Visiting filmmakers bring awarded Asian cinema in thirteen titles to the 28th Annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, with more than 140 titles from over 60 countries April 15-30th at St. Anthony Main Theatre, 115 SE Main Street, Minneapolis.
Tibetan Diaspora directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam visit the festival April 20th, April 20, 7:15 p.m. and April 25, 12:30 p.m., with “Sun Behind the Clouds”, which follows the tension between the Dalai Lama and confrontational activists in the movement for resolution.
Director Lixin Fan’s extraordinary documentary “Last Train Home”, April 17, 7:00 p.m., and April 19, 8:55 p.m., follows one of 200 million Chinese peasant families trying to escape poverty by laboring in factories.
Invited directors Lynn True and Nelson Walker bring “Summer Pasture”, April 22, 3:15 p.m., and April 24, 2:45 p.m., documenting the evolving lifestyles of Tibetan Yak herders in the “Five Most” region, the highest, coldest, poorest, largest and most remote valley of Kham.
Invited director Tom Roberts presents a real-life parallel to Eastwood’s Gran Torino with “Ghosts of the 7th Cavalry”, April 23, 4:30 p.m., and April 25, 1:15 p.m., as heavily-decorated Major Robert “Snuffy” Gray atones for his regiment’s massacres in a reconciliation of demons from three wars and forty years.
“Japanese Air Doll”, April 18, 9:35 p.m., and April 21, 9:15 p.m., delivers “an achingly beautiful meditation on loneliness and longing in the city” (Hollywood Reporter) through the eyes of an inflatable sex toy.
In the brilliant “Chinese comedy Cow”, April 19, 9:30 p.m. and April 27, 7:30 p.m., the dim-wit Niu Er (award-winning actor Huang Bo) displays an unexpected resourcefulness in protecting the village cow during WWII.
“The Shaft”, April 23, 6:15 p.m. and April 26, 5:45 p.m., uncovers the major issues of China’s shortage of women and the improbability of economic recovery.
Based on the true story of Korean 70s rock group the Devils, “Go Go 70s”, pulses with the challenge to curfews and conservatism through the power of funk, and screens April 19, 9:40 p.m.
“Khargosh”, April 22, 6:50 p.m., and April 27, 4:30 p.m., dispels the simplicity of a timeless Indian village through the adventures of a ten-year-old-turned-cupid in what director Presh Kamdar calls “minimalist lyricism.”
Starring Tom Alter as an old teacher on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, “Ocean of an Old Man”, April 18, 5:30 p.m., and April 25, 12:45 p.m., captures the 2004 Tsunami’s impact on a human scale as it poetically grieves over the disappearance of rural school children and the lost artifacts of everyday life.
Almost a documentary, “Agrarian Utopia”, April 18, 9:25 p.m., and April 24, 12:15 p.m., relives the modern struggle of Thai farmers trying to survive globalization.
Award-winning director Bui Thac Chuyen paints an erotic love triangle in the atmospheric imagery of modern “Hanoi in Adrift”, April 18, 9:25 p.m., and April 22, 4:00 p.m.
Full information, including show times and special guests, is available at the official MSPIFF website www.mspfilmfest.org. Join the festival on Twitter (http://twitter.com/mnfilmfestival) and Facebook (Minnesota Film Arts Facebook Page)
