Inspired stories enrich films candidates for new Asian talents

Creators and actors from films shortlisted for the Golden Goblet Awards’ New Asian Talent category spoke about their inspiration at a jury meeting of the Shanghai International Film Festival on Tuesday.

One of the nominated films is “The Absent,” directed by new Xinjiang director Lu Dan, who decided to use a cast with little or no acting experience for his first feature film.

“The Absent” tells the story of Ivan, a hotel owner, and a wandering girl who meet unexpectedly in a small town during a harsh winter. It is nominated for five awards, including Best Picture.

Leading actors Na Dier, who plays Ivan, and Re Fati, who plays the hotel owner, are both nominated for best actor.

“When the director invited me to participate, I had never acted in a film before, I don’t even know how to sing,” Re Fati said.

“The producer and director came to my house five or six times, but I still wasn’t willing to do it. Finally, my wife convinced me. I didn’t realize that once I would started playing, I would fall in love with it and I won’t stop at the end.

Wang Yi, the only professional actress from “The Absent” cast present at the meeting, said she learned a lot during production. “Sometimes for actors we have to learn to be more real and sincerity is always a must,” she said.

“The most attractive thing about this film is its graphic sense,” said Fedor Popov, producer of “Longer Than A Day.” He said each frame reflected the theme of the film, showing a sense of fatalism.

The drama is a study of a woman living with her husband and father-in-law on a horse farm in the Kazakh steppe, and how they are all separated until the arrival of a French photographer.

Director Malika Mukhamejan said she made the film “with a special mission to promote tourism in Kazakhstan.”

“I come from Kazakhstan, a very big and beautiful country,” she said.

Mukhamejan was selected at last year’s festival for the Golden Goblet Awards for Short Films for her feature debut “The Swallow.” It explored how women deal with loneliness and showcased the steppe landscapes of Kazakhstan.

Producer Liu Fan explained the tragic inspiration behind the genesis of “The Lost Daughter.”

“There was a family in China who gave up their daughter to have a son, and when the son contracted leukemia, they went back to their daughter and begged her to help them save him,” Liu explained.

“We wanted to use this to discuss gender issues, family issues and human nature.”

The film focuses on a mother called Li Mei, trapped in the same situation.

“Actually, I started writing this script in 2021,” said director Zang Lianrong, “but it was very difficult to understand the emotions behind such an event to make progress.

“It wasn’t until I had a daughter around that time that my understanding of women completely changed. I was unconsciously introducing certain aspects of history to my own child,” Zang added.

Self-taught director Abhilash Sharma adopted a monochrome style for his second feature, a drama about the desperate lives of a poor couple living in a remote Indian village.

“All the colors of life convey a lot to us and I wanted to express my emotions in black and white and show the struggles of the working classes in India,” said the director of “In the Name of Fire”.

“We left the only set of color shots at the end of the film,” Sharma said.

“I think it’s important to give hope when it comes to cinema, and the color of the last scene is what gives the audience a glimmer of hope.”