Narratives on conflict and displacement were the focus at Dharamshala International Film Festival 2014, reports Amrita Madhukalya
"The journey of this soil is similar to that of the Tibetan refugees," says exiled Tibetan artist Tenzing Ringdol in Tenzin Tsetan Choklay's documentary Bringing Tibet Home, as he waits for a consignment of 20,000 kilograms of Tibetan soil to cross over the Chinese border into Nepal.
The year is 2011 and the consignment is part of Ringdol's latest project, 'Our Land, Our People'. After the soil enters Nepal, Ringdol plans to bring it to India to finally let it rest in Dharamsala to make a small, and yet significant, version of home.
New York resident Ringdol's project started after his father's death in 2009. His father's last wish, to die in his motherland, remained unfulfilled due to China's occupation of Tibet. Bringing Tibet Home is a refreshing and amusing documentary that charts the treacherous project; the finest moment is one in which many Tibetans queue up to take back a bit of home with them on the last day of the project.
Screened at the recently-concluded Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), Choklay's documentary is part of a tiny yet growing breed of Tibetan cinematic projects that centre on the community's displacement. Another documentary screened at DIFF this year was Zhu Rikun's The Dossier, based on the struggles of Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser. The documentary is a powerful chronicle of Woeser's political awakening while in China as she comes across a secret government dossier. The documentary captures how the Chinese government officials follow her as she makes her way to her house in Tibet, showing shots of her reading from the dossier.
While there is no intent to screen movies based on the Tibetan struggle, displacement has been a mainstay in selecting the movies for the festival, says DIFF co-founder Ritu Sarin. "Displacement and exile due to a regional conflict has led to excellent cinema. We thought it was a good idea to showcase some of these," says Sarin. "And it helps that at this point, there is a sort of resurgence of good cinema on the Tibetan struggle."
Held annually at the quiet mountain town of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, the movies at DIFF this year centred around conflict and displacement. Among this year's movies were Mano Khalil's The Beekeeper, Tan Pin Pin's To Singapore, With Love, Masahiro Sugano's Cambodia Son, Talal Derki's Return to Homs, Mahdi Fleifel's A World Not Ours and Jehane Noujaim's powerful documentary on the Tahrir Square revolution, The Square.
Khalil's movie, The Beekeeper, which had its India premiere at the festival, centres around Ibrahim Gezer, who loses his wife and two of his 11 children in the long-standing conflict between Turkey and Kurdistan Workers' Party. After hiding in the mountains for seven years, he flees to Switzerland only to be told that his primary skill, beekeeping, is a hobby, not a profession.
To Singapore, With Love is a moving documentary of the political refugees of the '60s, '70s and '80s from Singapore, who are now settled around the world, and are banned from returning home. Sugano's Cambodia Sun traces poet Kosal Khiev's journey from nearly being incarcerated in a US jail, being deported to Cambodia and becoming a celebrated poet. Fleifel's movie on exiled Palestinians is a humourous and yet moving take on three generations of the filmmaker's childhood friend. Shot over 20 years, the movie leaves a lasting impression on belongingness and the stretched friendship between the filmmaker and his subject.
The most powerful of the lot, The Square, chronicles the years-long revolution at Tahrir Square, and from the point of view of the revolutionists, looks at the injustices meted out to them by successive government machineries and the army. In a goosebump-inducing scene, viewers see how a government tank mows down two peaceful protesters.
And yet, coming back to the square is the last resort for the protesters to build a new society that would grant them personal freedoms. "Our streets are their ballot boxes," says revolutionary Ahmad Hassan. "And here, we're not looking for a leader as much as we are looking for a conscience."
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