MTSU’s free Chinese Film Festival celebrates its 15th semester this Sunday, Oct. 21, with the first in a quartet of films focusing on relationships.

Sponsored by the College of Mass Communication and the Confucius Institute, each movie will begin promptly at 6 p.m. in Room 103 of the John Bragg Mass Communication Building.

Chan Chen, a mass-comm master’s degree candidate, will lead a question-and-answer session after each screening.

All movies in the series have English subtitles. There is no admission charge, and each is open to the public.

The award-winning Oct. 21 presentation, “A Simple Life” (2011), focuses on the relationship between a successful Hong Kong movie producer and a lifelong family servant who suffers a stroke.

A lonely middle-aged entrepreneur turns to personal ads to find a mate and discovers that love can come unexpectedly in the 2010 film “If You Are the One,” which will be screened Oct. 28.

Zhang Yimou, China’s most noted director, tells the story of a remote Chinese village who loses its only teacher for a month in the 2000 film “Not One Less,” which will be shown Nov. 4 and features an award-winning cast of non-actors and real-life settings.

And on Nov. 11, “Examination 1977” (2009) tells the story of a group of young idealists battling for the right to return home and restart their lives after years of toil on a state-run re-education farm in China.

Dr. Bob Spires, professor of electronic media communication and the festival’s organizer, said student attendance will be taken at each screening and reported to instructors on request.

Founded in 2004, the Confucius Institute is a nonprofit organization established to strengthen educational cooperation between China and other countries. MTSU’s institute opened in 2010.

For more information, contact Spires at 615-898-2217 or rwspires@mtsu.edu or the Confucius Institute at 615-494-8696 or cimtsu@mtsu.edu.