Josep by Aurel will close the 22nd Jeonju International Film Festival which will go hybrid both-in-theatre and online screenings from April 29th until May 8th, 2021.

Based on the previous experience, the 22nd edition will take place as usual for 10 days. The festival is preparing detailed plans depending on social distancing levels and quarantine measures and trying to figure out the best way to hold events and screenings, involving both public and online.

The 22nd JEONJU IFF prepared a section “Special Focus: Corona, New Normal” to look back on the profound impact of the COVID-19 on our lives and to look at films that paid attention to changes in the world. The films about the aspects and influences of the COVID-19 pandemic seen by directors from around the world, including Korea, will create a consensus on the current situation and become a place to think about the way out of it.

This year there will be a special section called “Special Focus: I am Independent,” which sheds light on independent films by women directors. The special section will be an ambitious project to focus on their achievements, through the films of seven women directors who have been forgotten or not mentioned well but are an important part of independent film history.

Opening Film:

In February 1939. Spanish republicans are fleeing Franco’s dictatorship to France. The French government built concentration camps, confining the refugees, where they barely have access to hygiene, water, and food. In one of these camps, separated by barbed wire, two men become friends. One is a French guard, the other is Josep Bartoli (1910-1995), an illustrator who fights against Franco’s regime. (JIFF 2021)

About the director:
Born in 1980, Aurel is a French illustrator. He is working as a press illustrator for the national daily Le Monde and the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné. As a cartoonist, Aurel has published around twenty books, including two non-fiction comics Clandestino and La Menuiserie. In 2011, he co-directed with Florence Corre his first animated short film, Octobre Noir (2011). Josep is his first feature film.

Trailer: