Has the World Cup fever hit film festivals too? The opening film for the 6th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (www.pifan.com), which takes place next month from July 11 to 20, is an English-made film about David Beckham, the star player of England's national soccer team.
The executive committee (chairman Kim Hong-jun) of the Puchon Film Festival announced the official screening list for the 160 films from 37 countries last June 11, and revealed that English director Gurinder Chadha’s film "Bend It Like Beckham" was selected as the opening piece.
This film is a story of two 18-year-old girls who are fans of Beckham and dream of being soccer players. The film opened last April in England and topped the box office charts for two consecutive weeks. Beckham, however, does not make an appearance in the film but is shown via a picture. Chairman Kim said, “In order to meet the festival’s aims, which is to appeal to the regular audience, we chose a film with more popular appeal.”
The two closing films are "Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet," a collection of short films by seven famous directors, including Wim Wenders, Spike Lee, and Werner Herzog, and "Phone," a new horror film by director Ahn Byoung-ki. Actress Ha Ji-won, who is the main character in "Phone," was selected as the "festival lady" and will participate in various events to promote the festival.
The film festival will feature films of various genres, with categories such as "Puchon Choice," “World Fantastic Cinema," "Forbidden Zone," and "Showcase ; Retrospectives." There will also be a special blue-movie screening featuring an underground sex movie titled "Censorship and Theater."
(Shin Yong-gwan, qq@chosun.com)
