The Wrestler, directed by Bangladeshi-Canadian filmmaker Iqbal H. Chowdhury, and September 1923, from Japan’s Tatsuya Mori, picked up the New Currents Awards as Busan International Film Festival wrapped a busy 28th edition on October 13.
Chowdhury’s film tells the story of an eccentric fisherman who learns a traditional form of wrestling to take on the village champion, while September 1923, the debut fiction film of documentary filmmaker Mori, revolves around the massacre that took place after the Great Kanto earthquake 100 years ago.
The Kim Jiseok Award, presented to films in Busan’s Jiseok section, went to Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage’s Paradise, about an Indian couple facing problems in their marriage during a trip to Sri Lanka, and Mirlan Abdykalykov’s Bride Kidnapping, about the widespread practice of forcing women into marriage in Kyrgyzstan.
Busan also launched two new awards, the LG OLED New Currents & Vision Awards, presented to films in the festival’s New Currents and Korean Cinema Today – Vision sections.
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