Berlin, Feb 12: The Berlin International Film Festival is honouring South Korean director Im Kwon-Taek for the achievements of a career dating back to 1962, making him one of the two recipients this year of its honorary Golden Bear Award.
Im is to receive the award today, organisers said. The ceremony is being accompanied by a screening of his visually sumptuous 2000 film "Chunhyang," set in the 17th century. It tells a classic Korean romantic tale using the Pansori art, in which a singer accompanied by a drummer narrates the story with high-pitched wails and fierce shouts.
Im is now working on his 100th production and has often touched on the Korean War and the country's subsequent division.
He "holds a special position among Asia's great filmmakers" festival organisers said in a statement, adding that his films "all bear his unmistakable stamp - they are forceful and charged cinematographically, as well as reticent, stylised and musical."
"Chunyang" was the first Korean movie chosen to feature at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2002, he won the Best Director Award at Cannes for "Chihwason," a movie about a 19t-century Korean painter.
A second honorary Golden Bear, the festival's top award, will go next week to veteran Spanish actor and director Fernando Fernan Gomez.
Bureau Report
