Pingyao Int’l Film Festival pays tribute to inspiration

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Pingyao, a nearly 2,800-year-old town might have had nothing to do with film in the past, but Jia Zhangke, a well-known film director worldwide, has launched a film festival entitled "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" International Film Festival" to change that.

Jia, who created a slew of films set in his home turf of Shanxi Province, finally returned the favor by setting up a film festival there.

With superstar Fan Bingbing as the event's image ambassador, and director Feng Xiaogang as its art advisor, art house films are no longer only being viewed by a small circle of fans.

Chinese director Jia Zhangke, who is also the founder of the Pingyao Int'l Film Festival. /CGTN Photo

Jia said his goal was to launch a professional film festival. He, along with art director Marco Muller, who used to be the artistic director of the Venice Film Festival, led a jury of respected filmmakers from China, Japan, Italy, Russia and France, to carefully select films to be featured in the festival's different categories, which would ultimately be vying for a bevy of awards.

Jia said one of the festival's missions is to promote young directors. The other is to highlight non-Western films, meaning those made in central Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The "Crouching Tiger" category is dedicated to the debut or second piece of work by young directors. In the running this year are female Chinese director Zhao Ting's debut work "The Rider," Chinese director Wang Feifei's "From Where We've Fallen," and four other films from Portugal, France, Kyrgyzstan and Argentina.

The "Crouching Tiger" category. /CGTN Photo

While the "Hidden Dragon" group focuses on genre films, it has Chinese director Li Xiaofeng's crime thriller "Ash," Italian gangster movie "Love and Bullets," comedy "It's the Raw," also from Italy, and films from Austria and Norway.

The "Best of Fest" category screens winning films from the world's major film festivals this year. The Palme d'Or-winning film "The Square" leads this segment, which also includes Chinese director Qiu Yang's "A Gentle Night," and "Scary Mother" from Georgia, which won best debut work at the Locarno International Film Festival.

Pingyao International Film Festival. /CGTN Photo‍

The "New Generation China" category also targets rookie filmmakers. There is also a segment called "Retrospective/Tributes," which screens 10 works by French film master Jean-Pierre Grumbach and two others by John Woo and Johnnie To, respectively.

"Where Has Time Gone," composed of short films by five BRICS countries, is also being shown. The China part was directed by Jia Zhangke himself and was shot in Pingyao.

The venue of the festival is an abandoned factory, giving the event a healthy dose of character and reality – qualities that are featured in Jia's films. The festival will run for a week until Saturday.

475km