CINEMANILA 2006: Synopses of Films in Competition

From more than fifty (50) films coming from no less than forty (40) countries Cinemanila proudly presents nine (9) films chosen to compete for the prestigious Grand Prize Lino Brocka Award:

2006 Cinemanila International Competition:

9th Company
Director: Fyodor Bondarchuk (Finland-Russia-Ukraine)
Link
The film follows a band of young recruits from a farewell ceremony with friends and family back home, through their often brutal training in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley, up to a bloody battle on a mountain top in Afghanistan against the mujahideen.
Best Foreign Language Film Nominee (Russia)- Oscar Awards
Golden Eagle- Russian Academy of Cinema Arts

Climates
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey-France)
Link
A dowdy university instructor Isa is an inattentive husband to his younger TV-business wife Bahar. Self-absorbed and selfish, Isa only communicates in the most rudimentary way while she, similarly, detaches into crying jags and juvenile behavior.
FIPRESCI Prize
Palm D’Or Nominee- Cannes Film Festival 2006
Citizen Dog
Director: Wisit Sasanatieng (Thailand)
Link
A colorfully surrealistic story set in contemporary Bangkok, where a boy (Pod) without a goal in life falls in love with a girl (Jin) who lives for her dreams. The movie is frequently compared with the French film Amelie. One of the main themes of the movie is that people will only find something from the moment when they stopped looking for it.
Luc Besson’s Eurocorp picked the film for international release.
Critics Prize- Deauville Asian Film Festival
6th on the Top Ten Best Films of 2005- Time magazine
Everlasting Regret
Director: Stanley Kwan (Hong Kong)
Link
Based on Wang Anyi’s Changhen Ge, the multi-awarded winning novel that was voted the most influential work of the 90’s in China. Everlasting Regret follows a legendary Shanghai beauty from her glamorous days to her simpler life as she struggles to preserve the dignity of her past while surviving the constant betrayal of her men. She stands tall and proud as she bears witness to the waves of changes to her city from 1947 to 1981 until one wave finally overwhelms her.
Open Prize- Berlin Film Festival
Heremias
Director: Lav Diaz (Philippines)
Link
The story of a gentle human being whose quiet and simple life is changed by circumstances that plunge him into disillusionment, shattering his view of the world and faith in man, and, ultimately, lead him to question the justice, and the existence of God.
Special Jury Prize- 20th Fribourg International Film Festival
It’s Only Talk
Director: Ryuichi Hiroki (Japan)
FIPRESCI Prize- Singapore International Film Festival 2006
Link
Yuko is a 35 yr-old woman-unemployed, single and being treated for manic depression. Single though she may be, she divides her time among a variety of men: Homma, her university classmate, who suffers from impotence; “K” a guy she met on the web, who is a self-confessed pervert; Noburu, a depressed gang member, and her cousin Soichi, separated from his wife and child and just dumped by his lover.
Kubrador
Director: Jeffrey Jeturian (Philippines)
Link
Amy is an aging jueteng kubrador (bet collector) as she goes about her daily business collecting bets, avoiding the police and paying her handler, all the while dealing with events in her personal life, including the recent death of her son. An ordinary meaningless existence can suddenly be changed by the perplexing game of life, luck and death.
FIPRESCI- 28th Moscow International Film Festival
FIPRESCI- 2006 Osian Cinefan Film Festival
Best Asian Film- 2006 Osian Cinefan Film Festival
Best Asian Actress- 2006 Osian Cinefan Film Festival
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Director: Park Chan-wook (South Korea)
Link
Lee Geum-Ja, at the age of 19, goes to prison for the murder and abduction of a child on behalf of her accomplice Mr. Baek, only to find out that she is betrayed. While is prison, she carefully prepares for her revenge by winning the hearts of her fellow inmates with her kindness, thus earning herself the nickname ‘kind Ms. Geum-Ja.’ Upon her release from prison after 13 years, she finally sets out to seek revenge on Baek, with the help of her former prison mates.
Golden Lion Nominee- 62nd Venice International Film Festival
Best Director Winner- Bangkok Festival 2006
Best Actress (Lee Young-ae)- Spain Film Festival 2005
TAKING FATHER HOME
Director: YING LIANG (China)
Link
When Xu Yu leaves his village in search of his father, it marks a point of no return for the adolescent. Living a life of hardship in rural China, the news of his father having an affair, making it big and with a car to boot incensed the young adult. His mother’s pleas fail to stop him from leaving. We next see Xu Yun with the 1,000 yuan given by his father and two ducks in a basket setting off for the city to look for his father.
More than a youth’s journey into adulthood, Yi Liang’s feature debut is a hard hit on present-day China, with deep moral and spiritual questioning by the director. Right from the word ‘go’, the film echoes the dilemma that is facing the country as it marches towards development and economic change. The father in the film symbolises the leadership of the country, the son the masses in search of its destiny.
Throughout his search he faces challenges that would transform him further. There are constant references urging him to become a man. Circumstances show taht there are no guarantees in life. The director seems to ask: Is it necessary to kill the ‘father’ in order that the ‘son’ may find this true self? Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the the Tokyo Filmex.
The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Director: Ken Loach (UK-Germany-Italy-France-Spain-Ireland)
Link
Ireland, 1920. Damien and Teddy are brothers fighting side by side until a truce is signed. Peace is achieved but is short-lived and when England imposes a treaty regarded unfair by a part of the population, war resumes, this time pitting Irishmen against Irishmen, brothers against brothers, Teddy against Damien.
Palm D’Or Winner- 2006 Cannes Film Festival
The 8th Cinemanila International Film Festival opens from Nov. 03-15 @ the Greenbelt Cinemas (International films) SM Digital Cinemas (Digital Lokal) and the NCCA Auditorium Intramuros Manila.
The 8th Cinemanila International Film Festival is brought to us by the Film Development Council of the Philippines, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Independent Cinema Association of the Philippines in cooperation with SM Cinema, Greenbelt Cinema, Cinema One, NU 107, Yehey.com, Click the City, Nissan Motor Phils., Asus, International Academy for Film and Television-Bigfoot Entertainment and TBWA

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