Chinese film festival opens in Budapest

A two-day film festival showcasing eight Chinese films opened in Budapest on Tuesday.

The opening film was "Full Circle," a comedy feature film about the attempts of elderly people in a nursing home to take part in a talent show.

Before its screening to a packed audience, Annamaria Szalai, head of Hungary's National Media Authority which organized the festival, said that along with literature, film is one of the best ways to get to know a culture and a people.

"The festival is an opportunity for us to get to know better one of the world's most exciting and most interesting countries through its films," she said.

Speaking on behalf of a delegation of Chinese film dignitaries, Zhang Hongsen, deputy director of the Film Bureau of China's State Administration of Radio, Film and TV, said China and Hungary share a rich cultural past and film tradition.

"In the 1960s Hungarian films were shown widely in China," he said, adding that a Hungarian film festival staged in 2005 in China was a great success.

After watching "Full Circle," Orsolya Mira Falusi, a member of the audience, said that she found the film particularly moving.

"If we look into our lives, then for sure there are certain moments in the film which relate to each and every one of us. It's a spiritual film, meaning that we should all look after each other more than we do. This film is relevant to everywhere in the world," she said.

Also on the festival roster are "the dramas Mother" and "The Great Magician," "One Mile Above" which is set in Tibet, the romantic comedies I "Do" and "Love Is Not Blind," the animated film "The Monkey King," and "Aftershock," a powerful drama depicting the devastating 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, in northern Hebei province.