Oscar-winning director Sean Baker on Thursday attended Taiwan Cinema Night at the Cannes Film Festival to support a Taiwanese film he contributed to.
Baker, who this year won four Academy Awards for Anora, was part of a packed house at the premiere of Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), which he cowrote with the film’s Taiwanese director, Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎).
He has collaborated with Tsou several times since her first film, Take Out, a 2004 production that she codirected with Baker.
Photo: CNA
Although he did not take part in the filming of Left-Handed Girl, Baker said he was amazed by what Taiwanese filmmakers had achieved and called it an honor to work with the team.
Left-Handed Girl, Tsou’s first solo-directed feature, centers on a single mother, who runs a stall at a night market in Taipei, and her two young daughters, exploring their struggles and conflicts.
In an interview released by Cannes, Tsou said each of the three characters represents “a fragment of myself,” revealing that the idea for for the film predated her 2004 debut.
The inspiration for the title came from a remark by her grandfather: “Left hand is the devil’s hand and you’re not supposed to use it.”
Tsou and Baker developed a script in Taiwan based on that idea, but due to a lack of funding, the project was shelved.
Tsou described the film’s eventual release as “a long time coming.”
The film was selected for the festival’s Critics’ Week section, standing out among 1,000 submissions from 102 countries. It is to be screened five times during the event.
More than 100 people attended Taiwan Cinema Night, including Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, actor Lily Franky and Taiwanese model-turned-actress Lin Chi-ling (林志玲).
Taiwanese titles including Yi Yi (一一) by the late Edward Yang (楊德昌), 96 Minutes (96分鐘) and Gravity, Movement (重_力) are also being screened at the French film festival, which runs until Saturday.
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