Don't Miss These 5 Films at the 2019 Beijing European Union Film Festival
The European Union Film Festival (EUFF) is back! Now in its 12th edition, the EUFF is an annual highlight for local film buffs, bringing a lush crop of internationally acclaimed European films to Chinese audiences, including new releases and classics. There are also notable entries from previous Cannes Festivals, such as The South and The Hourglass Sanatorium (more on those below).
The movies aren't confined to the capital and will travel to seven cities nationwide after screenings at four Beijing venues: MOMA Broadway Movie Center, Parkview Museum, Poly Theatre Tiananmen Branch, and China Film Archive between Nov 28 and Dec 29.
Tickets will be available soon via WeChat's in-app mini-program 猫眼 (māo yǎn). Follow EUFF on WeChat (ID: EuFF28_filmfest) for updates and a timetable and on Weibo for trailers of some of the highlighted movies.
Below are five of our top picks from this year's roster – each will be screened with Chinese and English subtitles. Check the official WeChat account to make sure your screening has English.
Made in Malta (2019)
Independent romance Made in Malta tells the story of an American filmmaker and his Spanish ex-lover who reunite for 24 hours in Malta, five years after they broke up. Striking a similar tone to Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise/Before Sunset/Before Midnight trilogy, not a lot "happens" in this languid film, and the viewer remains a spectator as the duo wanders from place to place over the course of the day and night, talking freely about their lives apart. If the heart-on-the-sleeve honesty gets a bit much, viewers can at least lose themselves in the stunning Maltan scenery.
The South (1983)
Based upon the Adelaida García Morales' novella of the same name, The South (El Sur) is considered Spanish director Victor Erice's masterpiece which won him international acclaim upon it's release in 1983. Especially lauded for its masterful use of natural light, the movie tells the story of Estrella, an eight-year-old girl growing up in northern Spain, and her relationship with her mysterious father. Their relationship only becomes more complicated as the two grow older, after Estrella discovers more and more about her father's past loves and losses.
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973)
This adaption from the short story collection by Polish Jew Bruno Schulz, filmed in a magical realism style, The Hourglass Sanitorium (also pictured at top) centers around the travails of Joseph, a Jewish boy, as he journeys to visit his dying father in a mystical sanatorium. The film is laden with fantastical ideas and visual tricks, mimicking a world where time behaves in unpredictable ways. Director Wojciech Has reimagined Schulz's original work with reflections upon the Holocaust, especially in the context of the author's death at the hands of a Nazi soldier in 1942.
The Painted Bird (2019)
The Painted Bird, the third film based upon a written work featured on this list and is based upon the eponymous 1965 book by Polish author Jerzy Kosiński. Kosiński originally presented the book as autobiographical, a lie that was later widely debunked after its contents were proven to have been plagiarized from other popular Polish-language texts of the time. Directed and produced by Czech director Václav Marhoul, the story is told from the perspective of a young Jewish refugee during World War II, who during his quest to survive in an unspecified eastern European country witnesses acts of unremitting cruelty by local villagers. The film is the first major work to use Interslavic language (as opposed to any ethnic Slavic language), and although set during the Holocaust, do not focus on the war directly but rather the brutal limits that the human condition can stretch to.
Adela Has Not Had Her Dinner Yet (1977)
An oddball Czech comedic detective film directed by Oldřich Lipský, Adela Has Not Had Her Dinner Yet unfolds in Prague in light of a missing dog, multiple murders, and a carnivorous plant called Adela. The story unravels as told by the ongoing investigations of visiting New York detective Nick Carter, and despite the gruesome subject matter within, the film turns to parody and is brimming with situational comedy gags and wordplay. This screening is doubly special for the fact that the film has been restored from the Czech Film Archive.
You can browse more of this year's film via this link (in Chinese).
READ: 6 Spots That Host Free(ish) Screenings in Beijing
Photos: IMDB, en.aiff.gr
