fatemi, will open this quarter’s programme. The selection presented here maintains an interest in social drama and gender issues, from a multiplicity of perspectives that respond to the cultural identity of their protagonists. This is what films such as the ones chosen tell us. These are titles such as: Motherless (Iran), Saatao (Bangladesh), Luxury Car (China), Fall Guy (The Philippines), Dust (India), Kamil (Pakistan), Where Would you Like to Go (Korea), Blaze (Australia), Lost Days (Mongolia), Videophobia (Japan), Poet (Kazakhstan). These announced titles facilitate the vision of a world to which we would hardly have access if it were not for literature and cinema.


Saturday 18th of January 2025, at 12h 

Motherless | Iran | Dir. Sayyed Morteza Fatemi | 2022 | 84’ | VOSE | Drama        

A middle-aged couple, Amir Ali and Marjan, lead a quiet life until Marjan, who aspires to be a mother, meets Mahrouz, a woman who is trying to raise money for her son’s kidney transplant. When Marjan insists on renting a womb and this surrogate mother enters their life, they unintentionally go through different tests and face moral dilemmas unknown to them. The controversy surrounding subrogation is put on the table, showing the consequences of a yet not enough legislated practice. 

Seyyed Morteza Fatemi (Teheran, 1983), writer, director, producer and TV host, is a graduate in Petroleum Engineering and PhD student of Political Philosophy. He started his career as a journalist, and he worked as chief editor in various weekly newspapers and press agencies. Afterwards, Fatemi entered Iranian Television and pursued his career as creator of Talk Shows and TV Series – including Dark Intelligence which won the Best TV Crime Drama Award in Moscow International Festival DetectiveFEST. 


Saturday 25th of January 2025, at 12h  

Saatao | Bangladesh | Dir. Khandaker Sumon | 2022 | 97’ | VOSE | Drama  

After marrying Putul and bringing her home, Fazlu finds his wife amidst loneliness therefore he brings in a third member- a cow. With this newfound companion, Putul starts to settle in her new place. However, Teesta River’s dams caused the lower region to be affected by drought, this brings struggle in the lives of farmers like Fazlu. The dams gatekeep all the water until the overflow in monsoon. As a result, they open the gates causing floods, bringing misery to the livelihood of everyone inhabiting the lower region. Due to such hostile behaviour of the river, Fazlu’s family is no longer content. 

Khandaker Sumon is a filmmaker from Bangladesh. He was born on 2nd February 1982 in Gaibandha district. To produce dramas and films, he has been running a production house called “Idea Exchange” for a long time. Some promotional films for social awareness have been made by this organisation. To become a filmmaker, he completed a course at the Bangladesh Film Institute (BFI). Saatao (2022) is his debut feature film. 


Saturday 1st of February 2025, at 12h  

Luxury Car | China | Dir. Wang Chao | 2006 | 88’ | VOSE | Drama  

The film follows an adult who lives in the countryside and travels to Wuhan in search of a son he has not heard from for a long time, because his wife, who is about to die, wants to say goodbye to him. In Wuhan, he sees his daughter who works as an escort in a karaoke bar and introduces him to a policeman who offers his help in finding the son he is looking for. Soon there is a growing suspicion that the gangsters who own the bar have something to do with the son’s disappearance. 

Wang Chao worked for five years in the steel industry, although he was always interested in films and literature. In 1991, joined the Beijing Film Academy where he graduated in 1994 and began working as a film critic. This is how he met Chen Kaige after filming Tierra Amarilla, and he hired him as assistant director between 1995 and 1998 for the filming of Adiós a mi concubina and El Emperador y el Asesino. During this time, he wrote several short stories, which inspired scripts for a few films. With Orphan of Anyang, a film he shot without authorisation, he made his directorial debut. This film was selected in 2001, to participate in the Directors’ Fortnight Section of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2004, he made his second film Day and Night and with Luxury Car in 2006 he completed the trilogy about China that he had been working on for more than five years. His fourth and fifth films, Memory of Love (2009) and Fantasy (2014), which was presented in the Un Certain Regard selection at the Cannes Film Festival that same year, despite its discretion, shows narrative maturity on its director’s part. Looking for Rohmer (2018), shows the interest of Wang Chao for the critic and filmmaker Eric Rohmer and the Nouvelle Vague, up to the point of making a film about him, although not necessarily biographic. A Woman (2022), until now his latest film was shown in the last edition of the Asian Film Festival Barcelona | AFFBCN with great public success, after its screening in San Sebastian, where it was nominated for the Golden Shell. 


Saturday 8th of February 2025, at 12h  

Fall Guy | The Philippines | Dir. Joel Lamangan | 2023 | 107’ | VOSE | Drama  

Julius joins Fonzy’s gang and becomes his servant. One night he takes him to a party, where Fonzy and his friends gang rape Jenie, who is his partner, without him being able to do anything about it. They abuse her one after the other until they brutally kill her. To make matters worse, in a desperate attempt to escape criminal responsibility for what they have done, the group of friends do not hesitate to use Julius as their scapegoat.  

The multi-award winning Filipino director Joel C. Lamangan (1952, Philippines) studied film and theatre in the Philippines and abroad. He was an actor and director for theatre and television, until he started acting for film and was able to make his directorial debut in 1991 with Darna. Among his most notable films are: The Flor Contemplacion Story (1995), for which he won the Golden Pyramid Award at the Cairo Film Festival in 1995, Pusong Mamon (1998), Deathrow (2000), Hubog (2001), Huling Birhen sa Lupa (2003), Blue Moon (2006) and Deadline (2011). In 2014, her feature film Hustisya won the Best Actress Award and the Netpac Award at the Philippine independent film festival Cinemalaya. 


Saturday 15th of February 2025, at 12h  

Dust | India | Dir. Udita Bhargava | 2019 | 80’ | VOSE | Drama 

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. 

Udita Bhargava (1982, India) has taken degrees in mass communication and English literature and has studied directing at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. She has worked as a camera assistant, photographer and post-production assistant on international productions including “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008). Her short films have screened at festivals around the world, with her most recent, “Imraan, c/o Carrom Club” (2014), winning the 3sat Promotional Award at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. “Dust” is her debut feature film. 


Saturday 22nd of February 2025, at 12h  

Kamli | Pakistan | Dir. Sarmad sultán Khoosat | 2022 | 130’ | VOSE | Drama 

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, unexpectedly changing her life and putting her in a dilemma between her husband and her savior. This unexpectedly changes her life, putting her in a dilemma between her husband and her savior. 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 1st of March 2025, at 12h  

Where Would you Like to Go | Korea | Dir. Kim Hee-jung | 2023 | 103’ | VOSE | Drama  

Do-gyeong jumped in to save his student Jiyong from drowning. After the two pass away, Myeongji, Do-gyeong’s wife, and Jieun, Jiyong’s sister, are left alone in the world, having to cope with the loss of their loved ones. Myeongji travels to Warsaw, to try to escape her harsh reality. She meets an old friend and hides her husband’s death as if trying to reject the tragedy. 

Kim Hee-jung studied at the Polish National film School in Lodz and 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 8th of March 2025, at 12h  

Blaze | Australia | Dir. Del Kathryn Barton | 2022 | 101’ | VOSE | Drama        

A 12-year-old girl’s life is upended after she witnesses a rape and murder. She has a caring father, who is desperate to help, but there are no easy answers. The situation is immensely trying, particularly as Blaze was the only witness and her testimony is crucial. To cope with the trauma, she summons an imaginary dragon to help process her anger and protect her on her journey into womanhood. 

Del Kathryn Barton is an Australian artist, widely recognized as one of the leading figurative painters of her generation. She began drawing at a young age and studied Art & Design at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). She soon became known for her psychedelic fantasy works in solo and group exhibitions across Australia and overseas. Despite being a widely recognizable figure among the artists of her generation, in 2022 her debut movie Blaze was finally released. Del Kathryn Barton was the director and a co-writer of the script. 


Saturday 15th of March 2025, at 12h  

Lost Days | Mongolia | Dir. Garamkhand Bayarjargal | 2023 | 90’ | VOSE | Drama 

Enkhmaa proposes a trip to bring Ankhaa, a 13-year-old kid, closer to his stepfather. Before the trip, the child loses his beloved dog, and he will have to find it within three days. Ankhaa’s family is focused on his little baby sister and their upcoming trip. During his search he befriends some street dogs, and it coincides with the municipal program that aims to remove dogs without a home, so he will have to hurry to recover his pet.  

Garamkhand Bayarjargal is a Mongol director and producer that, after graduating in the Children and Youth Theatre Studio and College of Cinematic Arts, he enrolled in the Film National Academy. She is the founder and CEO of various film and TV production companies, and among her most highlighted works are Funny Day (2015), The Faith (2016), Above All (2017), Love Hustle (2020), Zorig (2020), Between Heaven and Earth (2021) and her last success Lost Days (2023). 


Saturday 22nd of March 2025, at 12h  

Videophobia | Japan | Dir. Daisuke Miyazaki | 2019 | 88’ | VOSE | Drama 

Ai wants to be an actress. Despite her failures she keeps trying to be what she is pursuing. One night she meets Hashimoto, a mysterious man. Ai goes to Hashimoto’s house and they have sex. One day she finds a pornographic video whose characters look exactly like her and her partner. Ai goes to Hashimoto’s home and finds out that the house was an Airbnb and Hashimoto is no longer there. The sex tape is still uploaded, and in spite of not knowing if the participants in the video are, they. She starts to lose the 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 29th of March 2025, at 12h  

Poet | Kazakhstan | Dir. Darezhan Omirbayev | 2021 | 105’ | VOSE | Drama 

Didar is a poet, but he cannot live from his poetry. He is only able to write in the morning before going to work as a newspaper editor. With his coworkers, he usually discusses whether or not the national language is in danger of extinction, due to the English globalization. Omirbayev makes Didar read a book about the Kazakh poet Makhambet Otemisuly, which allows him to dangerously unite tradition and modernity. 

Darezhan Omirbayev (Uyuk, 1958) firstly studied mathematics and then cinema. Since his debut with Kairat in 1992, he directed several films that have been awarded in international festivals. 

  • Every Saturday at 12h, from 18th of Jaunary to 29th of March of 2025.

  • MK2 Cine Paz | Calle de Fuencarral, 125, Madrid.

  • Entry price: 6€

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