Q&As yesterday with the directors of three films in our International Competition.

Mao Mao came from Beijing with Here, Then, a stunning study of young lives adrift in a desolate resort town in China. As the World Premiere of a debut feature, yesterday’s screening of the film was also the first Q&A of Mao Mao’s life. He did fine. Trained as an actor, Mao Mao also worked as an assistant director on Wang Bing’s The Ditch, which we showed a few days ago. Mao Mao told me he learned a lot from the seriousness with which Wang Bing approached his work. I predict a bright future worldwide for Here, Then, which screens again at Filmhouse 2 on Thursday at 18:15.

Last night was also the UK premiere of the exquisite Girimunho, by Helvécio Marins Jr and Clarissa Campolina. Set in a small town in Minas Gerais, the film details the everyday life of an elderly widow and depicts her joyful passion for life. The people in the film play themselves and provided the material for the script, which the filmmakers wrote during an extended period of observing their subjects’ lives. The result, a unique mixture of documentary and fiction, screens again at Cineworld tonight (Wednesday) at 20:50, with Helvécio back once again to speak with the audience.

Gastón Solnicki’s brilliant family portrait Papirosen, which won the award for best Argentine film this year at BAFICI (Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema), had its last EIFF screening last night. The audience’s contributions to the Q&A seemed a bit restrained, probably because my remarks were too heavy-footed, leading off with “the gaze of the newborn child at the camera and at the world.” I must shut up more.