OPENING FILM
Love Education
Mother intends to relocate Grandpa’s grave so he could be re-buried with Grandma. However, her decision sparkles a conflict with Nana, Grandpa’s first wife. Weiwei, caught between her mother and Nana, is turning the fight over the grave into a reality TV show. However, after having spent time with Nana, she learns a new understanding of life.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN FOCUS
ADIWIRAKU
Set in rural Malaysia where poverty forces children to choose between learning and making a living, English teacher Cheryl Ann Fernando encourages her students daily to overcome. Together, they work tirelessly to prepare for a choral competition, prevailing over tragedy, hardship, and illness. Based on a true story, Adiwiraku is an inspirational story about modern poverty and a teacher’s will to see her students to succeed.
By The Time It Gets Dark
The interwoven stories of several characters: a film director and her muse; a waitress who keeps changing jobs; an actor; and an actress. Their lives are loosely connected by an almost invisible threads. The narrative sheds its skin several times over the course of the film, to reveal upon layer of the complexities that make up our lives.
Shuttle Life
One day, a car runs a red light and hits Ah Qiang and his 5-year old sister Hui Shan. Unfortunately, Hui Shan gets killed in the accident. Ah Qiang desperately tries to see Hui Shan but he has no documents to prove their relationship. As their mother has mental problems, Ah Qiang is forced to face the incident alone.
AQERAT
Hui Ling’s life will truly begin as soon as she makes it to Taiwan. Or so she thinks. Right now, she is in the Thai-Malaysian border, working odd jobs and saving money. Determined to make it even when she loses all her savings, she accepts her boss’ offer for quick money as a human trafficker. As she descends into the darkness of her sordid trade, she witnesses the atrocities perpetrated against the Rohingya immigrants. Her beacon of light through this is Wei, a young hospital worker who believes that she is a woman from his past.
Pop Aye
In a chance encounter, a disenchanted architect bump into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Excited, he takes his elephant on a journey across Thailand, in search of the farm where they grew up together.
FEMALE FILMMAKERS IN FOCUS (FFF)
A Letter to The President
Soraya is a public official who tries to enforce the law within the terrible situation of Afghanistan today. Her decision to save a young woman accused of adultery from the justice of a clan provokes a chain reaction, even in the family. Then things get worse when following an argument Soraya accidentally kills her husband, a violent man. She is thus arrested and condemned to death. Only the president can save her; she has written a long letter to him, which appears to be lost; with the chance that it may be read too late.
Angels Wear White
In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls assault by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working on reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she says nothing. Meanwhile, 12-years-old Wen, one of the victims, finds that her troubles have only just begun. Trapped in a world that offers them no safety, Mia and Wen will have to find their own way out.
