6/3/2010: 10 CONDITIONS LAUNCHES AROUND THE WORLD – AND SYDNEY

Jeff Daniels’ controversial Aussie doco The 10 Conditions of Love about the life of East Turkestan human rights campaigner and twice-Nobel Prize nominee Rebiya Kadeer has upset the Chinese (who tried to ban it screening at the 2009 Melbourne Film Festival); China will no doubt be seething as the DVD goes on sale this week on Amazon.com, to be available around the world. The launch of the DVD in Australia will be marked on Saturday March 20, by an interview with Daniels by Andrew L. Urban at the Bondi store of Borders, the exclusive retailers of the DVD. This will be followed by a once-only cinema screening at 6.30 pm at the Chauvel in Paddington. (Tix $17/$12, Tel: 02 9361 5398) followed by a Q&A with Daniels and Urban.

“Kadeer’s is a rich, tumultuous, gripping and powerful story,” says Andrew, “a single voice speaking for the oppressed millions.”

In the US, coinciding with its launch on Amazon, the film will be offered directly “to more than 2000 institutional libraries and organisations, via a carefully-targeted mail-out,” says producer John Lewis.

“Almost simultaneously,” he adds, “the DVD release will be launched in Taiwan (population 25-million and as of latest financial news this week, the fastest-recovering economy in the world. The film played a substantial role in Taiwanese elections in recent months, which have featured a swing against the pro-Chinese KMT government in favour of the fervently-independent DPP. In the lead-up to a controversial screening at Taiwan's major film festival in September, there were 50 screening of the film across the island nation, generally organised to coincide with DPP rallies.”

Also this month, The 10 Conditions of Love will screen in The Hague, Montreal and Prague. The screening at The Hague is part of Amnesty International's festival, Movies That Matter.

But Lewis says there have also been disappointments: "We thought, on the back of enormous enthusiasm from the Turkish community in Australia, and given the ethnic and linguistic connection between the Uyghurs and Turkey, that we were a certainty for inclusion in the Turkish International Film Festival. We were wrong; it didn't happen," he said.

"One of the most remarkable things about the reaction to this film over the last eight months has been the sheer complexity and intensity of the international politics brought to bear."