COLOMBIA NEWS — The Colombian movie “Los Hongos” (The Fungi) is to compete in the official section of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) to be held from Oct. 23-31 and whose program was released on Tuesday.
The Colombian-French-Argentinean-German co-production, that won the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, is one of 15 movies competing in a year dominated by animation films.
“Los Hongos,” directed by Oscar Ruiz Navia, tells the story of a graffiti artist, Ras, who is a construction worker by day and paints walls in his neighborhood in Cali at night.
Other films in the running include the French production “The Days Come” (2014), the Italian “Ice Forest” (2014) and the Iranian film “Melbourne” (2014).
The Spanish production “Loreak” (Flowers) will be screened in the World Focus section after its successful showing at the last San Sebastian Film Festival.
The film, that is co-directed by Jose Mari Goenaga and Jon Garano, became the first movie entirely in Basque (one of the four official languages of Spain together with Spanish, Gallego and Catalan) to compete in the official section of the Basque event.
Using a bouquet of flowers to connect different stories, “Loreak,” or flowers, narrates the story of three women -one who receives flowers every week without knowing who the sender is; another who is curious to know who places flowers at the bend where her husband died; and finally, the mother of the dead husband who needs to hold on to her memories of him- whose paths cross.
The Basque film is a serious contender at the 27th TIFF which will be inaugurated by “Big Hero 6,” the latest animated feature from Disney.
“Parasite,” a Takashi Yamazaki adaptation of the popular manga science fiction created by Hitoshi Iwaaki, has been selected to close the film festival.
The competition will also screen the earlier works of the filmmaker Hideaki Anno, creator of the famous “Evangelion” saga, one of the most influential works in the field of Japanese animation.
A new feature in this year’s edition is the Samurai Award that aims to commend filmmakers who create groundbreaking films that carve out a path to a new era.
Japanese director Takeshi Kitano and American Tim Burton will be the first recipients of this award.
The Batman director will present a movie on U.S. painter Margaret Keane, creator of the “Big Eyes” series, in the festival.
