Legendary Chinese film director Xie Fei is in Europe to promote his classic movie The Girl from Hunan.

With the Shanghai film festival in full swing, many in the film industry are flying from around the world to China – but Xie has left the country for the Cinematic Arts & Diversity event in Greece.

Xie arrived in the central seaside city of Volos after brief stops in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

The award-winning film-maker presented his picture, filmed in the 1980s, depicting a young girl forced into an arranged marriage. 

The event was organized by the Confucius Institute and the Chinese cultural center of Athens and was the first of its kind since the pandemic. Its aim was to promote cultural exchanges through art.

"We now enjoy the movies more today than we did in the past," said Xie. "Nowadays there are translations of the movies I have directed, so it's easier for the audience to understand and connect to them."

He added: "Through the translations there is an exchange of cultures, with people now being able to understand a bit more of Chinese culture."

Xie said he hoped the event would promote Sino-Greek ties, as well as highlight some of the similarities between the two cultures.

Director of the China Culture Center in Athens, Ren Ren, said he hoped the event would help build bridges.

"The showcase of the film is presented here so Greeks can understand a bit more about Chinese culture, but mostly to realize how similar we both are and how we can have stronger mutual interaction," Ren said.

Cooperation and understanding

The two countries have been influencing each other's cinematic development for more than half a century.

According to Greek movie critic Giannis Zoumpoulakis, "ever since modern Greek cinematography was established around the early '70s with its most known director Theodoro Aggelopoulo, it always had close ties with Asian culture and specifically China."

The economic ties between China and Greece are well known, thanks to high-profile flagship projects like the Port of Piraeus, often referred to as the 'Dragon's Head' of China's Belt and Road Initiative.

But cinema offers a different way of bringing the two countries closer together, through creative cooperation and understanding.

One of the attractions of events like this for directors like Xie is the opportunity to highlight challenging subjects – such as arranged marriage – in a way that audiences can relate to.

With events like this becoming increasingly popular in Greece, Xie is planning to showcase more of his films across the country.

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