THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kazem Mollaie’s Iranian film ‘Kupal’ and ‘Easy’, a black comedy by Andrea Magnani received applause from the audience at the IFFK. ‘Easy’ portrays the journey of a depressed Iranian man who travels the road back to life in which East meets West.
‘Kupal’ portrays the life of Kupal, a taxidermist, and the situations he goes through before the Iranian New Year. Johnny Hendrix’s ‘Candelaria’ and Nila Madhab Panda’s ‘Dark Wind’ in the International Competition category, were screened again.
New Hong Kong Cinema
A panel discussion on current day Hong Kong cinema was held on Monday. The discussion, moderated by IFFK artistic director Beena Paul, had panelists from the Hong Kong film industry.Lo Yiu Fai, director of ‘Happiness’, shared his views on independent filmmaking in Hong Kong. Asian Film Awards Academy member Jacqueline Tong and Hong Kong-based journalist Vivienne Manchi Chow were the other panelists. They talked about the influence of China and Chinese cinema on Hong Kong’s film industry. The change in the economic status of China has negatively impacted the film industry, they said.
Chow observed the Hong Kong movie industry was going through a positive change after the 2014 Umbrella protest. She regarded the British invasion as an intellectual movement that widened the people’s perspective about Hong Kong.
Tong spoke at length about the huge opportunities available in China. “Mainland China and Hong Kong have two separate systems of film certification and this has forced the audience of Hong Kong to watch movies that are only certified for them,” Tong said.