Singapore International Film Fest 2004

The schedule & listings are out! Ruth and i have listed some of our choices to watch for the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival 2004. From April 17th to May 1st, film from every genre and corners of the world showcase their stories for us to see. This is an opportunity that should be taken up as a majority of these films will not be shown in the local cinemas.

So if you're interested go have a look at the listings and synopsis at Film Fest website. Ruth and i would also like to invite those who are interested in the following few films below to come and catch it with us. *smile* So anyone interested?

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Parasite Dolls - 17th Apr (Sat) @ 4.15pm
Tokyo in A.D. 2034 is a veritable dystopia in which technological advances have enabled the creation of ëBoomersí ñ entities that utterly resemble their human counterparts, but have been created for the sole purpose of doing those laborious jobs bourgeois humans refuse to undertake. Unsurprisingly, a subculture of Boomers in terrorism and prostitution has flourished under the hands of miscreant humans. An anti-terrorist team called A.D. Police create special task unit Branch to tackle the rampant urban problem. However, the out-of-control Boomers pose less of a threat than the puppet-masters behind the scenes.
Directors : Yoshinaga Naoyuki, Nakazawa Kazuto (Japan, 2002)
Duration : 85 minutes
Rating : NC-16


The Day I Will Never Forget -18th April (Sun) @ 7pm
Documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto turns her attention to Kenya at a key cultural transition period when the practice of female genital mutilation (or female circumcision) is being questioned and reversed. Longinottoís non-intrusive camera offers a powerful avenue for women to speak at times candidly, almost nonchalantly about the inexplicable necessity of sustaining the practice. These voices are contrasted with young girls and an increasingly more vocal community of women who are questioning the validity of unquestioned and irreversible tradition, including Nurse Fardhosa whose work is seen as a pioneering effort to gradually counsel men and women to give up the practice.
Director : Kim Longinotto (UK, 2002)
Duration : 92 minutes
Rating : NC-16

This is got to see simply because i wrote my first thesis paper in polytechnic on this topic. So i always have an interest in this topic and i urge people, esp. you ladies to go watch this and realise how much abuse and torture some women in this world have to go thru. This barbaric practice still goes on today in a world where what we need most is peace and humane sanity.


Kiss of Life - 25th Apr (Sun) @ 4.15pm
Helen lives in London with her aging father and two children, not quite coping with the role of a caretaker, all the more anxious as her husband John is an aid-worker in Bosnia. On her way to school with her children one morning, she is killed in a car accident. Meanwhile, John is unaware of his wifeís death and is slowly journeying home through a devastated war-torn landscape Balkan landscape. Released into an ephemeral world between life and death, Helen must make peace with her husband John before she can properly depart.
Director : Emily Young (UK, 2003)
Duration : 87 minutes
Rating : PG

I definitely see myself crying in this movie.... romance, war, love, death ... all the ingredients of a cry-fest, making me feeling a sense of longing and sadness...


Father and Son / Otets i Syn - 30th Apr (Fri) @ 7pm
Suffused with a warm glow in an indeterminate setting (shot in Lisbon), Sokurovís film is less linear narrative and more a poetic eulogy for the transcendental bond that unites father and son. The second in his ëFamily Trilogyí, which began with Mother and Son (1996), Father and Son reaches intimately into the heart of a relatively young fatherís love for his 20-year old son who resembles and reminds him of his dead wife. Living together in an apartment, few can penetrate this sealed off world (not even the sonís girlfriend). Allies, yet enemies, loyally bound to each other by love yet torn apart by precisely that bond, Sokurovís film bears a decidedly religious, spiritual tone. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes International Film Festival.
(To be screened with My Body. )
Director : Alexander Sokurov (Russia, 2003)
Duration : 84 minutes

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