Masterful magic. The second edition of the Electric Shadows Asian film festival opens with the wonderful Kummatty by Govindan Aravindan, a key figure of Parallel Cinema in India. A second restored classic of his, Thamp, further enhances the image of Indian cinema. Our closing film The New Old Play (Qiu Jiongjiong) also conjures up a special world, against the backdrop of Chinese political and theatre history. Memories play a crucial role in this, and likewise in the inventive animation films Dozens of Norths and Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish, or the Philippine children’s drama Nervous Translation. A new film by Nguyen Trinh Thi, the documentary Dorm and a focus on short films by young Vietnamese and Iranian makers show surprising perspectives on how film shapes itself, migration and the daily political space.
