2020 Festival Lineup
Official Selection
LEAP, China - 135 minutes
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: In the glorious days of their five consecutive championships in the 1980s, the women's national volleyball team of China had transcended the conventional definition of sports in the hearts of Chinese people. When the team, led by Chen Zhonghe, was pitted against the U.S. team, led by Lang Ping, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, everyone knew it was a match that China could not afford to lose. Following their defeat, the Chinese team plunged into their deepest abyss in three decades. When Lang Ping returned to China, her home country, to coach the national women’s team, many mused as to whether they would be able to retrieve lost grounds.
THE MAN STANDING NEXT, South Korea
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: It is 1979, and South Korea has been under the absolute domination of President Park’s dictatorship for 18 long years. Kim Gyu-pyeong, the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, has asserted his loyalty to the president despite having his doubts about the leader’s intentions. When the former director of the KCIA flees to America with a time-bomb of government secrets, Kim is sent on a mission to stop the truth in its tracks. But as the government’s web of lies continues to be spun, tensions build, alliances crumble, and the once impenetrable leadership must face the fact that all men, no matter how powerful, must die.
A DARK, DARK MAN, Kazakhstan
Golden Globe Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: A boy is killed in an aul (Kazakh village). Detective Bekzat wants to end an investigation quickly: a crime perpetrator is already found by local police officers after all. But when a journalist from the city comes, everything falls apart. Now Bekzat must conduct a real investigation, following procedure, for the first time in his career.
THE HIVE, Turkey
Golden Globe Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Ayse returns to her hometown in northeastern Turkey to nurse her gravely ill mother. Before she dies, Ayse’s mother leaves Ayse her much-loved beehives to manage. There are soon problems as she starts to work with the local beekeeper. Furthermore, a bear becomes a real threat to her hives and her life. Can Ayse overcome her fear of bees and even greater fear of the marauding bear? And will she save the remaining hives?
IMPETIGORE, Indonesia
Oscar Submission for Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: A woman inherits a house in her ancestral village, but she's unaware that members of the community have been trying to locate and kill her to remove the curse that has plagued them for years.
WET SEASON, Singapore
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: It is monsoon season in Singapore and the city is pouring with rain. Wet Season follows the plight of Ling, a Chinese language teacher, whose marriage and school life are fraying apart because she is unable to bear a child. But an evolving friendship with a student forces Ling to reevaluate the world around her, and bring herself one step closer to inner peace.
BETTER DAYS, Hong Kong
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: Nian finds her life at a standstill when faced by relentless bullying from her peers as she prepares for her college entrance exam. Fate brings her together with small-time criminal Bei, but before they can retreat into a world of their own, both are dragged into the middle of a murder investigation that will change their lives forever. In this dramatic thriller, Derek Kwok-Cheung Tsang paints a bleak picture of an oppressive society, in the guise of a gripping fairy-tale love story, exposing the dark world of bullying and societal pressures of achievement facing today’s youth.
ROH, Malaysia
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: Set in the unspecified past during wartime,
a family is spooked by the arrival of a mysterious and sinister young guest; who in the l will survive?
CIRCUS OF LIFE, Pakistan
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: As Rahat, a good enough Muslim, prepares to sing a hymn at the annual celebration of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in Lahore, Pakistan, a trivial exposé from his private life becomes an internet sensation, bringing into question his piety, respect & sexuality - turning his life into a public circus.
2000 SONGS OF FARIDA, Uzbekistan
Golden Globe Submission in the Foreign Language Category
Synopsis: Kamil's peaceful life with his three wives in the remote region of Turkestan is disrupted when a fourth wife arrives. Changes simultaneously rush at a family that seem far from a historical upheaval that destroys long-standing family traditions. The film merges various motifs and images. The motifs of a polygamous family caught in a civil war between White forces and enemies clash with horizontal and vertical images. The images of building interiors indicate where characters and history overlap with an outside scenery. The signs of violent events to come are foreshadowed against a static background. A rare film in the history of Central Asian films, it shows a civil war and the changes in women's lives under patriarchy and war.
TRUE MOTHERS, Japan
Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: After a long and unsuccessful struggle to get pregnant, Satoko and her husband decide to adopt a child. Over the next six years, the middle-class couple and their young son Asato settle into a comfortable, albeit routine, life. The family’s orderly existence is shattered by the arrival of Hikari, a young woman claiming to be Asato’s biological mother, demanding his return. As tensions mount, Satoko grows more and more emboldened to defend her family.Weaving together multiple timelines and genres with a contemplative pacing and keen sense of place, hallmarks of Kawase’s work, TRUE MOTHERS is “is a deeply touching celebration of women who assume duties of love, support and compassion” (Awards Watch).
JALLIKATTU, India
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: JALLIKATTU follows the catastrophic events that unfold when a butcher's buffalo escapes and runs amok through a remote village in the hill ranges of Kerala. The local men's quest to take down the deadly bull quickly unleashes their vile primal instincts. As the boundaries between man and beast disappear, the hunt crescendoes into a senseless and self-destructive frenzy of violence.
THE LAKE, Kyrgyzstan
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: On the shore of Issyk-Kul Lake lives Temirkul, an elderly ex-history teacher, who in the past tragically lost his only daughter. Temirkul is a follower of an age-old legend that the Kyrgyz people, since ancient times, never eat fish from the sacred lake, believing that they are the souls of their ancestors, awaiting a new incarnation. His neighbor, Askhat, feeds his family through his work as a fish poacher and is embittered by daily survival. His 11-year-old daughter Jyldyz feels a deep inner protest against poaching. She, like the old man, also believes in the legend and doesn't eat fish, which causes a lack of understanding with her family and peers. When Temirkul's wife suddenly dies, a conflict develops with Askhat, as the old man wants to bury his wife according to ancient custom. But Askhat forcibly imposes his will on the old man and takes all the worries about a "decent" funeral according to accepted traditions upon himself…
THE CRYING STEPPE, Kazakhstan
Official Submission for the Best International Feature Film
Synopsis: The Crying Steppe, directed by award-winning filmmaker Marina Kunarova, is based on true events that befell Kazakhstan during the 1920s and 1930s, when 8.5 million people died from hunger during the Great Famine, artificially imposed on the country by the Bolsheviks. The haunting film tells the gripping story of an eagle hunter named Turar and his wife Nuriya who overcome blind fear of death and despair in an attempt to save their desperate family and village inhabitants from dying of hunger during the tragic and heartbreaking events occurring in the Kazakh Steppe, which eventually forced 1.5 million people to leave their native homeland.
Special Screening
ALEX IN RUSSIALAND, Russia/USA
Synopsis: Alex Carlin is not Borat. He is a real person, and this carousing romp through Russia is actually a typical slice of his life. For seven years Alex and the rock band that he formed in Moscow have been on a nonstop tour of Russia—over 100 concerts per year. From Murmansk in the Arctic Circle to the Southern Black Sea, from the Far West Kaliningrad to the Far East Kamchatka, through the vast untamed Siberian territories so ripe for rock and roll, the ALEX CARLIN BAND gets to the next gig by train, not plane. Why train? To maximize the partying, of course! Russia has a unique train system that allows a lot of saturnalia, and for Alex, the "Russian Rock-and-Roll Railroad", and life in Russia in general, is a daily adventure of music, romance, fascinating characters and unsinkable people-to-people diplomacy. This rockumentary was completed shortly before the pandemic hit Russia, which would have blocked some of the traveling and concerts. But as fate would have it the die was cast, the affair was consummated and here it is, the Russia you have never seen before: Alex in Russialand!
Genre: Documentary
ACCIDENTAL LUXURIANCE OF THE TRANSLUCENT WATERY REBUS, Croatia
Synopsis: Martin tried to fight the system, and now he's on the run. Sara is a conceptual artist. Together they join a revolutionary commune in the countryside, with the police on their trail. Inspector Ambroz knows the right questions are more important than the answers. Because maybe none of this is true.
Genre: Animation Feature
ADVERSE, USA
Synopsis: Ethan sees a shrink as part of his parole. He's legal guardian and shares his apartment with his 16 y.o. sister, Mia, who keeps bad company. She does drugs and drops out of school. Ethan works as a rideshare driver at night. When Ethan unjustly gets bad reviews from passengers, he's out of a job. Mia and her boyfriend owe money to dangerous criminals. Ethan helps with her half of the debt, but she's not out of trouble
Genre: CRIME, THRILLER
THE OCTOBER CEDAR, Lebanon
Synopsis: On October 17, 2019 an unprecedented upheaval took place in Lebanon.
A large number of the population went down to the streets to denounce the increase in taxes, to demand more social justice but also the fall of a corrupt system. This documentary is by no means a political analysis of the protest movement. It revisits the four first months of the revolt and gives the floor to the militants, artists, demonstrators, men, women from all ages and religions.
Genre: Documentary
CHICAGO: AMERICA'S HIDDEN WAR, USA
Synopsis: Chicago America's Hidden War pulls back the curtain to expose the pervasive genocidal-like behavior, explain what birthed and contributed to this war and why so little is done to stop it, and ultimately inspires a clear path toward change. It's time for us all to unite and take a stand, because this is no longer America's Hidden War. This is Our War.
Genre: Documentary
THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN, Tunisia
Synopsis: Sam Ali, a young sensitive and impulsive Syrian, left his country for Lebanon to escape the war.
To be able to travel to Europe and live with the love of his life, he accepts to have his back tattooed by one of by the World’s most sulfurous contemporary artist. Turning his own body into a prestigious piece of art, Sam will however come to realize that his decision might actually mean anything but freedom.
2021 Oscar Submission from Tunisia
SONG OF LOVE, China
Synopsis: During a famine in 1959, people in parts of China were facing starvation. In an act of love, families from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia adopted three thousand children from orphanages in Metropolis Shanghai. The movie follows two of these children and their new families, especially an unmarried young singer from Wulaan Mochir, a traveling performance troupe, her adopted daughter. Based on real stories, the movie is set in some turbulent years of the country's contemporary history.
Genre: Drama
RED SNOW, Japan
Synopsis: The story begins one snowy day with the disappearance of a boy. His older brother blames himself; the traumatic event causes him to suppress his real memories of that day, burying them under hazy recollections of losing sight of his brother. Meanwhile, a series of unsolved murders occurs, each one seemingly related to the woman suspected of kidnapping and murdering the boy. However, her refusal to talk leaves these crimes shrouded in mystery. The woman has a young daughter who she confines in her home, abusing her and refusing to let the world know of her existence. Thirty years after the boy’s disappearance, a journalist revives interest in the case, which in turn compels the victim’s brother to look for this woman’s daughter in the snowy hinterlands of northern Japan. This sets off a series of events that causes the brother and the woman’s daughter to glimpse the truth that has been concealed by their vague and painful memories.
Genre: Drama/Mystery
HIS BAD BLOOD, Japan
Synopsis: A man robs his family money and runs away from a small village on the day of his first son’s birth. Thirty years later, memory from decades back still haunts the villagers so when series of burglary occur in the village, they do not miss a chance to kick Shinichi, the criminal’s son who leads a lazy reliant life, out of the community as its prime suspect. In order to learn independence and prove his innocence, Shinichi takes shelter in a church remote from his homeland, but its minister welcomes another lost sheep – the man who has run away from Shinichi’s life 30 years ago. Now, the father and son start their life together not knowing the tie they already have.
Genre: Drama
CLOSET, Japan
Synopsis: A man who has lost his virility as a result of a traffic accident. ｢JIN｣、A man who can’t have sex with a woman, and therefore can’t have children. In frustration, he quietly leaves his fiancee and flees to Tokyo. He ends up in a “Soine” （ literally, “sleeping together.”）company. It is here where clients, men and women from their teens all the way up to their seventies, come together. It is a place where they come in search of peace. All are insomniacs, troubled by their lonliness.
People who cannot sleep. A 30-year-old virgin woman, A 36-year-old woman secretly in love with her significantly younger co-worker,
A college girl entangled in the web of host clubs at the age of 19, A homosexual man in his 50’s whose longtime lover has passed away, An elderly woman in her 80’s, who wants someone to remain at her side during a “passing” . Adults, who on the outside seem to be living a happy life, unable to send out a call for help for the heart. And she, meeting a man who is also burdened by her own feelings of isolation and desperation; the only one who can save her.
Genre: Drama, Fiction
HFPA SCHOLARSHIP — SHORT FILMS
The short films listed below were created by young Asian Filmmakers and have been selected for consideration by an HFPA Jury for a $5000 Scholarship.
BALAPAN (Kyrgyzstan) by Daniyar Abirov - Curator: Aitysh Kyrgyzstan, CIS
A DAY OFF (Lebanon ) by Leonardo Bassil - Curator: Beirut Film Society, Lebanon
DID YOU SAY NO (USA/Philippines) by Raeshib Aggerwhil - Curator: FilAm Creative, Los Angeles
EXAM (Iran) by Sonia Hadad - Curator: Beirut Film Society, Lebanon
AN HOUR (Georgia) by Giorgi Tavartkiladze - Curator: Aytish Kyrgyzstan, CIS
MONSTERS NEVER KNOW (China) by Ming Yang - Curator: Moredii, Los Angeles
PEUR BLEUE (Lebanon) by Lynn Tawile - Curator: Cinemaiyat, Lebanon
Home Without a Ground (Malaysia) by Putri Purnama Sugua - Curator: Haris Sulong, Malaysia
A SCARECROW (Nepal) by Min Bahabdur Bahm - Curator: AWFF
TATTOO (Iran) by Farhad Delaram - Curator: Beirut Film Society, Lebanon
UNDER THE STORK’S NEST by (Armenia) Ani Oganesyan - Curator Aitysh Kyrgyzstan, CIS
WITHOUT HIM (Iran) by Hamidreza Gazemi - Curator: Aitysh Kyrgyzstan, CIS