Adelaide’s Mercury Cinema alongside OzAsia Festival present a collection of films by Asia’s leading independent and major filmmakers from the 18th October – 6th November with highlights including a Director Focus on Bong Joon-ho and his 2019 Palme d’Or winning film, Parasite, as well as the most awarded film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Honeyland and a collection of films from Across Asia, Lebanese Cinema and Asian Cult Cinema.
A figurehead of the South Korean New Wave, Bong Joon-ho has used genre filmmaking to cast a critical lens on South Korea and US imperialism as well as global issues of justice, corruption and the environment. This retrospective includes earlier works such as The Host and Mother alongside his most recent Palme d’Or winner, Parasite, the first-ever South Korean movie to take the top prize at Cannes Film Festival.
The film program will open on Friday, 18th October with the most awarded film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Honeyland. The documentary follows Hatidze the last of the Balkan Mountains wild bee hunters. Her peaceful life is upended with the arrival of an itinerant family with expansion on their mind. Film Inquiry described Hatidze as ‘the documentary protagonist of the year.’
The Across Asia series features a selection of recent acclaimed films, which identify filmmakers to watch as well as the cultural discussions and forces of change at play in this dynamic region. Beanpole, follows two friends as they rebuild their lives in the devastating post siege ruins of Leningrad. How the one child policy impacted a generation is intimately told from many perspectives in One Child Nation. Winner of Best Documentary, 2019 SXSW Film Festival, For Sama, documents the epic tale of courage in war; a couple meet, marry and have a baby during the five years of the uprising in Aleppo.
Other series in the film program include, Contemporary Lebanese Cinema, once considered a jewel of Middle Eastern culture, Lebanon’s cinema has again come to the fore, exploring the daily lives of ordinary people while the reverberations of past conflicts are never far from the surface.
Over time, Asian cinema has become a powerhouse of genre filmmaking, and since the 1970s, has increasingly built a cult audience in the West. Asian Cult Cinema offers a selection of Asian genre films making waves in 2019, featuring Ride Your Wave which recently won the best animation award at the Shanghai International Film Festival.
From Russia we have films from two of the country’s most exciting but very different new filmmakers. Kantemir Balakirev who at only 27 in 2019 won Best Director, Un Certain Regard at Cannes for the Across Asia’s Beanpole. Inspired by the works of Leone and Tarantino is the director, Kirill Sokolov whose Why Don’t You Just Die is in the Asian Cult Cinema program.
As part of the one hundred year commemoration of Korean Cinema, this year the screening program partners with the Korean Cultural Centre Australia to screen two films for free, The Spy Gone North and The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale, both in the Asian Cult Cinema program.
While the Flinders University Film Series will explore Emerging Asian Australian Filmmakers and short films from Yogyakarta in Warm Regards. Curated by Nicholas Godfrey, Flinders University College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Gail Kovatseff Director of the Media Resource Centre and film program curator said she was thrilled with the quality of this year’s OzAsia film program.
“This year there is an amazing contrast of old and new such as the Director Focus on Bong Joon-ho’s legendary career and his latest Palme d’Or winning, Parasite, while other new films such as Honeyland and the Asian Cult Classics series from 2019 are the perfect contemporary introduction to this thrilling world of cinema that many Australians are yet to experience.”
See the full program and buy tickets here – www.ozasiafestival.com.au
OzAsia Film Program – The Mercury Cinema
18th October – 6th November
For media, review and image requests contact: Against The Grain Publicity
Thomas Jackson – Thomas@atgpublicity.com.au – 0428 859 475
FULL FILM PROGRAM:
Director Focus – BONG JOON-HO:
BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE
Director Bong Joon-ho
South Korea | 2000 | 110 mins
MON 21 OCT 7pm
MEMORIES OF MURDER
Director Bong Joon-ho
South Korea | 2003 | 131 mins
WED 23 OCT 7.30pm
THE HOST
Director Bong Joon-ho
South Korea | 2006 | 120 mins
MON 28 OCT 7pm
MOTHER
Director Bong Joon-ho
South Korea | 2009 | 129 mins
WED 30 OCT 7pm
PARASITE
Director Bong Joon-ho
South Korea | 2019 | 132 mins
SAT 19 OCT 6.30pm
TUE 5 NOV 10.45am
OPENING NIGHT FILM:
HONEYLAND
Directors Tamara Kotevska
and Ljubomir Stefanov
Macedonia | 2019 | 87 mins
FRI 18 OCT 7pm
Includes light refreshments
and a honey cocktail
FRI 25 OCT 10.45am
SUN 3 NOV 2pm
ACROSS ASIA:
BEANPOLE
Director Kantemir Balagov
Russia | 2019 | 130 mins
SUN 27 OCT 5pm
FRI 1 NOV 10.45am
BULBUL CAN SING
Director Rima Das
India | 2018 | 95 mins
SAT 19 OCT 2pm
SAT 26 OCT 2pm
MANTA RAY
Director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Thailand | 2018 | 105 mins
TUE 22 OCT 10.45am
SUN 3 NOV 4pm
ONE CHILD NATION
Directors Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang
USA/China | 2019 | 85 mins
SUN 20 OCT 4pm
SUN 27 OCT 3pm
THE THIRD WIFE
Director Ash Mayfair
Vietnam/USA | 2018 | 96 mins
FRI 18 OCT 10.45am
SUN 3 NOV 12pm
WED 6 NOV 5pm
WILD GOOSE LAKE
Director Diao Yinan
China/France | 2019 | 133 mins
SUN 20 OCT 6pm
SUN 3 NOV 6pm
FOR SAMA
Directors Waad Al-Kateab
and Edward Watts
Syria/UK/USA | 2019 | 95 mins
SUN 20 OCT 2pm
TUE 29 OCT 10.45am
SCREWDRIVER
Director Bassam Jarbawi
Palestine | 2018 | 108 mins
WED 23 OCT 4.45pm
SAT 2 NOV 12pm
CONTEMPORARY LEBANESE CINEMA:
CARAMEL
Director Nadine Labaki
Lebanon/France | 2007 | 95 mins
MON 4 NOV 7pm
WEST BEIRUT
Director Ziad Doueiri
Lebanon/France | 1998 | 105 mins
SAT 2 NOV 2pm
WHERE DO WE GO NOW?
Director Nadine Labaki
Lebanon/France | 2011 | 110 mins
WED 6 NOV 7pm
THE INSULT
Director Ziad Doueiri
Lebanon/France | 2017 | 93 mins
MON 11 NOV 7pm
ASIAN CULT CINEMA:
THE ODD FAMILY: ZOMBIE ON SALE
Director Lee Min-jae
South Korea | 2019 | 111 mins
Free entry
Presented by the Korean Cultural Centre Australia
SAT 19 OCT 4pm
RIDE YOUR WAVE
Director Masaaki Yuasa
Japan | 2019 | 96 mins
SAT 26 OCT 4pm
WED 30 OCT 5pm
THE SPY GONE NORTH
Director Yoon Jong-bin
South Korea | 2018 | 137 mins
Free entry
Presented by the Korean Cultural Centre Australia
SAT 2 NOV 6.30pm
WHY DON’T YOU JUST DIE
Director Kirill Sokolov
Russia | 2018 | 95 mins
SUN 27 OCT 7.30pm
SAT 2 NOV 4pm
WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES
Director Makoto Nagahisa
Japan | 2019 | 120 mins
SAT 26 OCT 6.45pm
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY FILM SERIES:
WARM REGARDS
Short films from Yogyakarta
TUE 22 OCT 7pm
THU 31 OCT 11am
EMERGING ASIAN AUSTRALIAN FILMMAKERS
A showcase of vibrant works by emerging Asian-Australian independent filmmakers
FRI 25 OCT 6:30pm
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