The 12th edition of Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (Haute-Saône, Franche-Comté region) will be held from 31st January till 7th February 2006. This is the oldest film festival in Europe entirely dedicated to Asian cinema, from the Near East to the Far East. 72 films will be screened, out of which 37 are unreleased and about 20 are French, European or world premières. Faithful to India : International Jury’s Chairman will be famous Indian director Buddhadeb Dasgupta (...

On Saturday the 29th the competition arena of Nantes’ 3 Continents was haunted by the cinematic ghosts of Tsai Ming-liang’s Goodbye Dragon Inn (Bu San) and by the torturing spectres of a dramatic political past in Pakistani Sabiha Sumar’s Silent Waters (Kamosh Pani). Tsai’s sixth feature, winner of the Fipresci award in Venice, pays homage to cinema and to the magic experience of viewing films in movie theatres. Taking an old theatre bound to permanently shut its doors as his actual prot...

The 25th edition of Nantes’ Festival des 3 Continents kicked off on the captivating tunes of rai, Algerian traditional music. Singer Abderrahman Djalti, also the star of one of the documentaries on show, Jamel Fezzaz’s La mélodie de l’espoir (Melody of Hope), unwrapped the opening ceremony singing a song usually performed during circumcision ceremonies.The quarter of a century anniversary of Nantes’ 3 Continents was introduced as an unexpected achievement for a festival that started sma...