ON THE SCREEN IN THE LION CITY
The Singapore International Film Festival, Southeast Asia’s premier film event, opened yesterday and promises a rich selection for regional moviegoers
The 29th Singapore International Film Festival opened on Wednesday and Southeast Asia’s premier film event will run until Dec 9. There are lots of films, of course, curated by the head of programming Pimpaka Towira, a Thai filmmaker/programmer who’s been working with the festival for two years. The main category is the Asian Competition (which features four female directors from the eight in the programme) while two Thai films are showcased, the well-received Manta Ray (still awaiting its Thailand premiere) and the omnibus Ten Years Thailand (which will open in Thailand on Dec 13).
The opening night on Wednesday took place at the 90-year-old Capitol Theatre on Stamford Road with the screening of Taiwanese sci-fi/drama Cities Of Last Things. A bustling programme over the next week includes screenings, talks, workshops and masterclasses — in all, a serious attempt to ensure the status of the festival as a major cine-event in Southeast Asia and a gathering spot for upcoming filmmakers from the region and the world.
The SGIFF, which is part of Singapore Media Festival, will also present the Cinema Legend Award to Chinese actress and director Joan Chen, and the Honorary Award to Rithy Panh, the French-Cambodian filmmaker whose powerful films tackling the horror of the Khmer Rouge years are celebrated.
As usual, the spotlight will be on the Asian Feature Film Competition, a selection of new titles from first- or second-time filmmakers — this year from Syria all the way to Vietnam. The SGIFF, without intending to and yet responding warmly to the call for greater presence of woman filmmakers, has put four strong films from four female directors in the competition: Soudade Kaadan (Syria) comes with The Day I Lost My Shadow, the story of a mother who’s swept into an urban ambush while in search of cooking gas; Suba Sivakumran (Sri Lanka) will present with House Of My Fathers, a story about tribal war and the plague of infertility among local women; Rima Das (India) comes with Bulbul Can Sing, the story of a rural girl and the scourge of sexual violence; and Pham Thu Hang from Vietnam will be in Singapore with The Future Cries Beneath Our Soils, a poetic documentary on the ghost of the Vietnam War.
Four other films complete with competition list: A Land Imagined, by Singaporean Yeo Siew Hua, has gathered recognition from its topicality about migrant workers and the fluidity of modern borders; Dayan, by Behrouz Nooranipour, is an Iranian film about the fate of villagers struck by the madness of the IS; The River, by Emir Baigazin, is set in Kazakhstan and tells the story of five brothers and their overprotective father; and lastly Long Day’s Journey Into Night, a dazzling Chinese film that exists between dream and reality (and includes a 50-minute long take shot in 3D). Besides the competition programme, the SGIFF lines up strong Asian titles such as An Elephant Sitting Still, a four-hour Chinese indie drama whose impact seems to have unfortunately been compounded by the suicide of the director Hu Bo; A Family Tour, a film by Ying Liang recounting his experience as an exile filmmaker; Graves Without A Name, a new film by Rithy Panh in which the director looks for the lost graves of his family killed during the Khmer Rouge years; Season Of The Devil is a four-hour Filipino musical by Lav Diaz, set during the martial law years. The two Thai films, Manta Ray and Ten Years Thailand, will also screen in this section. Another Thai film will also make it to the screen: The 2001 gay comedy The Iron Ladies, which was a big hit around the world when it came out, will be shown in the classic section. It has been common in the past few years that Thai movie lovers made the trip down south to watch films at the SGIFF, mainly since Bangkok, though a host to many small movie events, doesn’t have a flagship film festival with an extensive line-up. It’s likely to be the case again this year.
SGIFF has put four strong films from four female directors in the competition
The Singapore International Film Festival runs until Dec 9 at various venues.