Pramana Asian Film Festival 2022

23 films produced in 17 different Asian countries were screened, selected from the 303 titles from 40 countries that participated in the selection.

Among the works chosen, 9 were Italian premieres and 8 European premieres.

Among the 17 countries represented, nations with little representation in international production circuits were also included, such as Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Taiwan and Syria.

The programming team viewed the films and composed a program capable of showing an authentic Asia, told directly by those who live it, to arouse an interest in learning more about the stories and traditions of those countries.

The films were chosen on the basis of their quality, their originality and their ability to tell a relevant aspect of their culture. We tried to diversify the selection, including animation, documentary, musical, contemporary stories and tales of a distant past.

We have chosen to include strong and necessary themes for the contemporary world, both Eastern and Western, such as the political repression by the police, racism and cultural integration, the conflict between progress and traditions, homosexuality, the disruptive power of capitalism.  

A recurring theme in many films has been the generational conflict and social pressure that young people in many Asian countries – like Europe – are forced to endure, and their reactions to the authorities.

The first evening ended with the European preview of the Korean musical film Daughter of the Wind, set at the end of the Japanese-Korean conflict and full of symbolism and references to the cultures of the two countries.

The festival closed with another European premiere screening: 4 SUM, an Indian feature film set in the suburbs of New Delhi, characterized by raw realism and a powerful visual language that impressed the audience.