"The Red Violin" was a great hit at the 4th Shanghai International Film Festival two years ago, but what is more significant of the movie is its pioneering role as a co-operation product. "The Red Violin" is said to be a model for film co-operation between Western film industry and China, Fichman says.

Fichman is talking with Shanghai Film Studio about "Blindness," a film based on a Nobel Prize-winning novel, he told Shanghai Daily in an exclusive interview just before he headed off to the airport. He wants to shoot the movie in Shanghai "because I think the city has a foot in the past and a foot in the future. The craftsmanship of the film crews here is excellent, that's the reason I wanted to come back. I hope that this film can be a co-production, and thus make it easier to enter the Chinese movie market." Set in the near future, the film is about a time when everyone will be blind. That's the backdrop, but it's a story about the great love between a doctor and his wife.

Fichman says SIFF needs more work because it should be a great film festival since "Shanghai is a great city, perhaps the greatest city in the world, this century.

What SIFF lacks is professional organizing skills, Fichman says.

(Eastday.com 06/15/2001)