SEOUL – The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi‘s Nader and Simin, A Separation is set to open the 12th Jeonju International Film Festival. The film, which won the Golden Bear Award at 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, is the second Iranian film in Jeonju after the screening of Jafar Panahi’s Offside as the festival’s opening film in 2006.
A total of 190 films from 38 countries will be shown during the festival including 11 world premieres and 35 Asian premieres.
Jeonju invited 12 films by debuting directors to the International Competition this year. An Escalater in World Order by the Korean director Kim Kyung-man is included in the section for the first time.
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The competition section has also invited two Spanish films — Father by José Maria de Orbe and Caracremada by Lluis Galter.
For Korean Feature Film Competition ten films made up of four documentaries and six fictions will be showcased including Park Chan-kyong’s Anyang, Paradise City whom with his brother Park Chan-wook shot the first iPhone film Night Fishing for this year’s Berlin.
Jeonju Digital Project, the festival’s prestigious section compiling digital films of three directors every year, has commissioned three European artists — Jean-Marie Straub, Claire Denis and José Luis Guerín.
As a satellite program the festival also organized retrospectives of veteran filmmakers including Spain’s José Luis Guerín, Kidlat Tahimik dubbed the father of Filipino independent cinema and a special program of Portuguese Cinema focusing on films made during the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
The festival opens on April 28 and runs through May 6 at theaters across Jeonju.
