SEQUENCES

SREE PAARVATHIYUDE PAADAM

2012-01-22T23:30:00.002+05:30

SREE PAARVATHIYUDE PAADAM

Mediaperson Baiju Chandran returns to fiction with a short film called ‘Sreeparvathiyude Paadam.' An adaptation of a eponymous short story by E. Harikumar, the movie trails a young woman's journey to her ancestral home in the countryside. The heart-warming story attempts to capture the different images, sounds, and even the smells of the countryside that the woman remembers and associates with her childhood.

Using a lucid storyline, the filmmaker attempts to highlight the bond between man and nature. A strong undercurrent of eco-feminism, where the female equates herself with the nature, is maintained through three characters representing three generations. While Madhavi, the protagonist, inherits her love for nature from her grandmother, Madhavi's little niece finds delight in the small wonders of the village landscape. Through Madhavi and her sister Sharada, the story also draws parallels between dreams and needs. Anjana Haridas debuts as Madhavi while Sona Nair dons the role of Saradha. The film also features noted director and actor M.G. Sasi and Valsala Menon. The film is Produced by Doordarshan Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram,

choosing E.Harikumar’s short story is its universal significance where one woman represents nature and other one represents selfishness of humanity.” says Baiju.

Baiju feels that people are not interested in serious movies and literature and instead, spend time on meaningless TV programmes. “My aim is to make the viewers aware of the need to protect our nature. I hope to create a good impact on the society with this film” he says.

baiju chandran

2012-01-22T23:27:00.001+05:30

BAIJU CHANDRAN

Joined Doordarshan in 1984 and worked as Producer of News and Current Affairs Programme at Doordarshan Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram till 1999.Worked as Assistant Station Director, at DDK, Kohima during 1999-2000.Worked as Film Officer on Deputation at Kearala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) during 2000-2002 and was in charge of Digital Studio, Documentaries and the programme ‘RANGOLI’ produced for Doordarshan.

Worked as Assistant Station Director at Programme Production Centre, Doordarshan, Guwahati (2002-2004) and presently working as Assistant Director Programmes at DDK, Thiruvananthapuram since 2004.

Produced more than 2000 live news bulletins and over 1000 programmes of various genres including Telefilms, Documentaries, Stage shows, Debates, Talkshows, Quiz Programmes etc. Major Programmes include:

Telefilm ‘SAKUNAM’ based on the short story by Kovilan in the Classic short story series produced by Doordarshan featuring Murali, Urmila Unni and Remya Nambisan in lead roles. (2006)

‘KALAM KEDUTHATHA KANAL’ Documentary in 35mm produced by Kerala State Chalachitra Akademy on renowned writer Ponkunnam Varkey. (2002)

‘NINACHALOZHUKIYA NALVAZHIKAL’ a two part Documentary on the naxalite period in the political history of Kerala produced by Doordarshan (1996). The film was shown in the competitive section of the Festival Internationale Programme Audio Visuel (FIPA) held at Biarritz, France and also at the Videotheque Festival, Paris, Mumbai International Film Festival (1998) and various festivals in and around Kerala.

‘ADOORINTE SARGAPRAPANCHAM’ Documentary on the renowned film maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1995).

MAVOOR:MANUSHYA MANASAKSHIYUDE MUNNIL ORU CHODYACHINNAM on the Labour strike at Mavoor Gwaliyar Rayons. (1988)

Documentaries on eminent personalities Thakazhi, Basheer, Prem Nazir, O.V.Vijayan, M.Mukundan, Kunjunni Master, Artist Namboothiri, Santha P.Nair are the other major works.

Authored the biography of renowned poet and Jnanpith winner Prof. O.N.V.Kurup published by State Institute of Childrens Literature 2011

Co-authored the book ‘DRISHYA SHRAVYA MADHYAMANGAL’ published by Kerala State Language Institute and ‘MADHYAMA NIGHANDU’ published by D.C. Books.

Member, Board of Studies, Dept. of Communication and Journalism, University of Kerala, Board of Examiners and Guest faculty of Universities of Kerala, Calicut, Kannur and Mahatma Gandhi University, Centre for Development of Image Technology (C-Dit), Kerala Press Academy both under Govt. of Kerala and Journalism Institute under Trivandrum Press Club.

Closlely associated with the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) since its inception in 1995 as member of the organizing committee. Was member of the selection committee of Indian and Malayalam Film section of IFFK 2011. Worked as member of Jury of various Film / Media Festivals including Padmarajan Award for best Malayalam film and Script (2011) and Kerala State Media Award consecutively since 2005.

Won Adoor Bhasi Puraskaram and Chengarapally Parameswaran Potty Puraskaram for life time contributions to Media in 2010.

Namboodiri — Varayude Kulapathy

2012-01-22T23:22:00.002+05:30

‘Namboodiri — Varayude Kulapathy'

Everyone is familiar with Artist Namboodiri's (K.M. Vasudevan Namboothiri) illustrations, whether it is a little boy with wonder in his eyes, looking up, women with prominent bosoms or simply landscapes, of temples or streets. But we have never seen them spring to life and do a jig, as in the credits of ‘Namboodiri — Varayude Kulapathy,' the documentary on Namboodiri, directed by Binuraj Kalapeedhom, under the banner of Ask Movies.

These graphics, done by Ajoy Kumar D., lead you into the life and times of thespian Namboodiri, who is as busy at age 86 as he was when he drew all over the walls of Karuvattu Mana in Ponnani, as a child. The winner of Raja Ravi Varma Award and an artist who has, throughout his life, engaged with art and art alone, and lived by it, Namboodiri wields the brush, sketch pencil, chisel or the hammer (for metal reliefs) with equal ease.

Travelling with Namboodiri

These aspects are brought to the viewer in descriptive visuals rather than a narrative style, so that Binuraj takes us along with Namboodiri to the locales that made him, his birthplace, and the Shukapuram temple near his house which had sculptures that influenced Namboodiri deeply. “I had this urge to draw and mould sculptures after seeing these,” says Namboodiri.

In the initial part of the 44-minute documentary, we see a child learning vedas, trying his hand at sculpture and drawing on the walls, all in black and white.

His guru, K.C.S. Panikkar, and life at the Art School in Chennai, which shaped his life into this direction, Cholamandalam, his innings at a Malayalam weekly, where he drew illustrations for the weekly for a long time, association with M.T. Vasudevan Nair and Aravindan are all brought back to us. (He did art direction for Aravindan's ‘Utharayanam' and won a State award for it). M.V. Devan and M.T. speak about Namboodiri. Apart from Ponnani, actual locations in Kozhikode, Kollam, Chennai and Kochi were used.

Tracing Namboodiri’s life

Some footage has been kept aside for his family and friends too, so that we get a fair idea of Namboodiri from childhood to his eighties. He has so positive an attitude and retirement seems to be just nowhere in sight. Namboodiri wears colourful shirts in the documentary, and Binuraj says he always asked whether the shots were close ups, full or ‘above the waist' to be prepared for it. “When I felt that a shot was not satisfactory, he would sense it and ask whether a retake was needed. It was such a pleasure and learning process, shooting him,” says Binuraj, who spent more than two years on this project, produced by Shafeer Abbas.

It is being readied to be sent to several film festivals. Yesudas sings, with music by Malkoms.

This is Binuraj's fourth documentary. The others were on M.K. Sanoo, former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer and the Marthoma Cathedral at Mulanthuruthy. He was art director of K.S. Prasad's ‘Comediyum, Mimicsum Pinne Njanum' and won the award for the art direction of it six years ago. His next project is a music-based feature film to be shot at Tanjavur and on the locations where ‘Malgudi Days' were shot, says Binuraj.

Song of the Little Road

2011-11-12T14:30:00.003+05:30

Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road)

1955, India. 115 min, B/W, In Bengali with subtitles.

Credits
Producer:	Government of West Bengal
Screenplay & Direction:	Satyajit Ray, based on the novel "Pather Panchali" by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee.
Cinematography:	Subrata Mitra
Editing:	Dulal Dutta
Art Direction:	Bansi Chandragupta
Sound:	Bhupen Ghosh
Music:	Pandit Ravi Shankar
U.S. Distributor:	Merchant-Ivory/Sony Pictures Classics

Cast
Harihar, the Father:	Kanu Banerjee
Sarbajaya, the Mother:	Karuna Banerjee
Apu:	Subir Banerjee
Durga, young girl:	Uma Das Gupta
Durga, child:	Runki Banerjee
Indir Thakrun, Old Aunt:	Chunibala Devi
Candy seller:	Haren Banerjee

Summary

The time is early twentieth century, a remote village in Bengal.The film deals with a Brahmin family, a priest - Harihar, his wife Sarbajaya, daughter Durga, and his aged cousin Indir Thakrun - struggling to make both ends meet.

Harihar is frequently away from home on work. The wife is raising her mischievous daughter Durga and caring for elderly cousin Indir, whose independent spirit sometimes irritates her... Apu is born. With the little boy's arrival, happiness, play and exploration uplift the children's daily life.

Durga and Apu share an intimate bond. They follow a candy seller whose wares they can not afford, enjoy the theatre, discover a train and witness a marriage ceremony. They even face death of their aunt - Indir Thakrun. Durga is accused of a theft. She fall ill after a joyous dance in rains of the monsoon. On a stormy day, when Harihar is away on work, Durga dies.

On Harihar's return, the family leaves their village in search of a new life in Benaras. The film closes with an image of Harihar, wife and son - Apu, slowly moving way in an ox cart.

Comments

Pather Panchali is Ray's debut film, and the first film of his 'The Apu trilogy'. The remaining two films of the trilogy, Aparajito and Apur Sansar, follow Apu as the son, the man and finally the father. Pather Panchali has a universal humanist appeal. Though the film deals with the grim struggle for survival by a poor family, it has no trace melodrama. What is projected in stead is the respect for human dignity.

The most loveable character is that of Indir Thakrun, an old, cynical, loving and storytelling aunt of Apu and Durga. It was played by an 80-year-old Chunibala, a retired theatre performer who relished coming back into the limelight after 30 years of obscurity.

The sequences of Apu and elder sister Durga, exploring their little world and sharing secrets are most remarkable aspect of the film. These include the scenes of - discovery of train by Durga and Apu in field of white Kash flowers, the candy seller sequence, and Indir Thakrun's death.

In the inspired 'candy-seller' sequence, as Durga and Apu secretly relish tamarind paste, their mother is complaining about hardships to their father. Durga hears a faint bell. She knows it is the candy-seller. Both go out and look longingly at the the pots with sweets in them. Durga sends Apu to ask for money from their father. Mother intervenes, and Apu returns empty handed. But the site of the pot-bellied candy-seller caring two bobbing pots of sweets is too tempting to resist. Both start following him. A stray dog joins the procession as it is reflected in a shimmering pond.

The film develops its characters and the atmosphere slowly and resolutely. The narrative builds up to a powerful climax as we begin to empathise with the characters.

Some critics found the film to be too slow. Satyajit Ray wrote about the slow pace -
"The cinematic material dictated a style to me, a very slow rhythm determined by nature, the landscape, the country. The script had to retain some of the rambling quality of the novel because that in itself contained a clue to the authenticity: life in a poor Bengali village does ramble."

Towards the end of the film, after death of Durga, we see Apu brushing his teeth, combing his hair... going about performing tasks, which would have involved his sister or mother. Sarbajaya (mother) has a lost look...

Harihar returns, unaware of Durga's death. In a jovial mood he calls out his children. Without any reaction, Sarbajaya fetches water and a towel for him. Harihar begins to show the gifts he has brought for them. When he shows a sari that he has bought for Durga, Sarbajaya breaks down. We hear the high notes of a musical instrument "Tarshahnai" symbolising her uncontrollable weeping. Realising Durga's loss, Harihar collapses on his wife.

We see speechless Apu, for the first time taking the centre stage in the story. Till now the story was seen through the point of view of either Sarbajaya or Durga. It is only in these final moments that we see Apu as an independent individual.

In the USA, Pather Panchali played at the 5th Avenue Playhouse for a record 36 weeks, breaking the previous record held by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

What others say...

"The first film by the masterly Satyajit Ray - possibly the most unembarrassed and natural of directors - is a quiet reverie about the life of an impoverished Brahman family in a Bengali village. Beautiful, sometimes funny, and full of love, it brought a new vision of India to the screen." - Pauline Kael
"A beautiful picture, completely fresh and personal. (Ray's camera) reaches forward into life, exploring and exposing, with reverence and wonder." - Lindsay Anderson
"One of the most stunning first films in movie history. Ray is a welcome jolt of flesh, blood and spirit." - Jack Kroll, Newsweek
" As deeply beautiful and plainly poetic as any movie ever made. Rare and exquisite." - Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, L.A. Weekly

Awards

President's Gold & Silver Medals, New Delhi, 1955
Best Human Document, Cannes 1956
Diploma Of Merit, Edinbugh, 1956
Vatican Award, Rome, 1956
Golden Carbao, Manila, 1956
Best Film and Direction, San Francisco, 1957
Selznik Golden Laurel, Berlin, 1957
Best Film, Vancouver, 1958
Critics' Award - Best Film, Stratford, (Canada), 1958
Best Foreign Film, New York, 1959
Kinema Jumpo Award: Best Foreign Film, Tokyo 1966
Bodil Award: Best Non-European Film of the Year, Denmark, 1966

Other Films of The Apu Trilogy

Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956)
Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959)

Rashomon

2011-10-16T20:37:00.005+05:30

Rashomon

1950/Japan /Japanese /88 min /Black and White

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Writers:

Ryûnosuke Akutagawa (stories),

Akira Kurosawa , Shinobu Hashimoto

Stars:

Toshirō Mifune,
Masayuki Mori,
Machiko Kyō,
Takashi Shimura,
Minoru Chiaki

Music by

Fumio Hayasaka

Cinematography

Kazuo Miyagawa

Editing by

Akira Kurosawa

Plot

The film opens on a woodcutter and a priestsitting beneath Rashōmon gate to stay dry in a downpour. A commoner joins them and they tell him that they've witnessed a disturbing story, which they then begin recounting to him. The woodcutter claims he found the body of a murdered samurai three days earlier while looking for wood in the forest; upon discovering the body, he says, he fled in a panic to notify the authorities. The priest says that he saw the samurai and the woman traveling the same day the murder happened. Both men were then summoned to testify in court, where they met the captured bandit Tajōmaru, who claimed responsibility for the rape and murder.

The bandit's story

Tajōmaru, a notorious brigand , claims that he tricked the samurai to step off the mountain trail with him and look at a cache of ancient swords he discovered. In the grove he tied the samurai to a tree, then brought the woman there. She initially tried to defend herself with a dagger, but was eventually "seduced" by the bandit. The woman, filled with shame, then begged him to duel to the death with her husband, to save her from the guilt and shame of having two men know her dishonor. Tajōmaru honorably set the samurai free and dueled with him. In Tajōmaru's recollection they fought skillfully and fiercely, but in the end Tajōmaru was the victor and the woman ran away. At the end of the story to the court, he is asked about an expensive dagger owned by the samurai's wife: he says that, in the confusion, he forgot all about it, and that it was foolish of him to leave behind such a valuable object.

The wife's story

The samurai's wife tells a different story to the court. She says that Tajōmaru left after raping her. She begged her husband to forgive her, but he simply looked at her coldly. She then freed him and begged him to kill her so that she would be at peace. He continued to stare at her with a look of loathing. His expression disturbed her so much that she fainted with dagger in hand. She awoke to find her husband dead with the dagger in his chest. She attempted to kill herself, but failed in all her efforts.

The samurai's story

The court then hears the story of the deceased samurai, told through a medium (巫女; miko). The samurai claims that Tajōmaru, after raping his wife, asked her to travel with him. She accepted and asked Tajōmaru to kill her husband so that she would not feel the guilt of belonging to two men. Tajōmaru, shocked by this request, grabbed her, and gave the samurai a choice of letting the woman go or killing her. ("For these words alone," the dead samurai recounted, "I was ready to pardon his crime.") The woman fled, and Tajōmaru, after attempting to recapture her, gave up and set the samurai free. The samurai then killed himself with his own dagger; later, somebody removed the dagger from his chest.

The woodcutter's story

Back at Rashōmon gate (after the trial), the woodcutter explains to the commoner that the samurai's story was a lie. The woodcutter had actually witnessed the rape and murder, he says, but just did not want to get too involved at the trial. According to the woodcutter's new story, Tajōmaru begged the samurai's wife to marry him, but the woman instead freed her husband. The husband was initially unwilling to fight Tajōmaru, saying he would not risk his life for a spoiled woman, but the woman then criticized both him and Tajōmaru, saying they were not real men and that a real man would fight for a woman's love. She spurred the men to fight one another, but then hid her face in fear once they raise swords; the men, too, were visibly fearful as they begin fighting. They began a duel that was much more pitiful than Tajōmaru's account had made it sound, and Tajōmaru ultimately won through a stroke of luck. After some hesitation he killed the samurai, and the woman fled in horror. Tajōmaru could not catch her, but took the samurai's sword and left the scene limping.

Climax

At the temple, the woodcutter, priest, and commoner are interrupted from their discussion of the woodcutter's account by the sound of a crying baby. They find the baby abandoned in a basket, and the commoner takes a kimono and an amulet that have been left for the baby. The woodcutter reproaches the commoner for stealing from the abandoned baby, but the commoner chastises him. Having deduced that the woodcutter in fact stole the dagger from the scene of the murder, the commoner mocks him, "a bandit calling another a bandit". The commoner leaves Rashōmon, claiming that all men are motivated only by self-interest.

These deceptions and lies shake the priest's faith in humanity. He is brought back to his senses when the woodcutter reaches for the baby in the priest's arms. The priest is suspicious at first, but the woodcutter explains that he intends to take care of the baby along with his own children, of whom he already has six. This simple revelation recasts the woodcutter's story and the subsequent theft of the dagger in a new light. The priest gives the baby to the woodcutter, saying that the woodcutter has given him reason to continue having hope in humanity. The film closes on the woodcutter, walking home with the baby. The rain has stopped and the clouds have opened revealing the sun in contrast to the beginning where it was overcast.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_%28film%29)

2011-09-29T11:41:00.000+05:30

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film review

2011-09-20T06:12:00.003+05:30

Gulabi Talkies

Directed by Girish Kasaravalli

Produced by Basantkumar Patil

Written by Girish Kasaravalli, Vaidehi (Story)

Starring Umashree, K.G. Krishna Murthy M.D. Pallavi

Music by Isaac Thomas Kottukapally

Cinematography S. Ramachandra Aithal

Editing by S. Manohar, M.N. Swamy

Running time 122 minutes

Language Kannada

The film is set in the late 1990s among the fishing communities around Kundapura, in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka. The impulsive midwife Gulabi (Umashree) is the protagonist, whose one passion is the cinema. She leads a lonely life in an island inhabited by fisher folk. Her husband Musa (K.G. Krishna Murthy), a small-time fish-selling agent, has deserted her and is living happily with his second wife Kunjipathu and their child Adda.

A family gifts her a television with a satellite dish antenna in gratitude after she attends to a difficult delivery (for which they even had to bodily remove her from a movie theatre). The arrival of the first color TV in her small island village heralds great changes in the sleepy hamlet. The women in the village begin gathering at her house once the men leave for fishing. But a few of them stay away, since Gulabi is one of the few Muslims in the village. Yet others prefer to watch from outside her shack, without entering it.

Among the regulars at her home is Netru (singer-actress M.D. Pallavi), a girl with an absentee husband and a domineering mother-in-law, whom Gulabi befriends and becomes a confidante to. But Netru disappears and Gulabi is blamed, leaving her all alone in the village.

The Kargil War of 1999 and the rise of communalism in Karnataka provide the backdrop to the film. The communal stereotyping of Muslims following the Kargil War finds an echo in the village. The tension between the small fishermen of the village and a Muslim businessman (who is actually never shown throughout the film) with a growing fleet of commercial trawlers acquires a communal colour.

The disappearance of Netru adds to the mounting tensions. The Muslims in the village flee and urge Gulabi to leave too, but she refuses and stays put in the village. Her house is vandalised and she is forcibly taken to a boat to leave the island. The young men from outside who spearhead the attack assure the villagers that Gulabi's television would remain in her house.

The film ends with a scene in which two illiterate elderly women, who had hitherto refused to enter Gulabi's house, going in there to watch TV (which they do not know how to switch on - they are probably unaware even that it has to be switched on).

Awards and recognition

Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, 2008:

Best Film in Indian Competition

Best Actress in Indian Competition - Umashree

Karnataka State Annual Film Awards, 2009

Best Film - Kannada State award

Best Screenplay - Girish Kasaravalli

Best Actress - Umashree

National Film Awards, 2009

Best Actress - Umashree

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulabi_Talkies )

MARUPATHAI

2011-08-25T10:18:00.003+05:30

SCREENING ON 26 AUGUST 2011,FRIDAY, 6 PM AT Y.M.C.A HALL,

NEAR SHENOY'S JUNCTION, CHITTOOR ROAD, ERNAKULAM

MARUPAATHAI

TAMIL/ENGLISH / 75 MIN.

SCRIPT / DIRECTION : K.P.SREEKRISHNAN

PRODUCER : DILIP NARAYANAN

CAMERA : PRAKASHAN

EDIT : SAJITH UNNIKRISHNAN

MUSIC : RAJESH DASS

three young men, hailing from different social backgrounds with

different vistas and predilections on a single mission is thesituation pursued by 'the way to be'through a non-linear treatment, the pursuit brings forth how anindigenous tribe that preserves and practices a primitivemethod of gold mining, can trigger a violent chain reaction ofevents that are both unconnected and connected.a christian missionary rebelling against the church establishment,a spry and over ambitious journalist girl, a vigilante intellectualweb community, a philanthropist library in a provincial city,an editor of a little magazine, an opinionated geologist are allenmeshed in this entanglement.the nascent and thus fragile nature of Indian democracy, which cannoteven absorb and factor in a primitive livelihood into itspolitical and economic structure results in the origin and spreadof political extremism and violence.

So Heddan So Hoddan

2011-08-05T10:38:00.001+05:30

screening on 20th August 2011, 6 pm, at nanappa art gallery, cochin-11, followed by "meet the directors".

Like Here Like There

A Film by Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar
52 mins, Sindhi, Kachchhi and Hindustani with English subtitles, 2011,
A Public Service Broadcasting Trust Production

Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, a medieval Sufi poet, is an iconic figure in the cultural history of Sindh. Bhitai’s /Shah Ji Risalo/ is a remarkable collection of poems which are sung by many communities in Kachchh and across the border in Sindh (now in Pakistan). Many of the poems draw on the eternal love stories of /Umar-Marui/ and /Sasui-Punhu/, among others. These songs speak of the pain of parting, of the inevitability of loss and of deep grief that takes one to unknown and mysterious terrains.

Umar Haji Suleiman of Abdasa, in Kachchh, Gujarat, is a self taught Sufi scholar; once a cattle herder, now a farmer, he lives his life through the poetry of Bhitai. Umar’s cousin, Mustafa Jatt sings the Bheths of Bhitai. He is accompanied on the Surando, by his cousin Usman Jatt. Usman is a truck driver, who owns and plays one of the last surviving Surandos in the region. The Surando is a peacock shaped, five-stringed instrument from Sindh. The film explores the life worlds of the three cousins, their families and the Fakirani Jat community to which they belong.

Before the Partition the Maldhari (pastoralist) Jatts moved freely across the Rann, between Sindh (now in Pakistan) and Kutch. As pastoral ways of living have given way to settlement, borders and industrialisation, the older generation struggles to keep alive the rich syncretic legacy of Shah Bhitai, that celebrates diversity and non-difference, suffering and transcendence, transience and survival. These marginal visions of negotiating difference in creative ways resist cultural politics based on tight notions of nation-state and national culture; they open up the windows of our national imaginary.

About the Directors

Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar are Professors at the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Monteiro has a Masters degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. Jayasankar has an M.A. in German language and a Ph.D. in Humanities and Social Sciences. Both of them are involved in media production, teaching and research. A presiding thematic of much of their work has been a problematising of notions of self and the other, of normality and deviance, of the local and the global, through the exploration of diverse narratives and rituals. These range from the stories and paintings of indigenous peoples to the poetry of prison inmates. Jointly they have won twenty two national and international awards for their films. These include the Prix Futura Berlin 1995 Asia Prize for Identity- The Construction of Selfhood, Best Innovation, Astra Film Festival 1998, Sibiu, Romania for YCP 1997, Best documentary award at the IV Three Continents International Festival of Documentaries 2005, Venezuela, for SheWrite ,Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival 2008, Indian Documentary Producers Associuation (IDPA) Gold for Best Sound Design, Gold for Best Script and Silver for Editing for the film Our Family. Their most recent award is the commendation for Do Din Ka Mela (A Two Day Fair) in the Intangible Culture (Music-Dance-Performance) category at the 12th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film . Vibgyor Film Festival, Kerala and Bangalore Film Society have organised retrospectives of their work in 2006 and 2010, respectively. So Heddan So Hoddan is the second in the series films set in Kachchh that they have made; Do Din Ka Mela (A Two Day Fair) was the first film http://atwodayfair.wordpress.com/

They have several papers in the area of media and cultural studies and have contributed to scholarly journals such as Cultural Studies. They are both recipients of the Howard Thomas Memorial Fellowship in Media Studies, and have been attached to Goldsmith’s College, London and the University of Western Sydney. Monteiro was a Fulbright visiting lecturer in 2006-07 at the University of California, Berkeley. They also serve as visiting faculty to several leading media and design institutions in India and abroad. They are both actively involved in ‘Vikalp‘ , which is collective of documentary filmmakers campaigning for freedom of expression. They are also associated with various media and voluntary organisations.

THE CALL

2011-06-19T08:28:00.002+05:30

A one month long film camp was organized by Cochin Film Society at Rajagiri Public School as part of their vacation camp." The call", 5 minute long short film , produced by the students attended the camp, received laud applause.

SHWAAS

2011-06-19T08:06:00.001+05:30

Shwaas

2004 / 107 min /India / Marathi

Directed by Sandeep Sawant

Starring Arun Nalavade,Ashwin Chitale,Sandeep Kulkarni,Amruta Subhash

Music by Bhaskar Chandavarkar

Cinematography Sanjay Manane

Editing by Neeraj Voralia

An old villager (Vichare) brings his 8 year old grandson Parshuraam (also known as Paarsha) to a doctor in Mumbai to diagnose the child's eyes. They are accompanied by child's maternal uncle Diwarkar. On the first day Vichare is asked to sign usual papers before admission in hospital. Upon asking, he learns that the papers say the doctor would not be responsible if anything goes wrong. Vichare, the rustic grandfather finds these terms unacceptable. A medical social worker named Asawari who is present there, quickly comes in and explains the practice to Vichare. She calms down Vichare and accompanies them during the first appointment with the doctor. Dr. Sane quickly diagnoses child as a victim of the rare retinoblastoma - a rare retinal cancer. After consulting with other colleagues in US and UK doctor finds that only way to save child's life is to perform an operation that will leave the child blind. As per rule, doctor explains this and insists child be informed of this before surgery. He cannot be operated without this knowledge as it was against ethics. Asawari (Amruta Subhash) who helps the doctor in convincing the grandfather and the grandson, tries to keep track of Vichare and persuades him not fall prey to other doctors promising false medicines. She tries to befriend Parshya in order to explain him what is going to happen. However, she finds it is too difficult to explain to him that he will turn blind.

The film then depicts the grandfather's struggle to accept the reality that the only way to save his grandson is at the cost of his eyesight. He tries various ways to come to terms with the situation and his personal agony is shown in scenes, like taking second opinion, explaining his grandson the reality and his desire to show him everything possible before his grandson loses his eyesight. For some reason, the surgery has to be postponed by a day. That afternoon, grandfather and grandson disappear from the hospital ward and a frantic search follows. Confronted by an angry surgeon on their return, the grandfather states quite simply that he wanted to show Parshya the sights of the city for one last time.

The film has been applauded for scenes which depict the difficulty faced by the doctors to explain to grandfather and Parshya that nothing can be done and the truth is but inevitable. It shows the medical fraternity in a very positive light, with the doctors and nurses being extremely supportive and doing the best they can, and helping the village with the best facilities. The last shot where Parshya returns home wearing dark glasses, waving to his family and friends from the boat was widely appreciated by film critics

The film received numerous awards at both national and state level. It won the Maharashtra State Film Award and then India's highest National Film Award, bringing the coveted Golden Lotus to Marathi cinema for the first time since 1954. Ashwin Chitale won the best child artist award. The film was India's official entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 77th Academy Awards (the Oscar Awards), 2004.

HONEY

2011-06-19T07:57:00.002+05:30

Honey / Bal

2010/ 103 minutes/Turkey,Germany / Turkish

Directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu

Starring Erdal Beşikçioğlu

Cinematography Barış Özbiçer

Editing by Ayhan Ergürsel,Suzan Hande Güneri,Semih Kaplanoğlu

Bal was the winner of the 60th Berlinale in 2010. What the jury saw in this film by Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu was a poetic exploration of childhood in rural Turkey, told by images and sounds capturing the pure nature of it surroundings without any artificial interventions.

Yusuf is a boy living with his parents in the forest in the country side of Turkey. He has trouble at school where he spends his recess time alone and he has a close relationship with his father, a beekeeper whose job is to collect honey in dangerous tall trees. Yusuf accompanies his father in this tasks until some plague has scared the bees away and Yusuf´s father must look for the honey somewhere else. During this time Yusuf is left alone with his mother, but she fails to connect with his own boy. When Yusuf´s father is gone missing from his honey seeking trek, they depart to look for him without success.

The story is told in a very slow, passive and patient rhythm, relying solely on the inner conflicts of its characters without following any contrived plot. There is no music score and the dialogue is stripped down to the minimum. The soundtrack is provided by sounds of birds, wind blowing, trees, fire cracking and other natural sounds. We are witnesses of the routine of rural Turkey and their customs and we connect to Yusuf in an intimate way by coming into his quiet, simple and unspoiled world.

This is not a movie for the masses, there is no action, dramatic structure, music, effects, sex or any other element we can found in modern films. This is a movie for the patient, for the reflective, the curious and unrushed. The one who will connect to the stunning beauty of the landscapes portrayed by Baris Ozbicer´s beautiful cinematography.

FILM REVIEW

2011-05-02T17:09:00.002+05:30

Lavoura Arcaica (To the Left of the Father) (2001)

* Director:
* Luiz Fernando Carvalho
* Writers:
* Luiz Fernando Carvalho, Raduan Nassar

* Actors:
* Selton Mello,
* Raul Cortez,
* Juliana Carneiro da Cunha,
* Simone Spoladore,
* Leonardo Medeiros

This poignant universal story,adapted after Raduan Nassar's book, presents the parable of the Prodigal Son, seen through the lenses of Carvalho, in a deep, passionate, tragic and at the same time, poetical narrative.The photography evolves accompanying the story, in a crescendo - from the monotonous familiar countryside farm journey chores, presented in pastel tones, until the climax,in bright luxuriant brazilian landscape colors, as the rythm of passion rises, intermingled by interior candle- light chiaro scuros,all punctuated by a vigorous and vibrant music.

FILM REVIEW

2011-05-02T17:01:00.004+05:30

Three Monkeys (Üç Maymun)
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan Produced by Zeynep Özbatur Written by Ebru Ceylan Nuri Bilge Ceylan Ercan Kesal Starring Yavuz Bingöl Hatice Aslan Ahmet Rıfat Şungar Ercan Kesal Cinematography Gökhan Tiryaki Editing by Ayhan Ergürsel Nuri Bilge Ceylan Running time 109 minutes
A family is dislocated when small failings become extravagant lies. The film opens as a wealthy businessman, Servet, running a campaign for the upcoming election, is driving in his car alone and sleepy, struggling to keep his eyes open. Seconds later he hits and kills a pedestrian in the middle of the road. Servet panics when another car with a couple inside approaches. He sneaks away.

Eyüp, a man living in a slum at the Yedikule neighborhood in İstanbul, with his wife and only son, is the driver of Servet. He wakes up in the middle of the night with his cell phone ringing. It's his boss, telling Eyüp to meet him immediately. Shivering in shock, Servet explains the current events to his driver. His excuse is if the fatal accident comes out in press it would terminate his political career, so he proposes Eyüp to take over the penalty and stay in prison for a brief period of time in exchange for a lump sum payment upon his release, whilst still paying his salary to his family so they can get by. Eyüp accepts the deal.

An unspecified time passes, summer arrives, and Eyüp's son İsmail fails to enter college again. His mother, Hacer, who works in the catering division of a factory, starts worrying about her son after unpleasant events, and tries to convince him to get a job. İsmail suggests driving children between home and school but of course they don't have any financial source for this kind of an enterprise. İsmail asks his mother to request an advance payment from Servet without consulting Eyüp. Hacer meets with Servet, in his office after the election (which he lost), and requests the money. After Hacer leaves the office and starts waiting for a bus at the stop Servet persuades Hacer to accept a lift from him back to her home.

More unspecified time passes, and İsmail intends to visit his father. Things take a poor turn when he finds his mother having an affair with Servet. İsmail stands passive. After serving nine months in prison, Eyüp is released. He senses things are "a little peculiar" inside his home. Hacer is in love with Servet and insists on maintaining their affair. Servet disagrees. That night, Hacer and Eyüp are invited to the police station and informed that Servet has been murdered. Police officers interrogate the two and Eyüp finds out that Hacer was cheating on him. He denies knowing anything about it. İsmail confesses to his mother that he murdered Servet. Eyüp calms down when he pays a visit to a mosque. Afterwards, Eyüp goes on to speak with a very poor man who works and sleeps inside a tea house in the neighborhood. Eyüp makes the same proposition to the poor man, Bayram, that Servet made to him: to claim the crime committed by his son. Bayram agrees. The last scene shows Eyüp at his home's balcony, staring at the Sea of Marmara, and along with thunder it starts to rain.

FILM REVIEW

2011-05-02T16:49:00.001+05:30

Buried Secrets

Dowaha

Country: Tunisia, Switzerland, France

Production year: 2009

Director: Raja Amari

Producer: Dora Bouchoucha, Nicolas Wadimoff, Serge Lalou

Cast: Hafsia Herzi, Sondos Belhassen, Wassila Dari, Rim El Benna, Dhafer L'abidine

Duration: 91 min

A strict Tunisian woman and her two daughters live secretly in the servants' quarters of an abandoned estate. They stay hidden and find a way to be self-sustaining while being completely off the grid. One day a free-spirited couple moves into the house and the youngest daughter becomes enthralled by their way of life, putting her own family at risk and leading to unexpected consequences. The plot is equal parts family psychodrama, coming-of-age melodrama, and contemporary thriller. Anchored by a stunning cast of actresses, the film is a slow-burning parable of a woman's - and a generation's - awakening desire for freedom, sexuality, and modernity.

Raja Amari:

Born in Tunis in 1971. She studied French literature in her native Tunis and then Paris. She directed her first short film 'Le Bouquet' in 1995. Her feature debut 'Satin Rouge' (2002) was selected for the Berlinale Forum.

(http://www.wff.pl/en/filmy/dowaha/)

FILM REVIEW

2011-05-02T16:33:00.003+05:30

NATARANG

Gunwantrao aka Gunya (Atul Kulkarni) is a daily wage earner who works on farms for a high caste landlord. He has a passion for ‘Lavani and tamasha’. He has inherent passion for acting and he has a great ‘leadership’ quality. Gunya decides to convert his hobby ,passion into a business. He decides to start his own ‘Natak company’ when he loses his job(fetching water from well) due to ‘machine’ (water pump). People become pro-active when they see one farmer doing it, and decides to follow ‘Gunya’ just because they feel they should look for an ‘alternative’ work to earn their bread.

‘Gunya’ and other farmlabors starts ‘Natak company’ by the support of Pandba ( Kishore) who has good insight of ‘Tamasha business’. Pandba knows the dedication and passion of Gunya and he also trusts his capabilities as an actor and his leadership qualities. At the same time Pandba knows that Gunya is an innocent hearted person and does not understand business, so he decides to support him whole heartedly. Gunya goes against his family wish and starts a ‘Tamasha’ company in which he performs different jobs of writer, director, poet, and actor a King. Being a macho man and ‘marzi ka malak’ he suits the role of King. But situation demands something else from him.

‘Tamasha’ without ‘Girls’ can never be success and Naina (Sonali Kulkarni) who agrees to play a part in his troupe puts a condition that she will work with them only if they introduce a ‘panzy character’ (Nachya) in the play. Being an experienced woman in Tamasha Naina’s mother (Priya) convinces them that public needs innovation and ‘nachya’ is more preferred over ‘songadya’ (comedy character) by audiences. In small village, people do not get ready to play this character, as it could lead to lot of humiliation in public and may cause ‘public shame’ on their manhood. And there starts a series of sacrifices by Gunya. Padba convinces Gunya to performe ‘panzy character’. Naina guides him and Gunya becomes and excellent panzy performer. Within few shows their ‘Gunwantrao Kagalgaonkar and Naina; tamasha’ troupe becomes famous in neighborhoods. They starts getting lot of work from different villages and the success story of ‘Tamasha’ company continues with the more and more ‘sacrifices’ and personal problems of Gunya.

Gunya has to adopt his ‘panzy character’ in his life too, to achieve ‘Supari’ (contract) to perform from political netas. I think rest of the part should not be disclosed here because there lies the ‘excellence’ of ‘cinema’, watch it to gain the emotional rollercoaster of movie experience.

(http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Natrang-Movie-nmonootrtm)

2011-03-22T07:11:00.003+05:30

How she is venerated in love (2010)

(pranayathil oruval vazhthappedum vidham)

17 mins/Malayalam

Directed by Manilal

A love story in cyber times.

The film is about how we experience

love in times when communication

between human beings is more

in the virtual realm than in the physical,

face to face world of reality.

It is also a rumination upon how the male

and female dwell or inhabit

the world of imagination that love essentially is.

the film traverses the thin edge between virtual,

imaginative, physical and the erotic.

The Day I Became a Woman

2011-03-21T18:04:00.003+05:30

The Day I Became a Woman
Roozi ke zan shodam (original title)

78 min/Iran/Persian

Director: Marzieh Makhmalbaf

Writers: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Marzieh Makhmalbaf

Cast

Fatemeh Cherag Akhar ... Hava

Hassan Nebhan ...Hassan

Shahr Banou Sisizadeh ... Mother

Ameneh Passand ... Grandmother

Shabnam Toloui ... Ahoo

Sirous Kahvarinegad ... Husband

Mahram Zeinal Zadeh ... smann

Norieh Mahigiran ... Rival Cyclist

Azizeh Sedighi ... Hoora

Badr Iravani ... Young Boy

Storyline

A film comprised of three interconnected vignettes that depict women at three stages of life in Iran. The first part centers on a young girl on her ninth birthday who is told that she can no longer play with the boys she had been playing with only the day before because she is now a woman. Told from the perspective of a 9-year-old girl who does not feel like or know what the word "woman" refers to, we see how devastatingly this affects both the girl and the boy with whom she had been friends. The second part is about a young woman who decides to enter a bicycle race against her husband's wishes. As first, the husband and then increasing numbers of men from her village ride beside her on horseback to convince her to return home. The race begins to symbolize a freedom that she desperately wants from the limitations that have been placed on her. Finally, the third part shows us an old woman who has come into some money and is now free to do what she wan

2011-03-21T07:52:00.001+05:30

The Japanese Wife (2010)

India/ English | Bengali | Japanese

Director: Aparna Sen

Writers: Kunal Basu, Aparna Sen

Cast :

Rahul Bose/... Snehamoy

Chigusa Takaku/... Miyage

Raima Sen/... Sandhya

Moushumi Chatterjee/... Mashi

Paran Bandopadhyay/... Ayurvedic doctor

Kharaj Mukhopadhyay/... Kite shop owner

Rudranil Ghosh/... Fatik

Debranjan Nag/... Fatik's friend

Jagannath Guha/... Oncologist

Sagnik Chowdhury/... Paltu

Sourodip Bhattacharya/... Young Snehamoy

Ranu Bandhopadhyay/... Sandhya's mother

Arindoi Bagchi/... Mailman (as Arindol Bagchi)

Khagendra Nath Das/... School clerk

Sutapa Ghosh/... Khendi

The final lap in this lyrical but contrived tale of unfufilled love shows two women coming together after the tragic death of the man they both loved. One, the Japanese wife of the title, the other a silent widow of meagre means. This story of a long-distance 'marriage' between a Bengali bhadra-lok from rural Bengal Snehmoy (Rahul Bose) and his Japanese pen-pal Miyage (Chigusa Takaku) suffers from an incurable disease known as Inherent Silliness. Based on a true story by Kunal Basu, this is the ultimate non-romance between two people who thoroughly deserve each other.

2011-02-18T22:11:00.002+05:30

BEST OF IFFK-2010

ON 23^RD & 24^TH

FEBRUARY 2011

E.M.S MEMMORIAL TOWN HALL, ERNAKULAM

SCREENING SCHEDULE

23-02-2011

4 PM RIDING THE STALLION OF A DREAM.

5.40 PM INAUGURAL FUNCTION

6.15 PM BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADOWS

(DOCUMENTARY ON MANKADA RAVIVARMA)

7 PM PORTRAITS IN A SEA OF LIES

24-02-2011

4 PM- HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER

6.10 PM CHITRAKUZHAL

7.45PM- WINE

// ADMISSION FREE AND OPEN TO ALL//

FILM REVIEW

2011-01-04T05:40:00.003+05:30

Tiresia

Year: 2003

Director:

Bertrand Bonello

Writers: Bertrand Bonello, Luca Fazzi (story)

Cast: Laurent Lucas, Clara Choveaux, Thiago Teles, Celia Catalifo, Lou Castel, Alex Descas, Marcelo Novais Teles, Olivier Torres

Country: France | Canada

Language: French | Portuguese

Runtime: 115 min

The story of Tiresia is part of Greek mythology. During his life, Tiresia was both a man and a woman. Blinded by the rage of a goddess, the gods granted him higher vision. Our story takes place in our day.

Tiresia, a Brazilian transsexual of extreme beauty, lives illegally with her brother in the outskirts of Paris.

Terranova, an aesthete with poetic ideas, likens Tiresia to a perfect rose. He ends up kidnapping her to keep her as his own. Deprived of her daily hormones, Tiresia transforms little by little before his eyes.

Powerless before what his rose becomes, Terranova blinds Tiresia and leaves her for dead in the countryside.

In a pitiful state between woman and man, Tiresia is taken in and cared for by Anna, a simple young girl. While recuperating, Tiresia discovers a sudden gift of premonition. But the presence of an oracle disturbs the Church. The parish priest has no choice but to confront Tiresia.

Do Din Ka Mela

2010-11-30T20:23:00.004+05:30

Do Din Ka Mela (A Two Day Fair)

2009, Kutchi and Gujarati with English subtitles, 61 mins.

Directed by KP Jayasankar and Anjali Monteiro

Camera: KP Jayasankar,

Script, Editing, Sound Design: Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar

Produced by :

Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India

“Nothing in the world will last – it is but a two day fair” sings Mura Lala Fafal, drawing inspiration from the Sufi traditions of Sant Kabir and Abdul Lateef Bhita’i. He is accompanied on the Jodiya Pava (double flute) by his nephew Kanji Rana Sanjot. Kanji taught himself to play and make his own flutes after hearing the music on the radio. Mura and Kanji are Meghwals, a pastoral Dalit community that lives on the edge of the Great Rann of Kutch, in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. They are both daily wage labourers and subsistence farmers in an arid zone. The film is a a two day journey into the music and every day life of this uncle-nephew duo, set against the backdrop of the Rann.

The Great Rann of Kutch is a vast salt marsh/desert that separates India and Pakistan. Before the Partition the Meghwals moved freely across the Rann, between Sindh (now in Pakistan) and Kutch. The music and culture of the region is a rich tapestry of many traditions and faiths, an affirmation of the syncretic wisdom of the marginalised comunities that live in this spectacular and yet fragile area.

Underground

2010-10-28T06:46:00.001+05:30

Underground, 170 minutes/1995

directed by Emir Kusturica

UNDERGROUND , directed by Emir Kusturica, follows an underground weapons manufacturer in Belgrade during the secondWorld War and evolves into fairly surreal situations. A black marketeer who smuggles the weapons to partisans doesn't mention to the workers that the war is over, and they keep producing. Years later, they break out of their underground "shelter" --- only to convince themselves that the war is still going on.

Emir Kusturica creates a frenetic, delirious, farcical, insightful, and ultimately tragic allegory on the dissolution of a nation in Underground. Using surreal, repeated events that interweave reality and illusion, Kusturica presents an incisive metaphor for the turbulent and often vicious circle of Yugoslavian politics: The prophetic words, "War is not a war unless a brother kills a brother", in the end, becomes a metaphor for the dissolution of a nation through ethnic conflict, an elegy for the fractured soul of a divided country.

Emir Kusturica is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films. He resides in a village he had built for his film Life Is a Miracle. He won the Palme d'Or at Cannes twice (for When Father Was Away on Busines and Underground). He was awarded the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

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The Bathers

2010-10-28T06:44:00.001+05:30

Les baigneuses/ The Bathers/2003/83 minutes/

directed by Viviane Candas

Sexy, gritty and as provocative as a lap dance, The Bathers takes an insider's look at the lives of six women working as dancers at a seedy Parisian peep show. Governed by their overprotective boss, the girls' routine of glittery neon lights and lecherous customers is soon disrupted when an enigmatic stranger enters the scene. Now, drugs, sex and bickering all take a back seat as the girls unite to save this man haunted by a mysterious past and unforgiving demons. A fascinating glimpse into a world of back alleys and primal instincts, The Bathers transports us to a netherworld where the show always goes on.

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The Darjeeling Limited

2010-10-28T06:41:00.004+05:30

The Darjeeling Limited/2007/91 minutes

directed by Wes Anderson

In The Darjeeling Limited, directed by Wes Anderson, three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other -- to become brothers again like they used to be. Their "spiritual quest", however, veers rapidly off-course (due to events involving over-the-counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray), and they eventually find themselves stranded alone in the middle of the desert with eleven suitcases, a printer, and a laminating machine. At this moment, a new, unplanned journey suddenly begins. One can also look at Darjeeling as a movie that acknowledges the struggle of family as community. The entire movie consists of the brothers wrestling with whether they can ultimately trust one another or not.

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Clockwork Orange

2010-10-28T06:38:00.002+05:30

Clockwork Orange./1971/136 minutes

directed by Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick's randomly ultra-violent, over-indulgent, graphically-stylized film, Clockwork Orange, is a terrifying, gaudy film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 satiric, futuristic novel of the same name. It is a disturbing movie about England in the totalitarian future, Malcolm McDowell portrays Alex, a Beethoven-loving, head-bashing punk who leads his gang of ‘droogs’ [friends] on ultra-violent assaults--until he is captured by authorities and subjected to nasty behavior-modification therapy. The treatment makes him less than human. He has been conditioned against classical music, his love of which was his one human feature, and apparently all of his sex drive is gone.

Kubrick is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished, innovative, and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Even though most of his films were adapted from novels or short stories, his works are noted as some of the "most original, provocative, and visionary motion pictures ever made".

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2010-09-07T15:02:00.002+05:30

REMEMBERING P.N.MENON

(P.N.MENON ANUSMARANAM)
ON
9TH SEPTEMBER 2010
5 PM
AT
NANAPPA ART GALLERY,
KARIKKAMURI CROSS ROAD,
ERNAKULAM-11

Participants:
SRI.MOHAN,SRI.KAMAL, SRI.SREENIVASAN, SRI.T.KRISHNANUNNI, SRI.N.HARIKUMAR, DR.C.S.JAYARAM, SRI.K.M.ROY, SMT.BHARATHI MENON, SRI.T.KALADHARAN

Followed by film screening
KUTTYEDATHI
Written by M.T.VASUDEVAN NAIR
Directed by P.N.MENON

2010-07-27T12:48:00.001+05:30

Pantaleón y las visitadoras [Captain Pantoja and the Special Services]

(2002)/Peru | Spain/Spanish/ 137 min

Director: Francisco J. Lombardi

Plot Summary:

The Peruvian army captain Pantaleon Pantoja, a very serious and efficient officer, is chosen by his superiors to set up a special service of 'visitors' to satisfy the sexual needs of the soldiers posted on remote jungle outposts. At first unhappy about this assignment, he nonetheless puts his remarkable organizational skills in action and in a short time has his 'unit' running smoothly. In the home front things get complicated though; his wife dislikes his long hours and the secrecy surrounding his work, and he, despite being a dedicated husband, feels tempted by one of his "subordinates".

1] Cartagena Film Festival: Golden India Catalina Award, 2000: Best Actor, Best Film.

2] Cinema Brazil Grand Prize, 2003: Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film.

3] Festróia - Tróia International Film Festival, 2000: Silver Dolphin Award: Best Actor.

Nominated: Golden Dolphin Award: Best Film.

4] Goya Awards, 2000: Audience Award: Best Latin Film, Best Actor, Best Director.

Golden Kikito Award: Best Editing, Best Film, Best Screenplay.

Kikito Critics Prize: Francisco J. Lombardi.

5] Gramado Film Festival, 2000: Audience Award: Best Latin Film, Best Actor, Best Director.

Golden Kikito Award: Best Editing, Best Film, Best Screenplay.

Kikito Critics Prize: Francisco J. Lombardi.

6] Viña del Mar Film Festival, 2000: Audience Award: Francisco J. Lombardi.

2010-07-27T12:46:00.001+05:30

The Dreamers
2003/ 115 min/ France | UK | Italy/ English | French
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci.

Plot Summary:

Paris, spring 1968. While most students take the lead in the May 'revolution', a French poet's twin son Theo and daughter Isabelle enjoy the good life in his grand Paris home. As film buffs they meet and 'adopt' modest, conservatively educated Californian student Matthew. With their parents away for a month, they drag him into an orgy of indulgence of all senses, losing all of his and the last of their innocence. A sexual threesome shakes their rapport, yet only the outside reality will break it up. Written by KGF Vissers
The tumultuous political landscape of Paris in 1968 serves as the backdrop for a tale about three young cineastes who are drawn together through their passion for film. Matthew, an American exchange student, pursuing his education abroad in Paris, becomes friends with a French brother and sister duo, named Theo and Isabelle, who share a common love of the cinema. While the May 1968 Paris student riots--which eventually shut down most of the French government--are happening around them, the three friends develop a relationship unlike anything Matthew has ever experienced, or will ever encounter again.
Awards:
1] David di Donatello Awards, 2004: Nominated: Best Editing.
2] European Film Awards, 2004: Nominated: Audience Award: Best Actress, Best Director.
3] Golden Trailer Awards, 2004: Nominated: Golden Trailer: Best Foreign Film
4] Goya Awards, 2004: Nominated: Best European Film.
5] Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, 2004: Nominated: Silver Ribbon: Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing.

2010-07-27T12:44:00.001+05:30

Halfaouine: Boy of the Terraces.

1990/ Arabic

98 min/Tunisia | France | Italy/

Director: Férid Boughedir.

Plot Summary

A coming-of-age comedy/drama set in Tunisia. Twelve-year-old Noura is an impressionable boy who must learn to reconcile two conflicting worlds - the loving world of Moslem women and the vastly different, harsher world of men - while also dealing with his own budding sexuality.

Awards:

1] Carthage Film Festival, 1990: Tanit d'Or: Férid Boughedir.

2] César Awards, France, 1991: Nominated: César: Best First Work: Férid Boughedir.

3] Valencia Festival of Mediterranean Cinema, 1990: Golden Palm:
Férid Boughedir.

4] Würzburg International Filmweekend, 1991: Audience Award:
Férid Boughedir.

2010-07-27T12:42:00.001+05:30

As Bodas de Deus
[Portuguese] (1999)
150 min/France | Portugal/French | Portuguese
Director:João César Monteiro

A crook named Joao de Deus receives a suitcase stuffed with money from a messenger of God. The messanger disappears and as Joao counts his money he hears something large plunge into the river beside him. He witnesses a young girl drowning and jumps into the river to save her. Will his money be there when he returns?

Plot Summary:
The eccentric Portuguese director Joao_Cesar_Monteiro is also the screenwriter and the main character of this film, which continues his cynical observations about God and religion. Two shadow-like figures meet in an old, icy park when all seems lost. They are Deus and a Messenger from God. The Messenger gives the Crook (which is the temporary state of poor Joao de Deus) a suitcase full of money. Having accomplished his mission, he disappears. While Joao is busy counting his fortune, a heavy object plunges into the nearby lake, disturbing its tranquility. Joao goes to see what is happening and sees a young girl drowning. He plunges into the water to save her and carries the unconscious girl off to a convent. When he returns to the park, the suitcase full of money is still there waiting for him. Providence or sheer luck? With Monteiro, the answer is evident.

Awards:
1] 52nd Cannes Film Festival 1999: Un Certain regard.

2010-07-27T12:37:00.002+05:30

Satyricon.

(1969)

128 min./Italy | France/Latin | Italian

Director: Federico Fellini.

Plot Summary:

In first century Rome, two student friends, Encolpio and Ascilto, argue about ownership of the boy Gitone, divide their belongings and split up. The boy, allowed to choose who he goes with, chooses Ascilto. Only a sudden earthquake saves Encolpio from suicide. We follow Encolpio through a series of adventures, where he is eventually reunited with Ascilto, and which culminates in them helping a man kidnap a hermaphrodite demi-god from a temple. The god dies, and as punishment Encolpio becomes impotent. We then follow them in search of a cure. The film is loosely based on the book Satyricon by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, the "Arbiter of Elegance" in the court of Nero. The book has only survived in fragments, and the film reflects this by being very fragmentary itself, even stopping in mid-sentence.

Awards:

1] Academy Awards, USA, 1971: Nominated:Oscar:Best Director.

2] Golden Globes, USA, 1970: Nominated:Golden Globe Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film

3] Laurel Awards, 1971: 2nd place Golden Laurel: Best Foreign Film.

4] Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, 1970: Silver Ribbon: Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Supporting Actor.

TRIBUTE

2010-04-08T05:58:00.003+05:30

WELL KNOWN FILM CRITIC AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER OF COCHIN FILM SOCIETY SRI A.KUTBUDEEN PASSED AWAY ON 27TH MARCH.HE WAS BEDRIDDEN FOR MORE THAN LAST 6 MONTHS DUE TO ACUTE RENAL FAILURE.
WE PAY OUR TRIBUTE TO OUR DEPARTED COMRADE..

21-02-2010 : SUNDAY: 9 AM : SAVITHA THEATRE, ERNAKULAM

2010-02-09T11:20:00.007+05:30

"PHIR KABHI"

(35 mm/2009/Hindi/ 120 mins )

Director: V. K. Prakash

Cast: Mithun Chakraborty,Dimple Kapadia,Gulshan Grover,

Rati Agnihotri, Kitu Gidwani

Writer: M. Sindhuraj

Camera: Nataraja Subramaniam (Nutty)

Editor: Mahesh Narayanan

Costumes: Bhanu Athaiyah

Production Design: Nitin Desai

Dialogues:Kamlesh Kunti Singh

Producer: UTV Motion Pictures, Culture Company Pvt. Ltd.

Synopsis:

Retired station master Hari Singh’s wife of 40 years has just died .His son is abroad and his brash teenage granddaughter is growing up in midst of studies, friends and first love.

And then arrives a letter from Ganga.

Ganga was Hari’s first love, he had last met her when they were in school. This letter invited him back to his high school reunion and to Ganga, who is still the same sweet, lyrical girl he knew. She is a painter, unmarried and lives in the same town where their love blossomed, guilt clutches at his heart when he learns about this. He had built a family, while she had built a castle of empty dreams from memories of past.

Hari returns to his home town after attending the reunion but he and Ganga keep a steady stream of letters between them which gets them even closer. These letters are caught by his granddaughter and he is worried that if his daughter-in-law discovers this, her sense of social priorities is bound to cause an upheaval. Ganga’s letters stop coming, a worried Hari with his understanding granddaughter’s help, returns to Ganga’s town and finds that she is battling a disease and her uterus has been removed.

Devastated with Ganga’s state Hari returns home and finds that his furious daughter in law has found out

about Ganga .Hari is cornered and shamed by her rebuke and promises not to be in touch with Ganga no matter what.

Once again Hari is torn between familial duty and that of his love

What happens next forms the rest of the story……..

(THE PROGRAMME FOLLOWED BY AN INTERACTION WITH THE DIRECTOR)

-ADMISSION FREE AND OPEN TO ALL-

2009-11-26T11:55:00.002+05:30

COCHIN FILM SOCIETY,

KERALA STATE CHALA CHITRA ACADEMY,
FFSI KERALAM,
I&PRD

JOINTLY ANNOUNCING

"TOURING TALKIES" FILM FESTIVAL
(A CURTAIN RAISER PROGRAMME FOR 14TH IFFK)

AT
E M S MEMORIAL TOWN HALL, ERNAKULAM

ON
2&3, DECEMBER 2009

TIME TABLE

02-012-2009 3.30 PM - THE PHOTOGRAPH
5 PM - DREAMS OF THE DUST
6.30 PM - MY MARLIN AND BRANDO

03-12-2009 3.30 PM - HAFEEZ
5 PM - FAREWELL TO GULZARI
6.30 PM - POST CARDS FROM LENINGRAD

( ADMISSION FREE AND OPEN TO ALL )

Dreams of Dust

2009-11-23T15:46:00.002+05:30

Dreams of Dust
2006/86 min/ French/ Burkina Faso, Canada, France
Official Selection 2007 Sundance Film Fesival

Cast and Crew
Starring: Makena Diop as Mocktar
Rasmané Ouedraogo as Thiam
Fatou Tall-Salgues as Coumba
Director of Photography: Crystel Fournier
Editor: Annie Jean
Writer/ Director: Laurent Salgues

From France, Canada and Burkino Faso, French writer-director Laurent Salgues’s Rêves de poussière is a vivid depiction of hard labor, sustained by hopes for a better future, and poverty. Mocktar, a Nigerian farmer, has just lost his youngest daughter. Burdened by guilt for inadequately providing for wife and family, he travels to northeast Burkino Faso to work in the gold mines. An official explains, “The gold rush is over.” His response gets Mocktar hired: “I’m just looking for a job.”
The film opens with an extreme long-shot of sand being blown by wind screen-right across the landscape. A human figure enters the frame and proceeds, by foot, screen-left—in the face of the wind. This is Mocktar symbolically braving life’s misfortunes. Neocolonialist exploitation of African resources and peasants contributes to African poverty. “The gold we risk our lives for,” Mocktar himself notes later on, “is for white people.” At the camp, Mocktar is attracted to Coumba, who has lost family members in a shaft collapse there, and whose young daughter Mocktar helps with his pay, redeeming himself from guilt over his own recent loss. At the last, in an extreme long-shot, he is shown journeying home.
Much of the film is given over to showing, in documentary fashion, the harsh, dangerous labor involved in different facets of the mining. (Mocktar, his first day, suffers a horrible accident.) We also see Mocktar’s after-work interactions with an older miner who takes Mocktar under his wing; but when this gentleman replaces the bullying, uncaring boss, we see the start of his transformation into a facsimile of that boss—black against black at the behest of white interests: an appropriation of available limited power.
Cinematographed by Crystel Fournier, images are hauntingly dreamlike. Wind-swept dust is a recurrent motif.

The Photograph

2009-11-23T15:45:00.002+05:30

The Photograph
Direction & Screenplay: Nan T. Achnas
2007/94 min/ Indonesian

Cast LIM KAY TONG, SHANTY, LUKMAN SARDI and INDY BARENDS

A young karaoke bar hostess vows to fulfill the last wishes of the terminally ill photographer who took her in following a harrowing experience in which she was gang raped by a group of drunken customers in The Photograph. Sita is a 25-year-old bar hostess who also moonlights as a prostitute. One day, after Sita is gang raped and beaten by a violent group of customers, kindly Chinese-Indonesian photographer Johan comes to her aid. Though Johan is twice Sita's age, an unlikely bond forms between the pair when the traveling photographer invites the young woman to move in with him. Upon realizing that she is unable to return to her position as a bar hostess, Sita offers to become Johan's personal servant in exchange for room and board. Later, Johan reveals that he has but a few months to live, yet longs to fulfill three lifelong fantasies represented in three photographs: a photo of the sea represents Johan's wish to travel to China by ship, a snapshot of railway tracks represents his longing to travel by train, and a still life of a camera sitting next to a chair represents his deep desire to find a successor before he passes away. When Sita discovers a dark secret from Johan's past, the enraged photographer does his best to drive her away. Weeks later, on his deathbed, Johan realizes that his time has finally come, and summons Sita back to take one final photograph.

HAFEZ

2009-11-23T15:42:00.001+05:30

Hafez

98 minutes/ 2007/Iran-Japan/ Persian/ EST

Director: Abolfazl Jalili

CREDITS: Abolfazl Jalili - Director, Abolfazl Jalili - Editor, Abolfazl Jalili - Composer (Music Score), Yungchen Lhamo - Composer (Music Score), Abolfazl Jalili - Producer, Yuji Sadai - Producer, Abolfazl Jalili - Screenwriter

Cast: Mehdi Morady, Kumiko Aso, Mehdi Negahban, Hamide Hedayati, Abdollah Shamasi

Plot

A religious scholar is accused of a crime of impropriety against one of his students in this independent drama. Shams al-Din (Mehdi Moradi) is an Iranian scholar who has gained the nickname "Hafez" (from a celebrated Persian poet) for his deep knowledge of the Koran. Shams is hired to tutor Nabat (Kumiko Aso), a young woman from Japan, on the holy text as she prepares to marry the son of a local judge. Islamic law prevents Shams from looking at his pupil, but they can speak to one another, and as he guides her through the Koran, he becomes both intrigued and infatuated with her. One day, Shams can no longer bear his curiosity, and takes a brief look at his student, discovering she's as lovely as he imagined. Shams' timing is unfortunate, and he's seen looking at Nabat; her future father in law is enraged, and insists the teacher be punished as severely as possible. Even through he faces jail time, a public beating and banishment from his home, Shams refuses to apologize for his actions, insisting his love for Nabat is pure and not lustful. Written and directed by Abolfazl Jalili, Hafez was a rare co-production between Japanese and Iranian production companies.

Farewell Gulsary/ Proshai Gulsary (2008)

2009-11-23T15:18:00.003+05:30

Farewell Gulsary/ Proshai Gulsary (2008)

102min/ Kazakhstan/EST
Directed by Ardak Amirkulov.

Screenplay, Amirkulov, Erlan Nurmuhambetov, Erzhan Rustembekov,

based on a novel by Chinghiz Aitmatov.

Cast: Ardak Amirkulov, Raykhan Aytkozhanova, Dogdurbek Kydyraliev, Nurlan Sanzhar, Zhanel Makazhanova

Farewell Gulsary by Ardak Amirkulov is a nostalgic film, both in tenor and mode. It is the second rendition of the eponymous short story by the famous Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov about the love of Tanabai, a devout Kazakh communist and a WWII hero, for his beautiful stallion Gulsary, who is a symbol of freedom and idealism—everything the main character stands to lose to the crash collectivization in the Far East in the 1940s and 50s.

gulsaryThe first adaptation appeared in 1968, only two years after the publication of Aitmatov's story, and is better known under the title The Racing Ambler (Beg inokhodza). Produced by Kyrgyzfilm, it was the directorial debut of the legendary Soviet cameraman Sergei Urusevskii. Associated with the amazing images of such Soviet classics as The Cranes are Flying (Letiat zhuravli, 1957), Soy Cuba (Ia—Kuba, 1964), both directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, The Forty First (Sorok pervyi, 1956, dir. Grigori Chukhrai), The Return of Vasilii Bortnikov (Vozvrashchenie Vasiliia Bortnikova, 1952, dir. Vsevolod Pudovkin), Urusevskii succeeded in directing only one more film, Sing a Song, Poet (Poi pesniu, poet, 1973) before his death in 1974.

gulsaryBefore taking up Aitmatov's story, Amirkulov made two shorts and three fiction films, two of which, however, propelled him to national and international fame. The Fall of Otrar (Gibel’ Otrara 1991) and Abai (1995) were expensive, two-part epic pictures inspired by Kazakh mythological heroes and heavily influenced by the elaborate mise-en-scènes of Andrei Rublev (1966) by Andrei Tarkovsky, Kagemusha (1980) and Red Beard (Akahige, 1965) by Akira Kurasawa, and flaunting “resemblance to elements"— both visual and narrative—of The Last Emperor (1987) by Bernardo Bertolucci and even Alexander Nevsky (1938) by Sergei Eisenstein.” (See Abikeeva).

gulsaryBut while his national-(istic) epics made him one of the best known Kazakh directors, the fact that he is also a successful business man and an owner of a stud-farm for expensive, pure-bred racing horses is almost unknown. This adds an unexpected twist to the otherwise pretty straightforward biography of Amirkulov: born in rural Kazakhstan in 1955, he first studied philology, then the Film Institute VGIK under Sergei Solov’ev, to later become himself a film-production professor at the Zhurgenov Academy of Arts in Almaty, where his strong personality has undoubtedly been a decisive influence in the formation of the young directors from the so-called “new-new Kazakh wave” (see Smailova, Knox) from the last decade or so...

gulsaryAmirkulov refers to his film as “the story of the last nomad,” as personified by the main character, Tanabai (played by Dogdurbedk Kydyraliev, the star of both The Fall of Otrar and Abai) and his determination to live according to his own uncompromising moral laws, which puts him increasingly at odds with the growing conformity of the regimented, Stalinist Kazakhstan. But there is yet another, poetic dimension to his stubborn inability to yield to mediocrity—his creative spirit, externalized in his amour fou for the ambler Gulsary, and for the young and beautiful widow (played by the student Zhanel Makazhanova). The former he loses to a Communist Party official who demands the stallion Gulsary for himself (and, after failing to dominate him at the races, gets him castrated), and the latter (along with his loving, but proud wife) to circumstance. And yet, at the film's sad finale, the aged and lonely Tanabai is reunited with the old horse, who turns to be his only, albeit short-lived, link to his real, former self, which remained hidden, but untouched by age. In this sense Tanabai is indeed “the last nomad,” and the film represents a series of his stubborn and futile resistance against the numerous attempts to destroy his farm, his horse and his soul. In spite of the harsh (self)-inflicted punishment—expulsion from the Party, demotion, labor camp—his free spirit refuses to be domesticated by the oppressive system, firmly insisting that traditional animal farming is the best and only way to farm.

gulsaryIn a way, Tanabai is yet another cinematic expression of the longing for a (positive) hero in post-Soviet cinema. Strangely enough, the almost mystical Kazakh steppes seem to be the place where such a character is likely to roam most convincingly, without masquerading as a chudak (an odd-ball), whose goodness somehow borders on the psycho-pathological as is the case with films on urban themes—for example the eponymous mermaid from Anna Melikian’s film The Mermaid (Rusalka, 2007), or the retired eccentric and his out-of-town helper in Boris Khlebnikov’s Help Gone Mad (Sumashchedshaia pomoshch’, 2009). By contrast, in films such as Mikhail Kalatozishvili’s Wild Field (Dikoe pole, 2008), Guka Omarova’s The Native Dancer (Baksy, 2008), or Sergei Dvortsevoi’s Tulpan (2008), the genuine moral fervor and humanism of the main characters are externalized in their unconditional love for animals—goats, sheep, dogs, horses. Indeed, in melodrama, according to Peter Brooks’s seminal analysis of the genre, the loss of traditional values in times of severe social and moral crisis is occulted, “masked by the surface of reality,” and allowed to break into the open only after being carefully disguised as emotionally excessive reaction. In Farewell, Gulsary!, however, (as well as in the other steppe films, mentioned above), traditional values are proudly flaunted by strong and emotionally reserved characters, brave enough to survive as loners against “a sea of troubles.” It is the human-animal bond, as well as the invariably mysterious presence of fate looming in the background of the rolling steppes, that bring into the open the “the underlying drama... of operative spiritual values” in a most convincing way.

gulsaryAlthough Amirkulov has pointed out time and again his disapproval of 'art-house' cinema as targeting a niche audience and therefore being not “quite moral,” the intricate metaphoric language of his film brings him once again closer to the Soviet poetic cinema of the 1970s, especially to such masters as Sergei Parajanov, Otar Iosseliani, Iurii Il’enko, where escapist indigenous cultural motifs—ecological and mythological—suppressed by Communism, stood for an oblique criticism of the oppressive system. By sentimentalizing the high canon of Soviet poetic cinema, he openly exposes the devastation, inflicted by the artificially imposed Soviet modernity on the traditional way of life, culture and ecology in Kazakhstan. Thus in a surprisingly convincing and powerful way, Amirkulov’s Farewell Gulsary! joins the ranks of the most recent successes of the “new-new” Kazakh cinema. Moreover, it aligns with the growing global trend of cinematic resuscitating of lost moral values and ecological traditions as being arguably the only way for the survival of our species...

2009-11-23T15:01:00.002+05:30

MY MARLON AND BRANDO(Gitmek: My Marlon and Brando)

35mm / 2008 / 92 min.
In English, Turkish and Kurdish with English subtitles

Director: Hüseyin Karabey
Script: Hüseyin Karabey, Ayça Damgaci
Photographer: A. Emre Tanyildiz
Montage: Mary Stephen
Sound: Mohammed Mokhtari
Music: Kemal S. Gürel, Erdal Güney, Hüseyin Yildiz
Costumes: Yasemin Taşkin
Cast: Ayca Damgaci, Hama Ali Kahn, Volga Sorgu, Cengiz Bozkurt, Mahir Günsiray

Three years ago, in real-life, Hama Ali, a charismatic actor from Iraq famous locally for his performance as Iraq's version of Superman, met Ayca on a film-set. He and Ayca, a fiery actress from Turkey, had a passionate love affair before returning to their respective homes. From his Kurdish village, Hama Ali sends Ayca video love letters which he has filmed on his handycam. She watches them from her sofa in Istanbul, with her cat for company. The video love letters capture the hellish violence engulfing Iraq, the goats and uncles populating his rural area, and also his tender affection towards her. Feeling suffocated by her own city and angered by the indifference towards the war that surrounds her, Ayca decides to make the journey eastwards to Iraq to be reunited with her lover. GITMEK, a dramatic feature film, is based on the true story of Ayca's departure from Istanbul and her extraordinary journey to the Iraqi border. At a time when many people were fleeing from East to West in search of safety, Ayca makes the opposite journey, in search of love. She is helped by immigrant artists who live in the slums of Istanbul and the mothers of long distance truck drivers who she meets at various border towns. The journey takes her through breathtaking landscapes, strange encounters and terrifying times.

Postcards from Leningrad

2009-11-23T14:33:00.004+05:30

Postcards from Leningrad ( Postales de Leningrado)

Venezuela/2007/90 min/Spanish with EST.

Written,Directed by:Mariana Rondon

Cast:Laureano Olivares - Teo

Greisy Mena - Marcela/Clara/Mercedes

William Cifuentes - Teo (Child)

Haydee Faverola - Grandmother

María Fernanda Ferro - Marta

Ignacio Marquez - Tio Miguel

Oswaldo Hidalgo - Grandfather

Claudia Usubillaga - The Girl

Postcards from Leningrad (2007, Spanish title: Postales de Leningrado) is a Venezuelan film, written and directed by Mariana Rondon. It is a drama about children growing up among guerilla groups in the 1960s in Venezuela.

It is Venezuela's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film of the 80th Academy Awards

Synopsis

During the leftist uprising in the 1960s in Venezuela, a young guerrilla-girl, living in secrecy, gives birth to her first daughter during Mother's Day. Due to that, her photos appear on the newspaper, since that moment they'd have to run away.

Hidden places, false disguises and names are the daily life of THE GIRL, the narrator of the story. Alongside with her cousin (Teo), they re-live the adventures of their guerrilla parents, building up a labrynth with superheroes and strategies, in which nobody knows where the reality (or madness) begins. However, this children's game does not hide the deaths, tortures, denunciations and treasons within the guerrillas.

The kids want to convert themseleves into The Invisible Man, in order to escape from the danger. However, they know that their parents might never comeback and therefore, they'll only receive Postcards from Leningrad.

Awards and Honors

Best Director (Rajatha Chakoram)at International Film Festival of Kerala(IFFK), 2008

Golden Sun Award at Biarritz International Festival of Latin American Cinema 2007

Golden India Catalina Award for best film at Cartagena Film Festival, 2008

Feature Film Trophy for best film at Cine Ceara National Cinema Festival, 2008

International Jury Award (Revelation Category) at Sao Paulo International Film Festival, 2007

2009-10-14T22:30:00.001+05:30

The Battleship Potemkin

1926 / 75 minutes / Soviet Union / Silent film/Russian intertitles

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein

Written by Nina Agadzhanova.,Nikolai Aseyev,
Sergei Eisenstein,Sergei Tretyakov

Cinematography Eduard Tisse

The Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 silent film directed by Sergei Eisenstein presents a dramatised version of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their oppressive officers of the Tsarist regime.
The Battleship Potemkin has been called one of the most influential propaganda films of all time, and was named the greatest film of all time at the World's Fair at Brussels, Belgium, in 1958.
The movie revolves around an uprising on board the Battleship Potemkin (Bronenoset Potemkin) in 1905. Conditions on the ship are unbearable, which in turn incites revolutionary fervor among the sailors, most notably within the character of Vakulinchik. After the ship's doctor declares rancid meat safe to eat, the sailors buy provisions at the canteen in a show of protest. The Admiral then orders all those who ate the borsch made with the meat to step under the cannons in a show of loyalty. Those who do not are covered under a tarp and ordered shot. Vakulinchik then implores his shipmates to rise up against those who oppress them, namely the officers of the ship. All the officers are killed and the ship is liberated. During the uprising, Vakulinchik dies. His body his placed on the docks in the Odessa harbor as a symbol of the revolution. The citizens of Odessa rally around his body and join the Potemkin in their revolt. Cossaks then come, in one of the most famous scenes of the film, and slaughter the helpless citizens on the steps leading to the harbor, effectively ending the revolt in Odessa. A fleet of battleships then comes to destroy the Potemkin.
The film is composed of five episodes:
"Men and Maggots" (Люди и черви), in which the sailors protest at having to eat rotten meat;
"Drama at the Harbour" (Драма на тендре), in which the sailors mutiny and their leader, Vakulynchuk, is killed;
"A Dead Man Calls for Justice" (Мёртвый взывает) in which Vakulinchuk's body is mourned over by the people of Odessa;
"The Odessa Staircase" (Одесская лестница), in which Tsarist soldiers massacre the Odessans; and
"The Rendez-Vous with a Squadron" (Встреча с эскадрой), in which the squadron ends up joining the sailors' side.

2009-10-14T22:28:00.001+05:30

Viva Zapata!
1952/ 113 minutes/ English/Spanish

Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by John Steinbeck
Starring Marlon Brando/Jean Peters/Anthony Quinn
Music by Alex North
Cinematography Joseph MacDonald
Editing by Barbara McLean

Viva Zapata! is a 1952 biographical film directed by Elia Kazan. The screenplay was written by John Steinbeck, using as a guide Edgcomb Pinchon's book, 'Zapata the Unconquerable', a fact that is not credited in the titles of the film. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata from his peasant upbringing, through his rise to power in the early 1900s, to his death. To give the film as authentic a feel as possible, Kazan and producer Darryl F. Zanuck studied the numerous photographs that were taken during the revolutionary years, the period between 1909 and 1919 when Zapata led the fight to restore land taken from the people during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. Kazan was especially impressed with the Agustin Casasola collection of photographs and he attempted to duplicate their visual style in the film. Kazan also acknowledged the influence of Roberto Rosselini's Paisan.
Plot

Zapata (Marlon Brando) is part of a delegation sent to complain about injustices to corrupt longtime President Porfirio Díaz (Fay Roope), but Díaz condescendingly dismisses their concerns. As a result, Zapata is driven to open rebellion, along with his brother Eufemio (Anthony Quinn). He in the south and Pancho Villa (Alan Reed) in the north unite under the leadership of naive reformer Francisco Madero (Harold Gordon).
Díaz is finally toppled and Madero takes his place, but Zapata is dismayed to find that nothing is changed. The new regime is no less corrupt and self-serving than the one it replaced. His own brother sets himself up as a petty dictator, taking what he wants without regard for the law. The ineffectual but well-meaning Madero puts his trust in treacherous General Victoriano Huerta (Frank Silvera). Huerta first takes Madero captive and then has him murdered. Zapata himself is lured into an ambush and killed.
Zapata is depicted in the film as an incorruptible rebel leader. He is guided by his desire to return the land to the peasants, who have been robbed, while forsaking his personal interest. Steinbeck meditates in the film on power, military and political, which corrupts men. Zapata excepted.

Awards
Anthony Quinn won the 1952 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The film was also nominated for:
• Best Actor in a Leading Role - Marlon Brando
• Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - John Steinbeck
• Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White - Lyle R. Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Thomas Little, Claude E. Carpenter
• Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Alex North
At the 1952 Cannes Film Festival, Brando won for Best Actor, while Elia Kazan was nominated for the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film.

2009-10-14T22:25:00.000+05:30

Bolivia

2002/ 75 minutes/ B&W/Argentina/Netherlands/Spanish

Directed by Israel Adrián Caetano
Written by: Screenplay:Israel Adrián Caetano
Story:Romina Lafranchini
Starring: Freddy Flores/Enrique Liporace/Rosa Sánchez
Music by: Los Kjarkas
Cinematography: Julián Apezteguia

Bolivia (2001) is an Argentine and Dutch drama film directed by Israel Adrián Caetano, his first feature-length film. The screenplay is written by Caetano, based upon the Romina Lafranchini story, about his wife. The motion picture features Freddy Flores and Rosa Sánchez, among others.
The film was photographed in "gritty" 16mm black-and-white, and was shot by cinematographer Julián Apezteguia./ Bolivia was filmed entirely in Buenos Aires.

Plot
The mostly plot-free film is confined to a café-bar in the lower-middle class Buenos Aires suburb of Villa Crespo, with few trips outside.
It tells the story of Freddy (Freddy Flores), a Bolivian with a gentle disposition, who, after Americans burn down the coca fields where he is employed, loses his job. With little work opportunities in Bolivia, he leaves his wife and three daughters and travels to Argentina to search for employment as an undocumented worker. He hopes to make money and later return to his family.
He lands a job as a grill cook in a seedy Villa Crespo café where the brutish owner (Enrique Liporace) is happy to skirt Argentinian immigrant laws in order to secure cheap labor.
It is in this café that Freddy meets the characters who affect his life: Rosa (Rosa Sánchez), a waitress of Paraguayan/Argentine descent, and an outsider by virtue of her mixed heritage; Héctor (Héctor Anglada), a traveling salesman from the province of Córdoba who's gay; a porteño taxi driver (Oscar Bertea), and one of the driver's buddies.
Freddy also has to deal with various Argentine café patrons who view all Paraguayans and Bolivians with disdain due to their ethnicity.

The motion picture was financed partly by the Rotterdam International Film Festival's Hubert Bals Fund and the INCAA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales de la Argentina).
The filming was a stop-and-go production and required three years of discontinuous shooting. It was shot on different days and at different times. According to director Caetano, he was never able to film for more than three days at a time.

Basis of film
Caetano said, "When writing the script, what interested me was the story; the issue of racism was not very present. However, it is inevitable that when addressing those characters and setting the story in that particular social strata, there is a series of themes that appear on their own and impose themselves."
Caetano believes that, "The film’s main theme is the collision among people of the same social class, they are workers about to be left out of any class at all, and thus they are intolerant towards one another. Basically, they are trapped in a situation they can not escape."