by Martina Fuchs
GENEVA, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- India-born and Switzerland-raised director and screenwriter Bindu de Stoppani has told Xinhua she is fascinated by Chinese movies and interested in exploring collaborations with directors in China.
"I love Chinese films. The aesthetics... looking at the same stories we are used to in the West, with a different point of view, a different vision, is fascinating to me," she said on the occasion of this year's "Italian Language Week" and the screening of her film at the Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing.
"I am sadly not as educated in the vastness of Chinese cinema, and would absolutely love to know more and work in China on a project," De Stoppani, who directed the 2017 feature film "Finding Camille," said.
"It's all about what a Chinese production company is looking for and what I could offer as a foreign director," she added.
China's film market is the world's second-largest and is growing at a rapid pace. During the eight-day National Day holiday which ended last Thursday, China's film market saw a brisk recovery as its box office earnings surpassed 3.95 billion yuan (about 583 million U.S. dollars), according to China Film News.
Born in India to a Swiss-Italian mother and an American father, De Stoppani grew up in Switzerland and around the world. Her second feature film, "Finding Camille," which tells a heart-breaking yet humorous story of a father and his daughters' journey toward getting to know each other, is in Italian with English subtitles and was released in October 2017.
Italian is one of the four national languages of Switzerland, with 8.1% of the Swiss population speaking the language. Switzerland attaches great importance to maintaining its multilingualism. The Swiss embassy and consulates in China organize "Italian Language Week" every year to showcase the culture and life of the Italian-speaking regions of Switzerland.
"I have sadly not yet been to China, so I can't entirely comment on how fathers and daughters behave similarly or differently in both cultures," she said. "But I think love is universal."
De Stoppani was scheduled to attend the film screening in Beijing, though COVID-19 thwarted her plans.
"Wherever you are, the love, approval, need to be understood travels across borders and the love for a parent who is going through an illness is the same everywhere. Depending on the relationship one has, of course," she said.
"COVID-19 has really highlighted how much our mental health, the mental health of everyone, from kids to grown-ups, has been effected. We really need to take this seriously. Because loneliness, isolation, and marginalisation is not healthy for us human beings in any way," De Stoppani said. Enditem
