BALZAC and the Little Chinese Seamstress is the Bermuda International Film Festival's February cinema selection.

Directed by Chinese film-maker Sijie Dai, the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and received a Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

"The film is a poetic tale of love found and lost," a BIFF spokesperson said. "In 1971 China, in the lingering grip of the Cultural Revolution, two university students, Luo and Ma, are sent to a mountain mining village as part of their re-education duty to purge them of their classical western oriented education.

"Amid the back-breaking work and stifling ignorance of the community, the two boys find that music, and the presence of the beautiful local young women are the only pleasant things in their miserable life.

"However, none compare to the young seamstress granddaughter of the local tailor. Stealing a departing student's secret cache of forbidden books of classic western literature such as the works of Honore de Balzac, they set about to woo her and teach her things she had never imagined.

"In doing so, they start a journey that would profoundly change her perspective on her world and teach the boys about the power of literature and their own ability to change their world in truly revolutionary ways."

The film has been a critics' favourite and has screened at numerous festivals around the world, including San Sebastian, Gothenburg, Auckland and Mexico City. As described by noted critic, Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter: "A poignant lyricism runs through Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress that transforms this story about love and culture into a cinematic poem."

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress will screen next Thursday at 7.30 p.m. at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute theatre.

Tickets to BIFF Film Nights are $5 for BIFF Film Club members, and $8 for non-members.

Filmgoers may reserve tickets by e-mailing BIFF, infobiff.bm, or by calling the BIFF office, 293-3456. Reserved tickets may be picked up at the BUEI from 6.30 p.m. on the evening of the screening.

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