My Childhood My Country
Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi
Great Britain. 2021. 90 min

Award-winning filmmakers, Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi, present a real-life epic of boyhood and manhood, filmed across twenty years in one of the most embattled corners of the globe. My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan follows the journey of Afghan youth, Mir Hussain, growing up in a land ravaged by war.

When we first meet Mir, he is a boy of eight playing among the ruins of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in wartorn rural Afghanistan, treating the destruction around him as a wonderful playground. It is 2002 and in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Centre, US troops have landed in Afghanistan, thus beginning a seemingly endless war in one of the world’s poorest countries. This intimate feature documentary follows Mir’s journey over the next two decades, telling a remarkably personal story of the poverty, destruction, aspiration and progress that colours Afghan life today.

Now a grown man with a family of his own and an emerging career as a news cameraman in Kabul, Mir’s personal journey of pride, resilience and hope is interwoven with the narrative of his nation. Mir’s story is joined by the sobering comments of soldiers, key politicians and journalists who offer insights into the bigger picture – the successes and failures, rights and wrongs over the past 20 years of conflict.

Two decades on from 9/11 and the subsequent ‘War on Terror’, My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan offers a uniquely personal insight into one of the most devastating conflicts of the 21st Century. After a trillion dollars spent by 40 countries and 150,000 lives lost, the film asks was it worth it, for Mir, his country and the world?

PHIL GRABSKY, SHOAIB SHARIFI

Phil Grabsky is a screenwriter, producer and director. He and his production company, Seventh Art Productions, are behind such films as ‘In Search of Beethoven’ (2009), ‘Escape from Luanda’ (2007), ‘The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan’ (2007, which won the First Prize in Time of History) and ‘The Boy Mir’ (2011). He has written four books, as well as numerous newspaper articles, and regularly appears on radio shows. Shoaib Sharafi is an award-winning Afghan journalist and filmmaker who worked closely with Phil Grabsky on “The Boy Mir.” An award-winning journalist, he has made documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, ABC America and AMC Australia. Recently, the BBC appointed him director of the Kabul station.

POSTER

CONTACT

dwilliams@seventh-art.com

Life in 24 Frames A Second
Saw Tiong Guan
Malaysia. 2021. 63 min

Life in 24 Frames a Second is a film about insurmountable hardship and tragedy, perseverance and triumph; told intimately by John Woo, Anurag Kashyap, Rithy Panh and Lav Diaz who before becoming revered masters of world cinema, survived the crucibles of extreme poverty, illness, sexual abuse, genocide and civil war. Through it all was their abiding love for cinema.
The film explores what they suffered through their childhood, how they endured, what inspired them and the meaning of cinema in their lives.

SAW TIONG GUAN

Saw Tiong Guan is a Malaysian-based lawyer-academic-filmmaker-activist. His filmography is singular in exploring the artistic pursuits and visions of world renowned filmmakers – in Past Present (2013), he sits down with Taiwanese Second New Wave’s Tsai Ming-liang and his early days in Malaysia; in Wind (2016), Saw delves into the biographical traces of Australian-born, Hong Kong-based cinematographer and Wong Kar Wai collaborator Christopher Doyle, who voyaged through the world.

In his latest documentary, Life in 24 Frames a Second, filmed on locations in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Phnom Penh and Manila, Saw continues his constant thesis of tracking the origin stories, the formative years, the trials and tribulations of iconic auteurs. It is a film about insurmountable hardship and tragedy, perseverance and triumph; told intimately by John Woo (The Killer, Hard Boiled), Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur, Sacred Games), Rithy Panh (Rice People, The Missing Picture) and Lav Diaz (Batang Westside, Norte, the End of History), who before becoming revered masters of world cinema, survived the crucibles of extreme poverty, illness, sexual abuse, genocide and civil war. Through it all was their abiding love for cinema. The film explores what they suffered through their childhood, how they endured, what inspired them and the meaning of cinema in their lives.

Saw Tiong Guan was born in 1980 in Malaysia. A lawyer by training, he made his first short film G16 G17 in 2007. In 2011 he obtained a PhD degree from the University of Melbourne with a thesis examining the effects of censorship laws on the film industries in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia. In 2013, he made Past Present with Tsai Ming-liang. Three years later, he collaborated with Christopher Doyle to make Wind for charity. He currently teaches law at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, while pursuing filmmaking.

FILMOGRAPHY

2007 – G16 G17 (short)
2013 – Past Present
2016 – Wind (short)
2021 – Life in 24 Frames a Second

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

There are two reasons behind the making of this film. First, to raise funds for charity where all the money generated by Life in 24 Frames a Second will be donated to help provide medicine and food to children from families living in destitute. Second, it is hoped that the experiences and courage of Mr Woo, Mr Kashyap, Mr Panh and Mr Diaz will inspire and give hope to the many children around the world who is going through hardships in their lives.

POSTER

CONTACT

saw_tiongguan@hotmail.com

Ushiku
Thomas Ash
Japan. 2021. 87 min

Ushiku takes viewers deep into the psychological and physical environment inhabited by foreign detainees in one of the largest immigration centres in Japan. On the eve of Japan’s recent – and highly contentious – immigration reform efforts, the director bypasses the media blackout the government has imposed on its immigration centres, bringing viewers into immediate contact with the detainees, many of whom are refugees seeking asylum. Detainees are held indefinitely and subject to violent deportation attempts by Japanese authorities against a background of the ensuing COVID-19 pandemic and with the spectacle of the Tokyo Olympics looming on the immediate horizon.

THOMAS ASH

In his films, Thomas Ash broadly focuses on issues surrounding health and medicine, including two feature documentaries about children living in areas of Fukushima contaminated by the 2011 nuclear meltdown, ‘In the Grey Zone‘ (2012) and ‘A2-B-C‘ (2013). His recent work has focused on death and dying and includes ‘-1287‘ (2014) and ‘Sending Off’ (2019). Thomas served as Executive Producer of ‘Boys for Sale’ (2017, dir: Itako), a documentary about male sex workers in Tokyo.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

I first began visiting the immigration facility in Ushiku as a volunteer and was deeply affected by hearing the stories of some of the people being detained. It was only then that I began to think about how to use the power of film to bring this story to the attention of the Japanese public and the world. My motivation was not to make a film, but rather as a witness to human rights violations, I felt morally compelled to document evidence in the form of filming the detainees’ testimonies; to document their truth.
The death of Wishma Sandamali Rathnayake in March 2021, who had been detained for 7 months at an immigration centre in Nagoya, and the deaths of 16 others over the past 15 years, demonstrates why so many supporters are concerned about the health and wellbeing of people suffering in indefinite detention Japan.
Most of the family names and nationalities of the participants in the film are not revealed, nor is the reason why they applied for refugee status in Japan. This is to protect them as much as possible.

POSTER

CONTACT

info@documentingian.com

Red Pomegranate
Sharipa Urazbayeva
Kazakhstan. 2021. 113 min

Anar marries Marat and lives with him and his son Adil. Pregnant Anar requires care, as she is anemic and at a high risk of miscarriage. When Marat hastens their move to the countryside, Anar finds herself in unfamiliar surroundings. Then Marat leaves to ask Anar′s father for a job and goes missing. Soon his creditors visit Anar. To make matters worse, Anar learns that Adil was raped. Now she begins a lonely fight to protect Adil. Red Pomegranate is the second feature film directed by Sharifa Urazbayeva, who came into the spotlight with her previous film Mariam (2019). Just like Mariam, Red Pomegranate depicts an independent and strong woman/mother who takes charge of her family during the absence of her irresponsible and incompetent husband and fights social prejudices. Director Sharipa Urazbayeva provides an objective portrait of the reality they face while warmly supporting Anar’s choices and Adil′s growth.

SHARIPA URAZBAYEVA

Sharipa Urazbayeva is a Kazakhstani director, scriptwriter and producer.

In 2010, she graduated from the T.Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts with a major in “Film Making” in the studio of the famous Kazakh actor and director B. Kalymbetov. Sharipa Urazbayeva had a difficult but very familiar path for people in the field of cinema art: she began as an assistant director and, as time went on, reached the stage of producing her own full-fledged films.

After graduating from the Academy, Sharipa completed “Higher Courses for Directing” majoring in “Film and TV Making” in the studio of the famous Georgian director Irakli Kvirikadze. Later, in 2013, she interned at Nova University in Lisbon, Portugal.

“Mariyam” made the author famous far beyond her native Kazakhstan. The film was applauded by critics in France, where it was shown to a sold-out crowd at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas. As a result, Sharipa Urazbayeva won the Grand Prix of the festival.

POSTER

CONTACT

alikenmm@mail.ru

Sijou
Vishal P. Chaliha
India. 2021. 108 min

A boy named Sijou lives in a village named Saikhong Guri in Assam, India. A very jolly kid who loves playing with his friends but who knew that one day he will have to become a slave. His life takes a drastic shift when he becomes a victim of the Feudal Land Tenure System which was in practice in Bhutan till 1958. People living near the Indo Bhutan areas in Assam were also affected by this system until it was abolished.

Sijou lives with his father Niren. His mother died when he was an infant. Sijou is a very mischievous kid who annoys the people of his village alongwith his friends. The village where Sijou lives is Saikhong Guri which is very near to Indo Bhutan Border. The village is dominated by the Bhutanese people. The villagers have to pay tax for their land. The taxes are in kinds like rice, vegetables, usable items etc. Those who fail to pay the tax, has to live as a slave in Bhutan for the rest of his life.

One day Sijou’s father Niren fails to pay the tax because of which he is taken as a slave alongwith Sijou by the Bhutanese. Sijou leaves his village and goes to Bhutan. The Father and Son starts to serve the Bhutanese people. Sijou’s father suffers from a disease because of which he dies.
Karma,a Bhutanese man,is against this feudal land tenure system. But as he is a loyal nationalist, he is bound to obey it as a duty. Later,after seeing the atrocities, his conscience forces him to rescue Sijou and send him to a Monastery where Sijou stays for the rest of his life.

VISHAL P. CHALIHA

Vishal P. Chaliha is a director and writer from India. Sijou is his debut feature film as a writer and director. Before making Sijou, he made several short films and documentaries.

I live in Assam,India. Bhutan is very much near to my state. One day, one of the producer’s of the film Mr. Omprakash Kherkatary came to with the idea that he wanted to make a film on the feudal land tenure system which was in practice in Bhutan until 1958. So I asked him what it has to do with India or Indian people. He said that people living near the border areas of India and Bhutan, mostly people of Assam which is an Indian state, were victims of this system. Generally, whenever I hear the word slavery, the image of African slaves comes to my mind. I never knew that slavery was present near my state also.

POSTER

CONTACT

vishalchaliha.4@gmail.com

Holy Son
Aliosha Massine
Italy. 2021. 20 min

In Aliosha Massine’s Holy Son, the daily routine of a young couple is disturbed by some shocking news. A strange dream appears to herald a terrible and, at the same time, wonderful truth. You have to choose between dream and reality. They are not the same.

ALIOSHA MASSINE

Aliosha Massine was born in Rome on 11 July 1991.
Coming from a family of choreographers and dancers, from the age of 5 to 12 he studied ballet at the school of the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome and debuted in 2000 as a dancer, at the age of 9, at the Teatro dell’Opera, with Vladimir Vassiliev in the ballet “Lungo viaggio nella notte di Natale”. Later, aged 14, having given up studying ballet, he devoted himself to acting.
At the age of 16 he made his debut as an actor alongside Sergio Fiorentini.
After school he started to study philosophy at the University of Roma Tre while continuing to act with the touring company formed by Fiorentini.
On 10 June 2011, together with 50 other actors, artists and technicians, he occupied the Teatro Valle in Rome. There he had the good fortune to meet and take acting and directing courses with Elio Germano, Giacomo Ciarrapico and Fausto Paravidino. He abandoned his studies in philosophy in 2012 to move to Turin to complete his training as an actor at the Teatro Stabile of Turin, where he studied with Valerio Binasco, Renato Carpentieri, Claudio Morganti, Thomas Richards, Antonio Latella, Michela Cescon and Davide Ferrario.

After completing his studies, in 2015, he moved to Modena, to the Ert (Emilia Romagna Teatro) to work as an actor in the “Santa Estasi” project directed by Antonio Latella.
Between December 2018 and January 2019, he directed “Il posto della felicità” (“The place of happiness”), a short film produced by Marcello Fonte and Quasar film srl, currently distributed by Premiere Film, which competed in important Italian and international festivals: Alice nella city, Cortinametraggio, Visioni Italiane where it won a special mention, the San Diego Italian Film Festival where it won the special jury prize, the Social World international Film Festival, Bordeaux Shorts International Film Festival du Cinemà Minute where it gained another special mention.
His second short, “Holy Son”, produced by Quasar films, Timshel Films, is distributed by Lights On.

POSTER

CONTACT

lightson@lightsonfilm.org