BUSAN: Two wildly diverse takes on modern love and obsession have taken the top prize at Asia’s largest film festival, which drew to a close yesterday.
Jurors in the New Currents award at the 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) lauded Korean director Ahn Song-Kyoung’s “Pascha” for its “intimate, highly original expression of an unusual love story”.
At the same time they hailed “Remote Control”, from Mongolia’s Byamba Sakhya, as a “sharply observed portrait of the tensions between city and country, reality and fiction”. Both filmmakers received $30,000 for the award, which offers two prizes and is open to first and second-time Asian directors.
Ahn’s film tells the heart-breaking tale of a 40-year-old woman trying to hold on to her 17-year-old boyfriend and the second-time director said she had wanted to focus on the turning points in people’s lives.
“I am interested in the moments in life when we become disillusioned and are forced to make decisions,” she explained. AFP
