China, Czech embassies hold film reception in Accra
China continued to be the second largest international film market last year, with its box office revenue exceeding USD 6.5 billion, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Madam Sun Baohong, has announced.
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She said the figure was 50 per cent higher than that of the previous year’s and added that her country was also the most vibrant film market in the world.
Galvanised by the national policy of vigorously advancing the cultural industries, she noted that China’s film industry registered an explosive growth, releasing 686 domestic films in 2015.
The ambassador announced this at a film reception organised jointly by her Embassy and the Czech Embassy at the Tang Palace Hotel and Restaurant in Accra.
She said film as a modern art, was loved by people all around the world.
The Ambassador introduced the film that was later screened titled, “Somewhere Only We Know”, a new film that was shown across China last year.
The film was a Chinese love story in Prague, the capital city of Czech.
Madam Baohong pointed out that though China and Czech were far apart, they enjoyed a strong bond of friendship.
Last year marked the 120th anniversary of the birth of world film and 110th anniversary of the birth of Chinese film, and witnessed the fast development of the Chinese film industry, she noted.
As the relationship between China and the international community were ever-deepening, she noted that more and more Chinese citizens travelled abroad and added that some Chinese directors turned their attention to the stories of the Chinese people living abroad, further enriching the subjects of Chinese films.
Following the visit of the Czech President, Mrs Miloš Zeman, to China last year, she said the Chinese President, Mr Xi Jinping, paid a state visit to Czech in March this year, taking their bilateral relations a notch higher.
“Our cultural and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation are especially eye-catching. A great number of Czech cultural works are introduced into China. The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek, The Report Under the Gallows by Julius Fučík are listed in the books that every Chinese student should read. Works of Milan Kundera and Franz Kafka enjoy high popularity among Chinese readers.
The ambassador said she was happy to note that Prague had become one of the favourite destinations for Chinese tourists, adding that last year, China became the largest source of tourists to Czech outside the European Union, with about three hundred thousand tourists visiting Czech.
Czech Ambassador
In her remarks, the Czech Ambassador to Ghana, Margita Fuchsová, said the Czech National Theatre was cooperating with a theatre in Beijing on the rendition of classical Czech opera Rusalka, while Czech Philharmonic returned to China for series of performances at the end of last month and their two countries were co-producing a TV series named “The Last Visa”.
She said the Czech film history dated back to 1896 when the audience of Czech lands was introduced to cinematography for the very first time in two important cultural centres –Prague and Karlovy Vary – site of the most important contemporary international film festival hosted in the Czech Republic that celebrated its 51st anniversary earlier this year.
The 20th Century, she noted, witnessed the emergence of many world known first-class Czech film-makers such as JiříMenzel, Miloš Forman or Jan Svěrák, all Oscar award winning directors.
Accordingly, she said the development of the Czech film industry went hand in hand with the establishment of Barrandov Studios (located in Prague) that emerged as a very important partner not only for Czech, but more importantly for many foreign movie production companies - especially in the past 25 years.
She said in recent times the Czech movie industry had been striving to get back on top of the list of the most attractive places for film making in Europe and together with help from the Czech government, a film reward mechanism to attract producers from around the world had been established.
Tourism minister
The Minister of Tourism, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, announced that Ghana had just witnessed the passage of the new Film Development Bill, which repealed the long-standing Cinematography Act of 1961(Act 76), and added that the old bill had been in existence for over 55 years.
The new bill was expected to provide the machinery to deal with the production, distribution, exhibition and marketing of films in the country and provide the legal framework for the development of a congenial environment in Ghana as a major film base for local productions.
It was also expected to make it a preferred location for international film-makers as well as co-productions between Ghana and foreign producers.
Mrs Ofosu-Adjare noted that Ghana abounded in creativity and talent and said very soon there would be co-productions between Ghanaian-Chinese and Ghanaian-Czech film producers, directors and actors to further cement the ties between Ghana and two sister nations of China and Czech Republic.
“Films are the quintessential representation of a people’s beliefs, morals, attitudes and indeed, culture and they reflect a people’s way of life,” she noted.