Editor

Strong presence of China and the Near East at 10th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
from 10th to 17th February 2004

From 10th to 17th February 2004, faithful to its vocation, the 10th edition of Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema will once more reflect the Asian vast continent’s cultural pluralism, through films coming from the entire geographical Asia.
Celebrating the Year of China in France, almost one third of the 67 films selected this year is dedicated to Chinese cinema. A special section " Focus on Chinese cinema " will show 12 land mark films from the thirties to the eighties. Thus, the audience’s adage could well be " When China is filled with films, the world is filled with wonder. " In a warm welcoming atmosphere, the audience will be invited to meet the director Wang Xiaoshuai, the documentary film-maker and photographer Ling Fei, the producer Ying Yang Ying, the painter Zhou Li and the film critic Sophie Lee.
The burning issues in the Near East drive film-makers from that part of Asia to make a cinema of urgency. Kurd director Hiner Saleem, as well as Nir Bergman from Israel, Amer Alwan from Irak, Ali Nassar from Palestine, Randa Chahal Sabbag from Lebanon... will invite the audience to discover the human reality portrayed in their original films, where poetry is also present.
Between the two poles of the Near East and the Far East, the Central Asian countries will also be represented with films from Uzbekistan, Kirghizstan, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan. Afghan director Sedigh Barmak and Kazak director Nariman Turbayev, along with the actor Erzhan Bekmuratov, will come and give us a precious account of the revival of cinema in their countries.
With the presence of Jafar Panahi (President of the International Jury) and Abolfazl Jalili, the great Iranian cinema will be well represented, while at the same time countries with less films such as Sri Lanka will also be well represented with the presence of Prasanna Vithanage, the leading director of new cinema in Sri Lanka, and Asoka Handagama, who faithfully comes back to Vesoul.
Asian women film-makers are not forgotten. With a sustained desire to balance the Near East and the Far East, we have invited Canan Gerede from Turkey and Viet Linh from Vietnam.
For the 10th anniversary of the festival, a special section entitled " 10 years, 10 special favourite " will show rare films from 10 different countries ; 10 favourite films which could not be shown until now. We wished to share with the audience the emotion and happiness we felt when we saw them.
10 years of love and passion for Asian cinema and 10 films on Love and Passion, this is our choice for the thematic section of the 10th edition of this festival quite unique in France.
Cinema reflecting life as it is , the documentary section, has 10 films out of which 8 are in competition.
There are also 9 feature films in competition which are part of the " Current Asian Cinema Today " section.
Altogether, 17 unreleased films are in competition for the 10th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema.