Themed “The Silk Road Connects the World, The Film Festival Illuminates Fuzhou”, the 12th Silk Road International Film Festival took place in Fuzhou from September 22 to 26.

Continuing to embrace international elements, the film festival grabbed the global spotlight. Regarding the collection of films, this year’s festival has received over 3,500 submissions from 135 countries and regions. 100 selected films from 44 countries and regions, including Russia, France, Italy and Iran, were shown in the festival, composing a great feast of films featuring cultural diversity.

Film practitioners from across the world added charm to the grand event. Hundreds of guests from multiple countries and regions made their attendance. Films served as a bridge in the event to facilitate ties among different countries and regions. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the historic Asian-African Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference, and the 75th anniversary of the founding of diplomatic ties between China and Indonesia. The event availed itself of the opportunity to highlight events for Indonesia, which has been chosen as a guest country of honor, and promote communication and cooperation between China and Indonesia.

Garin Nugroho, an Indonesian director, said, “Upon receipt of the invitation from the film festival, my team tells me that we must accept it. The festival is far more than a event of communication in film-making, but a deep cultural interaction.” He made a special mention of the fact that about 60% of Chinese-Indonesia originated from Fujian. “I am more aware of the long-standing and well established friendship between the two countries by attending the film festival.”

The film festival was not only an audio-visual feast, but also a cross-border cultural dialogue and a heart-to-heart interaction, underlining worldwide film practitioners’ joint pursuit of art, peace and empathy. (Yan Xiao, Lan Yuping and Tang Weiqiang)