APSA offers refreshing alternatives to Hollywood

Cynthia Webb ,  Contributor ,  Gold Coast, Australia   |  Tue, 12/01/2009 12:35 PM  |  Features

Proud couple: Film producer Melanie Coombs (left) and Warwick Thornton at the Asia Pasific Screen Award 2009. JP/ Cynthia Webb

Given the number of languages spoken in Australia has dwindled from 500 to a mere 120, Australian Aboriginal filmmaker Warwick’s parting words when he accepted the Best Feature Film award for Samson & Delilah at the 2009 Asia Pacific Screen Awards did not fall on deaf ears.

“I am speaking to you in English, yet all of us here have indigenous languages — our true languages which we must now fight for, to keep them alive.”

Samson & Delilah, shot in central Australia’s Alice Springs has a small cast, consisting of Warwick’s brother playing a homeless man who befriends the young couple Samson & Delilah.

They have fled their desert community in a stolen car, after Delilah’s grandmother died and petrol/glue-sniffing Samson had a fight with his brother.

The three share a space under a bridge as they struggle to find a better life. The script is sparse, with gestures and cinematography conveying most of the message.

“Everything in this film, I have seen personally, as a kid growing up in Alice Springs,” said Warwick.
Samson & Delilah recently won six awards at the Inside Film Awards in Australia, and the Camera D’Or
at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

Indonesia’s 3 Doa, 3 Cinta (3 wishes, 3 lovers), directed by Nurman Hakim and produced by Nan Achnas failed to bring home an award, but it fared well in the group of five films nominated for Best Children’s Feature Film.

 A Brand New Life (Republic of Korea), Ounie Lecomte’s debut film inspired by her own childhood, won Best Children’s Feature Film. Nine-year Sae Ron Kim plays a child whose father buys her a new pair of shoes, then abandons her in an orphanage.

She slowly realizes he will never come back for her, as she watches Westerners arriving in big cars to adopt the children one by one. One day it is her turn and she flies to France to meet her new family, to start her brand new life.

Touch of a star: Winner of the Best Actor Award, Japanese Masahiro Motoki for Departures, gets up close and personal with a kangaroo while visiting Gold Coast’s Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. JP/ Cynthia Webb

The Best Actor Award went to Japan’s Masahiro Motoki, for his sensitive performance in Departures, in which he plays a young man who finds out the new job he applied for in the travel industry involves more than long-distance journeys.

The film unravels with compassion and even humor, as he ends up preparing the deceased before they are placed in their coffin. He even manages to make peace with his father who abandoned him when he was just a child, as well as his mother.

“It was a very emotional experience for me,” confessed Motoki.

Korean Kim Hye-ja picked up the Best Actress award, for her portrayal of a mother whose love
for her son knows no bounds, in the film Mother, directed by Bong Joon-ho.

She sets out to prove the innocence of her son who is accused of murder, even though the police have already closed the case.

Iran’s About Elly, a strong contender with four nominations, shared the Jury’s Grand Prize along with Elia Suleiman’s The Time That Remains, a film about life as a surreal nightmare in the Palestinian Territories.

Asghar Farhadi’s intricately constructed About Elly won Best Screenplay, demonstrating screenwriting excellence. “I have never been so proud to be an Iranian, as I am right now,” said Asghar
Farhadi.

Best Director (for Lu Chuan) and Best Cinematographer (for Cao Yu) awards went to Nanjing! Nanjing! City of Life and Death.

The film, set in 1937 during the Japanese invasion of the old Chinese capital and describing the events from both sides of the conflict, contains many powerful moments.

Mary and Max, another Australian film made by past Oscar winners Adam Elliott and his producer Melanie Coombs, won the Animation category award.

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards, conceived by Des Power, and backed by the Queensland Government, aims to showcase films made in the region and give their film makers access to the European and English language film market. Two hundred and twelve films from 43 countries were submitted.

Finalists from 16 countries delivered well-made and exciting films, with refreshing new stories to tell.

So if you’re getting tired of the same old Hollywood fare, the Asia-Pacific region is a source of cinematic inspiration.


For full list of awards: www.asiapacificscreenawards.com

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