Acclaimed director Hong Sang-soo will return to the Berlin International Film Festival with his eighth film "Night and Day", which screens in the festival's competition section. This will be the first time that a film by HONG competes at Berlin, after his previous works "Woman is the Future of Man" (2004) and "Tale of Cinema" (2005) competed at Cannes.
The film, recipient of 2005 KOFIC Production Support for Art Films, which was 90% shot in Paris, stars Kim Yeong-ho as an artist who runs off to France and leaves behind his wife played by Hwang Soo-jeong. Park Eun-hye and Lee Seon-gyoon are cast as art students in Paris.
HONG's film is one of four Korean films that have been invited to various sections of the Berlinale. "Beautiful" by debut director Jeon Jae-hong tells the story of a woman who is persecuted because of her beauty. The film is based on a screenplay by well-known director Kim Ki-duk, who also served as executive producer of the film. Jeon is recognized as an up and coming filmmaker whose short film Fish screened in the short film competition at Venice last year.
In addition, the documentary "Grandmother's Flower" by MUN Jeong-hyun will screen in the Forum section. The film is one of the most acclaimed local documentaries of 2007, and it won the Woonpa prize for best documentary at the 2007 Pusan International Film Festival. Finally the 28-minute short film "Light My Fire" by LEE J.P. has been invited to the Generation section. The film centers around a young North Korean defector who wants to become a rock singer.
Members of KOFIC will be attending the festival as usual, and will hold a party together with the Pusan International Film Festival on February 11th at the Movenpick Hotel Bar.
KOFIC is also sponsoring a joint sales booth at Berlin's European Film Market for those companies that don't wish to run a separate stand, or that require more space. Participating companies include STUDIO 2.0, SHOW EAST, Activers Entertainment, CJ Entertainment, iHQ, INDIESTORY, MIROVISION, and bom Film Productions.
Particularly notable is the participation of INDIESTORY in the European Film Market for the first time. The company is Korea's leading distributor of independent film, and its participation in one of the world's biggest film markets is hoped to give added publicity to Korean independent films. The company will be selling "Life Track", a Chinese-Korean co-production which won the top prize at the 2007 Pusan International Film Festival, and the omnibus film "Fantastic Parasuicides", which screened in Pusan and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
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