THE REPORT OF THE THIRD EDITION
Pramana Asian Film Festival is an Asian film festival and independent community event in Calabria, Italy.
The third edition was held in Reggio Calabria on March 27-29, 2024 at CineTeatro Metropolitano during Easter week. All events were free admission for the public.
For the third consecutive year, we offered our city a quality independent film program, representative of different countries and cultures of the Asian continent.
Each day was held with an initial section dedicated to short films, screened in succession to return an overall look at the incredible cultural variety of the Asian continent and its film languages. Each of the three evenings was dedicated instead to a feature film.
The closing film of the festival was LYD, a Palestinian documentary that tells the incredible story of a city invaded and completely transformed by Israeli apartheid, which denied its history and rewrote its future. A film that was able to tell, through a specific story, the drama of an entire people.
The film was introduced by Danilo Nocera, spokesman for BDS – Reggio Calabria, an association that has been active for years in the area to raise awareness of the Palestinian issue, including through cultural initiatives.
THE PROGRAM
For the Official Competition of the third Pramana Asian Film Festival we screened 20 films, 17 shorts and 3 features from: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Korea, Japan, Iran, Nepal, Palestine, Singapore, Taiwan and Turkey.
Among the selected works are 5 national premieres, 5 European premieres and one world premiere.
The films were chosen based on their originality, quality, and ability to show and tell a relevant aspect of their culture.
We had a representation of productions from different regions of Asia, such as the Middle East, Far East, and Southeast Asia, including countries usually underrepresented in film distributions in Europe, such as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan Nepal, and Singapore.
Different stories were told in different styles and languages. Family dramas, comedies, documentaries, surreal stories, tension-filled thrillers, and testimonies to the most relevant issues of our time, both in Europe and Asia: the cultural identity of migrants, the chimera of online success, the indifference of societies of progress, and the contradictory humanity that can be found in every corner of the world.
The three feature films, which also differed in tone, intention, and narrative language, told the story of three countries as rich in history as Japan, China, and Palestine, but with a glimpse of the contemporary and the contradictions they are experiencing.
THE FILMS SCREENED IN 2024
48 HOURS
Director: Azadeh Moussavi
Iran | 2022 | 20′
Language: Persian
After three years in prison, Nader is given a furlough to go home. He has 48 hours to become a father to his four years old daughter.
A BRIGHT SUNNY DAY
夏至前天
Director: Yupeng He
China/USA | 2023 | 20′
Language: Chinese – Min Nan
The appearance of a girl on a bright sunny day gently changes the life of a young man.
ALLEY 404
Director: Ting-yu Chang
Taiwan | 2023 | 11′
Language: Chinese
An old couple face the difficulties of using new technology in their new apartment.
BITTER
Salça
Director: Burak Oguz Saguner
Turkey | 2022 | 12′
Language: Turkish
Four friends become unlikely bystanders to an incident of domestic violence. What will they do?
CHASING A SHOOTING STAR
Director: Haitao Guo
China | 2023 | 98′
Language: Chinese
A meteorite falls on Hengduan Mountain in southeastern China. Liu with a group of hunters sets out on a dark search for the meteorite.
CONFUSED BLOOD
Director: James Cutler
Republic of Korea | 2023 | 16′
Language: English, Korean
Richard is a half-Korean living in Seoul, searching for belonging within Korea’s society and culture.
DESTRUCTION
Director: Igor Smola
Azerbaijan | 2022 | 22′
Language: Azerbaijani
A death-wounded boy breaks into an artist’s studio. A policeman asks strange questions as reality distorts into a cat’s dream.
ESPER X PRIVATE DETECTIVE AGENCY
Director: Akiyoshi Koba
Japan | 2023 | 89′
Language: Japanese
Detective Matsuda, who can use psychic powers, hunts down criminals with the strongest psychic powers, along with Minamino, a detective who hates psychics.
FANXI
Director: Monaco SHA
China | 2023 | 30′
Language: Chinese
Fanxi is a ghostwriter who drives cabs while pursuing his dream of writing a film. He has to rewrite his screenplay in one night, but is caught up in a strange kidnapping.
FILE
Parvandeh
Director: Sonia K. Hadad
Iran | 2022 | 20′
Language: Persian
A 6-year-old mute boy attends a pre-school health screening with his mother. At the test, he makes a decision that changes everything.
HAMZA – CHASING THE GHOST CHASING ME
حمزة – أطارد شبحًا يطاردني
Director: Ward Kayyal
Palestine | 2022 | 18′
Language: Arabic
Every day, old Hamza goes into the woods to hunt a lion that the villagers do not even believe exists.
KATHMANDU MONSOON
Director: Ngima Gelu Sherpa
Nepal | 2022 | 18′
Language: Nepali
An ethnographic study of daily life in a city as a monsoon approaches.
LOVE AT 50
中年情
Director: Tan Wei Ting
Singapore | 2022 | 30′
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Kee, a divorced mother of two in her 50s, weighs the prospect of an unlikely romance against its challenges.
LYD
Directors: R. Younis, S.E. Friedland
Palestine | 2022 | 80′
Language: Arabic, Hebrew
A story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world – what it once was, what it is now, and what it could have become.
NIGHTS AND DAYS IN AMERICA
美利坚日日夜夜
Director: Louise Zhang
USA/China | 2021 | 11′
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Jennifer, is a 17-year-old Chinese girl studying New York. One day, she receives the news of her grandfather’s death.
THE BEE AND THE FLY
蜂蜜与苍蝇
Director: Xia Su
China | 2023 | 7′
Language: n/a
The Bee and the Fly live as parasites in the corrupt local society, witnessing day and night the nefarious deeds of power.
THE OLD YOUNG CROW
Director: Liam LoPinto
Japan/USA | 2022 | 80′
Language: Japanese, Persian
An Iranian boy befriends an old Japanese woman at a graveyard in Tokyo.
THE SPRAYER
Director: Farnoosh Abedi
Iran | 2022 | 9′
Language: Mandarin Chinese
In a land where no one can grow any kind of plant, a soldier finds a seed planted deep in the dust, starting something revolutionary.
WILL YOU LOOK AT ME
Director: Shuli Huang
China| 2022 | 20′
Language: Chinese
A young Chinese filmmaker returns to his hometown in search of himself and becomes involved in a long conversation with his mother.
YELLOW
Director: Elham Ehsas
Afghanistan/UK | 2023 | 13′
Language: Persian
In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a woman walks into a chadari store in Kabul to buy her first full-body veil.
AWARDS
This year, the winner of the BEST ASIAN SHORT category, Singaporean filmmaker TAN WEI TING, was awarded a full scholarship to attend the “KINO GUARIMBA FILM RESIDENCY,” organized by La Guarimba Organization in Calabria, Italy. The scholarship is worth $1,500 and covers the participation fee, lodging and training events of Kino Guarimba, an international film training program held in June and September in Italy.
Below are all the awards from the Third Edition of Pramana:
CREDITS
ORGANIZATION: Associazione Culturale Pramana
ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Simone Colistra
FILM SELECTION AND PROGRAMMING: Federica Buccheri, Giorgia Megliola, Haejee Park, Simone Colistra
TRANSLATION AND SUBTITLING: Stefania Erra
COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA: Simone Colistra
ILLUSTRATION: Giada Puccinelli