SIFF 2012 Festival Preview: Asian & Middle Eastern Film Picks

An extended family gathers for the youngest daughter’s wedding, but not all goes as planned. A glowing pastel canvas and sensual score are dreamy counterpoints to the anxieties and celebrations of three generations.

May 22nd @ 6:00pm, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
June 1st @ 6:30pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 6th @ 9:30pm, Harvard Exit

A Chinese film that follows an 11-year-old boy through his life. Set during the waning years of the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong’s rule, acquaintance with a fugitive from the law. Set during the

May 18th @ 4:30pm, Harvard Exit
May 21st @ 6:00pm, Harvard Exit

Struggling to meet the financial needs for his much-desired life-long journey to Mecca, a religious man must decide how to make his important religious pilgrimage happen without sacrificing his own dignity or steering away his own moral compass.

May 24th @ 8:30pm, Harvard Exit
May 30th @ 9:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown

Materialism and status in lower middle class South Korea are filtered through the experiences of Kwon Youn-ho, tasked with resolving his family’s descent into debt hell.

June 3rd @ 5:45pm, Harvard Exit
June 7th @ 4:00pm, Harvard Exit
June 10th @ 8:30pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown

Cambodia produced 400 films between 1960 and 1975, but only a handful of these artistic works survived the Khmer rouge’s devastating reign. Filmmaker Davy Chou awakens the once-magnificent industry through archival material and deep insight.

May 30th @ 6:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 31st @ 3:30pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown

Dark and sinister, the portrait of Iranian injustice through the character of Noora, a beautiful young lawyer denied an increasing number of rights.

May 20th @ 11:30am, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 21st @ 6:30pm, AMC Pacific Place 11
May 26th @ 1:30pm, AMC Pacific Place 11

Cop, monk, or assassin? In this riveting cinematic noir spectacle, a cop-turned-hitman is struck in the head by a bullet and sees the world upside-down with a flashback and forward blur of drug busts, scheming lawyers and seductive women.

May 24th @ 9:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27th @ 4:00pm, AMC Pacific Place 11

A moving study of two brothers, divvied up by divorced parents, who dream of reuniting their family through a bullet-train line. A children’s film with a touch of adult supervision that miraculously holds a lifetime’s range of experience.

June 3rd @ 6:30pm, Egyptian Theatre
June 6th @ 4:00pm, Egyptian Theatre

Divorced and demoted, taxi driver Yousef struggles to make ends meet. When a health crisis looms, he tries to reconnect with his estranged family in this subtle, understated drama, tinged with black humor and stylish minimalism.

May 25th @ 6:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27th @ 11:00am, AMC Pacific Place 11
June 2nd @ 9:30pm, Harvard Exit

Watch Trailer on SIFF Website

Sun Yu’s 1933 silent, starring silent screen queen Ruan Lingyu as a toymaker in a highly political climate, offers a rare glimpse into the Chinese leftist film movement. Legendary musician Donald Sosin performs a live piano score.

May 26th @ 2:30pm, Harvard Exit

The Mirror Never Lies provides a close look at Indonesian island life.

June 9th @ 9:00pm, Harvard Exit
June 10th @ 2:30pm, Harvard Exit

A previously unreleased animation from Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, Only Yesterday runs throguh the memories of a young 20-something-year-old girl.

May 19th @ 11:00am, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
May 23rd @ 6:30pm, Egyptian Theatre

A gender-bending horror-comedy.

May 20th @ 8:30pm, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
June 1st @ 9:30pm, Egyptian Theatre
June 2nd @ 2:30pm, Egyptian Theatre

When Xu Xian falls into a mountain lake, a beautiful woman comes to his rescue. Unbeknownst to him, she is a centuries old snake demon with the ability to change form, but she cannot hide her true self from the sorcerer Fa Hai (Jet Li).

June 5th @ 9:15pm, Egyptian Theatre
June 8th @ 6:00pm, Kirkland Performance Center

A story of environmental destruction intersecting with love. Winner of Sundance’s World Cinema Audience Award.

May 18th @ 9:00pm, Harvard Exit
May 19th @ Noon, Harvard Exit
June 3rd @ 6:00pm, Kirkland Performance Center

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