Jia Zhangke belongs to the generation of the quadragenarian directors from the Far East, who have significantly examined and shifted the possibilities of film expression, thanks to which their films regularly win awards at the big film festivals. Jia Zhangke's Still Life (Sanxia Haoren) triumphed at the IFF Venice 2006; his latest work A Touch of Sin (Tian Zhu Ding) won the Best Screenplay at this year's IFF Cannes.
A Touch of Sin presents four stories from today's China, through which Jia Zhangke proves that he is the master of observation of this changing country. Based on reality, the stories study social differences of the characters and small conflicts ending up in violence. One of the main characters is performed by the famous Chinese actress Zhao Tao, who can be remembered by our festival visitors from the Italian film Shun Li and the Poet (Io sono Li) screened at the IFF Bratislava 2012. Its director Andrea Segre was awarded the European Parliament LUX Award 2012 and the actress Zhao Tao was honoured by the Italian Film Academy David for Best Actress.
Similarly stirring is the Polish thriller Traffic Department (Drogówka) from the Panorama section. In social criticism, the film director Wojtek Smarzowski has rather preferred a genre method. His intelligently built-up criminal thriller from the environment of the Warsaw traffic police depicts a world full of cynism and amorality. The heroes are 7 policemen (each of them discrretly representing one of the deadly sins), through whom Smarzowski shows the current state of his homeland Poland.
The film Traffic Department was screened at this year's IFF Karlovy Vary in the section Variety's Ten Euro Directors to Watch. Director Wojtek Smarzowski is not unknown to the Bratislava audience either; his film debut The Wedding (Wesele) was screened at the IFF Bratislava 2004 in the Competition of First and Second Feature Films section.
For further information about the 15th International Film Festival Bratislava visit the website www.iffbratislava.sk or the Facebook profile.
15th International Film Festival Bratislava
November 6 – 12, 2013
Main organisers:
Ars Nova Association
Partners Production
The Festival is held with the generous financial support of the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and with the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union.
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