By Yun-hua Chen.
This year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival (20 June-1 July, 2012), led by the new artistic director Chris Fujiwara, differed from last year in a remarkable way. It broke from the previous year’s strong link with University of Edinburgh and strategically placed itself closer to other art forms which will be showcased in the festival city in upcoming months. We can see this move in EIFF’s cooperation with Traverse Theatre, where the press office was situated this year and where many gigs, talks, industry and public events took place.
There were many outstanding South Asian films this year as well, including Kamila Andini’s The Mirror Never Lies (2011) from Indonesia and Asoka Handagama’s Him, Here After (2012) from Sri Lanka. Also, the jury member Lav Diaz’s six-hour long Florentina Hubaldo, CTE (2012) solicited a lot of responses from the audience. Loy Arcena’s Niño (2011) and Mes De Guzman’s Of Skies and Earth (2011) as well as Khavn de la Cruz‘s Mondomanila, or: How I Fixed My Hair After a Rather Long Journey (2012), all from young and productive filmmakers in the Philippines, were premiered in the Philippine New Wave series. Adapted from Norma Wilwayco’s prize-winning novel, this low budget film pays tributes to Philippine cinematic tradition and at the same time creates a new path by providing a shocking and provocative portrayal of Manila in a sarcastic manner. In the psychedelic journey, we see deliberately grotesque characters and exaggerated references to sex. It is a surreal pellmell of genres, inbetween thriller, drama, comedy, musical and political allegory. Emerson Reyes’ MNL 143 (2012), which was made possible thanks to donations from web-surfers, takes a more realistic approach. Apart from the driver, who was played by the productive actor Allan Paule, also a local sex idol, the film casts predominantly non-actors. Throughout a cab journey, we see snapshots of interaction between the cab driver and his passengers across the social spectrum, including a self-mocking snippet of film-within-a-film.
Yun-hua Chen recently completed her PhD in Film Studies, and is currently working on several academic articles.