Bhubaneswar, Jan. 16: A double delight awaits film lovers here.

The Film Society of Bhubaneswar will conduct two series of screenings within one week, wherein classic documentaries as well as contemporary films that have made an impact on the audience will be shown.

The first screening will be held tomorrow evening at Jaydev Bhavan. It will focus on cinematic excellence of China. The first show of the evening will be the documentary, From Mao to Mozart — Issac Stern in China (1981), which captures the great violinist’s 1979 visit to China.

The story revolves around Issac Stern’s acceptance of the Chinese government’s invitation to attend a rehearsal and perform one recital, But he ends up playing a formal concert, touring two cities, and teaching many enthusiasts.

The documentary presents an unusual perspective towards understanding contemporary life in China. It will be followed by Musical Encounters, a documentary that follows Stern’s return to Beijing two decades later and offers a contrasting picture to the earlier times.

The second major screening of the evening will be Jia Zhang-ke’s Unknown Pleasures (2002). Zhang-ke is an eminent Chinese filmmaker working in contemporary world cinema. The film follows two disenchanted teenagers who not only struggle with unemployment and alienation from the expectations of their parents, but also an existential angst befalling them in a society without morals, where wealth seems to be the only parameter of success.

The second set of screenings for this month will be held on January 25, at the Idcol Auditorium. It’ll feature two cinematic adaptations of acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s fictions. The first film, Norwegian Woods (2010), is an adaptation of Murakami’s novel by the same name.

Published in 1987 and translated into more than 30 languages, Norwegian Wood is a story of loss and heartbreak at a time of global instability. Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung was behind the cinematic adaptation. The film is set in Tokyo in the late 1960s, where the protagonist finds his past and future at loggerheads.

The second film, Tony Takitani (2004), is an adaptation of Murakami’s short story by the same name. Late Japanese filmmaker Jun Ichikawa directed the movie.

The film follows the protagonist’s solitary childhood and how he starts to come out of his shell when he becomes obsessed with the beautiful Eiko, a young woman who is, in turn, obsessed with high fashion.