SPECIAL SCREENINGS OF THE FIRST NEW HOLLAND ISLAND INTERNATIONAL DEBUT FILM FESTIVAL 17-22 AUGUST - SAINT PETERSBURG, 2020

SPECIAL SCREENINGS
 OF THE FIRST NEW HOLLAND ISLAND
INTERNATIONAL DEBUT FILM FESTIVAL
           17-22 AUGUST

         SAINT PETERSBURG, 2020

Photo: Katya Nikitina

High resolution images available at:

http://www.newhollandsp.ru/media/nhi_film_festival_2020_offline.zip

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The first New Holland Island International
Debut Film Festival screenings will take place at the Main Stage
on August 17–22

17.08                            dir. Pietro Marcello

9:30PM

Martin Eden

St.Petersburg premiere
A young sailor decides to get an education and become a writer for the love of a girl who is out of
his league. His willpower and individualism help him to overcome the circumstances of his birth, but
they do not bring him happiness. A rising star director of European cinema, Pietro Marcello turns
to the prose of Jack London in his first fully fictional film (he has already made several documenta-
ries and semidocumentaries), here transferring the action from the Oregon of a century ago to mid-
20th century Naples. The director draws on the imagery and technology of the last century (Martin
Eden was shot on film), but his latest work doesn’t amount to rejection of modernity. The film’s politi-
cal scope resonates unexpectedly with the present day, and Marcello’s attention to the colours and
textures of the 20th century represents less a return to the past than a journey “back to the things
themselves”.

18.08                         dir. Zheng Lu Xinyuan

9:30PM

The Cloud in Her Room /
Ta fang jian li de yun

Russian premiere

22-year-old Muzi returns to her native Hangzhou to celebrate Chinese New Year with her family and
readapt to her old social roles: daughter, sister, girlfriend. She meets a strange man who stirs mem-
ories of a past relationship. Stuck in limbo between past and future, in a city that is at once so close
and so far away, Muzi is trying to find herself and move forward.
In her feature debut, Zheng Lu Xinyuan blends the traditions of Chinese social realism with the free
spirit of the ‘new wave’. Unexpected experiments with structure and form, free associations, and the
bold inclusion of documentary elements do not compromise the film’s subjective integrity. The Cloud
in Her Room is an extremely private first-person narrative that at the same time provides a sumptuous
portrait of China’s twentysomethings, from a previously unseen perspective. The winner of the Tiger
Award, the main prize at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020, and a new voice in Chinese
cinema.

19.08                           dir. Hong Sang-soo

9:30PM

The Woman Who Ran /
Domangchin yeoja

St.Petersburg premiere

While her husband is away on a business trip, a woman goes to the suburbs of Seoul to meet
three friends. Engaged in casual conversation, all three of them try to conceal their problems.
Only our heroine Gam-hee is happy – it is the first time she has been apart from her husband
in five years of marriage. Why did the woman run away?

Hong Sang-soo’s 24th film was screened in the main competition at the Berlinale, where it received
the Silver Bear for Best Director and was one of the event’s best received films. The outward
similarity of this South Korean festival favourite’s oeuvre has long been a subject of jokes. Upon
closer inspection, however, and despite the similar themes and faithfulness to the principles of
minimalism, it’s easy to spot many differences between them, mirroring the repetitions that occur
within his films. Every Hong Sang-soo film is a puzzle, and together they form a unique labyrinth that
people want to return to again and again, in large part thanks to his trademark (self-)irony.

20.08                          dir. Christian Petzold

9:30PM

Undine / Ondine

Russian premiere

A modern interpretation of the ancient German legend of Undine, a water nymph. Undine works as
a guide at the Berlin City Museum and knows everything there is to know about the history of East
and West Berlin. Her stories win her the affections of the young dreamer Christoph, but Undine
has a secret from her past – a fatal romance with Johannes, who betrayed her. Christian Petzold is
a leading director of the Berlin School, the key movement in contemporary German auteur cinema,
defined by its minimalist approach and focus on the politics of everyday life. He has used the motifs
of German Romanticism in his previous films, and Undine is the first in a trilogy dedicated to German
myth. The political context of this captivating melodrama, conveyed largely through the history of the
city’s development, recedes into the distance without disappearing completely. It serves as the back-
drop to a story of love, driven by sea spirits and ghosts of the past.

21.08                            dir. Eliza Hittman

9:30PM

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Russian premiere

The words of the film’s title are taken from common responses to awkward questions asked by social
workers at pregnancy crisis centres. The main characters of Eliza Hittman’s film are two teenage
girls, one of whom is pregnant, who go to New York to seek an abortion. In their native Pennsylvania,
parental consent is required for the termination of a pregnancy. This social drama, which may seem
predictable at first glance, won a special jury prize for neorealism at the Sundance Film Festival. It also
received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale, as well as wide acclaim from international
press. The success of Never Rarely Sometimes Always is not only due to the relevance of its subject
matter or any feminist agenda. This is a subtle, sensitive and nuanced film, which manages to
do something very rare indeed — speaking about difficult subjects in simple language and without
becoming excessively sentimental.

22.08            Short Film Competition Screening:
9:30PM           winners and works by Russian directors

                 News
                 From the Other World
                 dir. Valentina Bek

                 Naked
                 dir. Kirill Khachaturov

                  Leave of Absence
                  dir. Anton Sazonov

Photo: Katya Nikitina