The lineup for the Asian Horizon section of the 7th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) is officially announced! This section aims to showcase the year's most anticipated works by new Asian directors from unique perspectives. As the ancient poem goes, "As the bright moon shines over the sea, from far away we share this moment." From December 3 to December 9, let us feel our interconnectedness, reflected like the moon in a myriad of rivers, in the Asian Horizon section, and witness the common pursuit of Asian filmmakers to connect through light and shadow across geographical boundaries.
Singaporean director Chen Siyou, whose short film was previously nominated for the Golden Coconut Awards, presents her first independently directed feature film. He reflects on Singapore's education policies through the quirky style of a youth film, presenting youthful rebellion in East Asian society. From Iran, Raha also uses a small perspective to reveal a bigger picture. The debut film of director Hessam Farahmand revolves around a "girl selling her hair" and unfolds a panoramic view of Iranian society. It stars the acclaimed Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini and won Best First Feature Film at the Fajr International Film Festival in Iran. Bangladeshi director Mahde Hasan's Sand City presents a man and a woman in two parallel worlds, along with their respective wondrous entanglements with sand. Through richly textured cinematography, it captures an extreme sense of loneliness in a densely populated city. Shadowbox, which premiered in this year's Berlinale Perspectives section, comes from Indian emerging female director Tanushree Das. She and co-director Myanmay Sahi dissect various issues including family, class, gender, and post-traumatic stress disorder with sharp, heavy, or tender strokes.
This year has seen Chinese-language cinema shine brightly on the international film festival stage, and Asian Horizon also covers the new forces of Chinese-language cinema reaching out to the global film arena. Zhu Xin's All Quiet at Sunrise finally arrives in Hainan after its screenings at international film festivals. The film continues his uniquely auteurist poetic style and stands as another representative work of the "Hangzhou New Wave." Dream Visit in Winter outlines the emotional ripples among ordinary people in a small Northeastern city. As director Wang Songke's debut film, it embodies the style of Asian cinema masters and is a rare independent Chinese-language work. Director Jing Yi's debut film The Botanist won an award in the Generation Kplus section at the Berlin International Film Festival, showcasing the valley landscapes of northern Xinjiang and the daily life of the Kazakh people, and has garnered attention for its poetic aesthetics and cultural depth. Director Li Dongmei brings her new work Guo Ran five years after Mama and Seven Days, starring Li Manshu and Wang Yitong, telling an autobiographical female story. West Border stars Pan Binlong and Zeng Meihuizi, telling a mysterious border story; the film was previously nominated for the Concorso Cineasti del Presente section at the Locarno Film Festival.
From China to South Asia, from Singapore to Iran, these works not only retain the cultural DNA of their respective regions but also jointly sketch a diverse picture of Asian cinema. The Asian Horizon section invites you to witness how contemporary Asian creators use cinema as a method, responding to global issues with local experiences, and addressing global dilemmas with Asian perspectives and possibilities.
More screening lineups for the 7th HIIFF will be announced soon. We look forward to embarking on a journey of cinema with filmmakers and cinephiles from home and abroad, and discovering a broader world through inclusivity and creativity.
