Award-winning films to be screened here

Award-winning films to be screened here

JAKARTA (JP): Taiwanese film Vive l'amour, which won the
Golden Lion award for best picture at the Venice Film Festival
September last year, is among the feature films being screened at
the 40th Asia-Pacific Film Festival to open here tomorrow.

The film, the second production of 35-year-old director Tsai
Ming-liang, is to compete with some 30 other films from
Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New
Zealand and Thailand at the festival which will end on July 26.
Nominations for prizes will be announced tomorrow.

Vive l'amour depicts a winter night shared in a vacant Taipei
apartment by three people: Hsiao-kang, a salesman of a burial
service company, May, a real estate agent and Ah-jong, a street
vendor selling clothes. With their characters representing the
lower and middle class of Taiwan society, together they languish
without hope in lives of frustration. The movie shows unhappy
people who are constantly looking to others for comfort.

Malaysia-born director Tsai will attend the festival here with
Vive l'amour's leading actress Yang Kuei-mei who interprets the
character May.

A Maori story based on a best selling New Zealand novel by
Alan Duff and translated by director Lee Tamahori into awards
winning Once were warriors is another strong point of the
festival involving 14 countries. The film has won more than 20
international awards including best film and best actress at the
Montreal Film Festival and best first feature at the Venice Film
Festival and best film of the year in the New Zealand Film
Awards. It has been sold to more than 60 countries in the world.
In its native New Zealand the film has earned about NZ$6.1
million, surpassing Jurassic Park which grossed NZ$5.7 million
there.

The film tells the story of Beth Heke, played by actress Rena
Owen, who is the victim of domestic violence but who discovers
the strength to save herself and her children from the man she
loved.

Once were warriors, which features realistic violence, will be
screened free of charge at TIM 21 cinema at Taman Ismail Marzuki
arts center in Central Jakarta along with other participating
films from July 22 to 25. Tickets are available at the
secretariat of the Asia-Pacific Film festival at Jl. Menteng Raya
62A, Central Jakarta.

Hong Kong which is widely known as Asia's Hollywood will be
represented by five films, including three action films: God of
Gamblers II, Rumble in the Bronx and My Father is a Hero. The
films feature Hong Kong stars such as Jackie Chan, Chow Yuen Fat,
Tony Leung and Anita Mui who are not new faces to Indonesian
audiences.

Korea is to be represented by four feature films, while
Thailand has sent a horror film to the panel, which consists of
seven members from Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and
Australia.

Two dramas: Black Widow a Portrait of Ayu and Play Ground
(Ringgit Kasorrga) are the movies of Malaysia. Black Widow is
about Ayu, a stewardess, who always dreams about the deaths of
her boyfriends, while Play Ground questions modern values which
emphasize materialism.

Japan will present five feature films, the themes of which are
that of a career woman and her struggle, a shogun story, a
mystery about a sinking ship carrying plutonium, a friendship
during World War II and a prostitute's life.

Australia has sent three films: Swinger directed by Gregor
Jordan, Vacant Possession directed by Margot Nash and 50 Years of
Silence directed by Ned Lander, Carol Ruff and James Bradley.

50 Years of Silence is about a comfort woman during World War
II, a topic which is heatedly discussed nowadays. The film, which
is also called The Story of Jan Ruff-O'Herne is about Jan Ruff-
O'Herne, a young Dutch girl living in Java during World War II,
who was forced to work as a comfort woman in a brothel for
Japanese military officers. In real life she made later made
world headlines by going public with this 50-year old secret. The
film is in three languages, Dutch, Japanese and English, because
it records three big episodes in Ruff-O'Herne's life: a colonial
life in Java, through the war to a new start in England as a
young bride and her migration, with her young family, to
Australia.

Indonesia, the host has submitted four films Bulan Tertusuk
Ilalang (Moon and Grass) directed by Garin Nugroho, Cemeng 2005
(The Last Primadonna) directed by N. Riantiarno, Sesal (Regret)
directed by Sophan Sophiaan and Dewi Angin-angin (Goddess of the
Wind) directed by Ackyl Anwari.

Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang is a new production of young Garin
Nugroho who has won some prestigious awards in the past,
including the top prize from Tokyo Film Festival last year for
his second feature film Surat untuk Bidadari (Letter for an
Angel). It is a psychological drama, depicting a love triangle
between a traditional music composer, his wife and his pupil.

Cemeng 2005 which is another favorite to represent Indonesia
at the festival besides Bulan Tertusuk Ilalang is a story of the
survival of a traditional arts group during changing, modern
times. (als)