2017 Festival Lineup
Opening Film
AYLA: THE DAUGHTER OF WAR - TURKEY
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: In 1950, amidst the ravages of the Korean War, Sergeant Süleyman stumbles upon a a half-frozen little girl, with no parents and no help in sight. Frantic, scared and on the verge of death, this little girl captures the heart of Süleyman, who risks his own life to save her, smuggling her into his Army base and out of harms way. Not knowing her name and unable to communicate with her, Süleyman names her Ayla, in reminiscence of the moon on the fateful night during which they met. The two form an instantaneous and inseparable bond, and Ayla, almost effortlessly, brings an uncanny joy to the Turkish brigade in the grip of war. As the war comes to a close however, Süleyman's brigade is told that they will be returning home. Süleyman cannot bear abandoning Ayla, and does everything within his power to take her with him. After repeated failure, he is forced to give Ayla to an orphanage, but doesn't give up on the hope of one day reuniting with her. Will the two ever get back together?
Closing Film
GEORGE TAKEI'S ALLEGIANCE - USA
Synopsis: Allegiance illuminates one of American history's lesser known chapters as it tells the story of Sam Kimura, transported back nearly six decades to when his younger self and his sister Kei fought to stay connected to their heritage, their family and themselves after Japanese Americans were wrongfully imprisoned during World War II. An important story told with great resonance and intimacy, Allegiance explores the ties that bind us, the struggle to persevere and the overwhelming power of forgiveness and, most especially, love.
Genre: Musical
Centerpiece Film
THE FORTRESS - SOUTH KOREA
Synopsis: In 1636, during the Second Qing Invasion of Korea in the 14th year of King Injo’s rule, King Injo and the Royal Court finds shelter inside Namhan Fortress outside the city as the Qing’s large army continues to attack. The Qing army, led by General Ingguldai, quickly surrounds the fortress, leaving the king and the court stranded in a prolonged standoff. For a truce, the Qing General makes a humiliating proposal of sending the Crown Prince out as hostage. Unable to move forward or fight the outnumbering enemy, the people of the fortress start dying from cold and hunger. Between the Minister of the Interior, who emphasizes the king’s duty to protect the lives of his subjects regardless of humiliation, and the Minister of Rites, who maintains that they must fight to death for the greater cause, the king must make a grave choice.
Genre: War, Epic, Drama
Official Selection
A TAXI DRIVER - REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Official Submission for Best Foreign Language Film - Republic of Korea
Synopsis: In this powerful and true story set in 1980, a down-on-his-luck taxi driver from Seoul is hired by a foreign journalist who wants to go to the town of Gwangju for the day. They arrive to find a city under siege by the military government, with the citizens, led by a determined group of college students, rising up to demand freedom. What began as an easy fare becomes a life-or-death struggle in the midst of the Gwangju Uprising, a critical event in modern South Korea.
BIRDSHOT - PHILIPPINES
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category - Philippines
Synopsis: Birdshot is a mystery/drama that tells the story of a young farm girl who wanders off into a Philippine reservation forest. Deep within the reservation she mistakenly shoots and kills an endangered and protected Philippine eagle. As the local authorities begin a manhunt to track down the poacher of its treasured, national bird, their investigation leads them to an even more horrific discovery...
BURNING BIRDS - Sri Lanka
Synopsis: In a small village in Eastern Sri Lanka in 1989, after her husband was abducted, tortured and murdered by a paramilitary group, 37 year old Kusum has to fight to look after her eight children and mother-in- law all by herself. After a series of unsuccessful odd jobs, where she is constantly abused physically and sexually, Kusum falls into prostitution. Soon the Police arrest her in a brothel. This event adversely affects her children’s schooling. Her revengeful reaction unfolds thereafter.
Genre: Drama
BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK - THAILAND
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: A shape-shifting narrative around memory, politics and cinema, the film weaves together the stories of several characters. We meet a young waitress serving breakfast at an idyllic country café, only to later find her employed in the busy dining room of a river cruise ship. And we meet a filmmaker interviewing an older woman whose life was transformed by the political activism of her student years and the Thammasat University massacre of 1976. With her tender, unobtrusive filmmaking style, Suwichakornpong allows us to get to know these characters slowly and deeply. At the same time, we see how their beautiful country and its troubled history inform their actions and identities in ways both overt and subtle.
CENTAUR - KYRGYZSTAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Centaur, a quiet, modest man, lives in a village in Kyrgyzstan with his young son who has never spo- ken a word and his deaf-mute wife. Centaur believes that the people of Kyrgyzstan descend from centaurs, mythological half-human, half-horse creatures and that horses are the wings of mankind. In the past he was a horse thief, but nowadays he leads a respectful, peaceful life. However, one day he is challenged to steal the horse of a very famous man, making Centaur once again the center of attention. Centaur is an engaging tale about an individual’s struggle against his own impulses, and also his efforts to contend with the historical, religious and social forces tearing at him and his community.
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER - CAMBODIA
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Loung Ung is 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge assumes power over Cambodia in 1975. They soon begin a four-year reign of terror and genocide in which nearly 2 million Cambodians die. Forced from her family's home in Phnom Penh, Ung is trained as a child soldier while her six siblings are sent to labor camps.
LISTEN - LEBANON
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Despite living in a doomed country that hangs by a thread, Joud, a handsome sound engineer meets and falls in love with strong and free-spirited Rana. The young lovers, from completely different social and religious backgrounds, are drawn closer to each other, but a drastic turn of events gets between them and Rana suddenly slips away. As her parents forbid Joud from seeing her, the young man determined to see her again, finds new means of communicating with her by convincing Marwa, her sister, to download his voice messages and secretly play them to Rana... “Listen” is a story about loyalty and temptation yet deals with the emancipation of women in Middle East nowadays. It is a journey through sound and the importance of hearing. Primarily shedding the light on a form of resistance, a form of survival: Love.
MAD WORLD - HONG KONG
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: A former stockbroker, suffering from severe bipolar disorder, is released from a psychiatric hospital into the custody of his estranged truck-driver father. He moves into the older man’s cramped, claus- trophobic bedsit and tries to reconcile himself with his troubled upbringing...
POMEGRANATE ORCHARD - AZERBAIJAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Old and infirm , Shamil is now unable to look after the large pomegranate orchard extending beyond the modest family homestead in rural Azerbaijan. His daughter-in-law Sara and her young son Jalal are unlikely to help him care for the ancient trees in the future, so it look s as if the family may have to give up their only real source of trade . The lazy progression of sultry summer days is disrupted by the unexpected return of Shamil’s son Gabil, who fled the village without warning twelve long years ago and wasn’t heard from again. The deep emotional scars he left on his father, his wife and their son can’t be erased from one day to the next… As this private family drama unfurls, we discover the reasons for Gabil’s sudden departure only gradually, in keeping with the leisurely pace of the camera as it pans across the picturesque surroundings. However, the wrongs of the past continue to simmer uneasily beneath the veneer of this innocent landscape, and it is only a question of time before they break the surface .
POP AYE - SINGAPORE
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: A chance encounter brings together a disenchanted architect and his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Invigorated, he takes the elephant on a journey across Thailand in search of the farm where they grew up together.
SAAWAN - PAKISTAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Saawan is a story of a 9 year old Baluchistani boy, stricken by polio in Pakistan. He is rejected by his father, hated by society and harassed by his peers. He gets left behind in his village as the residents are forced to vacate the valley where they live. Strengthened by memories of his mother, he begins a journey to the city. Saawan achieves self-rehabilitation, befriends a spirt living in the mountains and meets his new best friend, a three-legged dog. He then encounters kidnappers from whom he rescues 4 kids. While on his trip, he is followed by the kidnapper, with his father and a journalist tracing his steps in search of him. As he is close to finishing his journey the kidnapper attacks killing 40 people.
SCARY MOTHER - GEORGIA
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: A 50-year-old housewife, Manana, is forced confront her opposing identities as a dedicated mother, and a brilliant, yet unconventional writer. When faced with a choice between her family and her passion, she decides to plunge fully into writing, sacrificing to it both mentally and physically.
THE DARK WIND - IRAQ
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: After the engagement of Reko and Pero, the Islamic State attacks their Yezidi village in the Shingal region of Iraqi Kurdistan. At this moment, Reko is working in another town. Some of the villagers flee, others are taken captive, or murdered. The terrorists sell Pero and other young girls on a slave market. When Reko hears about the attack, he searches for his beloved ones. His parents and Pero's family find shelter in a refugee camp but Pero is missing. Finally, Reko finds his fiancée in Syria. But after reuniting Pero with her family in the camp, everyone learns that Pero is deeply traumatized. The nightmare continues and the question remains: Will true love overcome "The Dark Wind"?
TURAH - INDONESIA
Synopsis: Shahab, Nahal, Hamed, Faramarz, and Nicki are members of a scientific genius team who have patented an invention and are trying to immigrate from Iran to Europe. Three days before their journey to Italy, Hamed becomes comatose because of his unknown illness, which shocks the team. Hamed needs an organ transplant. The crisis reveals layers of them in the past and present, leading to new decision making and judgement.
FATHER AND SON - VIETNAM
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: The harsh competition of life has spared the defeated in Kampung Tirang. They are plagued by pessimism and overwhelmed with fear, especially towards Darso, the rich boss who has given them ‘life’. Pakel, the sycophantic scholar in Darso’s inner circle deviously makes the villagers mentally stunted. The situation makes it easier for him to reap more profits. Specks of optimism and hope to break free from the powerless life are present in Turah and Jadag. Incidents occur, encouraging Turah and Jadag to fight the acute fear and escape from the cunning narrative. This is every effort made by them, as the people of Kampung Tirang, to no longer be the human failure, the remnants.
WHITE SUN - NEPAL
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: When his father dies, anti-regime partisan Chandratravel to his remote mountain village after nearly a decade away. Little Pooja is anxiously awaiting the man she thinks is her father, but she’s confused when Chandra arrives with Badri, a young street orphan rumoured to be his son. Chandra must face his brother Suraj, who was on the opposing side during the Nepalese civil war. The two brothers cannot put aside political feelings while carrying their father's body down the steep mountain path to the river for cremation. Suraj storms off in a rage, leaving Chandra with no other men strong enough to help. Under pressure from the village elders, Chandra must seek help from outside the village to obey the rigid caste and discriminatory gender traditions he fought to eliminate during the war. Chandra searches for a solution in neighboring villages, among the police, guests at a local wedding, and rebel guerrillas...
HOW VICTOR "THE GARLIC" TOOK ALEXEY "THE STUD" TO THE NURSING HOME - RUSSIA
Golden Globe Submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Award
Synopsis: Viktor “the Garlic” is a former orphan - an orphan with a living father and a singleton with a wife and a son. Vitka's dream of leaving his family suddenly became true. The guy meets his felon-father, who was recently released from prison and is now disabled . The son again decides to place his father in a "state house", but for this time - his choice was a nursing home. And they began their journey without having any expectations of which adventures and dangers might be awaiting them along the road.
BREATH - IRAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: The daily life of a daydreaming little girl, Bahar, and her persistent efforts to discover the world so she can experience life with all its sweetness and bitterness in her own way. Bahar loves reading books and this makes the hardness of her life and the world around her to tolerate. She distorts the folk stories and mixes with the events; her life concurs with two turning points in the temporary history of Iran, the revolution and the war. Though these events are marginal in Bahar’s imaginative world, but the war with its absolute certainty, imposes its reality on the unruly imagination of the little girl.
YELLOW - IRAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Moc is a rural river fisherman in Vietnam raising his son Ca in harmony with the land. Ca has a little yellow chick for a friend and enjoys running after airplanes in the sky every day, calling them birds from the city. When Ca falls ill, Moc must make the harrowing journey to the city with his son in order to seek treatment.
HER LOVE BOILS BATHWATER - JAPAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: After her husband suddenly disappears, Futaba is forced to close her public bathhouse business. Shortly afterwards, she is diagnosed with terminal cancer and without telling her teenage daughter, who is being bullied at school, Fataba gives herself four important tasks to fulfill before she dies. Firstly, to reunite with her husband and reopen the bathhouse. Secondly, to make her daughter more independent. Thirdly, to introduce someone important to her daughter. The fourth is a secret she has been keeping for a very long time...
DEAREST SISTER - LAOS
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Dearest Sister tells the story of a village girl from southern Laos who travels to Vientiane to care for her rich cousin who has mysteriously lost her sight, and somehow gained the ability to communicate with the dead. When the poor girl realizes that her cousin is receiving messages from the spirits that allow her to win the lottery, she has to choose between nursing her cousin back to health or keeping her sick in order to get rich herself.
NIRVANA - CHINA
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Fang was a rock singer when he was 20 some years old. His father was died in heart attack during his concert. Fang was totally destroyed by the sudden death of his father. He left his band without telling anybody. 20 years has past. Fang is a proxy driver now days. He and other characters, just like all the middle age people in the real world, are working on their daily routine. However, the fate forces Fang back to the Stage. His life is no more the same as before...
ROAD TO MOTHER - KAZAKHSTAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Road to Mother follows the life of Ilyas, a young Kazakh boy, who finds himself separated at a young age from his mother and childhood sweetheart and who spends the rest of his life trying to find a way home. He shows incredible resilience of spirit, courage and unbelievable dedication as he experiences life in an orphanage and the horrors of war, capture and internment in a Soviet prison camp. The story of several generations of a Kazakh family from the 1930s to the present time, the film traces the most momentous events in the history of Kazakhstan through war, separation and the determination of the clan to remain united.
LITTLE GANDHI - SYRIA
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Little Gandhi tells the heart-wrenching and tragic tale of iconic Syrian peace activist Ghiyath Matar. The story of Matar, dubbed “Little Gandhi” for his strict code of non-violent protest, takes audiences through the Syrian people’s peaceful pursuit of freedom and democracy only to be met with live ammunition from the Syrian regime. While the documentary follows the journey of a young man dedicated to peaceful change, and the international attention his story received, it also reflects the plight of all Syrians in their long fight for freedom.
YEVA - ARMENIA
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Yeva is a young woman who, after her husband’s tragic death, escapes from her influential in-laws with her daughter Nareh. She takes refuge in an Armenian village where she is a complete stranger and is obliged to live her daily life in disguise.
THE CHILDREN OF GENGHIS - MONGOLIA
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Filmed in the beautiful landscapes of Mongolia, the film tells the story of children who compete in horse races at the country’s traditional festival of ‘Naadam.’ Byambaa is an eight-year-old boy whose village deems him too young to compete in the races. Jealous of his elder brother, who is riding for another trainer, Byambaa convinces his father to train him to race against the older children. He soon learns that love, dedication and trust are all necessary qualities if he is going to win, and his hope leaves a lasting impression on everyone around him.
SAYAKBAY - KYRGYZSTAN
Official Oscar Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: In 1957, Chinghiz Aitmatov, a young Kyrgyz student from the Moscow Literature Institute, destined to become one of the great writers of our time, arrives at a Kyrgyz village to receive the blessing of Say- akbay Karalayev, the famous narrator of the epic poem Manas. Looking back upon his life, Sayakbay recalls a number of historical events which took place throughout Kyrgyz and Soviet history.
Special Screening
FINDING JULIA - USA
Genre: Drama
Synopsis:In Manhattan, Eurasian acting student Julia Chamonix is unable to enjoy the privileged life she shares with her doting father. Haunted by the tragic early death of her mother-a former star actress and singer in Vietnam-and likewise haunted by a secret desire she has to hide from the world, Julia struggles in her acting studies under renowned coach Igor. However, her ambitions to emulate her mother's success are thwarted by her severe difficulties with the English language. Her only confidante is her wise Vietnamese grandmother, but even with her she limits what she confides. Meanwhile she begins to experience recurrent nightmares in which she relives the car accident that killed her mother. Caught between two very different cultures, East and West, Julia questions if she will ever fit in anywhere. As she attempts to understand who she is and how to forge a more confident identity from both parts of her birthright, her...
JOY LUCK CLUB - USA - 25th Anniversary
Genre: Drama
Synopsis: Through a series of flashbacks, four young chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China, explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship.
FINDING SORAYA - AFGHANISTAN
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis: An Afghan-born woman goes back to her native land after 20 years in London to find the spirit of the lost progressive ideas of Afghanistan's last Queen, Soraya. She explores the challenging conditions facing the women of Afghanistan today.
SALT - NORTH KOREA
Genre: Drama
Synopsis: The story is set in Kando (the northeast part of Manchuria) in the 1930s, when open warfare took place between the Japanese occupation forces, Communist fighters, and Chinese bandits. The story is about an unnamed mother of a family. Her husband gets killed in the crossfire and her son runs away with the Communists. The mother struggles to find her son and later joins a smuggler group, carrying heavy loads of salt across the snowy forests. Throughout her journey, the mother starts to understand why her son is a Communist party activist.
PATHS OF THE SOUL - CHINA - China Film Days
Genre: Drama
Synopsis: A group of Tibetan villagers leave their families and homes in the small village of Nyima to make a Buddhist “bowing pilgrimage”, laying their bodies flat on the ground after every few steps, along the 1,200 mile road to Lhasa, the holy capital of Tibet. An astonishing seven month journey of re- demption, faith, and devotion.
MY HUSBAND'S WIFE - KAZAKHSTAN
Golden Globe Submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Award
Synopsis: My Husband’s Wife is a modern story about family values. A traditional Kazakh family seems to live in compliance with older values, but their illusory happiness can not last long. Bota, the main character of the film, devotes herself to so- cial work, but slowly loses connection with her husband and daughters. Kairat, Bota’s husband, seeks happiness instead through an affair with the pretty Kamilla, and opts out of understanding where he stands with both women, letting things unfold as they may. Kamilla, who gives birth to a baby boy, agrees to the role of ‘tokal’, or second wife. In the fight for the same man, Kamilla and Bota gain a true understanding of a woman’s power, self-sufficiency, and freedom.
MILLION LOVES IN ME - HONG KONG, CHINA
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Synopsis: Inspired by a true story and a headline case in Hong Kong, Million Loves in Me begins when Katy, a 45-year old woman, is charged with animal cruelty after the police discover more than a hundred dogs and cats living in her apartment. Following her trial at court, the abnormal lives of Katy and her mother arouse the attention of a neighborhood reporter who starts to investigate their lives. When he discovers all the animals at their apartment, he discloses the matter to the public for the sake of justice. However, after seeing Katy being arrested by the police and devastated by the intense public criticism, he begins to doubt the morality of his own actions......
THE BATTLESHIP ISLAND - REPUBLIC OF KOREA - Korean Film Days
Genre: War, Action
Synopsis: In 1944, with Korea under Japanese colonial rule and World War II reaching its peak, bandmaster LEE Gang-ok earns a living in Seoul playing jazz music which was banned at the time. However, when he tries to travel with his young daughter and band members to the Japanese mainland, they are duped and forcibly taken by the Japanese military to the small Island of Hashima, located 15km off the coast of Nagasaki. There they become conscripted laborers in a massive undersea coal mine that supports the Japanese war effort.
TWENTY TWO - CHINA
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis: An estimated 200,000 Chinese women were forced into prostitution by the Japanese army during World War II. Documentary Twenty Two looks at the stories and personal histories of the 22 ‘comfort women’ survivors in China.
MUNABIA - KYRGYZSTAN - Kyrgyz Film Days
Genre: Drama
Synopsis: Munabia depicts the story of a family’s frustration, fury, sadness and eventual acceptance of a long term love affair between a widowed father and his mistress. The film is set in rural Kyrgyzstan, where the natural environment, local culture, traditions and political climate all play an integral part in the drama which unfolds.
LORD OF SHANGHAI - CHINA - China Film Days
Genre: Action Drama
Synopsis: The story is set in early 20th century. Country girl Cassia is sold as a maid to a Shanghai brothel, where Madam Shin considers her a no- count big foot with big breasts. But Cassia soon becomes the favorite of the triad Lord of Hong Men, Chang Lixiong - the Lord of Shanghai. Leaving a meeting with Huang Peiyu, Leader of Chinese Revolutionary League, Lord Chang is killed and Cassia is left alone and helpless. She is expelled to the countryside, where she gives birth to a daughter. After years of hardship, Cassia returns to Shanghai to scrape by with work in a local opera troupe. Under the patronage of the second generation triad Lord, Huang Peiyu, she rises to stardom in the Shanghai Opera. But when she discovers that Huang was implicated in Lord Chang's assassination, she persuades Yu Qiyang - who had served as attendant to both lords - to plot the murder of Huang and succeed him.
IN SYRIA - SYRIA
Genre: Drama
Synopsis: Trapped inside her house in a city under siege, Oum Yazan, a mother of three, turns her flat into a safe harbor for her fami- ly and neighbors, trying to protect them from the war outside. Whilst bombs threaten to destroy the building, with snipers turn- ing the courtyards into deadly zones and burglars breaking into the building, maintaining the thin balance of routine inside the walls becomes a matter of life and death.