Apart from Bollywood releases that make their conventional appearance week after week, Mumbaiites will be treated with a bout of unconventional cinema at the end of this month.
Three international film festivals promise to provide Mumbai’s cinema buffs a treat in the last week of January
Apart from Bollywood releases that make their conventional appearance week after week, Mumbaiites will be treated with a bout of unconventional cinema at the end of this month. And incidentally it is three very differently fashioned film-festivals that aim to weave their own little messages to audiences across the city.
While the 7 islands film festival displays a spate of films with the message of non-violence and global disarmament, the Tri-continental film festival (inaugurated by Sheila Dixit in Delhi) boasts of a primary platform for human rights cinema in Latin America, Asia and Africa. And last but not the least the French film festival that will see prominent faces like the French president and Monica Belluci pools in films that primarily signify the increasing connect between the governments of France and India.
Evidently, a common thread running across all three is the fact that all of them reach out to audiences with a message about creating a fair and unbiased society. And what better time for them to be screened that between 26 and 30 January which are republic day and Gandhiji’s death anniversary respectively.
Says festival director Bankim Kapadia of 7 Islands, “The festival with 18 films opens with a movie called A Song of Beko, the first ever film made in Kurdish language, about the plight of Kurdish refugees in Iraq, a tribe which many may not even be aware of.” Targeting social issues like racism, casteism, global warming, child labour, gender biases and set against war-affected backdrops many of these award-winning films highlight the courage of commoners who have fought harrowing situations.
Says UAE based filmmaker Dhruv Dhawan about his venture From Dust that takes an incisive look at the government’s response to a natural disaster in Sri Lanka and the corruption that was involved against those who were hit by the tsunami in 2005, “The American and European Audiences that have seen the film, but I don’t think Indian audiences will be as shocked, because they will be much more familiar with issues of gentrification and corruption at the state level.”
Nevertheless, acting as a grounding for French cinema in India and vice-versa is the French film festival, which will give viewers here to view some of France’s most claimed work. Adds Mohammad Bendjebbour of the French Embassy, “The uniqueness of the festival is that is trying to build a commercial platform for French cinema in India. Almost all the films have already been bought by Indian distributors and will have a commercial release in following weeks.”
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