Revisiting BIFF 2012

An Oscar-shortlisted Israeli-Palestinian documentary is in the lineup for the upcoming screening of last year’s BIFF highlights.

Starting Thursday, Seoul’s Indie Plus Theater is showcasing a total of eight works screened at last year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), including “5 Broken Cameras,” which features the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The documentary received a 5 million won ($4,700) fund from BIFF and Busan Bank’s Asia Network Documentary (AND) Fund back in 2010. Co-directed by Israeli Guy Davidi and Palestinian Emad Burnat, the film tells the story of a self-taught Palestinian cameraman who documents clashes between Israeli soldiers and his fellow Palestinian villagers.

The film has been shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards, along with another Israeli film, “The Gatekeepers.” Both films critically deal with the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“When we started this project, we knew we would be criticized for working together,” Guy and Emad wrote on the film’s official website.

“Emad would be asked why he chose to make the film with an Israeli, and Guy would be asked why he chose to make the film with a Palestinian. When watching a film that deals with such a painful controversy, we know that people tend to shut down. Most of us divide the world into right and wrong, good and bad, Palestinian and Israeli.

“We immediately take a side that corresponds to our identity, life experience, or ideology, even though these loyalties prevent us from fully experiencing the world. Reality is painfully complex, and we become frustrated when people fight to look at it with only one or two filters.”

Another film in the lineup is local director O Muel’s “Jiseul,” which is set during the 1948 Jeju Massacre and tells the story of a group of some 120 villagers who hide from soldiers in a cave. The real-life incident resulted in the death of some 30,000 islanders as the government sought to quell an uprising led by a small group of communist insurgents.

The film was premiered at last year’s BIFF and won a total of four awards ― including the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema Award and the Citizen Critics Award. The film is also competing against 13 other films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in its World Cinema Dramatic Competition section.

Also included among the BIFF highlights are actor Yoo Ji-tae’s directorial debut “Mai Ratima,” and director Kim Tae-gon’s coming-of-age tale “The Sunshine Boys.”

Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Farooki’s satirical film “Television,” which was the closing film at last year’s BIFF, will also be screened, along with Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s documentary “The Gardener” and Japanese director Atsushi Funahashi’s “Cold Bloom.” While “The Gardener” deals with issues of religion, Funahashi’s “Cold Bloom” features the days following the 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, Japan.

All of the mentioned films, with the exception “5 Broken Cameras,” were produced with help from BIFF’s Asia Cinema Fund, which supports post-production costs of local and foreign independent films.

The event, officially titled “ACF Showcase 2013,” runs from Jan. 10 to 13 at Indie Plus Theater in Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul. For more information, call (02) 3447-0654.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)