THE NEW ASIAN CINEMA

From June 28th to July 26th

CASA ASIA has brought together new titles for its Asian film program, covering a vast geographical area that we can freely explore through the moving image. The stories told unite cultures and peoples, consolidating their respective identities. The journey begins in China and passes through India and Iran, ending in Singapore. It has been designed so that viewers have the option of reconstructing the mosaic of scenes that this cinema offers us. All the films to be screened were made between 2017 and 2023, so we are talking about recent cinema that brings us into contact with a reality that is remote, but at the same time very close and highly topical. The program begins with River’s Edge (China) by director Wang Chao, followed by Goldfish (India) by director Pushan Kripalani, Odyssey of Solitude (Iran), by director Hossein Mahkam and Temporary Visa (Singapore) by director Ghazi Alqudcy. Finally, we have reserved the last session for a surprise film that we believe will be of interest to all fans of this program, which we have been running for years.

PROGRAM

Saturday, June 28th, 2025 

Lao Yu, a wealthy businessman from Beijing, arrives at the rural village where his estranged son used to teach after receiving news that he had drowned in the river. While continuing the search for his son’s body, Lao Yu settles in the village and spends a lot of time with the school principal. Talking with him, he learns of the existence of Xiaofen, the young woman his son had taken under his wing and saved before he died. As he spends time in the village, he begins to understand the stranger his son had become to him, as well as to appreciate the villagers, who are about to be relocated. To feel closer to his son, he decides to help both Xiaofen and the village.

Wang Chao worked in the steel industry for five years after graduating, although he was always interested in film and literature. In 1991, he enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy, where he graduated in 1994 and began working as a film critic. It was there that he met Chen Kaige after the filming of Yellow Earth, and Kaige hired him as an assistant director between 1995 and 1998 for the filming of Farewell My Concubine and The Emperor and the Assassin. With Orphan of Anyang, which he shot without authorization, he made his film directorial debut. A Woman (2022), his latest film to date, was screened at the last edition of the Asian Film Festival Barcelona | AFFBCN to great public acclaim, after its run in San Sebastián, where it was nominated for the Concha de Oro.

Saturday, July 5th, 2025

With the help of some neighbors and leaving behind a life she must abandon, a young woman returns home to face her mother’s dementia and the scars of her childhood, with the aim of finding her place in the world.

Pushan Kripalani is a cinematographer and filmmaker. His first feature film, The Threshold (2015), was acclaimed during its brief run at festivals, receiving awards at MAMI and the NFDC Film Bazaar, and winning the awards for best actor and best actress at the New York Indian Film Festival. As a cinematographer, he has shot several feature films, commercials, documentaries, and short films. He has worked on more than thirty theater and radio productions, in roles ranging from director to actor, designer, musician, and producer. Goldfish (2023) is his second feature film.

Saturday, July 12th, 2025 

Ahmad is a psychiatrist who believes in treating the soul with medicine in a positivist and laboratory-based manner. But when his wife disappears, he becomes entangled in his own illusions. Trying to find any clue about her, he turns to all his friends. He desperately tries to act like a very democratic person, prioritizing his wife’s happiness and pleasures. He is even willing to prove that he would be happy if his wife married one of his friends, as he believes that the other would be able to make her happier. But it seems that she has understood that her happiness does not depend entirely on a “man.” So he sees all his scientific beliefs crumble.

Hossein Mahkam holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Tehran. He is a veteran playwright and theater director who has directed several theatrical productions. He has written and published four books of short stories and also teaches screenwriting at film schools. As a screenwriter, he has worked with prominent Iranian directors Abdolreza Kahani (Adam, Twenty, Nothing), Rakhshan Bani-Etemad (See you Elena), Mehdi Rahmani (Snow), Vahid Jalilvand (Wednesday, May 9) and Yadollah Samadi (Another’s father).

Saturday, July 19th, 2025

Jakub is having trouble extending his stay in Bosnia beyond the length authorized by his visa, and faces the possibility of deportation if he does not obtain a temporary visa within five days. To apply for one, however, he needs money he does not have. Jakub has resisted tempting but dangerous opportunities to make money, until he realizes that everyone does what they have to do to survive. Even his girlfriend Emira is stealing money from work to continue her studies. Faced with such circumstances, Jakub begins to understand the real cost of his cross-border situation.

Ghazi Alqudcy is a film producer, director, and screenwriter. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Cinematography from Film Factory, an intensive program created by Hungarian film director Béla Tarr. Ghazi has produced over 50 short films, which have been screened at various international film festivals in Europe and Asia. His first feature film, Temporary Visa (2018), was shot entirely in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The film was presented at the Singapore International Festival of Arts in 2019.

Saturday, July 26th, 2025 

The history of Hong Kong cinema in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is told through the testimonies of the seven directors participating in the film project we are presenting. These are the seven most representative filmmakers of local and international cinema based in Hong Kong, who have been the great builders of an image of the country to which we, as viewers, owe our discovery of its inhabitants, customs, traditions, and culture, regardless of the genre they prefer. Each one crafts a story that is intertwined with the rest, so that the collaboration unites its authors and their narratives, as if it were a single story.

Ann Hui with Headmaster; Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, with Exercise; Ringo Lam, with Astray; Patrick Tam, with Tender is the Night; Johnnie To, with Bonanza; Tsui Hark, with Conversation in Depth; and Yuen Woo-Ping with Homecoming. Based on personal memories or stories that characterize a generation, the authors never lose sight of the constant changes that the city of Hong Kong has undergone to the present day.

From June 28 to July 26, 2025, at 8 p.m. 

*This schedule may be subject to slight changes. Check the cinema listings.
C/ Girona, 175, 08025 Barcelona
Ticket price: 5,50€    

Price for students, season ticket holders, and members of Cinemes Girona: 4€

THE NEW ASIAN CINEMA

PROGRAM

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