The second edition of the week-long Festival of Contemporary Chinese Cinema has taken place in “Dom na Kinoto” in Sofia. The event was organized by the Confucius Institute in Sofia and the Cultural Center of the St. Kliment Ohridski University. Visitors who had tickets from previous events in the cinema hall could watch the movies for free. The selection of films was the work of Associate professor Andronika Martonova - expert on Asian cinema in the Institute of Art Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences:

"We started with the idea that we really need to promote Chinese cinema and to revive a tradition that was somehow interrupted,” says Assoc. Martonova. “I say this because before 1944 and after that Chinese cinema had always been popular in Bulgaria. After the democratic changes we somehow started to stay away from what was happening there. The truth is that Chinese film industry continues to evolve in a very interesting and internationally recognized way. Prestigious film festivals do not go without the presence of films from China. Chinese films have won a number of international awards and even an Oscar for a foreign language film. Therefore, Bulgaria can not miss this wonderful opportunity to make fans of the 7th art acquainted with the achievements of Chinese cinema. Especially for the second edition of the festival we selected nine titles from the last ten or fifteen years. These are very good films by directors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan; some of the films are co-productions. We made a colourful palette of different genres, as we included a musical, a biopic, action and thriller movies, fantasy, martial arts movies, drama and comedy. In short we made a selection that is representative of contemporary Chinese cinematography.”

Among the interesting titles is “The Assassin” (Nie Yin-niang) by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, which is said to be one of the best movies of 2015 and is winner of two awards at the Cannes Festival.

"It is an interesting movie because you will not see martial arts presented in this very simple and spectacular way that most people are used to seeing in Hollywood productions,” Andronika Martonova says. “The story is about a girl trained since childhood by a Daoist nun to be a killer. It is a very dramatic film that enters deeply into human psychology. It is also very unusual for its genre, as it is both poetic and provoking. Its director is among the leading names in Chinese cinema today."

According to associate professor Martonova contemporary Chinese cinema is extremely rich and diverse. China produces more than 200 films annually that are distributed worldwide and enjoy great interest. Perhaps the Balkan countries, and in particular Bulgaria are lagging behind as we don’t see many Chinese films these days.

"There is state filmmaking, as well as independent cinema in China. Directors have been working in the spheres of feature and documentary cinema, as wells as animation and definitely have something to say with their movies. Messages are universal. There are various historical movies that shed light on the millennial history of China and focus on different eras and traditional dynasties. The Sino-Japanese War is also a frequent topic, as well as the civil war, World War II, the Japanese invasion, the puppet government in Manchuria, etc. Movies also show contemporary China and its transition from a closed socialist system to mixed economy. The films show how the common man copes with the historical changes. In recent years, the topic of environment protection is also very popular for Chinese cinema. Comments from the audience after the screenings show Bulgarians are definitely interested in seeing more of these films. People thanked us for helping them broaden their horizons and for becoming more interested in Chinese culture. The world is big, cultural diversity is huge and it is good to have the opportunity to take a glimpse at distant cultures."

English: Alexander Markov