One of Europe’s most prestigious film festivals dedicated to South Korean cinema returns to Florence from March 12 to 20 at the Odeon Cinema in Piazza Strozzi. Now in its eighth year, the Florence Korea Film Festival, organized by the Taegukgi Association, has many innovations. The first is the change of its name, meant to reflect the festival’s strong ties to Florence: ‘This year, we decided to add the word “Florence” to the official name of the festival to pay homage to the city that helped give rise to it. In this way, considering the international recognition of the festival, we hope to bring a piece of Florence to the Far East, thus helping to create and strengthen an intercultural dialogue between two worlds that are so far, geographically, from one another,’ said the festival’s director, Riccardo Gelli.
The international significance of this festival has increased with each edition, and the festival recently won the Korean Cinema Award for the important role it has played in promoting Korean cinema in the West. The award, which was presented to Gelli at the Pusan International Film Festival, is one of the most prestigious in the sector. ‘It is a great honour to have received the award, which was given to us for the eight years we have been organizing the festival,’ Gelli told TF.
Gelli and his companion Chang Eun Young founded the festival in 2002 because of their passion for Korean cinema, unknown in Italy, and relatively little known elsewhere in Europe at the time. ‘We started eight years ago with a few films and about 500 spectators at a theatre in Campo di Marte; last year, there were some 9,000 festival goers and 28 films,’ Gelli recalled.
This year the Florence Korea Film Festival will screen a selection of over 26 films that have earned public and critical acclaim in Korea. Many of these will be making their European debuts in Florence. Among them are works by one of the most celebrated directors in contemporary Korea, Hur Jin-ho, who will be present during the entire festival, which is featuring a retrospective of his work. Considered one of the most important exponents of ‘new Korean romanticism,’ Jin-ho explores through a modern lens the complexities of male-female romantic relationships.
A second retrospective, an added treat to this year’s roster of films, is dedicated to Korean horror films, a genre that has become increasingly popular in Asia and in the West over the past few years. Numerous box office hits from the ‘K-horror’ genre will be shown at the Odeon, including Park Ki-hyeong’s blockbuster Whispering Corridors. Following its screening, Italian cinema’s master of suspense, Dario Argento, will engage in a public discussion with the director. Along with Park and other K-horror directors, Argento will be a guest of honour at the festival for the durations of the retrospective.
As it has done in the past, the festival will present two competitive sections. The Korean Horizons section features seven masterworks from contemporary Korean cinema, and the Independent Korea section presenting some of Korea’s best contemporary indie films.
The opening and closing films of the festival are also worth special mention. Kim Yong-hwa’s Take Off, one of the biggest box office hits in Korea in 2009, will be screened at the Odeon on March 12; it chronicles the touching plight of Korea’s national ski jumping team, which qualified, for the first time, to compete in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Closing the festival on March 20 is Park Chan-wook’s latest film, Thirst, which won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Also on closing day, an important event takes place at the EX3 Centre of Contemporary Art in Gavinana, where the very popular Korean pop band, Loveholics, will perform in concert for the first time in Italy. The much-anticipated concert, held in the contemporary space of EX3, will be followed by the late-night Korea Film Party, during which Korean and Italian DJs will share time on the turntables.
