SEOUL -- The 9th Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea has
announced a special retrospective devoted to the five former Soviet
republics of central Asia.

The festival, which runs from May 1-9, will also continue its tradition
of commissioning a three-part digital work by major international
directors. This year's project will be helmed by African directors
Idrissa Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad), and
Nacer Khemir (Tunisia).

JIFF's annual omnibus films have received wide festival play in past years,
with 2007's project "Memories" picking up a Jury Award at
the Locarno International Film Festival.

Jeonju, together with the genre-oriented Puchon International Fantastic Film
Festival, occupy Korea's second tier of international film festivals
after Pusan. The event received a record number of submissions this
year, with 815 Korean submissions (62 features/753 shorts) and 374
foreign submissions (151 features/223 shorts).

The festival also announced it will re-title its competition section from
"Indie Vision" to "International Competition".

The central Asian retrospective will screen a total of 12 films,
including Rashid Nugmanov's 1989 film "The Needle" starring
the late Soviet rock legend Victor Tsoi, whose father was Korean.

Kazakh director Darezhan Omirbaev, who participated in JIFF's 2006 digital
omnibus project "Talk to Her", will also present his
classic "Kairat" (1991).

JIFF will reveal its complete program in early April.