The Chinese film "Hidden in the Dust" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival

Source: China News Network

On January 19, the 72nd Berlin Film Festival announced the finalists for the main competition. Chinese director Li Ruijun's work "Hidden in the Dust" is the only Chinese-language film shortlisted for this unit and will participate in the Competition for the Golden Bear Award.

The Berlinale is one of the three major film festivals in Europe (Berlin, Cannes, Venice). After moving some of the media and industry participation online last year due to the pandemic, this year's Berlinale is back offline. The film festival officials said that the opening ceremony of this year's Berlin Film Festival will be held on February 10 at the Berlin Film Palace, and then offline films for media and other professionals will be screened until February 16. From 17 to 20 February, the films exhibited at this year's Berlin Film Festival will be ticketed to the public. The festival will also resume the tradition of walking the red carpet, but the size of the red carpet will be reduced accordingly.

"Hidden in the Dust" is written and directed by Li Ruijun, starring Wu Renlin and Haiqing. According to reports, the film "tells the story of two lonely individuals in the northwest countryside who are abandoned by their respective families, and they are in the cultivation day after day." Wu Renlin and Haiqing show the mental journey of a low-level peasant couple from strange to familiar, from acquaintance to mutual companionship." Li Ruijun's earlier work "Home in a Place with Lush Water and Grass" won the HAF Script Development Award and the Memorial Bo Weida Grand Prize at the 2011 Hong Kong International Film Festival.

A total of 18 films from 15 countries were shortlisted for the main competition section of this year's Berlin Film Festival, of which 17 were world premieres and 7 were directed by female directors. The festival's international jury is chaired by Indian-American filmmaker Nate Shyamalan. The opening film of the festival is the new film "Peter von Kant" by the famous French director François Oujong.

This year's Berlin Film Festival will strictly implement the "2G plus" epidemic prevention policy of the city of Berlin, and in addition to completing vaccination, on-site participants must wear masks and undergo regular COVID-19 testing. (China News Service reporter Peng Dawei Source: China News Network)