VietNamNet Bridge – “Here….or There?” by Siu Pham, will compete for the New Currents prize at the 16th Busan Film Festival 2011.
On August 24, the organizing board of the Busan Film Festival announced the list of 13 films, representing 12 Asian countries to compete for the New Trends Award. The list has the name of Vietnam’s “Here….or There?”. This is the sole Vietnamese feature film at the festival this year.

New Currents is the only international competition section featuring the first or the second feature films by the future leading directors of Asian cinema.

Produced at the cost of $200,000, the movie is a product of HK Film and it is distributed by Vietnam Media Corp.

“Here….or There?” is the story about a European-Vietnamese couple, who decide to spend their remaining years at a remote fishing village. They live in peace until the husband begins thinking of death and male menopause. He dreams to return to life after death, resume his sexual life and make romantic films. Tragedy comes for the wife when her husband disappears.

Director Siu Pham was born in Hanoi, raised in Geneva and now lives in Ho Chi Minh City. A student of philosophy, art, and theater, Pham works in a variety of media, and her photographic work has exhibited in Paris and Washington. Her documentary shorts include Saigon’s Blues and A Script in Udaipur. Here or… There?  is her first feature.

The 13 movies for the New Currents Lineup:

“August Drizzle” dir Aruna Jayawardana (Sri Lanka)
“Choked” dir Kim Joon-hyun (Korea)
“Damn Life” dir Kitagawa Hitoshi (Japan)
“Here….or There?” dir Siu Pham (Vietnam/Switzerland)
“I Carried You Home” dir Tongpong Chantarangkul (Thailand/Singapore)
“Lost in the Mountain” dir Gao Zipeng (China)
“The Mirror Never Lies” dir Kamila Andini (Indonesia)
“Mourning” dir Morteza Farshbaf (Iran)
“Niño” dir Loy Acrenas (Philippines)
“The Passion of a Man Called Choe Che-u” dir Stanley Park (Korea)
“Return to Burma” dir Midi Z (Myanmar/Taiwan)
“Starry Starry Night” dir Tom Shu-yu Lin (Taiwan/China)
“Watch Indian Circus” dir Mangesh Hadawale (India)

The jurors for the New Currents: Director Yonfan whose “Prince of Tears” received praise at the 2009 Venice Film Festival Competitive section. That same year, the film screened at the Busan International Film Festival; Od Agiri Joe - a famous star in Japan; Olivier Pere, a famous French curator who was festival director of Switzerland’s Locarno International Film Festival since 2009; top Chinese actress Jiang Wenli who featured in Farewell My Concubine and other numerous films; OH Jungwan, executive director of B.O.M. Film Productions, South Korea.

The 16th Busan International Film Festival is from October 6 to October 14.

The festival, held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan (also Pusan), South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festival, held from September 13 to September 21, 1996, was also the first international film festival in Korea.

The focus of the event is introducing new films and first-time directors, especially those from Asian countries. Another notable feature is the appeal of the festival to young people, both in terms of the large youthful audience it attracts and through its efforts to develop and promote young talent. In 1999, the Pusan Promotion Plan (renamed Asian Project Market in 2011) was established to connect new directors to funding sources.

Last year, two Vietnamese films attended the Busan Film Festival, “Floating Lives” and “Bi, Don’t Be Afraid”.

Minh Chanh