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The Fourth Direction Dir Gurvinder Singh Country of origin India
Gurvinder Singh had a meteoric rise to international rec- ognition last year when his debut feature, Alms For A Blind Horse, premiered in Venice’s Orizzonti section and went on to win the special jury prize at the Abu Dhabi film festival. The Punjabi-language drama, about power- less villagers attempting to protect their homes, screened in several other festivals, including Busan and Rotter- dam, and picked up best director at India’s prestigious National Film Awards. His next project, The Fourth Direction, deals with one of
the most turbulent periods in Punjab’s history, the height of the movement for a Sikh separatist state in 1984. Based on two stories by Punjabi writer Waryam Singh Sandhu, it begins with two Hindu friends who jump a ride on a military train after bribing a guard. During the journey, one of the friends recollects a terrifying night when his family and a Sikh friend were harassed by terrorists. “The story within a story will be the main chunk of the
film,” explains Singh. “I had to find a way to integrate the two stories at script level, though more possibilities may open up when we shoot and edit.” Singh wants to recreate the tension of the period that
culminated in the Indian military storming the Sikh Golden Temple and the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguard. “Basically this film is about common people caught
between the political nexus of the state security forces and the terrorism of the militants,” Singh says. The film will be produced by Kartikeya Narayan Singh
who line produced Alms For A Blind Horse. Singh is applying for European funds and says he is also open to working again with India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), which produced and financed his award-winning first film.
Liz Shackleton The Fourth Direction
Budget $1m Finance raised to date $50,000 from The Film Cafe Contact Kartikeya Narayan Singh, The Film Cafe
kartikeyanarayansingh@gmail.com
Be With You Dir Pang Ho Cheung Country of origin Hong Kong-Italy
After his successful stab at the slasher genre with Dream Home, Hong Kong film-maker Pang Ho Cheung is next turning his hand to supernatural horror. Be With You, which Pang is scripting with his Love In
The Buff co-writer Luk Yee Sum, revolves around a group of high-school students who accidentally summon a malevolent spirit while using a divination board. Later one of the group goes missing in mysterious circum- stances, and the following year, during a trip to Italy, the remaining members are plagued by chilling coinci- dences and an unexplained death. Pang’s producing partner Subi Liang says they hope
to shoot part of the film in the Italian cities of Udine and Venice if they raise enough funds. “We attend the Udine film festival nearly every year and Pang has always said it would be the perfect place to shoot a horror movie,” explains Liang. In addition to its horror elements, the film will feature
a young cast and include traces of teen romantic drama, while exploring deeper issues such as human nature and fate. Pang has already proved his range with dramas such
as Isabella, which premiered in competition at Berlin in 2006, black comedies including AV and Men Suddenly In Black; slasher film Dream Home and Eric Rohmer- inspired romantic comedy Love In A Puff. His follow-up to the latter film, Love In The Buff, opens this year’s HKIFF, which will also screen another of his recent films, Vulgaria, a self-confessed low-brow parody of the Hong Kong film industry. Dream Home, starring Josie Ho, won best actress and
best special make-up at the 43rd Sitges Film Festival. But Pang says Be With You will rely less on splatter and more on tension and creating an atmosphere of dread. Liz Shackleton
Another Country
Budget $1.42m Finance raised to date Development funds Contact Subi Liang, Making Film Productions
subi@making-film.com
Ready For War
Budget $3m Finance raised to date None Contact Gu Changwei, LAB 852
lab8610@gmail.com
Ready For War Dir Gu Changwei Country of origin China
Chinese director Gu Changwei’s fourth feature looks set to be a departure from his last three projects, which focused on the family (the Silver Bear-winning 2005 film Peacock), a teacher dreaming of an operatic career (And The Spring Comes) and Til Death Do Us Part, a love story involving Aids sufferers. His latest project centres around a lone soldier guard-
ing one of dozens of secret missile bases which were built by hand, deep in the mountains in China, to store the country’s nuclear arsenal — some missiles pointing East, some pointing West. The film will also have a dual narrative in which a
military author and a film-maker try to change the fate of the missile-base soldier. “I was fascinated by the story about how one man’s
fate is changed by the environment he lives in and a firm belief in his mind. After the end of the Cold War, a lot of people’s fates have been changed because of the exist- ence of nuclear weapons,” says the cinematographer turned director who has co-written the script with Yang Weiwei, with who he collaborated with on Til Death Do Us Part. Gu and Weiwei are also producing together for Gu’s
production company LAB 852. The $3m project is at the script stage with no funding in place yet, but Gu says financing is not a priority objective at HAF. “We hope to find talents or professionals who can col-
laborate with us creatively in the production process, for we believe this is a very contemporary and international project.”
Sen-lun Yu
March 21, 2012 Screen International at Filmart 9 n
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