The 2014 Sydney Film Festival (June 4-15, 2014) includes a special showcase of Chinese cinema, curated by esteemed critic and programmer Shelly Kraicer. The program details are as follows:
China continues to be one of the most compulsively fascinating countries on the planet: it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that China’s future may very well be our future. Chinese movies lay out spellbinding ways to try to grasp that country’s complexities, its unfathomable beauty and its ongoing problems.
We’ve selected the widest variety possible of the best new Chinese films. We offer the glossy commercial hit Up in the Wind’s pointed examination of middle-class anxieties; homespun indie doc Beijing Ants’ ground- level view of marginal urban existence; Dancing in the Room’s romantic but blackly comic take on youthful boredom; Mothers’ nuanced look at bureaucracy; Lake August’s starkly beautiful portrait of death and love in the hinterlands; and ’Til Madness Do Us Part’s epic ode to passions that thrive in the remotest corners of the state. In SFF’s Official Competition, the noir-mystery- arthouse mashup of passion and murder Black Coal Thin Ice landed it the prestigious Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale. Chinese cinema offers unlimited delights: its rebels, ghosts and romantics come to life through its screens to our imaginations.
Shelly Kraicer, Guest Programmer
BEIJING ANTS, d. Ryuji Otsuka DANCING IN THE ROOM, d. Peng Lei LAKE AUGUST, d. Yang Heng MOTHERS, d. Xu Huijing THE PRIVATE LIFE OF FENFEN, d. Leslie Tai ‘TIL MADNESS DO US PART, d. Wang Bing UP IN THE WIND, d. Teng Huatao
Diao Yi’nan’s BLACK COAL THIN ICE (????) is also featured in the Sydney FF official competition.
Details, photos, and in some cases trailers are all here, at the SFF 2014 website for the series.
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