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
Best Intentions
A film by Adrian Sitaru
2011 - Romania - Drama - 2.35 DCP - 102 min.
Alex, in his mid-thirties, is a quite neurotic character. When his mother is hospitalized with a stroke, the caring son’s life gets out of track. At the hospital he finds himself in a burlesque kind of human zoo full of unexpected characters and surprising events. Trying to manage the situation in between everybody’s advice, he’s becoming hypochondriac. While his mother seems to feel perfectly fine Alex is making his
own set of mistakes – throughout with best intentions.
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.
Subtraction
A film by Mani Haghighi
2022 - Iran/France - Drama/Thriller - 16:9 - 107 min.
In downtown Tehran, Farzaneh, a young driving instructor, spots her husband, Jalal, walking into a woman’s apartment. When she confronts him, Jalal claims he was out of town for work. He decides to check out the building for himself. There, he meets a woman who is the spitting image of Farzaneh. Her name is Bita. Stunned, the two compare family photos: Bita’s husband also looks identical to Jalal.