Presidential Film Awards on July 27

THE Presidential Film Festival 2005 will be held on July 27 at the BMICH under the patronage of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

The festival organised by the National Film Corporation (NFC) will be held this time after a lapse of four years.

As a prelude to the main festival, a film festival titled the Colombo International Film Festival is now being held at the Cine City, Maradana. This festival, which commenced on July 20, comprises films from France, Sweden, Indian, Iran, Korea and Germany. It will be held till July 26.

Film Corporation Chairman Sunil S. Sirisena said the festival will offer awards to films screened during 2004.

"Totally, 34 awards will be presented to films screened last year. Besides, eight film artistes who gained international recognition during recent years will also be felicitated." Also, two film icons who dedicated their lives for the uplift of the local cinema will be presented the "Swarna Sinha" award.

"The independent jury will take the final decision and even we will come to know about them only at the festival," stressed Sirisena in an interview with Aruna Gunaratne a journalist working for our sister paper Sarasaviya.

Sirisena revealed that he had the intention of reviving the Presidential Film Festival at the time he assumed duties. "We have been able to improve the demand for Sinhala films during this period while limiting the obscene movies."

He noted that there is a fresh awakening in the film industry.

"We were planning to make 25 movies per rear. Already, 19 movies have been done. Permission is being sought to screen some movies which had not been screened for the last 13 years. This shows that there is an awakening."

Sirisena said he would use this encouraging situation to build a promising film industry in the country.

The Colombo International Film Festival has also added colour to the main festival. "In many countries around the world, international film festivals are being held.

Although, our film makers have won international awards, there is still no international film festival in Sri Lanka. Therefore, we decided to organise this festival."

Sirisena assured that this festival would be expanded from next year. "We are planning to present awards from next year at this festival. That involves a massive effort and a separate bureau too would be required to work for one year to organise such an event."

Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark makes comeback with swords epic

THE past four years have been quiet for visionary Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark. But after his first forays into Hollywood failed to ignite, he's back home with a mission to reinvent the martial arts genre.

Tsui's latest offering, "Seven Swords", a kung fu epic shot among the mountainous splendour of northwestern China's Xinjiang province, will be premiered at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival next month.

But instead of the formulaic and exaggerated plots, elaborate sets and stylised direction that have marked recent historical martial arts epics, the so-called "wuxia" genre that he helped create, Tsui says he wants to take things back to basics.

"In the world of wuxia, people's energy has always been exaggerated; a person can be unhurt after fighting with a thousand people or they can jump to the top of a house without a problem," the director often dubbed "Asia's Spielberg" says in an interview with AFP in his office overlooking Hong Kong's famous Victoria Harbour. "These wuxia films have become detached from the real world," he adds.

As a result, for "Seven Swords", out have gone the decorative sets that give many martial films their trademark "strategy" and "surreal" feel.

Also gone is far-fetched action, the huge and "inconvenient" costumes and the complicated hairstyles that typify latter-day kung fu flicks.

"If we bring the world back to reality and tell the story with special characters, it will generate more energy for the film, it will bring out a whole new style and have a bigger impact," Tsui says.

With 60 films under his belt, Tsui is no stranger to the wuxia genre and has a long association with martial arts swordplay. His 1979 debut and cult classic, "The Butterfly Murders", which contains elements of wuxia tales, murder mystery and science fiction, started a creative trend in Hong —Kong cinema.

Set in 17th century China soon after the Manchurians have taken control of the entire country from the Qing dynastic rulers, the 18 million US dollar movie gives a historical bent to a contemporary story by renowned novelist Liang Yusheng.

It follows seven martial arts masters who struggle to keep their art alive in the face of the new government's purge on practitioners.

(AFP)