TIFF 2011: UFO IN HER EYES by Xiaolu Guo

Well, here’s an interesting title – UFO In Her Eyes. I like this kind of stories. It would be great if some day I get the chance to see my little green friends from out of space.

Oh, we could have so much fun! And if I’m clever enough, maybe I will exploit them and make some money?

Yeah, well, until that happens, here’s a little flashback to reality. Let’s see what else we have at TIFF, because this festival is full of surprises.

So, UFO In Her Eyes comes from director Xiaolu Guo, and it’s definitely one of those weird projects, that you want to check out even when you’re not on drugs.

I mean, look at these photos – ‘UFO Sighting’ – wtf?

Guo says that this project is “universal in the sense that no one, no matter how unimportant they might seem, is immune from the big economic machine rolling over our lives. This could happen in a small village in Spain or a farm in Germany, anywhere land, inhabited or not, must be destroyed to make room for a new airport or a mobile phone company.”

Just in case you want more details about the whole thing here’s the synopsis part:

“Simple woman Kwok Yun leads a peasant’s life in the peaceful mountains around remote Three-Headed Bird Village. She lives with her grandfather and works as a laborer. She has no dreams of a different life, no great plans for the future. One day, after a countryside tryst with a married man, Kwok Yun sees a UFO – a giant glowing thing in the shape of a dumpling!

Later that same day, she also helps a snake-bitten American businessman, who disappears as mysteriously as the UFO. The ambitious village leader Chief Chang uses Kwok Yun’s unexpected events for political gain. She stimulates tourism with UFO tours and gets the local economy roaring with progress.

Busy aspiring to strengthen relations with the USA, she is blind to the dangers such radical change can bring, especially to the environment. Kwok Yun is also transformed into the shining example of a “model peasant.” She is promoted and groomed for a bright new future by pushy Chief Chang. But Kwok Yun’s heart is whispering that she’s destined for something more than the government’s power-hungry plans…”

Movie stars Shi Ke and Udo Kier.

So, any thoughts about this one?