Five to watch at Busan’s Asian Project Market 2023

The Asian Project Market (APM) returns as the central industry platform of the Asian Contents & Film Market, showcasing 30 projects — all still in development — from 13 countries and running October 7-10 alongside Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).

The awards at APM’s 26th edition will increase to 11 prizes following the addition of two new sponsors. Hong Kong’s One Cool Pictures and China’s Dreama Pictures will present the One Cool Award and New Horse Award respectively, each valued at $15,000 in cash. France’s ArteKino International Award will return, increasing its cash prize from $6,400 (€6,000) to $9,600 (€9,000).

Here, Screen International profiles five titles, including three script development grant recipients of BIFF’s Asian Cinema Fund: Indian director Prateek Vats’ Chronicles Of A Confession; To Kill A Mongolian Horse by Chinese director Jiang Xiaoxuan; and Where The Rivers Run South by Nepalese director Suraj Paudel, who is an alumnus of the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy (BAFA).

A further two projects are also directed by BAFA alumni: Full Moon by China’s Song Fang and Watch It Burn by Indonesia’s Makbul Mubarak.

Chronicles Of A Confession (India)

Dir/prod Prateek Vats
Production companies Tailormade Films, Good Bad Films
Budget $1.2m ($100,000 secured)

Following his 2019 award-winning narrative feature debut Eeb Allay Ooo!, an absurdist political satire that played in the Berlinale’s Panorama section, Indian director Vats once more uses humour to tell a story of troubled times. His latest project is set in Kashmir, reputed to be the most militarised zone in the world. It centres on a shawl seller’s confession after a bomb blast — though he was not actually responsible.

“This film isn’t about conflict, it’s about how people negotiate the destabilising absurdities of everyday life in a conflict zone,” says Vats, who is based in Mumbai. “It is a biting comedy arising from tragic truths that peeks into what ‘ordinary’ life looks like when collective trauma is ancient and never resolved.”

The project is at the script and development stage. Vats is at APM looking for film funds, film commissions and international co-producers to come on board. Vats’ debut documentary feature A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings was awarded the special jury prize at India’s National Film Awards in 2018. He was selected for the Bafta Breakthrough India programme in 2022.
Contact Prateek Vats, Tailormade Films 

Full Moon (China-Japan)

Dir Song Fang
Prod Shozo Ichiyama
Production company Fourier Films
Budget $1.6m

Chinese director Song’s latest project centres on a 40-year-old filmmaker who finds it hard to cope after an old friend dies by suicide, while her first painting teacher has terminal cancer and her art historian boyfriend is away on a research trip. “The subject is inspired by observations I had in recent years,” says BAFA alumna Song. “It could be somehow a little heavy, but it would be a film that combines sincere thinking of life and deep emotions, with some tender parts.”

The story is set in Nanjing, Beijing and Dunhuang, which is famous for its Mogao Cave frescos. Song, who played a film student in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flight Of The Red Balloon, won the best first feature prize for her directorial debut Memories Look At Me at Locarno in 2012. Her second feature The Calming, co-produced by veteran Shozo Ichiyama from Japan, won the Art Cinema Award when it played the Berlinale’s Forum in 2020.
Contact Shozo Ichiyama, Fourier Films 

To Kill A Mongolian Horse (China)

Dir Jiang Xiaoxuan
Prods Tan Chui Mui, Mo Zhulin
Production company Manda Jiang Productions
Budget $320,000

Chinese director Jiang’s first feature is inspired by the true story of her herder friend Sayna from Inner Mongolia, who has been selling his flock of sheep and seeking new jobs, which include performing tricks on horseback for tourists. “The proud Mongolian cavalryman he portrays in the horse show contrasted with his real life — and that visual irony persisted in my mind like a spike,” says Jiang. “We will portray his dual life as he grapples with the disintegration of the traditional way of life.”

The project will have a low budget and minimalist aesthetics, and features non-professional actors playing themselves, including Sayna as the lead actor. Malaysian filmmaker Tan Chui Mui (Barbarian Invasion) is executive producer. Director Jiang was born and raised in Inner Mongolia and graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Her award-winning short Graveyard Of Horses played at Tallinn Black Nights, SXSW and BFI London film festivals in 2022-23. This year she was selected for Sundance’s Ignite x Adobe fellowship programme.
Contact Jiang Xiaoxuan, Manda Jiang Productions 

Watch It Burn (Indonesia)

Dir Makbul Mubarak
Prod Yulia Evina Bhara
Production company KawanKawan Media
Budget $1.2m ($200,000 secured)

Indonesian director Makbul, a BAFA alumnus, reunites with his Autobiography producer Yulia for his second film. The story follows a newly divorced single mother who is accused of causing a stranger’s death in the aftermath of a fire.

The story is loosely based on real events experienced by Makbul’s family when they lived in a small town where arson were rampant. “Fire as a visual element and mistrust as a thematic element are two key takeaways that he picked up from those memories,” says Yulia. “The film will explore human obsession through suspenseful details of everyday life and, like his previous film, will be fuelled with intensity.”

Critic-turned-filmmaker Makbul saw his directorial feature debut Autobiography premiere in Horizons at Venice 2022. It went on to earn more than 20 awards and has been selected as Indonesia’s entry for the 2024 Academy Awards.
Contact Yulia Evina Bhara, KawanKawan Media

Where The Rivers Run South (Nepal)

Dir Suraj Paudel
Prods Anup Poudel, Abinash Bikram Shah
Production company Underground Talkies Nepal
Budget $425,000 ($127,500 secured)

Nepalese director Paudel received the most promising filmmaker award when he attended the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy last year. He is bringing his feature debut project to APM, having taken part in the Global Media Makers Los Angeles residency in June. The story focuses on an elderly Hindu priest who lives with three generations of women and embarks on a secret mission to look for his missing grandson, so his soul can go to heaven when he has a male heir to cremate his body on his death.

“The project explores how each generation was profoundly impacted by the evolving landscape of the country. This is not only a story of a family but also a nation,” says Paudel. “A religious nation blinded by patriarchal ideology; a nation wounded deeply by a decade-long civil war; a nation where 3,000 youths leave for foreign employment every day. This is a project that resulted from the questions I have towards these major conflicts that still remain unanswered.”

Producer Abinash Bikram Shah received a special mention at Cannes last year for short film Lori, which he directed and which was edited by Paudel.
Contact Suraj Paudel, Underground Talkies Nepal

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