At the junction of the 15th time this year, Middle Eastern films were featured.
Syrian and Iraqi films were screened for the first time with a good reputation.
Especially the director Mr. Jano Rosebiani, who came from Iraq which is
under a new regime after braking down Saddam Hussein attracted the media
and got a lot of interviews. The forum "Middle East Cinema" also attracted a
lot of audience. At the forum, Mr. Rosebiani and Ms. Waha Al-raheb, the
Syrian director made a presentation on the current situation of the film
production in their countries. Several prize-winning short films at "1st Iraqi
short film festival" were also screened as reference.
Among the Middle Eastern films, "The Willow Tree (Iran)", the latest film
of Mr. Majid Majidi after a lapse of 4 years and "So Close, So Far (Iran)",
one of the most-loved Iranian films in 2005 were especially noticed. In the
documentary category, Taiwanese masterpiece "Jump! Boys" was screened
for the first time in Japan and many domestic distributors got interested in it.
"Echoes from the Miike Mine (Japan)" depicted the local problem in Fukuoka,
and therefore a lot of local audience came to see it.
Impressive films such as "A Breath (India)", "Against the Tide (Sri Lanka)" and
"The Gravel Road (Malaysia)" were also screened.
With regard to the guests, Mr. Park Joong-hun met the expectation of cinema
aficionado as one of Korean top-name stars. Mr. Asahi Kurizuka, the leading
actor of "Turn Over (Japan)" came to Fukuoka for three times all the way from
Kyoto, which made the audience very pleased. Mr. Fahad, a child star from
Bangladesh also achieved the popularity in no time.
Furthermore, the discount service by the festival ticket at restaurants since last
year was received better along with its expansion this year. The homepage service
for a mobile phone also began which makes easier to get the festival information.