(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-19 20:47

Five short films on Beijing by world-famous directors from Italy, Britain, Iran, France and Hong Kong will be screened next month, the organizers said Wednesday.

The five films, each lasting five minutes, are products of the "Vision Beijing Project", started in 2006 by the Beijing Foreign Cultural Exchange Association and the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government to sell the city to the world as it hosts the Olympic Games next year.

The project required the directors to use their films visualizing the transformation of Beijing into a modern metropolis.

Among those participating were Italian Giuseppe Tornatore, Iranian Majid Majidi, Frenchman Patrice Leconte, Englishman Daryl Goodrich and Lau Wai-Keung from Hong Kong.

The films will be shown on the national network CCTV as well as on flights. They would also be aired by national broadcasters in Italy, France and Iran.

According to the project's website, the directors used various approaches to capture images of Beijing.

In his film, Tornatore, director of "Malena" and the "Legend of 1900", told a story about a middle-school teacher reuniting with her students 30 years after their graduation. Majidi, director of the Oscar-nominated "Children of Heaven", focused on youth.

The theme of Lau's film was about Beijing's fine foods. He said that his basic goal was to present the Chinese capital's cuisine in a nice way "so that everyone in the audience wants to come to Beijing and have a meal after watching it".