French film festival awards Riri
French film festival awards Riri
Kunang Helmi-Picard, Contributor, Paris
Indonesian director Riri Riza confirmed his place in the local
and international scenes, joining the like of Garin Nugroho,
after his film Eliana Eliana gave Jajang Noer and Rachel Maryam
Sayidana a Lotus for Best Actress award each for their roles in
the much appreciated film at this year's Deauville Asian Film
Festival in France.
Riri's success is a repeat of Indonesia's achievement last
year, when Dian Sastrowardoyo won the Best Actress Award at the
festival for her role in Whispering Sands.
Riri, who was present at the Deauville prize presentation
ceremony joked, "The Chinese film Blind Shaft did not have any
notable female actresses, otherwise we would not have won
anything at all!"
Riri was referring to the fact that the Chinese director of
Blind Shaft, Li Yang, had carried off most of the other six
prizes known as Lotus awards distributed at this festival. Riri
and his Eliana were lucky compared to the other Asian films that
did not win anything at all. The exception being the Japanese
video film Moon Overflowing by Ryota Sakamaki in that section.
The fifth edition of the Deauville Asian Film Festival was
hampered by a last minute take-over of the festival by new
management.
Alan Patel who founded the festival is now co-president
together with Lionel Chouchan of Publique Systemes, who is now
going to run the festival together with Bruno Barde. Slight
confusion resulted as the organization has changed considerably,
but otherwise the festival ran smoothly despite less films shown
this year - and a somewhat lower attendance by film
professionals.
However, the public remained enthusiastic and the festival
continues to be one of the smaller, but very important venues,
for Asian films in Europe.
Indonesian Riri Riza was one of the most sought-after film
directors of the festival. He came alone and was only seconded by
a young Indonesian student from Caen, Normandy, who translated
into French for him. It was his second visit to the festival; he
was here previously with co-producer Mira Lesmana in 2000 to
present their film Kuldesak.
The main problem faced by the company he co-runs, Miles Films,
in Indonesia and Europe, as well as other parts of the world, is
film distribution. Indonesia does not have an official support
system for films made in Indonesia by Indonesians.
"These could be distributed abroad as well as being helped
with the problem of commercial film distribution in Indonesia
itself. This difficulty hampers creativity -- and we are not even
talking about financing the films themselves, or training the
actors and technical staff! Iran is an example where the state
promotes both the making and the distribution of Iranian films in
and outside of the country."
The young director was full of admiration for the Chinese-
German co-production Blind Shaft (Mang Jing) directed by Li Yang.
This 92-minute feature film, which garnered five of the seven
Lotus awards here, is a tightly directed film realistically
portraying the lives of coal miners at the bottom stratum of
Chinese society.
Filmed in a documentary-like cinematic style, it portrays a
story which could be real in its simplicity and tragic outcome.
There is almost no modern equipment and no protection for those
working in these mines for a minimal wage: no social security and
no medical insurance.
The workers are subjected to corruption by state officials and
their lives are disregarded while working under extremely
dangerous conditions.
Li Yang declared that in order to make Blind Shaft "my crew
and I experienced a lot of difficulties, including having to risk
our lives at times. Now the film is finally finished, but to me
the dangers are still here. This film will be banned from being
released in China, and I will face the unfortunate destiny of
being banned from making a film in China. Many friends asked me,
why I must risk my life to make a film like this."
The resulting film is proof enough that this director, who was
trained in Cologne, Germany, should be allowed to go on to make
more films in the future. The jury and audience in Deauville were
unanimous in their approval.
Besides the winning Chinese film, a hilarious Korean comedy --
not in the competition -- Saving my Hubby, directed by Hyun Nam-
sub with the extraordinary actress Bae Doo-na, came in for much
praise for its story-line and superb acting. The Vietnamese film
Me Thao (Once upon a time) directed by Viet Linh was another
superb example of the best in Asian films: although slow in
tempo, it features a strong story-line, excellent acting and
superb photography. Famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou's
blockbuster Hero with a long list of famous stars like Meggy
Cheung, Jet Li and Tony Leung was a magnificent spectacle of kung
fu glory and splendid photography depicting ancient China, but
failed to capture the rapt attention like Blind Shaft won from
the French audience.
The attention that Riri Riza's Eliana, Eliana won from
audiences here in Deauville proved that despite the short-comings
of video technique on large screens, a well-written script,
excellent actors and superb directing can overcome such
obstacles.
As veteran Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan remarked: "We are
increasingly proud to be Asian actors or filmmakers here in
Europe!"
Bachchan was the subject of a special homage at Deauville for
his long and fruitful career in Indian films.
Riri Riza told the Indian star: "My parents in Indonesia
watched so many Amitabh Bachchan movies that you are also
mentioned in my film Eliana, Eliana!"