State of the Arts: European Film Fest Comes to Theaters Near You
Beijing Design Week may now be officially over but have no fear, film festival season is in full gear. The fifth Women's Film Fest program came to a close a few weeks ago after a pretty hectic couple of days, and is now followed in quick succession by the Love Queer Film Fest, European Union Film Festival, and a number of other officially sanctioned film festivals that might make a good series of flick dates come mid-October and through to December.
First up, the European Union Film Festival (EUFF), which this year celebrates its 10th edition in China, is an official endeavor sponsored by the European Union Delegation to China. The way their program is arranged is fairly simple, with each member state represented by a film, meaning a relatively wide selection from the regionally diverse film landscape in Europe.
Good news for us, it seems that the Cannes Selection will make up the core of the showings. The screenings run from October 14 to 31 in Beijing, followed by a series of screenings in other Chinese cities, such as Chengdu, Shanghai, Jinan, and Shenzhen. If you happen to miss the first run of screenings in October, fret not, as apparently they’ll be shown again as a special series at the Institute Francaise in collaboration with the EUFF come December. Below we’ve taken the liberty to list just a few titles that could be of particular interest.
Jupiter’s Moon by Hungarian director Kornel Muncdruzo is a sci-fi drama that introduces the story of Syrian refugee Aryan and how his newly acquired “superpower” gets him tangled in the most cunning web of lies and corruption. It’s not the first time Muncdruzo’s films have been part of the festival’s selection, however, Jupiter’s Moon takes a more thriller approach compared to its predecessor White God (Oct 22, 29 at Broadway; Oct 27 at Lumiere Pavilion; Oct 14-15 at Megabox).
Gyorgy Kristoff’s debut film Out tells the story of Ágoston, a man in his fifties who ventures through Eastern Europe in a desperate attempt to find a new job and fulfill his dreams after being sacked from his lifelong position at a power plant. However, as he begins to travel from his small Slovak village, Ágoston finds himself experiencing a stream of bizarre events and encounters that spiral deeper and deeper out of control (Oct 25 at Broadway; Oct 19, 22 at Megabox).
Posoki, translated Directions, by Bulgarian Stephan Kamandarev, is a road-movie written to a dystopian narrative and set in present-day Bulgaria. While the six drivers shown in the movie continue their customary shifts, a nationwide debate rages on regarding a fellow taxi driver embroiled in a corruption scandal after he reached his wit’s end with a blackmailer (Oct 22, 28-29 at Broadway Cinema; Oct 28 at Lumiere Pavilion; Oct 15, 17 at Megabox).
Perhaps surprisingly, John Cameron Mitchell is also present in the selection with his UK coproduced film How to Talk to Girls at Parties, a sci-fi romantic comedy that received a fair share of negative press when it screened at Cannes. However, as someone who enjoyed his previous works Shortbus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I can’t help but take a chance on this flick about an alien who happens to land in '70s suburban London (Oct 22, 25 at UCCA; Oct 29 at Institut Francaise).
Other movies that you might want to consider watching are Agnieszka Holland's Spoor, Ruben Ostlund's The Square, The Other Side of Hope by Aki Kaurismaki, and the classic horror film Vampyr by Carl Theodor Dryer.
Check out the full EUFF program available on their official account for more info about the films and screenings. This year, the venues include Broadway cinemas, Lumiere Pavilions, Sanlitun Megabox, and International Cultural centers, such as the Instituto Cervantes and Institut Française. However, all info is frustratingly only available in Chinese for now.
Images courtesy of the organizers
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