SEVERAL Chinese-language films will be screened at the Venice International Film Festival, which inaugurated its 71st edition in the iconic Italian water city Wednesday.

    “Chuangruzhe” (“Red Amnesia”), directed by Wang Xiaoshuai, is among the 20 titles competing for the Golden Lion, the highest prize given to a film at the festival.

    The film tells the story of Deng, a retired widow who spends her days caring for her two grown sons and her elderly mother, despite her family’s efforts to stop her. Her daily routine is derailed when she starts receiving anonymous phone calls.

    Wang said in a statement that he was inspired by his 70-year-old mother, who, after his father’s death, still wanted to take care of the director and his children. “Her life made me reflect on Chinese people’s lives,” Wang said.

    “Qin’aide” (“Dearest”) directed by Peter Ho-sun Chan and starring Chinese actress Zhao Wei, will be unveiled in the Out of Competition category.

    The film’s story centers on a couple, Tian Wenjun and his ex-wife Lu Xiaojuan, who find their ordinary lives thrown into complete turmoil when their son goes missing.

    Overwhelmed with guilt, they comb through half the country in search of him; hope is the only reason to live for them.

    One day, they encounter another couple who lost their child and they are introduced to a support group dedicated to locating missing children.

    Tian and Lu eventually find their long lost son, Peng, in a remote village, but when they return home with him, they find out he has changed and sees them as strangers.

    “Huangjin Shidai” (“The Golden Era”) by Ann Hui, starring Chinese actress Tang Wei, will be the closing film of the Venice film festival, which ends Sept. 6.

    The film tells the story of Xiao Hong, a famous female writer who lived through the most turbulent times in contemporary China.

    Hui said in a statement that she was fascinated by Xiao Hong’s life story ever since she came across her novels in the 1970s.

    Xiao’s estrangement from her father sparked her quest for an emotionally satisfying life. She was rescued from poverty by writer Xiao Jun, but their competitive relationship brought her more heartache than joy.

    While escaping the Japanese invasion, she married a Japanese novelist, and they fled together to Hong Kong, which fell to the Japanese later. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 31.

    “Da Shu” (“Great Heat”) directed by Chen Tao, which depicts a silent and unusual friendship, will be shown in the Orizzonti-Short Films category, a competition dedicated to films that represent the latest aesthetic and expressive trends in international cinema.

    Chinese-language filmmakers have witnessed their best years at Venice under the festival’s former artistic director Marco Muller, with multiple Golden Lions won by directors such as Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou.

    The world’s oldest film festival opened Wednesday and runs to Sept. 6 with jury president Alexandre Desplat heading a judging panel that includes British actor Tim Roth, Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, Chinese-American director and actress Joan Chan and Italian actor Carlo Verdone.

    (Xinhua)