The 35th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam will be opened, on Wednesday January 25, 2006 with the European premiere of HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK by Nagasaki Shunichi. The Japanese director, also honoured by Rotterdam as Filmmaker in Focus with tribute screenings of a choice of his works, will attend the festival’s Opening Night Ceremony.

Rotterdam festival director Sandra den Hamer: “HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK (2005) is an excellent film and also an extraordinary, multilayered statement on cinema itself; therefore it is a perfect opener of the 35th edition of a festival that celebrates film as art.”

HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK is part remake and part sequel of Nagasaki’s own film of the same title from 1982 as well as its own ‘making off’. The principal actors from 1982 return in the 2005 version, older and maybe wiser, while a new young couple is on the run.

Nagasaki Shunichi (1956) has continued to deliver a steady stream of provocative and challenging films for many years now, often dealing with characters pushed to extremes by unforeseen circumstances. He was in the vanguard of the Japanese independent 8 millimetre scene of the late 70s, and has since worked in every possible format: Super-8, 16mm, 35mm, video and digital video.

For the first time a major film festival outside Japan devotes a retrospective section to Nagasaki Shunichi. This section includes thirteen of his films with the original 1982 version of HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK, THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND IN SEPTEMBER (1982), THE ENCHANTMENT (1989) and others.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam 2006 will present the following films of Filmmaker in Focus Nagasaki Shunichi:

THE SUMMER YUKI THREW AWAY ROCK MUSIC (YUKI GA ROCK WO SUTETA NATSU) (1978) HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK (YAMIUTSU SHINZÔ) (1982 – original version) AFTER THAT (SONOGO) (1982) THE LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND IN SEPTEMBER (1982) LONDON CALLING (1985, short) THE ENCHANTMENT (YÛWAKUSHA) (1989) STRANGER (YORU NO STRANGER, KYOFU!) (1991, direct to video) THE LAST DRIVE (SAIGO NO DRIVE) (1992, TV) WILD SIDE (WAIRUSAIDU) (1993, TV) SOME KINDA LOVE (ROMANSU) (1996) DOGS (DOGGUSU) (1998) A TENDER PLACE (YAWARAKA NA HOO) (2001, TV) HEART, BEATING IN THE DARK (YAMIUTSU SHINZÔ) (2005), Opening Film IFFR 2006