Email
Print
ShareBangalore: The image is Tibet, but the story is universal," says Siddarath Pillai of Bangalore Film Society, who has singled-out 12 acclaimed and award-winning feature films and documentaries for the festival. Pillai believes that the collage of films will speak to the heart and not just the brain: "There's usually a very narrow representation of Tibet, and it is this cultural stereotype that has to be shattered. The cause always does exist, but Tibet and its people need to be understood better."
He points out that the films picked are not necessarily cause related; instead, they're a jumble of themes pointing towards Tibet. Giving a clue of the assortment, Pillai says one will be able to catch the Belgian reporter Tintin's adventures in the mystical land in Tintin in Tibet; hear a monk warble a Salman Khan tune in The Cup; witness Martin Scorsese's operatic take on the turbulent life of the Dalai Lama in Kundun and discover rare archival sights of Tibet in the BBC and the British Film Institute's The Lost World of Tibet.
Snipping short the run through, he says that the festival will end with The Horse Thief. Commending this title, he says, "The film that chronicles the life of a horse thief in Tibet is a work like no other. It is one of the greatest films of all time."
A peek into Tibet won't be confined to the relay of fabulous films. Raghu Penkayala from the Foundation of Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama (FUR), unveils a line-up of the other plans: "The festival will commence with a Tibetan chant.
There's also an opera and dance by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress celebrating the enthronement of the Dalai Lama. This will be performed on Sunday, the eve of the Dalai Lama's 74th birthday." Art as an expression in the festival will include 'Mani Lakhor' or the prayer wheels and work from the gallery 1 Shanti Road.
Those behind the festival promise an experience through "the history, the myth, the soul, the journey of Tibet and its people through the ages." This will be a trip not easily
forgotten.
