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It’s not just a coincidence that the two best films of this year’s Cinemalaya* Philippine Independent Film Festival, John Denver Trending, and F***bois deal with the same topic in a country (the Philippines) where the internet is being used with greater intensity than in other countries of South-East Asia: the dark sides of internet and how it can destroy lives and careers.

Director: Farzad Khoshdast
Iran, 2019, 90 mins

The Narrow Red Line by young director Farzad Khoshdast, was one of the eleven Iranian films competing for the Netpac Award at the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran this year. The selection included features, documentaries, docu dramas and one animation. In his docu drama, Khoshdast draws us into the world of the penitentiary to show us the young men incarcerated for crimes such as theft, adultery, kidnapping, assault, buggery and murder, and their confessions.

29-year-old Iranian director Hadi Mohaghegh whose second film has already gathered several awards (in Busan 2015, among others) is clearly a filmmaker to watch – and so is his director of photography, Rozbeh Raiga. Together they have created a stunning and extraordinary film which deserves all the attention it can get.

If war is crazy, then the most passionate efforts to resist war must be equally crazy. This is perhaps the premise of Samira Makhmalbaf’s Blackboards (2000), a metaphorical fable of a people (Iranian Kurds) locked inside a warzone (symbolised by the rugged mountains) they live in, and seemingly unable to break free of the trap.

Based on Mori Ogai’s novel that drew from a popular Buddhist folk tale orally transmitted, most likely, by itinerant beggars in medieval times, the novel tempered the cruelty of the original tale. In his version, Mizoguchi’s film adds a political realism to the tale in explaining the disgraced governor’s role of opposing the military government, by not allowing his peasant people to be recruited for the army.

Who can escape fate? And even if one tried, does fate not always catch up in the end? The inter-generational wheel of life is what concerns Raam Reddy's debut feature, Thithi. It's a family's karmic wheel.

The films 'Sleepless' and 'The Crescent Rising' won the Best Film and Best Documentary NETPAC Awards at the 3rd Qcinema International Film Festival, Oct 22-31 2015, Quezon City, Philippines.

Garin's curiosity about people and how they behaved was a hallmark of his cinema. He often spent weeks or months in a film location just for research and observation. How else could he depict the sexual undercurrent between the elderly gamelan maestro and his young dance protégé in And the Moon Dances? It was a tradition known only to the initiated.

As part of 37th Moscow International Film Festival I spoke to the young Lebanese filmmaker Rana Salem whose first feature film, The Road (“El-Tariq”), premiered in the competition section of the festival and was honoured with the FIPRESCI Award. We discussed life as reflected in her films.
Sharofat Arabova: You make your films on women, but they tend to be unhappy...

 Being invited as a NETPAC jury member for the 32nd Busan International Short Film Festival (BISFF, Apr 24-28 2015) was the first time during my 10-year short-filmmaking career, to attend a specialised short film festival. In addition, after working for 10 years in the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (JAFF, Indonesia), it was the first time that I witnessed a film festival joining NETPAC and instituting its award. Now I could experience another festival having the same spirit as JAFF (when we joined), to support the development of Asian cinema and actively highlight Asian filmmakers. Finally, I must express my pride for the three Indonesian films in selection; Myrna Paramita’s Cleaning the Fish, Sidi Saleh’s Maryam and Sinung Winahyoko’s The Taste of Fences.