AWFF 2023

The ASIAN WORLD FILM FESTIVAL (AWFF) 2023

Posted by Robin Menken

The ASIAN WORLD FILM FESTIVAL (AWFF) 2023 returned to it's signature home at The Culver Theatre, currently run by Amazon.

The festival ran from November 8 – 17. The Opening Night film was Concrete Utopia and Moscow Mission was  the Closing Night Film.

In a interesting development, both Canadian director Zarrar Kahn ("In Flames") and Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu ("Tiger Stripes") used Horror tropes to address toxic Muslim patriarchy. These are first features for each director.

"In Flames" is Pakistan's official Oscar submission.
"Tiger Stripes", winner of the Cannes 2023 Critics' Week Grand Prize, is Malaysia's official Oscar submission.

Georges N. Chamchoum, the charismatic director of AWFF was born in Niger, West Africa of Lebanese origin.

Chamchoum directed & produced over 40 features between Africa, Middle East, Europe & the USA. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 most influential Lebanese in the world, being honored in a special commemorative publication to mark the occasion.

Besides AWFF, he is currently The International Director of the Yakutsk International Film Festival (Yakutia, Sakha Republic) & the International Relations Executive for Notre Dame University International Film Festival (Beirut Film Festival), (Lebanon).

He launched the AWFF (Asian World Film Festival) in Los Angeles, with Kyrgyz Filmmaker Sadyk Sher-Niyaz in 2015.

Chamchoum has recently produced "The Gift" (Kyrgyzstan), "1521" (Philippines) due in LA theaters soon, "A Fragile Flower"(Vietnam). and "Creation", USA

"The Gift"a lovely pastoral drama set in Kyrgyzstan. was directed by Dalmira Joy Tilepbergen. AWFF’s  Kyrgyzstan day also featured Aktan Arym Kubat’s
"This Is What I Remember", written by Tilepbergen, and some fascinating performances by cast members of the two films.

Some fest highlights:

Autobiography
Film critic/tyro director Makbul Mubarak‘s “Autobiography” is actually a portrait of Indonesia
during the latter days of the dictatorship, which lasted from 1966-1998,  the period of his childhood.

Rakib aka Kip (Kevin Ardilova), a young man, is living on his own, the caretaker of an empty mansion in a gated compound owned by retired general Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara). After minimal caretaking duties, Kip spends his empty hours atteh local bar.

Lush vegetation, the chirrups of mating insects, the low drone of the TV blanket the stilled residence .
DP Wojciech Staroń films the house in dreamy lowlight,
a sleepy refuge from the poverty of it’s surrounding rural town. His compositions, riddled with architectural barriers- window frames, grilles slowly ratchet a foreboding tension, something bad is going to happen

Rahik’s brother is abroad, trafficked over the Singapore border to work in construction. His father Amir (Rukman Rosadi) languishes in jail. Kip lives a lazy life in the  mansion. the third generation in his family to serve the local General, in a country still feudal or paternalist with Generals replacing Feudal lords.

Kip’s aimless existence changes when retired General Purna, a key figure in the former military dictatorship,  comes home to run for Mayor of the region.

Sonless Purna, suddenly sentimental recognizes  the youngest son of Amir (Rukman Rosadi). In the style of feudal paternalism, he calls the imprisoned Amir friend.
and absorbs Kip into the role of his vassal, chauffeur and general dogsbody.

Eventually an ersatz father son relationship develops. The powerful charismatic Purna is a attractive contrast to powerless Amir. “You look like me when I was your age,” says the general  giving him one of his cast off military jacket .

A few privileges easily win over Kip, who begins adopting Purna’s disdainful control over locals, as his own. Like Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant) in 'The Conformist" Kip adopts the power of authoritarianism.

Purna and his Military colleagues are untouchable by the law. Locals fear him. Local police obey him.

Nights are spent in front of the TV or paying chess
with Purna indoctrinating willing Rakib in his seductive, toxic realpolitik.

Swayed by Purna's cynical "forgiveness" in diffusing local pushback, Kip imagines a him a stern but just father figure.

By day Kip drives General Purna to campaign speeches and helps him mount campaign posters around the countryside.

Purna supports a lucrative plan plan to build an energy plant nearby, which will force many locals off their modest landholdings. Locals who protest are "silenced" Best not to ask how.

When one of the General’s posters is defaced, loyal KIP decides to finds the culprit and delivers him to the general, underestimating his boss's ruthlessness.

Kip, relishing his new found borrowed power, enlists a local friend with his task, wooing them with the same seductive phrases Purna used on him.

Delivering up his friend, he suspects nothing as Purna takes him into a closed door conversation, beating him almost to death.

The actors in the two-hander are impressive.
Swara plays Purna as a wily power, navigating a frightening see-saw from wise, garrulous father figure to sociopath.  The scene when Purna walks in on Kip showering is memorable.

Ardilova's quiet layered performance takes Kip from hapless youth to smug right-hand man to the terrified penitent who finally takes matters in his own hands, dispensing Purna's Realpolitik in an ironic payback.

Bani Haykal's minimalist score and Carlo Francisco Manatad's edit create a tense time- release of a political thriller writ small.

Mongol
Actors Amarsaikhan Baljinnyam, Solongo-Uyangau Tumursukh head up the cast in Amarsaikhan Baljinnyam’s stirring historical epic “Mongol”.

Set in the 1910s, the young nomad Mongol  falls in love with Serchmaa, the daughter of his Lord.

They meet secretly and vow their love. Her father refuses his offer of marriage and marries her off to a shady character, who rises to prominence in the region,  as a quisling “Lord” working for the despised Chinese (Manchu) Quing Dynasty who then ruled Mongolia (and allowed Han Chinese to colonize Mongolia.)

Serchmaa’s father condemns Mongol to the life of a criminal. While slaving in the Mongol version of a chain gang, Mongol loses his beloved father. Escaping with other convicts, he becomes a Steppe version of Robin Hood, fighting for justice for his oppressed people.

Serchmaa remains loyal to him in her heart.

Mongol’s heroic tale is set against Mongolia’s fight for independence from Quing control. The Quing regime was finally expelled in 1921,

Strong production values and beautiful cinematography by Dashtseren Davaajav make for a stirring film experience.

Surviving Bokator
Cinematographer turned Director Mark Bochsler's  "Surviving Bokator" is an intimate look at legendary Master San Kim Sean (‘Sea An’), considered to be the father of modern Bokator.

7 years of filming portrays Master Sean’s struggle to restore and preserve  Cambodia's traditional Cambodian fighting system for the next generation.

The art was almost lost during the dark days of The Kymer Rouge, who targeted and killed known master fighters of Cambodia's Martial Art, considering them too dangerous to rule .

Master Sean organized an national League, traveling around the country to inspire other teachers.

His protege, former monk Darith Ung, was allowed to live in the dojo and became Master Sean’s lead teacher.

To pass this on to the next generation, Master Sean offered free or sliding scale classes to locals, and offered foreigners International prices, which paid the Dojo’s expenses.

Saddled by abject poverty, local students juggle studies and full time jobs with training commitments as they train for the Korean Chungju Martial Arts Festival, their oppoturnity to present this almost lost art to the international community of Martial Artists.

(Endemic poverty is a legacy of the Khyer Rouge dictatorship.)

Student’s Buntha Leng, Eng Sou Mala and Sokkoung Che
helped with administration.

Master Sean’s greatest supporter was Vath Chamroeun, former Olympic wrestler and Secretary General for the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia.

Master Sean’s workaholic monofocus, the ire of other national teachers at his tendency to claim credit for Bokator and his hubris, lead to the collapse of the dojo.

Darith Ung travelled to Europe to continue teaching students, a lucrative option for him. Feeling betrayed, and losing the lease for his Dojo, Master Sean moved to large warehouse too far from the city to accommodate his students.

The students opened a smaller Dojo in the city, crediting Master Sean as their master. Happily, the Master reconciled with his many successful students, relaxing into his roll as father figure.