Udine Far East Film Festival

The Udine Far East Film Festival ran from April 21-29. See Greencine dispatches for the entire festival. CinéFemme especially recommends Ma Liwen: You and Me, a meeting between an elderly woman who was a soldier and rode horses, and a young university student. The contemplative pace of the film and the female characters are exceptional.

If the paucity of Asian films at the Cannes Film Festival gets to you, plan on attending this festival. (This year there are 12 Asian films in Cannes, 73 in Udine). Fest catches the Asian films released between Venice and Cannes, and which miss the crosshairs of Berlin. The festival hopes to double the amount of Asian film to the Venezia- Friuli-Veneto region together with the Venice Film Festival. And director Marco Müller was in attendance to give his nod of approval. The festival organizer is of Europe's leading experts in Chinese literature and who saw to it that Hayao Miyazaki came to Italy to accept a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement last year in Venice.

Asian Cannes 2006
Competition: Summer Palace, Lou Ye
Quinzaine des realizateurs: The Host, Bong Joon-ho,Yureru, Nishikawa MiwaSepohon Rambutan Indah Kepunyaanku Di Tanjung Rambutan, U-Wei bin HajiSaari
Un Certain regard: Re-cycle, Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang Gwai Wik, Luxury Car, Wang Chao, The Unforgiven, Yoon Jong-bin, Serambi, Garin Nugroho
Midnight screening: Election 2, Johnnie To, Guisi, Su Chao-pin
Cannes Classics: Shi Si Nu Ying Hao, Kang Cheng, Kaze No Tani No Naushika, Hayao Miyazaki
Photograph ©Moira Sullivan