To Live To Sing
Directors' Fortnight
BFI
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
Instinct
A film by Halina Reijn
2019 - Netherlands - Drama/Thriller - 2.35 - 98 min.
Nicoline, an experienced psychologist, starts a new job at a penal institution. She meets Idris, a sex offender who committed a series of grave crimes. After five years of treatment, he is about to go on his first unaccompanied probation. His team of practitioners are enthusiastic about his development but newcomer Nicoline does not trust him and tries to push his probation. Idris tries his hardest to convince Nicoline of his good intentions, but slowly but surely, he transforms into the manipulative man she saw in him from the beginning. A power play emerges between the two and Nicoline, in spite of her knowledge and experience, lets herself be trapped completely.
A Long And Happy Life
A film by Boris Khlebnikov
2013 - Russia - Drama - DCP - 1.85 - 77 min.
A young farmer named Sasha stands at the beginning of a new, happy life. He is about to sell his farm to the state and move with his girlfriend to the city. But when the deal is closed, the other villagers rise up in protest to save the farm - the village’s only means of survival. Sasha finds himself caught up in a fight which is not his, entangled in a web of passion, pride, and irreversible actions.
Next To Her
A film by Asaf Korman
2014 - Israel - Drama - DCP - 2.35 - 90 min.
Chelli is raising her mentally disabled sister Gabby all by herself. When the social worker discovers she leaves her sister alone in the house while at work, Chelli is forced to place her in a day-care center and the void left by her sister's absence makes room for a man in her life. That man, Zohar, tears another crack in the symbiotic relationship of the two sisters.