Noticias

Having worked as a producer in Pema Tseden’s (who is among the producers of this film) “Tharlo”, Wang Xuebo seems to have picked quite a lot from the Tibetan master, in a movie that moves along the same, utterly art-house, but incredibly beautiful and meaningful lines.

In the remote steppe of Ningxia, in western China, lies a community of Muslim Hui people, who live of their land in extreme poorness. In this setting, old Ma Zishan has just lost his wife, one of the most beloved people in the village. As he and his son are about to host a number of relatives for the 40-day ceremony of her death, his son, who had his mother in very high regard, insists that they should sacrifice their bull, in order to honor her properly, and make a big ceremony, to satisfy their many guests. The old bull however, is the...

Critically acclaimed Tibetan filmmaker’s, Peter Tseden, latest release, “Tharlo,” is coming to DVD and On-Demand purchase February 14, 2017. “Tharlo” follows the story of Tharlo, a Tibetan shepherd, on his journey to a town in the Qinghai province to obtain an identification card. He meets Yangtso, a local hairdresser, and it’s love at first sight. Tharlo’s efforts to court the stylist are thwarted due to Yangsto’s desire for more urban, contemporary pleasures, such as smoking, drinking, and casual sex—all of which go against Thrall’s country upbringing.

Caption of the film, “Tharlo”

Tseden’s new piece has garned attention at several international film festivals; “Tharlo” won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2015 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, the Grand Prize at the 2015 Tokyo FILMeX, and the Inalco Prize at the 2015 Vesoul Asian Film Festival.

“Tharlo” is set to be released on DVD and digital download through Amazon, iTunes,...

2016 was another great year for Asian cinema, although S. Korean films were the ones that, once more, stood at the epicenter of international interest, particularly due to Park Chan-wook’s comeback and the box office success of films like “The Wailing” and “Train to Busan.” Japan followed with a number of box office successes of its own, headed by “Your Name” and the new Godzilla film, although indie cinema had a very interesting year also.

Chinese language films also had a very interesting year, with “Ten Years” spawning enormous amount of controversy. Slowly though, filmmakers from other Asian countries, not as well known as the aforementioned, seem to present masterpieces of their own.

With a focus on diversity, here are the best Asian films of 2016, in random order. (Some of the films premiered in 2015, but I took the liberty to include them, since they mostly circulated in 2016).

Inside Men

Inside Men...

For 10 years, Five Flavours Film Festival has been presenting the best cinema from Asia, its meanings and contexts. Initially, the Festival focused solely on Vietnamese films, but it evolved to become a yearly review of the cinema of East and Southeast Asia, the only such event in the country.

The 10th edition is held in Warsaw, on November 16-23 (Muranów and Kinoteka cinemas), and in Wrocław on November 18-24 (New Horizons Cinema).

This year’s edition of Five Flavours is the biggest in history – it presents over 40 productions. The program combines artistic and commercial cinema, allowing the audience to experience the best Asian films have to offer. On the one hand, there are the intimate stories with a social angle, on the other – fresh, innovative blockbusters, filled with the sheer joy of cinematic creation, attracting millions of viewers in their homelands.

Three

This diversity is already visible in the choice...

Pema Tseden’s new film, Tharlo, is a bit of a departure for the director. While his past films have focused on specific social units — a Tibetan buddhist monk community in The Silent Holy Stones, a film crew in The Search, a family in Old Dog — Tharlo is a film that centers around an individual, the titular sheep herder with a ponytail. On a trip into town to get a new ID, Tharlo (Shide Nyima), who lives a solitary life in the mountains, is introduced to urban life by Yangtso (Yangshik Tso), an attractive short-haired girl who works at […]...

Pema Tseden’s monochrome fable about an innocent shepherd coming to town is packed with familiar devices but none the worse for that

In a remote region of Chinese-controlled Tibet, innocent shepherd Tharlo (Shide Nyima) comes down from the mountains to get an ID card at a police station. He needs a photograph, and the local photographer insists he gets tidied up, so he visits hairdresser Yangsto (Yangshik Tso) across the street, a femme fatale in a sequin-covered blouse, a suspiciously modern short haircut, and a seductive way with a bottle of dry shampoo. Director Pema Tseden, who made the touching if likewise strongly literary parable Old Dog a few years back, doesn’t miss a single arthouse cliche here. If this were part of a drinking game, you’d be truly sloshed after you’d ticked off all the tropes here: Bressonian fable that illustrates the corruption of city life – tick!

The Chinese Film Directors Guild has issued a statement demanding an explanation after Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden was hospitalised during a period of detention by Chinese police.

According to the guild, Tseden flew from Beijing to Xining in Northwest China on June 25 and was forcibly taken away by police when he tried to re-enter the airport to retrieve a bag he’d left at the baggage carousel.

In the early hours of June 26, he was taken to a detention facility for five days of “administrative detention”, but was hospitalised two days later with medical issues including vertigo, chest pains and numbness in his fingers.

“We call on related departments to quickly respond to society’s concerns and make the case public, including the reason for the enforcement methods used by the police, whether their procedures were within the rules, and whether there are questions of the use of violence or excessive enforcement,” the guild said...

Shanghai International Film Festival unveils 2016 line-up.Scroll down for full list of awards

Longman Leung and Sunny Luk’s Cold War 2 [pictured], the sequel to Edko Films’ hit 2012 action thriller, will open this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival (June 11-19).

Meanwhile, Werner Herzog’s Salt And Fire, Bruce Beresford’s Mr Church and Cao Baoping’s Coke And Bull are among the films selected for the Golden Goblet Awards (see full list below).

As previously announced the competition jury is headed by Emir Kusturica and also includes Atom Egoyan, Daniele Luchetti, African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu), Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden (Tharlo), Hong Kong actress Karena Lam and Chinese writer Yan Geling.

Japanese filmmaker Kazuo Hara will oversee a separate jury for documentaries, while Swiss animation director George Schwizgebel heads the jury for animated films.

Siff also unveiled nominations in six categories for the Asian New Talent Awards, which has a jury headed by Hong Kong filmmaker...

Werner Herzog’s thriller Salt And Fire will have its world premiere at the festival.

Longman Leung and Sunny Luk’s Cold War 2 [pictured], the sequel to Edko Films’ hit 2012 action thriller, will open this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival (June 11-19).

Meanwhile, Werner Herzog’s Salt And Fire, Bruce Beresford’s Mr Church and Cao Baoping’s Coke And Bull are among the films selected for the Golden Goblet Awards (see full list below).

As previously announced the competition jury is headed by Emir Kusturica and also includes Atom Egoyan, Daniele Luchetti, African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu), Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden (Tharlo), Hong Kong actress Karena Lam and Chinese writer Yan Geling.

Japanese filmmaker Kazuo Hara will oversee a separate jury for documentaries, while Swiss animation director George Schwizgebel heads the jury for animated films.

Siff also unveiled nominations in six categories for the Asian New Talent Awards, which has a jury...

Sydney's State Theatre.

The 63rd Sydney Film Festival has unveiled 26 new films to be featured in this year.s June.8-19.event.

They include Demolition, from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts; Maggie.s Plan, starring Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, Greta Gerwig and Vikings star Travis Fimmel; and Alexander Sokurov.s Francofonia.

Other features coming to Sydney are Irish comedy Sing Street, starring Game of Thrones' Aidan Gillen and directed by Once's John Carney, and Richard Linklater.s Everybody Wants Some!!, a "spiritual sequel" to his 1993 film Dazed and Confused.

Also in the line-up is Sundance 2016 Grand Jury Prize for Us Documentary winner Weiner, about former congressman Anthony Weiner, the subject of two sexting scandals, and his wife Huma Abedin; A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers, by festival guest Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and co-director Geeta Gandbhir, following 160 predominantly Muslim Bangladeshi policewomen on...

Exclusive: Chinese drama centres on the culture of hit-and-run incidents in the country.

Hong Kong-based Asian Shadows has picked up worldwide rights excluding China and North America to Johnny Ma’s Old Stone (Lao Shi), which premiered in the Forum strand of last month’s Berlin Film Festival.

The film, which marks Ma’s feature debut, follows a taxi driver in a small Chinese town who faces losing his job, friends and family after refusing to follow custom and do a hit-and-run.

Produced by C2M Media and Shanghai Junrui Cultural Communication Co, the film will receive its Asian premiere in the Young Cinema Competition at the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff). It also has two press and industry screenings at Filmart. Producers on the film include Wu Xianjian, Chi-an Lin, Jing Wang and Sarah Stallard.

Asian Shadows has also sold French rights to Wang Bing’s documentary Ta’ang, which also premiered...

Wang Bing, Adam Wong, Pema Tseden and Lav Diaz (pictured) among directors with projects in line-up.Scoll down for full line-up

The 14th Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) (March 14-16) has revealed its full line-up of 31 projects, including new works from renowned filmmakers such as Wang Bing, Pema Tseden and Lav Diaz as well as from new talents.

Hong Kong is well-represented with five projects, including The Way We Dance director Adam Wong’s new project Trains In The Night; 2012 Hong Kong Film Awards best new director Jessey Tsang’s erotic feature The Lady Improper; and Dot 2 Dot director Amos Why’s adaptation of award-winning suspense novel Napping Kid.

Other Chinese-language projects from Taiwan and China include Taiwan actress Rene Liu’s directorial debut Lieutenant Yi, which will be produced by her regular collaborator Sylvia Chang; new director Huang Zi’s From Black And White To Shades Of Grey, produced by Monga...

Tibetan director Pema Tseden’s Tharlo was awarded both the Grand Prize and the student jury prize at this year’s Tokyo Filmex, which wrapped on Sunday night (Nov 29).

The jury said of the film: “a simple concept, that a man seeks an identification card and loses track of himself, is beautifully made into cinema.” The Grand Prize came with a cash award of $6,000 (Y700,000).

Chinese filmmaker Zhao Liang’s Behemoth, about coal miners in Inner Mongolia, was awarded the special jury prize, which came with a cash award of $2,500 (Y300,000).

Special mentions went to Dark In The White Light, from Sri Lanka’s Vimukthi Jayasundara, and Japanese director Okuda Yosuke’s The Dork, The Girl And The Douchebag.

Hong Kong director Peter Ho-sun Chan’s Dearest won the audience award, while the Talents Tokyo Award 2015 went to Lau Kek Huat’s Malaysia-Taiwan co-production A Love To Boluomi.

Headed by Busan International Film Festival director Lee Young-kwan, the...

Australian director Stephen Page has won an Asia Pacific Screen Award .Special Mention for feature film Spear at a ceremony in Brisbane.

Spear tells a contemporary Indigenous story through movement and Dance..

The film follows young Indigenous man, Djali, as learns the ancient tradtions of becoming a man in a modern world.

Cemetery of Splendour, from Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul, won Best Feature Film.

Films from Thailand, Russian Federation, Turkey, People.s Republic of China, Japan, Palestine, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia received accolades at the event.

The awards recognise and promote cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the world.s fastest-growing film region: comprising 70 countries and areas, 4.5 billion people, and responsible for half of the world.s film output. In 2015, 39 films from 22 Asia Pacific countries and areas received Apsa nominations.

The Apsa Unesco Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film was awarded...

Asia Pacific prizes also awarded to Hany Abu-Assad for The Idol, Alexey German Jr for Under Electric Clouds and cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bing for The Assassin.Scroll down for full list of winners

Cemetery of Splendour, by Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul, has won best feature film at the 9th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) in Australia.

The Thai-language drama, which debuted at Cannes, centres on a middle-aged woman who experiences strange visions while tending a soldier with sleeping sickness.

The awards, announced at a ceremony at Brisbane’s City Hall, saw films honoured from Thailand, Russia, Turkey, China, Japan, Palestine, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Australia.

The Apsa Unesco Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film was awarded to Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad for The Idol, which debuted at Toronto.

Speaking from the set of his latest production, the director said of the award: “Thank you dear jury for this great...

Shide Nyima in Tharlo: 'When I gave the screenplay to him, he was fascinated because it was a challenge for him and the first time that he was going to have this kind of role.' Tibetan director Pema Tseden adapted his own novella into Tharlo - the story of a Tibetan shepherd. Shot in black and white, the film looks at Tharlo's identity in crises, a situation sparked by a chance meeting with a young hairdresser who seems to offer the shepherd a way out of his loneliness. We caught up with Tseden after the film's world premiere in the Orrizzonti section at Venice Film Festival (it is also currently online to watch at Sala Web)

Yangshik Tso and Pema Tseden in Venice for the world premiere of Tharlo Photo: Anne-Sophie Lehec Aw: Can we talk about the tension in the film between the central character's incredible...

Yangshik Tso: 'The character at the beginning was created to shock the audience, but as a matter of fact, it's a very realistic portrait of some of the young generation right now in China' Pema Tseden's Tharlo - which had its premiere at Venice Film Festival - is the slow-build tale of a Tibetan shepherd who finds his existence and his sense of self drawn into question after he comes to town to have an ID card made and meets a younger woman. The film stars Shide Nyima as the eponymous hero, an actor who has previously made his name in Tibet for his comic and stage work but who here mutes his performance to portray his character's inner struggle. Acting alongside him is Yangshik Tso - as the woman whom he thinks offers hope but has her own agenda - and we caught up with her on the...

Hong Kong-based sales company Asian Shadows has picked up world rights (outside Greater China) to Tibetan director Pema Tseden’s Tharlo, which will receive its world premiere in Venice’s Orizzonti section.

Adapted from Pema Tseden’s novel, the film follows a 40-year-old Tibetan shepherd, who can recite Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book from memory, but whose quiet life changes when he is asked to go to the city to have his photo taken for his first ID card.

The film, which premieres in Venice on September 4, has also been selected for Busan’s Window on Asian Cinema section. It was produced by Beijing-based Heaven Pictures, which also produced Berlinale title River Road and Kaili Blues, which premiered in Locarno.

“Tharlo is typical of Tibetans of the present generation,” said Pema Tseden. “This is a story that shows them in a state of confusion, disorientation and desensitization. The film is in black-and-white as the ruggedness in the...

Smack dab in the middle of the fall film fest season, the Venice Film Festival via Sala Web screening room (September 3rd to 16th) will be serving up fifteen offerings (12 feature films in the Orizzonti Competition and 3 feature films from the Biennale College) for the streaming VOD platform set up by the Festival Scope folks. Among the titles that lovers of world cinema will have the unique opportunity to see the likes of Italian Gangsters from helmer Renato De Maria (Tiff preemed La prima linea) and Jake Mahaffy’s long-awaited sophomore film, Free in Deed (see pic above). The films will be made available for five days after the films have premiere screenings at the festival. You can view all the films listed below and grab your tickets at the official Festival Scope channel.

Orizzonti Films

Neon Bull (Boi Neon), by Gabriel Mascaro – From September 3rd

Brazil, Uruguay, Netherlands; 101’ Portuguese

Iremar works at the Vaquejadas,...

Venice’s “virtual festival” will feature 15 world premieres this year.Scroll Down For Full List

The fourth edition of Sala Web, the “virtual festival” at the Venice Film Festival (September 2-12), has revealed it’s line-up for 2015.

This year’s selection of films includes 15 world premieres: 12 from the Orizzonti Competition and three features from the Biennale College, Venice’s laboratory that supports micro-budget films.

Directors having their films featured include Merzak Allouache (The Rooftops), Jake Mahaffy (Wellness) and Gabriel Mascaro (August Winds), as well as numerous first-time filmmakers.

The selected films will again be streaming on VOD platform Festival Scope and will be available for five days after the films have premiere screenings at the festival.

Full list:

Synopses provided by Venice Film Festival

Orizzonti Films

Neon Bull (Boi Neon) dir. Gabriel Mascaro

Brazil, Uruguay, Netherlands; 101’ Portuguese

(Available from September 3)

Iremar works at the Vaquejadas, a rodeo in the Northeast of Brazil, where two men...