The 25th edition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival is about to kick off, and between 12-28 of November the audience will have the oportunity to watch a great number of films from Asia, strewn across festival's various program sections, including all competition segments. We went through the complete program and counted no more or less than 69 films from the broader Asian region.
Quite surprising is the amount of competition titles in the main selection, with three world premieres (Jun Robles Lana's “Big Night”, Adilkhan Yerzhanov's “Herd Immunity” and Abed Abest's “Killing the Eunuch”), four international (Kirill Sokolov's “No Looking Back”, Ryuichi Mino's “Make The Devil Laugh”, Bolat Kalymbetov's “Mukagali” and Emre Erdoğdu's “The List of Those Who Love Me”). Lu ZHang's “Yanagawa” will have its European premiere at PÖFF.
Yerzhanov returns to Tallinn a year after he presented two films at the festival, the main competition title “Ulbolsyn” about a woman who comes to a Kazhak village to “steer trouble”, and the oddball comedy “Yellow Cat” screened in the Current Waves program. Kirill Sokolov is also back two years after the premiere of his critically acclaimed dark comedy “Why Don't You Just Die”.
Here is the full list of Asian films at Tallinn Black Nights:
Official Selection:
“Big Night”, Jun Robles Lana (Philippines, 2021)
“Herd Immunity”, Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Kazakhstan/ France, 2021)
“Killing the Eunuch Khan”, Abed Abest (Iran, 2021)
“No Looking Back”, Kirill Sokolov (Russian Federation, 2021) Intern.
“Make the Devil Laugh”, Ryuichi Mino (Japan, 2021) Intern.
“Mukagali”, Bolat Kalymbetov (Kazakhstan, 2021) Intern.
“The List of Those Who Love Me”, Emre Erdoğdu (Turkey, 2021) Intern.
“Yanagawa”, Lu Zhang (China) Europ.
First Feature Competition:
“Dozens of Norths”, Kōji Yamamura (Japan, 2021)
“The Cloud & the Man”, Abhinandan Banerjee (India, 2021)
“Who is Sleeping in Silver Grey”, Liao Zihao (China, 2021)
“Zuhal”, Nazli Elif Durlu (Turkey/ Germany, 2021)
Rebels With A Cause:
“1000 Dreams”, Marat Sarulu (Kyrgyzstan, 2021)
“Habitat”, Luoping Zhang (China, 2021)
“Love Is A Dog From Hell”, Khavn (Philippines/ Germany, 2021)
“Unprecedented”, Masaaki Kudo (Japan, 2021)
Rebels With Their Shorts:
“Vadim On A Walk”, Sasha Svirsky (Russian Federation, 2021)
“How to Die Young in Manila”, Petersen Vargas (Philippines, 2021)
“Orthodontics”, Mohammadreza Mayghani (Iran, 2021)
Doc@PÖFF
“Ascension”, Jessica Kingdon (China, 2021)
“Far Eastern Golgatha”, Julia Sergina (Russian Federation, 2021)
“Stanislavski: Lust for life”, Julia Bobkova (Russian Federation, 2021)
Current Waves:
“A New Old Play”, Qiu Jiongjiong (Hong Kong/ China/ France, 2021)
“A Siege Diary”, Andrey Zaytsev (Russian Federation, 2021)
“Aloners”, Hong Seong-eun (South Korea, 2021)
“All Eyes Off Me”, Andrey Zaytsev (Israel, 2021)
“Brighton 4th”, Levan Koguashvili (Georgia/ Russian Federation/ Bulgaria/ USA/ Monaco, 2021)
“Brother's Keeper”, Ferit Karahan (Turkey/ Romania, 2021)
“Cinema Sabaya”, Orit Fouks Rotem (Israel, 2021)
“Drive My Car”, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan, 2021)
“Hit The Road”, Panah Panahi (Iran, 2021)
“Huda's Salon”, Hany Abu-Assad (Egypt/ Palestine/ Netherlands, 2021)
“Memoria”, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Colombia/ Thailand/ France/ Germany/ Mexico, 2021)
“No Land's Man”, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (USA/ India/ Bangladesh/ Australia, 2021)
“Last ‘Dear Bulgary'”, Aleksey Fedorchenko (Russian Federation, 2021)
“One Second”, Zhang Yimou (China/ Hong Kong, 2021)
“When Pomegranates Howl”, Granaz Moussavi (Australia/ Afghanistan, 2020)
“Nuuccha”, Vladimir Munkuev (Russian Federation, 2021)
“The Conscience”, Aleksey Kozlov (Russian Federation, 2021)
“Unclenching The Fists” (Russian Federation, 2021)
“What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?”, Aleksandre Koberidze (Germany/ Georgia, 2021)
Youth Competition:
“The Parent”, Vlad Furman (Russian federation, 2021)
“The Swimmer”, Adam Kalderon (Israel, 2021)
“The Tenant”, Sushrut Jain (USA/ India, 2021)
Shorts Animation Competition:
“Life's a Bitch”, Varya Yakovleva (Russian Federation, 2021)
“Night Bus”, Joe Hsieh (Taiwan, 2020)
Cucumbers, Leonid Shmelkov (Russian Federation/ France, 2021)
Anxious Body, Yoriko Mizushiri (Japan/ France, 2021)
Salvia at Nine, Jang Nari (South Korea, 2020)
The Fourth Wall, Mahboobeh Kalaee (Iran, 2021)
Shorts Live-Action Competition:
“Comrade Policeman”, Assel Aushakimova (Kazakhstan, 2020)
“Sister's Busy Hands”, Jovi Lee Yi-shan (Taiwan, 2020)
“Sunrise in My Mind”, Danech San (Cambodia, 2020)
“6 Legs”, Isamu Hirabayashi (Japan, 2020)
“All The Crows In The World”, Yi Tang (Hong Kong, 2021)
Short New Talents Animation:
“Dogs Smell Like The Sea”, Anastasiya Lisovets (Russian Federation, 2020)
“Eyes and Horns”, Chaerin Im (Germany/ South Korea/ USA, 2021)
Doc@Shorts:
“Tatata”, Yi Yang Sun (China, 2020)
“Herd”, Omer Daida (Israel, 2021)
“A List Of Things I Love”, Daria Turetski (Israel, 2021)
“The Floating World”, Fernando Souza & Pablo Curto (Japan, 2021)
Shorts Panorama:
“The Visit”, Morrie Tan Shu Zhen (Singapore, 2021)
“Amayi”, Subarna D (India, 2021)
“The Shepherd”, Ilya Plyusnin (Russian Federation, 2021)
Shorts Alternatives:
“The Blooper”, Sergey Tselikov (Russian Federation, 2021)
“Spaces Between Us: Wayang”, Lenne Chai & ScRach MarcS (Singapore, 2021)
“Blindness”, 박유선 (South Korea, 2021)
“Memory Theater”, Hee-yoon Hahm (South Korea, 2020)
“Huh”, Tae-woo Kim (South Korea, 2021)
“Inverted”, by Dina Indykh, Tal Meshulam, Shelly Salem, Eden Dolev, Omran Tlalka, Raz Negev, Dor Kaplan, Michael Jacob, Neomi Hazan, Liat Meik (Israel, 2021)
