The 55th Cartagena International Film Festival will take place from March 2nd until March 7th in Cartagena (Colombia). This event is one of the most important film festival in the region and is the only Colombian festival accredited by the FIAFP. Three asian films will be screen in the Gems Category along with a Special Tribute to the Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendonza.
The Assassin (Nie yin niang) by Hou Hsiao-Hsien – Taiwan, China | 2015 – 105 min.
Taklub by Brillante Mendoza – Philippines | 2015 – 117 min.
Cemetery of Splendour (Rak Ti Khon Kaen) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Thailand | 2015 – 122 min.
Special Tribute to Brillante Mendoza
During the festival audience will enjoy nine of Mendoza’s feature films, none of which has been screened before at movie theaters in Colombia: The Masseur (Masahista | 2005), which won a Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival; Summer Heat (Kaleldo | 2006), Manoro (2006) and Foster Child (2007), award-winning films about prostitution and grieving, the foster care system, family ties and traditional trades. Also there will be screening two films that were presented in Cannes: Service (Serbis | 2008), a family drama about bigamy, incest and unwanted pregnancy set in an old movie theater, and Kinatay (2009) – which earned him Best Director – about a young man who is about to get married, but who becomes entangled in a ruthless crime in an effort to get hold of some extra cash. Lola (2009) and Thy Womb (Sinapupunan | 2012) which competed for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and his latest release Trap (Taklub), which won the Ecumenical Jury Prize-Special Mention in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes in 2015.