The Shadowless Tower
Competition
The Shadowless Tower
A Film by Zhang Lu
2023 - China - Drama - 1.85:1 - 144 min.
with Xin Baiqing , Huang Yao & Tian Zhuangzhuang
Language: Mandarin
Produced by Jiahan Xu
Gu Wentong, a middle-aged food critic, is drifting through the local eateries of vibrant Beijing with his younger photographer colleague Oyang. A divorcé with a 6-year-old daughter and estranged from his father for decades, he is looking for a new perspective on life while reconsidering his failings as a father, a son, and a lover. While the seasons come and go, people get together and move apart. Only one thing will remain the same: The White Pagoda where they all meet sooner or later...
Competition
More Films
June Zero
A film by Jake Paltrow
2022 - USA/Israel - Drama - 1.66 - 105 min.
In 1962, the world witnesses the execution of Adolf Eichmann in an emotional public trial. And in Israel, 3 characters are intimately involved in this historical, nation-defining event.
She, A Chinese
A film by Xiaolu Guo
2010 - France/Germany/United Kingdom - Drama - 1.85 DCP - 98 min.
She, A Chinese tells the story of, a young Chinese woman, MEI, who leaves her monotonous village life behind for the excitement of the nearest big city, Chongqing. However, life there doesn't quite turn out as she expected it; fired from her factory job, she falls in love with SPIKEY, a hit man whose own past soon catches up with him. A spur of the moment decision takes Mei to London, where she marries an elderly man, MR HUNT. A new life begins for Mei, trapped in the silence of Mr Hunt's house, alienated and bored. Her frustration at life with Mr Hunt leads Mei into an affair with RACHID, an Indian immigrant who runs a local take away restaurant, and she moves into the backroom of the restaurant to live with him. Rachid decides to return to his own country, leaving Mei pregnant and alone, facing an uncertain future.
Explanation for Everything
A film by Gábor Reisz
2023 - Hungary/Slovakia - Drama - 1.33 - 128 min.
It's summer in Budapest, high school student Abel is struggling to focus on his final exams, whilst coming to the realisation that he is hopelessly in love with his best friend Janka. The studious Janka has her own unrequited love with married history teacher Jakab - who had a previous confrontation with Abel’s conservative father. The tensions of a polarised society come unexpectedly to the surface when Abel’s history graduation exam turns into a national scandal.