IT MAY BE THAT BEAUTY HAS STRENGTHENED OUR RESOLVE - MASAO ADACHI

Director Philippe Grandrieux / 2011 / France

This tribute to radical Japanese writer-director Masao Adachi is the first in a series of retrospectives from filmmaker Philippe Grandrieux (A Lake, MIFF 2009).

Grandrieux's incendiary series is dedicated to filmmakers informed by a sense of deep political agitation - a criteria that far-left cinematic insurrectionist Masao Adachi (Gushing Prayer, MIFF 2009) qualifies for handily.

After producing a number of crucial films in a 1960s Japan blanketed by a paranoia of Communism and the left, Adachi gave up filmmaking in 1971 to join the Japanese Red Army, a militant left-wing organisation operating out of Lebanon. Thirty-five years later, he has made his return to the world of film, still as subversive and confronting as ever.

Grandrieux delves into the complex history of this fascinating figure of political cinema, crafting a reverential tribute to a man whose actions spoke as loudly as his images.

D/S Philippe Grandrieux P Annick Lemonnier WS Epileptic L French, Japanese w/English subtitles TD betacam sp/2011

Screens with A History of Mutual Respect, an eccentric and disquieting film that follows two cynical and worldly young Europeans (played by the film's directors) who travel to Latin America seeking pure exotic sensuality in the third world. Unprepared for and gradually disenchanted with their metaphorical journey, their jungle encounter with lost innocence ensures that their worlds will part forever.

D/S Gabriel Abrantes, Daniel Schmidt P Gabriel Abrantes, Nataxo Checa TD 35mm/2010

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