To Live To Sing
A Film by Johnny Ma
2019 - France/China - Drama - 1.78 - 100 min.
with Zhao Xiaoli , Gan Guidan & Yan Xihu
Language: Chinese
Produced by Vincent Wang & Jing Wang
Zhao Li is the manager of a small Sichuan Opera troupe, living and performing together in a rundown theatre located in the outskirts of Chengdu, China. When she receives the notice of demolition for the theatre, Zhao Li hides the news from everyone else, fearing that this could spell the end of her opera troupe: besides demolition, it’s the life of her “family” that is at stake. As she struggles to search for a new theatre for them to both sing and live in, the opera and its fantastic characters slowly begin to seep into her real world...
Directors' Fortnight
BFI
More Films
Halfway
A film by Geoffrey Enthoven
2014 - Belgium - Comedy - DCP - 2.35 - 115 min.
Involved in a bitter divorce Stephen moves into a new house. Soon his quiet is disturbed by Theo who is standing in his living room claiming to be the rightful resident of the house and asking him to move out. Unwilling to yield, Stephen finds himself in the midst of a turf war and discovers that Theo used to be the owner of the house. But he died two years ago...
The Passion Of Michelangelo
A film by Esteban Larrain
2013 - Chile/France/Argentina - Drama - DCP - 1.85 - 97 min.
Chile, 1983. The first street protests pose a dangerous threat to Pinochet’s military government. The regime responds through a secret operation in order to divert public opinion. They pick a 14-yearold street child called Miguel Angel, who swears he can see and talk to the Virgin Mary herself, and they turn him into a pop prophet. His tormented face is reproduced in all the media, and in just a few weeks hundreds of thousands of people make a pilgrimage to Peñablanca, the village where he lives, to participate in ceremonies where prophecies, stigmata, levitations and miracles of all kinds are part of the usual routine.
During the period of the hoax, Miguel Angel goes through a deep transformation. From being a fragile and shy kid, he becomes a clever and capricious teenager who uses his
“divine gift” to manipulate his environment to his advantage. When the church investigates and finally resolves to ban the cult of the Virgin of Peñablanca, the government leaves the boy to his fate. Even if he tries hard to keep his seat of honor, Miguel Angel cannot avoid suffering a biblical fall: he is humiliated, abandoned and banished.
One Day
A film by Zsofia Szilagyi
2018 - Hungary - Drama - 2.39 - 99 min.
Anna is 40. She is always in a rush. She has three children, a husband, a job and financial stress. Anna meets deadlines, makes promises, takes care of things, brings stuff home and remembers everything. But she never catches up with her husband. She’d like to talk to him. She feels she is losing him. And she feels she can’t always evade what comes next. A clash between the everyday, the unbearably monotonous and the fragile and unique.