The Hive
Eylem Kaftan
Turkey.  2019.  93 min

Before she dies, Ayşe’s mother tells her that she will leave Ayşe her much loved bee hives to manage. Ayşe’s modern life has moved her away from the mountains of her childhood – a life in which the bees and their honey were central.

THE HIVE is inspired by a character I met, while shooting a documentary series I was directing about ‘urban farmers’.  The beekeeper I met in Northeastern Turkey was an impressive woman who lived in the West for several years and then returned to her hometown to take charge of the bee hive of her family. The stories she  told me about her struggle with bears pulled me into her world like a powerful magnet. I felt an urge to make this film.

EYLEM  KAFTAN

Born in Turkey, Eylem Kaftan completed a B.A. in Philosophy at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.  She then continued a Masters program at İstanbul Bilgi University in Cinema and TV.  She completed another Masters program in film and video at York University. Her first documentary, Faultlines, investigates the aftermath of the earthquake which hit Turkey in 1999. It won Best Short Film and the Jury Prize at the Planet Indie Film Festival in Toronto in 2002. Kaftan then wrote and directed Vendetta Song (2005) produced in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada.  This documentary about her personal journey into the honour-killing of her aunt in a small village in Turkey was broadcast on Vision TV and Télé-Québec in Canada and has received several awards including CIDA Prize for Best Canadian Documentary on International Development at Hot Docs; the Quebec Film Critics Association Award for Best Medium Length Documentary; Best Documentary, Calgary International film festival. The film also won the 3rd prize at the International Women’s film festival in Torino, Italy.

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Eylem Kaftan :    eylemkaftan21@gmail.com

Move the Grave
Seung o Jeong
South Korea.  2019.  98 min

With the story of a family gathering before moving their father’s grave, this film is full of episodes that make us realize the wearifulness of living. The eldest daughter Hye-young receives a message saying that she has to move her father’s grave, on the day she was asked to leave the company.  She contacts with her younger sisters and brother, and they assemble at their uncle’s house. Her younger sister Geum-ok has a hard time with marriage, Geum-hee feels stressful with preparing for her wedding, and Hye-yeon is struggling with her belated college life. The only male in her family, her youngest brother Seung-rak has not even shown up at all. They constantly quarrel and scratch themselves but ironically affirm their respective dignity.

JEONG O SEUNG

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Indiestory :    indiestory@indiestory.com

Brotherhood
Pavel Lungin
Russia.  2019.  113 min

1988-1989. The end of the Soviet-Afghan war. The USSR begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet General Vasiliev’s son – a pilot named Alexander gets kidnapped by the mujahideen after his airplane crashes. As a result the 108th motorized infantry division’s long awaited return home gets put on hold for one last mission:  bring the General’s son back.  Based on true events the previously untold story of the courageous and tragic withdrawal campaign (through the Salang pass) reveals the danger the horror and the complexity of human nature during wartime.

A film of many names and based on actual events, Brotherhood (aka Leaving Afghanistan) can be seen as Russia’s first Vietnam movie. Bucking the last years’ trend of flag-waving films – such as Stalingrad (Fyodor Bondarchuk, 2014), Tankers (Konstantin Maximov, 2018) and T-34 (Aleksei Sidorov, 2019) – set during the Great Patriotic War, Brotherhood quickly ran into trouble in Putin’s Russia by instead dealing with the Soviet Union’s forgotten war in Afghanistan.

PAVEL  LUNGIN

Pavel Semyonovich Lungin (born July 12, 1949) is a Russian film director. He is sometimes credited as Pavel Loungine (as in the American release of Tycoon).

Born 12 July 1949 in Moscow, Lungin is the son of a scriptwriter and linguist. He later attended Moscow State University from which he graduated in 1971. Lungin worked primarily as a scriptwriter until given the opportunity to direct Taxi Blues at age 40.

Lungin was awarded the Best Director Prize at 1990 Cannes Film Festival for the film Taxi Blues starring Pyotr Mamonov.  That same year he took up residence in France, while making films in and about Russia with French producers. Two years later, his next film Luna Park would also compete at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. In 1993 he was a member of the jury at the 18th Moscow International Film Festival.

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Pavel Lungin :    pavel.lungin@gmail.com

Boluomi
Vera Chen,  Kek Huat Lau
Malaysia, Taiwan.  2019.  108 min

Laila is a young Filipina mother working in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, as a cleaner at a massage parlour. She gets by in a grey-market job speaking very little Chinese. Yi-fan is a Chinese Malaysian, the son of underground communists, who, denied university in Malaysia, has come to Taiwan to study. But he finds that his foreign status and his quick temper quickly drive him away from his dorm to low-wage service jobs. These two marginalized people, meeting first by chance, then through Yi-fan’s persistent though gentle courting of Laila (who, married, is not at all looking for that kind of companionship), gradually forge a unique kind of relationship while speaking rather limited English to each other. At the same time, Yi-fan experiences powerfully moving memories of his traumatic childhood, wracked with violence, which took him from a hideout in the Malaysian jungle to a border prison camp.

VERA CHEN

Vera Chen is an actress and director, known for Boluomi (2019), Ten Years Taiwan (2018) and Lou xia de fang ke (2016).

LAU KEK HUAT

Kek Huat Lau was born in 1979 in Sitiawan, Perak, Malaysia. He is a director and writer, known for Nia’s Door (2015),  Absent Without Leave (2016) and Boluomi (2019).

A graduate of National Taiwan University of Arts, he won the Best Short Film Award in 2009 as well as in 2013, and Best Director Award in 2009 at the Taiwan Golden Harvest Festival.

INTERVIEW TO LAU KEK HUAT – VERA CHEN

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Mike Chi :    mike.mxx21@gmail.com

Summer Survivors
Marija Kavtaradze
Lithuania.  2019.  90 min

Ambitious twenty-something research psychologist Indrė (Indrė Patkauskaitė) has recently joined the team of a major clinic in Vilnius.  A young patient, Paulius (Paulius Markevičius), who is suffering from bipolar disorder, needs to be transported to another facility in the seaside town of Palanga. Indrė is ordered to drive him there, and she reluctantly agrees on condition that she will gain more privileges.  She has also been asked to take Justė (Gelminė Glemžaitė) along, a young woman who is being treated after a suicide attempt, as well as the clinic’s head nurse, Danguolė (Vilija Grigaitytė). Forming an unconventional group, they will embark on an unexpected road trip that, over and above the actual journey to the sea, will be a reason for them to reveal their own inner battles and their struggles for survival.

Kavtaradzė delivers an exceptionally sensitive and heart-warming film. While it deals with an extremely tough issue, the different aspects of mental disorders, it manages to retain its humour and carefree nature,  offering a never-before-seen take on a world that is usually depicted in a more obscure fashion. Summer Survivors is not just another bleak drama about patients’ struggles, but rather portrays their courage and their determination to live a life that is not governed by their illnesses. The director brings the viewer extremely close to the heroes, so their invisible mental battles are still present, but they no longer seem so distant. They are just another element of each person’s personality.

MARIJA  KAVTARADZÉ

Born in 1991, film director and screenwriter Marija Kavtaradzė graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater’s Film Directing program in 2014. Her short film I’m Twenty Something (2014) was named Best Student Film at the Lithuanian Film Academy’s Silver Crane Awards in 2015.  She co-wrote the feature film The Saint (2016), directed by Andrius Blaževičius, which premiered internationally and had a very successful box office run in Lithuania. Considered to be among the most talented up-and-coming filmmakers in Lithuania today, Marija Kavtaradzė received funding from the Lithuanian Film Center for her debut feature film Summer Survivors.

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Christina Liapi :    christina@heretic.gr

Aga,s House
Lendita Zeqiraj
Kosovo.  2019.  107 min

A nine-year-old boy raised in a house full of women is determined to find his missing father, a man who he believes vanished after the Kosovo War. The five women he shares a home with meanwhile carry the burdens of their own wartime traumas, finding common ground in the stories, songs and jokes they share. But even in a house bursting with life and laughter, the country’s dark history of ethnic tension and violence threatens to rise to the surface — bringing with it painful memories and secrets long buried in the past.

“Aga’s House” is the feature film debut of Kosovo’s Lendita Zeqiraj, whose critically acclaimed short “Balcony” world premiered at the Venice film festival. Starring Arti Lokaj as Aga, along with a powerful ensemble cast including Rozafa Celaj, Adriana Matoshi, Basri Lushtaku, Shengyl Ismaili, Melihate Qena, and Rebeka Qena, the film opens the East of the West competition at the past year’s Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival. It’s produced by Pristina-based N’Art Films, in co-production with Woof Films (Croatia), Sacrebleu Productions (France), Ska-ndal and SY13 Films (Albania)

LENDITA  ZEQIRAJ

Lendita Zeqiraj is born in Pristina, Kosovo in 1972.  As a filmmaker and visual artist, Lendita has studied extensively in both arts in Kosovo and France.  She graduates and postgraduates on visual arts at the Academy of Arts in Prishtina, Kosovo and followed post-master Film Aesthetics studies in Paris, France.

She wrote and direct films which have participated at many International Film Festivals around the world. Her last film ‘Balcony’ is presented in over 100 International Film Festivals, including the Official Selection of festivals such as: Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Palm Springs Short Fest, Hamptons Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Leeds Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival etc, and won many awards, including the Special Jury Prize at AFI FEST in Los Angeles.

In 2014 she was declared ‘National Filmmaker of the Year 2014’, and wins The Annual Film Excellence Award for Cinematic Achievements by the Kosovo Ministry of Culture.

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Ninanana :    info@ninanana.me

A Dark Dark Man
Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Kazakhstan.  2019.  86 min

A boy is murdered in a Kazakh village. Detective Bekzat wants to wrap up the inquiries quickly: after all, the perpetrator has already been found by local police officers. But when a journalist arrives from the city, everything falls to pieces. For the first time in his career, Bekzat must conduct a real investigation according to procedure.

ADILKHAN  YERZHANOV

Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Djezkazgan, Kazakhstan. 1982) directed his first feature film, Rieltor (Realtor) in 2001, followed by Stroiteli (Constructors, 2013), Ukkili kamshat (The Owners, 2014), presented out of competition at the Cannes Festival, Chuma v aule Karatas (The Plague at the Karatas Village, 2016), screened at the Rotterdam Festival, Nochnoy Bog (Night God, 2018), released at the Moscow Festival, and Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira (The Gentle Indifference of the World, 2018), which participated in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Festival.

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Olga Khlasheva :    olga.khlasheva@gmail.com

Castle of Dreams
Reza Mirkarimi
Iran.  2019.  86 min

Newly released from prison,  Jalal is a cruel and combative man who’s still apparently involved in shady dealings that threaten him at every turn.  He hasn’t seen his seriously ill wife or their two children for three years, and when he finally reappears, it’s only to make a grab for her assets; he has no intention of returning to the family.

But his sister-in-law insists that she can no longer care for adorable, pigtailed moppet Sara or the serious, silent Ali, so the reluctant father embarks on a road trip of sorts through the mountainous Iranian countryside with his children and his girlfriend, who somehow manages to put up with his constant rebukes and insults. And ever so slowly, the reasons Jalal is the way he is come into focus.

Iranian filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi’s subtly rendered, moving drama about the obligations and emotional burdens of fatherhood took home awards for best film, director, and actor at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival.

REZA  MIRKARIMI

Reza Mirkarimi (born 27 January 1967) is an Iranian film writer and director.  He graduated from Fine Arts University in graphic arts in Tehran. His cinema activities started from 1987 with a short film named For Him and with a series of shorts followed by two TV series aimed at young people.  His 1999 first feature, The Child and The Soldier, has won several national and international awards, including the ”Golden Butterfly” at the 1999 Isfahan International Children and Youth Film Festival, Iran and the “Montgolfiere d’Argent” at the Festival of 3 Continents, Nantes, France.   In 2000, his second feature, Under the Moonlight, dealing with social and religious issues won the Best Feature Award at the 40th Critics’ Week at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival. The film also won the Best Director’s Award as well as the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo IFF in 2001, and the Golden Peacock Award at the International Film Festival of India.

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Kamyar Mohsenin :    kamyar@irimageco.com

Kadakh
Rajat Kapoor
India.  2018.  96 min

Sunil is home alone when the doorbell rings. The stranger at the door introduces himself as the husband of Chhaya – a woman that Sunil is having an affair with.  The guest immediately asks many uncomfortable questions about their affair, becoming more and more intrusive. The situation is already incredibly tense and then the man pulls out a gun from his bag and aims it straight at Sunil. Pretty soon a shot rings out and the wall is splattered with blood. And that is just the beginning.

In a few minutes Sunil’s wife will be home as well as a number of family and friends, all there to celebrate the biggest festival of the year in India – Diwali, a festival of light.

Celebrated Indian director Rajat Kapoor, who also wrote the script and appears in a guest role, delivers a fast-paced dark comedy lead by a strong ensemble.  Every character here is memorable and fascinating, and the dialogue shines.

“Kadakh” is about relationships, about marriage and all the secrets we keep from each other.  How well do we know the people closest to us?  Would we even want to know everything?  And once we do, can we live with that knowledge?

RAJAT  KAPOOR

Rajat Kapoor  is an Indian actor, writer and director born in 1961. Kapoor was born in Delhi, India. As a teenager he would watch films with his family and decided to become a filmmaker at the age of 14. He mainly focused on acting at first.  In 1983 he joined the theatre group Chingari in Delhi, later moving to Pune to attend the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

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Shaikh Sameer :    rezaan31@gmail.com

Sir
Rohena Gera
India.  2018.  96 min

Such a touching eyeopener!   Sir entails a social-cultural topic; that of segregation and class difference, but most importantly that of a particular kind of love that crosses boundaries.

Sir  follows the story of Ratna (Tillotama Shome) who works as a servant of Ashwin (Vivek Gomber) who is the son of a rich contractors family in Mumbai, India.  At first, Ashwin’s life seems perfect to Ratna. He is rich, he lives in luxury, he enjoys status within their society, has traveled and he has a good job at his father’s company. He has all the things that Ratna could only dream off, which is why she is desperately trying to learn how to make clothes because she secretly wishes to become a designer of clothes. But it doesn’t take long before Ratna sees that Ashwin isn’t happy and that he seems to have given up on his dreams.  Ratna attempts to be more than a servant. She tries to cheer him up, be thoughtful and she tries to take great care of him. Eventually, it brings the two closer together. A fire is ignited that makes Ashwin like Ratna more than just being a friend. But their class differences make it virtually impossible to be together within the society that they live in. Where will this lead them?  What will people say?  How will this end?

ROHENA  GERA

Rohena Gera studied at Stanford University and Sarah Lawrence College.  She works as a scriptwriter for Indian cinema. She also engages in non-profit campaigns to defend peace and equality.

Rohena Gera wrote and directed her first documentary What’s Love Got to Do with It?  The film shows a funny representation of urban and privileged Indians who reconcile with expectations about love, marriage, happiness and tradition.  The story mixes the stories of eight unlikely candidates who are each in line for an arranged marriage, playing with the rules that often reinforce the status quo of class, caste and gender. The director takes an intimate look at the human quest for love and happiness, capturing social obligations or pressures within the Indian family.

In 2018 Rohena Gera presented her film Sir during the Cannes Film Festival, in the selection of La Semaine de la Critique.

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Surtsey Films :    surtsey.programacion@gmail.com