Crowds gather in Vesoul, France for Asian film festival

Global Business

The little town of Vesoul in eastern France is a long way from Asia, but every year, for a week in February, it’s the epicenter of Asian cinema.

CGTN’s Kate Parkinson reports.
Follow Kate Parkinson on Twitter @KTP_news

For the past 23 years, Vesoul has hosted an international film festival on Asian films.

The festival was created in 1995 by Martine and Jean Marc Therouanne, the co-directors of the event.

Over the next seven days, 90 films from Asia will hit the screens, attracting around 30,000 spectators.

This year’s festival opened with a screening of Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda’s film “After the Storm”, which tells the story of a divorced man struggling to regain his estranged family’s trust while sheltering them during a typhoon.

The film “500M800M” by Chinese writer and director Hao Tian will also be shown this weekend. The film tells the story of a woman fighting against China’s one child policy which was lifted in 2016 after 35 years.

It’s one of nine films from eight different countries competing for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Cyclo. The winner will be announced on February 14th.

For members of the jury, the coming days will be an intense viewing marathon. For everyone else it’s a chance to discover Asia, through cinema.