Golden Scene Nabs International Sales for Drama “Valley of the Shadow of Death” From Rising Hong Kong Talents Jeffrey Lam Sen and Antonio Tam

variety.com:

Clifford Coonan Hong Kong’s Golden Scene has picked up international sales on “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” starring local legend Anthony Wong.

Pic, co-directed by emerging Hong Kong talents Jeffrey Lam Sen and Antonio Tam, bowed at the Tokyo International Film Festival last October. “Valley of the Shadow of Death” is a drama about no less than the ancient struggle between sin and punishment.

Wong stars as church pastor who is forced to give sanctuary to the man who caused his daughter’s death. In an interview with Variety, Lam and Tam said the script was written in an era of profound anger and unease. “As the tension between hatred and forgiveness continuously tugged at us, we pondered how humanity should move forward. ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ appears on the surface to be a typical revenge story, but it takes the opposite path, telling a tale of forgiveness.” The movie has a strong religious theme — Lam’s father is a pastor, and Tam has been attending church since the age of three. “Our upbringing has been inseparable from religion, so we are particularly interested in the theme of conflict between faith and human nature.

When crafting the script, we were drawn to the moral dilemmas within it.” The helmers believe “Valley of the Shadow of Death” is a relatively rare item in the Hong Kong canon. “I hope that filmmakers from abroad will discover it at FilMart and feel intrigued, thinking, ‘”’So, Hong Kong has movies like this too,’” said Lam.