The 62nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival will return to the movie theaters starting from November 4 to 14, 2021. This year's celebration of independent cinema will take place in physical spaces as well as online (https://online.filmfestival.gr/).
Among the 197 films to be screened at the Festival (with 144 of these available online), a number of Asian films will feature in the following categories:
International Competition
Moneyboys, C. B. Yi, Austria-France-Taiwan-Belgium, 2021, 120' (in theatre and online)
Fei works illegally as a hustler in order to support his family, yet when he realizes they are only willing to accept his money but not his way of life, their relationship breaks down. Together with the headstrong Long, Fei seems to find a new lease on life, but then he encounters Xiaolai, the love of his youth, who confronts him with the guilt of his repressed past.
White Building, Kavich NEANG, Cambodia-France-China-Qatar, 2020, 90' (in theatre and online)
Samnang is twenty years old and faces the demolition of his lifelong home in Phnom Penh as well as the pressures from family, friends, and neighbors which arise and intersect in this moment of sudden change.
Meet The Neighbours
Costa Brava, Lebanon, Mounia AKL, Lebanon-France-Spain-Sweden-Denmark-Norway-Qatar, 2021, 108' (in theatre and online)
The free-spirited Badri family decide to escape the toxic pollution and social unrest of their home city of Beirut. They lead a simple utopian existence in a pristine home in the mountains. Unexpectedly, an illegal garbage landfill begins construction right next door, bringing with it the very trash and corruption from which they were trying to escape. As the landfill rises, so do family tensions. Their idyllic home and family unity are now under threat.
Death of a Virgin, and the Sin of Not Living, George Peter BARBARI, Lebanon, 2021, 86' (in theatre and online)
A group of teenagers pool their money to pay for their first time. Their journey to see a sex worker is accompanied by boastful teenage conversations, but also nervous and vulnerable inner monologues.
Special Screenings
Drive My Car, Ryusuke HAMAGUCHI, Japan, 2021, 179'
Yusuke is a stage actor and director who lost his wife two years ago and is still unable to cope with the loss. He accepts an offer to direct Uncle Vanja at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions are revealed.
Introduction, HONG Sang-soo, South Korea, 2021, 66′
Yeong-ho is summoned by his father, who is a doctor. He has to wait when his father is busy with patients, one of whom is a famous actor. Yeong-ho shows up in Berlin to surprise his girlfriend Ju-won who has moved there for her studies. Ju-won lives at the home of an artist whose beauty intimidates her. Later, Yeong-ho meets his mother for lunch and she introduces him to a colleague – the same man Yeong-ho met at his father's clinic. Yeong-ho and his friend Jeong-soo go to the beach after lunch. Yeong-ho falls asleep and dreams of Ju-won. When he wakes up, he braves the considerable cold to swim in the sea, while Jeong-soo watches.
Memory Box, Joana HADJITHOMAS, Khalil JOREIGE, France-Lebanon-Canada-Qatar, 2021, 103' (in theatre and online)
Alex and her mother Maia live in Montreal. On Christmas Eve, Maia receives a box containing notebooks, cassettes and photographs that she had entrusted to her best friend when she left Lebanon. Maia refuses to open this Pandora's box but Alex cannot resist the temptation. She discovers her mother's tumultuous adolescence spent in wartime Beirut.
Open Horizons – Main Program
Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, Arthur HARARI, France-Japan-Germany-Belgium-Italy-Cambodia, 2021, 167'
When Japan surrenders at the end of World War II, soldier Hiroo Onoda retreats into the jungles of Lubang, a small island in the Philippines. He continues the war himself for another 10,000 days.
Ballad of a White Cow, Behtash SANAEEHA, Maryam MOGHADDAM, Iran-France, 2021, 105' (in theatre and online)
Mina's life is turned upside down when she learns that her husband was innocent of the crime for which he was executed. She begins a silent battle against a cynical system for her own and her daughter's sake.
Open Horizons – Another Take
Sexual Drive, Yoshida KOTA, Japan, 2021, 70' (in theatre and online)
Japanese triptych about sex, food as an aphrodisiac and secret desires. From natto, mapo tofu, to ramen with extra back fat, protagonist Kurita shows up in each part, disrupting the apparent quiet lives of married men and women, always carrying a Chinese chestnuts box under his arm.
Streetwise, Jiazuo NA, China, 2021, 95'
Dong Zi is a small-town youth who becomes a debt-collector's henchman to pay off his father's medical bills. His life is complicated by a cold and estranged relationship with his abusive father, and an ambiguous relationship with a local tattoo artist Jiu'er.
The Festival's program, as well as more information on the films, are available on www.filmfestival.gr. Presale season opens on November 2.
