THAILAND: The 4th World Film festival kicks off in Thailand after the bloodless coup on September 19

Record ID: 560331

  • Title: THAILAND: The 4th World Film festival kicks off in Thailand after the bloodless coup on September 19
  • Date: 13th October 2006
  • Summary: FESTIVAL DIRECTOR KRIENGSAK SILAKONG TAKING PICTURE WITH THAI CELEBRITIES (SOUNDBITE) (English) FESTIVAL DIRECTOR KRIENGSAK SILAKONG SAYING: "And we really see the growth of the Bangkok audience here in this event."
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVAC5FCA48T6V1PITZ55C453C6UZ
  • Story Text: Hundreds of films lovers and artists locally and from and abroad gathered at the opening day of the 4th World Film Festival in Thailand on Wednesday (October 11).
    Three weeks after the bloodless coup, Thailand kicked off its first international entertainment event at the Siam Paragon mall in Bangkok where some Thai celebrities attended but without any international celebrities.
    The festival aimed to be an event of truly international significance with a distinctive character of Asian contemporary, documentary, short film and World cinema.
    This year's festival featured more than 30 posters by the celebrated, New York-based Polish painter and designer Rafal Olbinski. In 1994, Olbinski was awarded the International Oscar for the World's Most Memorable Poster, Prix Savignac, in Paris.
    "I'm really looking forward to see these movies and very rarely can see them see them," said Olbinski "You have all this Hollywood garbage in every cinema around the world and very rarely you can see a production which has some artistic ambition like this one."
    Featuring more than 70 films from 30 countries at one of Asia's leading Film Festivals, the festival will run until October 23. The films focus on the world's best art house, indie, comedy and classic films.
    The screening of the Indian film, 'Tale of Three Friends', was attended by director Abhijit Guha and Sudeshna Roy.
    Guha told Reuters that he almost cancelled his trip to Thailand in the wake of military coup in Thailand.
    "When I heard about it, when I read about it on the newspaper in India I was little scared whether I should go there or not. But people said no, there is very cool," said Guha.
    However, many of directors and producers from outside Thailand still made their way to attend the festival.
    The event also displayed the black and white photos taken by Krzysztof Kieslowski to note the 10th anniversary of the Polish director's death. He made a number of documentaries, the most famous of which was 'Worker '71' and the film of 'The Scar' which won the first prize at the Moscow Film Festival in 1976.
    For film lovers, the Film Festival is one of the place where they can see the high quality films.
    The audiences have been waiting to see the Chinese movie of "The Banquet", starring by Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi and Daniel Wu, with reviewers in Europe already giving it the thumbs up after its release in recent weeks.
    The Film Festival organiser said more than 20,000 people attend the event every year. The festival hopes to bring world cinema to Thailand and showcase home-grown talent from the region.
    "We did expand the film culture and we really see the growth of the Bangkok audience here in this event," Festival director Kriangsak Silakong said.
    The competition section has many films that have created waves at the top festivals of the world. Eight of them have been entered in the competition which will be awarded on October 22.
    The film in competitions are "Climates" from Turkey, "Close to Home" from Israel, "Chicha tu Madre" from Peru, "Ode to Joy" from Poland, "Isabella" from Hong Kong, "The Right of the Weakest" from Belgium, "12:08 East of Bucharest" from Romania and "Seeds of Doubt" from Germany.
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