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Shin Sang-ok Focus in Udine's Far East

The 10th edition of Italy's Udine Far East Film festival will celebrate its anniversary with a careful selection of over 60 Asian films and a very special spotlight on late Korean director Shin Sang-ok (1926-2006). The festival opens April 18 and runs until the 26th in the city of Udine in north-eastern Italy.

The festival will screen four rare works of Shin, all made in the 1950's and never before screened in the West. Among them are "The Flower in Hell" (1958), about the lives of petty crooks and prostitutes around an American army base, "It's Not Her Sin" (1959), a trial drama about a woman assaulted and accused of bringing it on herself, and "A Sister's Garden" (1959) a tormented tale of two sisters both in love with a painter.

Director Shin was a major force in the Korean film industry, having directed over 60 films. He became world-famous for having been obliged - for eight years - to live in North Korea, following his abduction by secret agents of the dictator Kim Il-Sung who wanted to force him to shoot propaganda films and relaunch the country's home-grown cinema industry.

Nigel D'Sa (KOFIC)

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