THE GROUNDWORK/KALIYORUKKAM
(MALAYALAM/46 MINS/2007)
DIR: S SUNIL
Cast And Crew


Starring: Thushara , Abhilash , Sreelal , Uma ,
Sreerag , Sruthi , VS Anil Kumar , Anitha
Directed by S Sunil
Produced by Kannapuram Panchayath
Story S Sunil
Screenplay S Sunil , VS Anil Kumar
Cinematography P Pratap
Music John P Varky
Lyrics DV Sreedharan
Editing Byju Kurup
Art Direction Prasanth Padiyoor
Audiography T Krishnanunni

Kaliyorukkam,’ a 46-minute film produced by the Kannapuram grama panchayat with the co-operation of Kerala State Film Development Corporation and people’s participation has a simple theme. It tells the story about a group of children who found that they don't have a playground during the summer vacations as it had been acquired for a commercial purpose. Undaunted, the children prepare a playground, which they eventually lose to their village elders who appropriate it for themselves - again for games.

'Kaliyorukkam' won the state award for the best children's film for 2007 .

One of the significant features of the film is that it is an attempt by a panchayat. And the film celebrates the 'local' in more than one way. All the actors are school-going students from the locality, who are totally at home within the film and the narrative. The visual compositions of the film very sensitively capture the 'locale' – the different terrains of the region, the landscapes, and the various moods created by the dense foliage and waterscapes in varying light shades. The children in the film speak in their own everyday language: they use the local dialect that is not sanitized to appease a pan-Kerala audience. Most refreshingly, the film never pontificates or forces the children to mouth banalities. And it is this affirmation and celebration of the local – physical and cultural – that gives Sunil's Kaliyorukkam its charming quality. One hopes the film will prepare the ground for more such initiatives.

Strike
1925/82 min./ Soviet Union/ Silent film/Russian inter titles

Directed by Sergei Eisenstein
Written by Grigori Aleksandrov/Ilya Kravchunovsky/
Sergei M. Eisenstein/Valeryan Pletnyov
Cinematography Eduard Tisse

Strike is a 1925 silent film made in the Soviet Union by Sergei Eisenstein. It was Eisenstein's first full-length feature film, and he would go on to make The Battleship Potemkin later that year. It was acted by the Proletcult Theatre, and composed of six parts. It was in turn, intended to be one part of a seven-part series, entitled Towards Dictatorship (of the proletariat), that was left unfinished. Eisenstein's influential essay, Montage of Attractions was written between Strike's production and premiere. The film depicts a strike by the workers of a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia, and their subsequent suppression. The film is most famous for a sequence near the end in which the violent putting down of the strike is cross-cut with footage of cattle being slaughtered, although there are several other points in the movie where animals are used as metaphors for the conditions of various individuals. Another theme in the film is collectivism in opposition to individualism which was viewed as a convention of western film. Collective efforts and collectivization of characters were central to both Strike and Battleship Potemkin.

Plot summary
The film opens with a quote from Vladimir Lenin.

At the factory all is quiet
Using typography, the word "но" (but) is added to the title of the chapter which then animates and dissolves into a an image of machinery in motion. The administration is spying on the workers, reviewing a list of agents with vivid code names. Vignettes are shown of them. Conditions are tense with agitators and bolsheviks planning a strike prior to the catalytic event.
Reason to strike
A micrometer is stolen, with a value of 25 rubles or 3 weeks pay. A worker, Yakov, is accused of the theft and subsequently hangs himself. Fighting ensues and work stops. The workers leave the milling room running and resistance is met at the foundry. The strikers throw rocks and loose metal through the foundry windows. Then locked within the gates of the complex, the crowd confronts the office. They force open the gates and seize a manager carting him off in a wheel barrow dumping them down a hill into the water. The crowd disperses.

The factory dies down
The chapter begins with footage of ducklings, kittens, piglets, and geese. A child then wakes his father for work ironically with no work to do, they laugh and frolic. The factory is shown vacant and still with birds moving in. The children act out what their fathers had done, wheelbarrowing a goat in a mob. The owner is frustrated by orders arriving and the frozen plant. Demands are formulated: an 8 hour work day, fair treatment by the administration, 30% wage increases, and a 6 hour day for minors. The shareholders get involved with the director and read the demands. They discuss dismissively while smoking cigars and having drinks. Presumably on the orders of the shareholders, the police raid the workers, and they sit down to protest. At their meeting the shareholders use the demand letter as a rag to clean up a spill,and a lemon squeezer metaphorically represents the pressure the stockholders intend to apply to the strikers.

The strike draws out

Cover of the DVDScenes are shown of a lines forming at a store which is closed, and a baby needing food. A fight occurs at a home between a man and a woman, subsequently she leaves. Another man rummages through his home for goods to sell at a flea market, upsetting his family. A posted letter publicly shows the administrators rejection of the demands. Using a hidden camera in a pocket watch, a spy named "Owl" photographs someone stealing the letter. The pictures are transferred to another spy. The man is beaten, captured, and beaten again.

Provocation and debacle
The scene opens with dead cats dangling from a structure. A character is introduced, "King" whose throne is made of a derelict automobile amidst rubbish, and who leads a community that lives in enormous barrels buried with only their top openings above ground. After a deal with a tsarist police agent, "King" hires a few provocateurs from among his community to set fire, raze, and loot a liquor store. A crowd gathers at the fire and the alarm is sounded. The crowd leaves to avoid being provoked but are set upon by the firemen with their hoses regardless.

Liquidation
The governor sends in the military. A child walks under the soldiers' horses and his mother goes under to get him and is struck. Rioting commences, and the crowd is chased off through a series of gates and barriers heading to the forge, then their apartments. The crowd is chased and whipped on the balconies. A policeman raises and drops a child from the balcony, killing it. The workers are driven into a field by the army and shot en masse. this is shown with alternating footage of the slaughtering of a cow.

RUSSIAN FILM FESTIVAL

9 rota/The 9th Company (2005)
139 min /Finland | Russia | Ukraine /:Russian 
Director: Fyodor Bondarchuk
Writer:Yuriy Korotkov (writer)

 
Cast:Fyodor Bondarchuk ... Khokhol 

 Aleksey Chadov ... Vorobey 

 Mikhail Yevlanov ... Ryaba 

 Ivan Kokorin ... Chugun 

 Artyom Mikhalkov ... Stas

  
The film is based on a true story of the 9th company during the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in the 1980's. Young Soviet Army recruits are sent from a boot camp into the middle of the war in Afghanistan. The action is not like a boot camp at all. It is very bloody and dirty. The 9th company is defending the hill 3234. They are hopelessly calling for help. But help never comes. "This is war, you kill, or get killed", says the 9-th company leader Khohol (Bondarchuk). They believed that they served their country. But two years later that country ceased to exist.
Fyodor Sergeevich Bondarchuk
Fyodor Sergeevich Bondarchuk was born on May 9, 1967, in Moscow, Russia. He was brought up in a family of filmmakers, and was no stranger to this profession. His father, Sergei Bondarchuk, was an internationally acclaimed film actor and an Academy Award-winning director.

From 1985 - 1987, and from 1989 - 1991 Fyodor Bondarchuk studied at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), and graduated from the class of Yuri Ozerov as a film director. At the same time he founded the production company "Art Pictures Group" together with his friend, Stepan Mikhalkov. He has been making a variety of projects, ranging from music and advertising videos to feature films. He also has been working as an actor and VJ on Russian TV. In 2003 he won TEFI Award for his work on television, and also received many other awards for his music videos and films.

Fyodor Bondarchuk is a popular TV show host, his show about cinema world has been released weekly on the CTC TV in Russia. He is currently residing in Moscow, Russia.


Papa (2004)

94 min /:Russia/:Russian

 Director:Vladimir Mashkov

Writers:Aleksandr Galich (novel),Vladimir Mashkov (writer).

Vladimir Mashkov ... Abraham Schwartz 

 Egor Beroev ... David Schwartz 

 Andrei Rozendent ... David Schwartz, 12 Years 

 Olga Krasko ... Tanya

Based on A. Galych's play "Matrosskaya Tishina", "Papa" tells a story of a Jewish father who dreamed of seeing his son perform on a stage in front of huge audiences, he dreamed of seeing him as the greatest violinist of his time. To achieve the goal he taught his son Dodik how to play the violin from the yearly age. When Dodik grew up he left the small town he and his father lived in to study in the Moscow Conservatory leaving his past behind. But one day he has to choose either to loose his father or everything he has achieved


  
 
  
Peregon/Transit (2006)

140 min /Russia/English | Russian
 writer-director Aleksandr Rogozhkin

 Cast:Aleksei Serebryakov as Captain Yurchenko 
Daniil Strakhov as Captain Lisnevsky 
Anastasiya Nemolyayeva as Irina Zareva 
Svetlana Stroganova as Valentina

 
Transit (Russian: Peregon) is a 2006 film from prolific Russian writer-director Aleksandr Rogozhkin, which was presented at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Several of his past films have screened there, including Life with an Idiot and the Chechen war drama Check Point (Blokpost), for which he won the Best Director Prize in 1998. Transit is a story set on a secret military transit base in the remote Chukotka region, where planes from allied forces came in from Alaska, including quite a few with female pilots, which of course attracted the attention of the mostly male Russian crew at the base.

The stars of the film include famous Russian actors such as Aleksey Serebryakov, Daniil Strakhov, and Anastasya Nemolyaeva.


Plot summary
A group of American pilots from Alaska ferry Airacobra fighter planes across the ocean on Lend-lease. The orderly course of life is disrupted when it becomes clear that the American pilots are attractive and charming young women. The feelings of the Russian young men collide into barriers of culture and language resulting in a host of awkward, funny, and sometimes tragic situations.

It is the story of Russians, Americans, and natives of the Far North. It is the story of man and woman in war. Love and death are squeezed between the hills as human fates are destroyed and born.


Alexander Rogozhkin ( born October 3, 1949 in Leningrad) is a Russian film director. Abroad, he is most famous for his acclaimed 2002 film The Cuckoo (Kukushka), which won the Golden Eagle Award for Best Picture. He also directed the very popular Russian-language screwball comedies Peculiarities of National Hunt and Peculiarities of National Fishing, among other works.

Rogozhkin's latest film, Transit (Peregon), was released in 2006. It is a "wartime tragicomedy" about the relationship between Soviet soldiers in the Far Eastern outpost in Chukotka and the American female pilots who bring them U.S.-made airplanes from Alaska through the lend-lease program. As in The Cuckoo, Rogozhkin cast a number of amateur actors for Peregon.

 

 

 
 
  
The Vanished Empire/ Ischeznuvshaya imperiya (2008)
105 min/Russia/Russian

Directed by : Karen SHAKHNAZAROV  
Writing credits : Sergei ROKOTOV
Cinematography : Shandor BERKESHI 
   
Cast:Egor BARANOVSKY Stepan Molodzov 
Armen DZHIGARKHANYAN 
Vladimir ILIN Ivan KUPREENKO 
Aleksandr LYAPIN ) ...Serguei Narbekov 
Lidia MILUZINA (Лидия МИЛЮЗИНА) ...Liouda Beletskaya 
Olga TUMAIKINA  
 
synopsis
The film events take place in Moscow in the 1970-s. The plot is based on the classical love triangle: two youths and a girl. They are students of the same institute of higher education, live in a large country without suspecting that soon it will vanish from all the maps of our planet. This film narrates about love, youth, and the country named the Soviet Union.

Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov
Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov (born 8 July 1952, Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He became the Director General of the Mosfilm studios in 1998.

Shakhnazarov is the son of a prominent politician of Armenian descent, Georgy Shakhnazarov.

Since 2005 he has been a member of the Public Chamber of Russia

Agony 1981

Directed by Elem Klimov 
Produced by Elem Klimov 
Written by Semyon Lungin, Ilya Nusinov 
Starring
 Alexei Petrenko, Alisa Freindlich, Velta Line, Anatoly Romashin 
Music by Alfred Shnitke 
Cinematography Leonid Kalashnikov 
Editing by Valeria Belova 
Running time 151 minutes  

 (Russian Агония, translit. Agoniya; U.S. theatrical/dvd title Rasputin) is a film by Elem Klimov, made in c.1973-75 and finally released in the West in 1982 (USA and Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact countries 1985) after protracted resistance from Soviet authorities. The film is notable for its rich, sometimes baroque style, its sumptuous recreation of episodes from the final year of Imperial Russia and the psychological portraits of Grigori Rasputin and the Imperial family. '

The production of the film doesn't appear to have suffered any obstruction and the resources were lavish, as evidenced by the scenography and photography, but once finished the film was declared unsuitable for release; the reasons were evidently to do with the way the imperial family is portrayed. In this film Nicholas II is shown as weak and indecisive, rather than brutal, and this did not square with the way the period had been retold in Soviet historiography and schoolbooks. Furthermore, the Bolsheviks make no appearance at all in the film though it takes place during the final months of the empire, when the state was drifting toward revolution. This is historically truthful; the Bolsheviks had a very low level of activity in Russia during the First World War, most of their leaders were abroad or in prison and at the time they made no real, organized contribution to the unrest until after Lenin had returned in April 1917, by which time the Tsar had already been deposed. This was something Soviet history would not recognize; instead Lenin would be portrayed as the wise general of the upheaval from the start, and the Bolsheviks as the mass party of the working classes. Finally, the prominence of sexuality and sectarian religion in the film were hard to stomach for Soviet censors.
So the film went unshown until 1981, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival and attracted very favourable reviews. Released in western Europe in 1982 it was hailed as one of the most original Soviet films of the 1970s. In Soviet Russia it was screened only in 1985, at the dawn of the Glasnost era. The versions released in the 1980s, and later on dvd, differ somewhat in length and the final voice-over newsreel shots of the 1917 revolution may have been tacked on as a bow to Soviet authorities; ending it with the bleak burial of Rasputin would appear to have been more logical. The original mid-seventies cut does not seem to have survived, and it is unclear how much was rewritten or possibly reshot after 1975.
The storyline of the film follows the final months of 1916 up to the murder of Rasputin; some events have been telescoped into this time though they really happened earlier during the war. Rasputin's effect on people around him is shown as almost hypnotic, and the film avoids taking a moral stance towards him - breaking not only with Soviet history but alo with how he was regarded by people near the court at the time, some of whom regarded him as a debilitating figure who disgraced the monarchy and hampered the war effort.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLDMEN

No Country for Old Men/ 2007

122 min. / United States / English-Spanish

Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Written by Novel:Cormac McCarthy
Screenplay:Joel Coen andEthan Coen

Starring Tommy Lee Jones/Javier Bardem/Josh Brolin/Woody Harrelson
Kelly Macdonald /Music by Carter Burwell
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Editing by Roderick Jaynes

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 crime thriller film adapted for the screen and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. Adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name No Country for Old Men tells the story of a botched drug deal and the ensuing cat-and-mouse drama, as three men crisscross each other's paths in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film examines the themes of fate and circumstance the Coen brothers have previously explored in Blood Simple and Fargo.
No Country for Old Men has been highly praised by critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "as good a film as the Coen brothers...have ever made." Guardian journalist John Patterson said the film proved "that the Coens' technical abilities, and their feel for a landscape-based Western classicism reminiscent of Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah, are matched by few living directors." The film was honored with numerous awards, garnering three British Academy of Film awards, two Golden Globes, and four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem).

Synopsis:
It is 1980. In a West Texas police station, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) uses the handcuffs around his wrists to garrote the deputy who had arrested him. He steals a squad car and intercepts a random motorist. He kills the motorist using a compressed air gun then steals his car.Somewhere else in the desert, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles across the carnage of a drug deal gone bad. Mexican criminals and pit bulls lie dead on the ground; only a mortally wounded driver remains alive. The driver asks for water but instead Llewelyn follows the trail of one of the criminals who had gotten away. Llewelyn tracks him to a tree where the criminal died. He finds a satchel filled with two million dollars. He takes the money and returns home to his wife, Carla Jean (Kelly McDonald) who is irritated that he has been gone all day and refuses to tell her where he found the guns and money he had brought home. That night, Llewelyn feels guilty for not giving the wounded driver water and resolves to take him a jug. He arrives around dawn and discovers that the driver has been shot and killed. More gunmen appear, disable his truck and fire on him, hitting him in the shoulder. They chase him to a river bank where Llewelyn tries to swim away. The gunmen's pit bull leaps in to the water after him. Reaching a far shore, Llewelyn is barely able to shoot and kill the dog before it is upon him. Realizing he is facing some dangerous individuals, he tends his wounds then sends Carla Jean to stay with her mother in Odessa while he travels separately with the money.At a service station, Chigurh becomes suspicious when the elderly clerk (Gene Jones) asks him if he's from Dallas. Chigurh flips a coin to decide whether or not to kill the clerk. The clerk correctly guesses that the coin came up heads. Chigurh gives the man the coin and tells him not to mix it with any other coins. Later that night, two well dressed men take Chigurh to the site of the failed drug deal. After he takes the VID tag from Llewelyn's truck and examines the corpses, the well dressed men give him a tracking device that he can use to find the satchel of money, which has a transponder in it. Chigurh then kills them.Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) and Deputy Wendell (Garret Dillehunt) find the motorist's burning car. They then follow another trail to the drug deal site. Ed Tom recognizes Llewelyn's disabled truck. He and Wendell perform a preliminary examination of the scene then decide to call in the federal authorities. Ed Tom is disturbed by what he sees.Chigurh uses the VID tag to find out Llewelyn's address. He uses the air gun to break in to Llewelyn and Carla Jean's trailer. He tries to intimidate the trailer park manager into revealing Llewelyn's place of employment but has to settle for a phone bill that reveals the couple make a lot of calls to Odessa, TX. Llewelyn gets a room at a motel and hides the satchel of money in the air ducts. He then purchases tent poles and shotgun at a local sporting goods store, which he fashions into a hook and sawed-off shotgun. He then rents another room behind the first room. Later that night when returning to the motel he sees the Mexicans' truck in front of his first room. He goes to his second room and begins to retrieve the money using the tent-pole hook to pull it through the air duct. Meanwhile, Chigurh happens past the motel and the tracking device goes off. He rents a room, determines which room has the satchel and uses his air gun to break into the room. He finds three Mexicans and kills them with a high powered rifle with a silencer. Meanwhile, Llewelyn has escaped with the money.In Dallas, the businessman who hired Chigurh (Stephen Root) is upset about the violence Chigurh is causing. He hires Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) to neutralize Chigurh and get the money back.Chigurh tracks Llewelyn to a small border town, where Llewelyn has rented another room. Chigurh kills the desk clerk then finds Llewelyn's room. Llewelyn shoots at him with his sawed off shotgun and escapes through the window. Chigurh chases him and kills another driver who has stopped to help Llewelyn, causing an accident. Llewelyn uses the confusion to shoot Chigurh, forcing him to retreat. Wounded, Llewelyn hides the money along the banks of the Rio Grande then crosses into Mexico and pays some people to take him to a hospital.Ed Tom continues to be disturbed by what he saw in the desert and the apparently deteriorating state of morals in the world. He goes to visit Carla Jean in Odessa and asks her to put him in touch with Llewelyn. Almost absent mindedly, he tells her how a local farmer was nearly killed by an animal he was trying to slaughter, and how slaughterhouses now used compressed air guns to kill cattle immediately. In the border town, Chigurh steals medical supplies and, in a motel room, cleans his wounds.Carter visits Llewelyn in the Mexican hospital and suggests that he just hand over the money so Carter can protect him. Llewelyn refuses and Carter tells him which hotel he is staying. On the way back across the border, Carter sees the satchel from the bridge. Back at his hotel, the same one at which Llewelyn was staying, Carter is confronted by Chigurh. Carter pleads for his life but when Llewelyn calls Chigurh kills him. Chigurh tells Llewlyn that if he brings him the money, he won't kill his wife (though Llewelyn's life is forfeit). Llewelyn tells Chigurh he will kill him then hangs up. He calls Carla Jean and tells her to meet him in El Paso. Chigurh goes to Dallas and kills the businessman for hiring not only Carter but the other Mexicans well.The Mexicans have been watching Carla Jean in Odessa. They follow her and her mother (Beth Grant) to the airport. One of the Mexicans helps Carla Jean's mother who tells him she and Carla Jean are going to El Paso. In the airport, Carla Jean calls Ed Tom and tells him which motel Llewelyn is staying in El Paso. Ed Tom drives there but discovers that the Mexicans have beat him there and killed Llewelyn. All Ed Tom can do is comfort Carla Jean when she arrives. Later that night, Ed Tom and the local sheriff (Rodger Boyce) have coffee and bemoan the declining morals of American society. Afterwards, Ed Tom returns to the motel and nearly misses being killed by Chigurh who had been searching the room for the satchel of money.Ed Tom visits his uncle, Ellis (Barry Corbin) to tell him he's retiring because he is too disturbed by the violence he's seen. Ellis tells him he's being vain and relates the story about how Ed Tom's grandfather had died: shot by outlaws, he bled to death on his front porch as they watched. Meanwhile, Chigurh visits Carla Jean, who has just buried her mother. She understands why he's there but still finds it meaningless. Chigurh flips a coin but Carla Jean refuses to play his game. After killing her, Chigurh drives away. His car is struck by another car and he suffers a compound fracture. He buys a shirt from a boy to use as a sling then walks away.At home, Ed Tom tells his wife (Tess Harper) about a dream he had. In it, he was horseback riding with his long-deceased father. It was cold and his father rode ahead to prepare a fire for them.-----

THE NEAUTYFUL COUNTRY

The Beautiful Country ( 2004)
125 min. / U.S.A / Vietnamese, English, Mandarin, Cantonese

Directed by Hans Petter Moland
Written by Sabina Murray
Starring Damien Nguyen/Bai Ling/Tim Roth/Nick Nolte/Temuera Morrison
Music by Zbigniew Preisner
Cinematography Stuart Dryburgh
Editing by Wibecke Rønseth

The Beautiful Country is a 2004 Vietnam-related drama film set in 1990. It is directed by Hans Petter Moland and starring Damien Nguyen, Nick Nolte, Bai Ling, Chau Thi Kim Xuan, Tim Roth, Anh Thu, Temuera Morrison and John Hussey. The screenplay was written by Sabina Murray, a writer who teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers.


Plot summary
The film tells the story of a Binh, a "bui doi" Vietnamese boy (fathered by an American soldier during the Vietnam War). After a life of prejudice and servitude, Binh decides to leave his tiny Vietnamese village and search for his mother in Saigon. Binh finds his mother, Mai, and discovers he has a younger brother, energetic and precocious Tam. Mai is employed by Mrs. Hoa, the cruel mistress of a great house. After getting a job at the house with his mother, Binh discovers that she is sexually harassed constantly by Mrs. Hoa's son.

While dusting with his mother, Binh lifts a red glass statue of Buddha, a precious family heirloom, to allow his mother to dust. As Binh lifts the statue to see it glow in the sun, the mistress walks in and charges Binh, calling him a thief. As Binh tries to keep the Buddha safe in his arms, the mistress slips on a wet patch of the floor, falling to her death. Binh and his mother quickly escape the house back to their apartment. They frantically pack the belongings of Binh and Tam. His mother gives them American money, the address of Binh's American father, and passage on a boat.

Binh and Tam both make it onto a boat bound for the United States, but a storm knocks them off course and instead takes them to Malaysia. Stuck in a refugee camp, Binh and Tam adapt to their new circumstances and meet Ling, a Chinese prostitute whose passage to America was also detoured to Malaysia. Binh and Ling seem to develop feelings for each other, kissing after Ling sings a ballad in Mandarin and dances for him.

Ling had been selling sexual favors for some time (though she dreams of a life as a singer) and had managed to buy herself, Binh, and Tam's way out of the refugee complex and onto a barge captained by the British Captain Oh. During the voyage Binh, Ling, and Tam suffer under shortages of food and rationing of fresh water. A gambling game (two contenders shout off American brand names in succession) threatens the other passengers by unfairly winning their food, water, and money. Several people succumb to the conditions, as does little Tam. A heartbroken Binh and Ling give him a funeral at sea.

The immigrants finally reach the United States, but are quickly rushed into transport trucks, bound for Chinatown in New York City. Binh works at a Chinese restaurant as a delivery boy and Ling works in a Chinatown cabaret, though she still keeps prostitution as her main source of income. Ling eventually meets a wealthy businessman to support her. Binh's feelings for Ling go unanswered. Binh sends a letter explaining Tam's death to his mother, along with all the money he had saved thus far.

Binh finds out (over a poker game with his friends) that Vietnamese children born to American fathers are allowed free airplane passage to the United States and granted citizenship. Angry because he didn't have to lose his brother, he promptly leaves his job and hitch hikes toward Austin, Texas, meeting amputee Vietnam War veterans and a Hispanic family along the way. Upon reaching the address Binh finds a woman, his father's ex-wife. His father had relocated after their divorce, working as a handyman at a ranch in Sweetwater, Texas. Binh is finally confronted with his father, blinded after opening a crate filled with explosives he thought was beer during the war. While Binh doesn't confess that he's his son, his father realizes it and the film ends with Binh and his father joking and laughing as he cuts his father's haira

WORLD THEATER DAY CELEBRATIONS

The Cochin Film Society will share the stage with Orthic Creative Center for the World Theatre Day celebrations at Orthic Creative Center on March 27 , 6 pm followed by screening of Oscar award-winning short films.
The films are This Charming Man (2002), Gridlock (2001) and I’ll Wait for the Next One…(2002).
This Charming Man is a 30-minute-long Danish film directed by Martin Strange-Hansen and it won the Academy Award for best short subject.
It has Lars Hansen, an immigrant, going through a series of mix-ups after officials confuse his papers with El Hassan and his attempts to woo teacher at the job training centre.
Hansen disguises himself as Hassan, because if the student did not turn up, the teacher would lose her job. He tries to woo the teacher Ida as Hansen, but her sympathies are with Hassan. More confusions follow.
The seven-minute-long Dutch film, directed by Dirk Belien, Gridlock is about the decision by a young executive, all worked up at the traffic gridlock on Antwerp motorway, to use his brand new mobile phone and irreversible changes that happen to his life after that.
The film is based on an old joke in which the man calls up home, only to be told by his daughter that mummy is in the bedroom with Uncle Wim. Both the caller and the girl know there is no Uncle Wim in the family.
The even shorter, four-minute-long, French film I’ll Wait for the Next One… is about a man waiting for his luck in dating at a subway train station.
The film is directed by Phillippe Orriendy.
The films will be screened at Orthic Creative Centre, Karikkamuri, at 6 p.m.

MARCH 2009

15-03-2009 SUNDAY 5.30 PM

REMEMBERING ARAVINDAN

( AN EVENING DEDICATED TO LATE SRI.G.ARAVINDAN )

AT

HOTEL B.T.H,

DURBAR HALL ROAD, KOCHI.

( PROGRAMME ORGANISED IN ASSOCIATION WITH KERALA KALAPEETOM)

SRI. AKKITHAM NARAYANAN,

SRI. MADHUPAL,

SRI.K.L.MOHANAVARMA,

SRI.M.V.DEVAN,

WILL PARTICIPATE...

26 FEBRUARY 2009 : 6 PM AT COCHIN MEDIA SCHOOL, NEAR SOUTH OVER BRIDGE: ERNAKULAM

KAKKANADAN
OUR OWN BABYCHAYAN

DOC/MAL/80 MINUTES

Here is an eighty minutes long documentary designed as a magnificent tribute to

great writer George Varghese Kakkanadan.

It takes its place among the most meticulously chosen documentaries about the present day malayalam fictioners.

BANNER: NESMA MOVIE MAKERS

EDITING: NANDAN SOLAR

MUSIC: L.J.BENISON

CAMERA: SANTOSH V. DEY,BIJU BHOOTHAKKULAM

PRODUCTION: P.A.SAMAD

SCREEN PLAY/DIRECTION: BIJU NETTARA


FOLLOWED BY FACE TO FACE WITH THE DIRECTOR.

Maria Full Of Grace (2004)

Colombia/United States /Spanish/ 101 min.

Writer /Director: Joshua Marston

Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Virginia Ariza,

Yenny Paola Vega, Johanna Andrea Mora
Cinematography Jim Denault
Editing by Anne McCabe,Lee Percy

Synopsis:

Winner of the Dramatic Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, two major awards at the Berlin Film Festival and six awards at the Cartagena Film Festival, Joshua Marston's Maria Full Of... Winner of the Dramatic Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, two major awards at the Berlin Film Festival and six awards at the Cartagena Film Festival, Joshua Marston's Maria Full Of Grace follows a bright, gutsy young woman on a life-changing - and life-threatening - journey. The film sweeps us along on its heroine's unpredictable odyssey from Colombia to New York, weaving a gripping narrative of risk, determination and survival. Confronting crises that test her to the very core, Maria finally emerges at the threshold of a new future, one that will be defined by what she wants rather than what she rejects. Pausing at that threshold, Maria makes her choice and moves forward, carried by her grit and grace. Maria Full of Grace is not a true story, but it is a story that happens every day. Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino Moreno) has grown up in a small rural town tucked inside the rolling green-gold hills north of Bogotá. It's a place where three or more generations of a family might share the same house; Maria lives in a modest concrete house with her grandmother, mother, sister and infant nephew. Each morning Maria leaves before dawn to catch the bus that takes her to work in the large industrial rose plantation that lies outside of town. The job is mind-numbingly tedious and strictly regimented. Along with her best friend Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega), Maria spends long days on her feet stripping thorns off flowers and preparing bouquets for export abroad. Sometimes, the weekend brings a party on the plaza that draws almost everyone in town for live music; Maria is determined to dance to every salsa and cumbia, while her boyfriend Juan (Wilson Guerrero) is content to hang on the sidelines, drinking aguardiente. At 17, Maria - bright, spirited, fearless - looks out at a world that would keep her in a small, limited place, and refuses to go along. At home, she clashes frequently with her family, particularly her older sister Diana (Johanna Andrea Mora). Maria's weekly paycheck now goes to care for Diana's baby, and though Maria loves her little nephew, she resents having to shoulder Diana's share of the household finances. At work, Maria resists abiding by a system that rigidly rations everything from bouquet types to bathroom breaks. And she is unwilling to play the pliant girlfriend to Juan, who neither shares nor understands Maria's sense of adventure. Only Blanca seems to appreciate Maria's assertive, rebellious nature; somewhat shy herself, Blanca is usually content to follow Maria's lead. But Maria's nature is about to lead her in a sharply different direction. One day at work, Maria, nauseated, requests permission to go the bathroom. Her supervisor bluntly refuses, and lectures her about her unacceptable lack of work ethic. In the ensuing battle of wills, Maria abruptly quits. Her family is stunned and angry, but Maria refuses to apologize for her impulsive decision, much less reconsider it. However, there is another matter occupying Maria's mind: the secret knowledge that she is pregnant. Juan offers to marry her, but only because that is what he is supposed to do - and to Maria, that is no reason at all. With few local job options, Maria's best lead is a friend who works as a maid in Bogotá. She is on her way to the city when another option presents itself, in the person of Franklin (Jhon Alex Toro), a hip, self-assured young stranger Maria met at a weekend party. With his stylish leather jacket and easy charm, Franklin provides a sharp contrast to Juan and the other boys in Maria's town; he even comes from a different part of Colombia. He knows how to pay a compliment, and he piques Maria's interest with talk of a cool job that involves travel - something Maria has never done. When Franklin says the word "mule," Maria knows immediately what he's talking about: swallowing dozens of thumb-sized rubber pellets full of heroin and transporting them to the United States. Maria has heard about captured mules on the news and is wary, but Franklin, with the air of one who knows, describes those people as fame-seekers who deliberately get caught in order to be on TV. A smart girl like Maria will have no problem. The decisive factor for Maria is the money: up to $5,000 for one trip, an amount that would forever change Maria's life. Putting aside her misgivings, Maria meets her prospective employer, Javier (Jaime Osorio Gómez), a disarmingly paternal man who explains the job in simple terms. Javier insists on giving Maria a little something to help solve her financial problems while she thinks about his offer. Although Javier assures her that his gift has no strings attached, Maria realizes the deal has been sealed. She seeks out and befriends another mule, Lucy (Guilied López), who tells Maria everything she needs to know: how to prepare herself physically, how to dress, how to act - and how if even one pellet breaks inside her, she'll die. Lucy has traveled as a mule twice before, and those jobs appear to have given her an economic independence, with an airy, uncluttered home all to herself. However, when Lucy talks about her trips to New York, she sadly confides that she hadn't the nerve to see her older sister, who lives in Queens. With a fuller understanding of the risks that await her as a mule, Maria is alarmed and angry when Blanca announces that she, too, is going to be a mule. Blanca, however, will not and cannot backtrack; she's already taken the money. Over the course of the next 24 hours, Maria is forced to swallow pellets one by one - 62 in all - while Javier keeps a watchful eye. Boarding the plane the following day, Maria discovers that she is traveling on the same flight as Blanca, Lucy and a fourth mule. It is not the uneventful trip that Franklin had promised. During the flight, Lucy begins to show telltale signs of illness, suggesting that a pellet has opened in her stomach and is slowly poisoning her system. Once in the United States, the situation grows even more precarious as alert Customs officials quickly take the fourth mule into custody. Maria, Blanca and Lucy soon find themselves in a cramped New Jersey motel room, coldly supervised by a pair of young toughs as they begin the humiliating process of expelling the drug capsules. Meanwhile, Lucy's condition is growing worse; Maria does what she can, but the young men are indifferent. When Maria wakes the next morning, the bathroom is covered in blood, and Lucy and the two boys are gone. She grabs Blanca and they flee with the drugs they have transported. In this unfamiliar environment, Maria has only one bit of information to guide her: the name and address of Lucy's sister, Carla (Patricia Rae). Over the next few days, Maria will confront situations that will test her strength, courage and humanity. With only instinct and intelligence to guide her, she emerges with an understanding and grace that will carry her forward into a new life. HBO Films and Fine Line Features present Maria Full of Grace. Written and directed by Joshua Marston, and produced by Paul Mezey. Starring Catalina Sandino Moreno, Yenny Paola Vega, Guilied López, Jhon Alex Toro, and Patricia Rae. The co-producer is Jaime Osorio Gómez, the associate producers are Orlando Tobón and Rodrigo Guerrero, and the line producer is Becky Glupczynski. Ecuadoran production services were provided by Gigia Jaramillo and Pocho Alvarez of Altercine. The director of photography is Jim Denault, the production designers are Monica Marulanda (Colombia) and Debbie De Villa (New York), the editors are Anne McCabe and Lee Percy, A.C.E., and the costume designers are Lauren Press and Sarah Beers. With casting by Ellyn Long Marshall and Maria E. Nelson (New York); and El Barco Producciones, Jorge Valencia, and Maria Eugenia Salazar (Colombia). The composers are Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum, and the music supervisor is Lynn Fainchtein. Maria Full of Grace made its world premiere in Official Competition at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Dramatic Audience Award. It screened at the Berlin International Film Festival where it won the Alfred Bauer Prize for Best First Film and Catalina Sandino Moreno won the Silver Bear for Best Actress. At the Cartagena Film Festival in Colombia it won six prestigious awards - Opera Prima (Best First Film), Mejor Actriz (Best Actress), Mejor Pelicula Colombiana (Best Colombian Film), Premio Especial del Jurado (Special Jury Prize), Premio del Publico (Audience Award) and El Premio de OCLACC (Organization of Catholic Clergy). -

Central Station
113 min. / Brazil / France / Portuguese

written,Directed by Walter Salles

Cast:Fernanda Montenegro (Dora),Marília Pêra (Irene),Vinícius de Oliveira(Josué),Soia Lira (Ana).Othon Bastos (César),Otávio Augusto(Pedrão),Stela Freitas(Yolanda)Matheus Nachtergaele(Isaías)
Music : Antonio Pinto/Jaques Morelenbaum
Cinematography: Walter Carvalho
Editing :Felipe Lacerda

Central Station (Portuguese: Central do Brasil) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning 1998 drama film set in Brazil. It tells the story of a young boy's friendship with a jaded middle-aged woman. The movie was adapted by Marcos Bernstein and João Emanuel Carneiro from a story by Walter Salles and it was directed by Salles. It features Fernanda Montenegro and Vinícius de Oliveira in the major roles. It was an international co-production between Brazil and France. The film's title in Portuguese, Central do Brasil, is the name of Rio de Janeiro's main railway station.

Plot

Dora is a former school teacher who is now a bitter old woman. She works at Rio de Janeiro's Central Station, writing letters for illiterate customers in exchange for some money. She hates her customers, and often does not mail the letters she writes, putting them in a drawer or even tearing them apart. Josué is a poor 9-year-old boy who has never met with his father, Jisus, but hopes to do so. His mother sends letters to his father through Dora, saying that she hopes to reunite with him soon, but when she is run over and killed in a bus accident in the station, Josué is left helpless. Dora takes him in and sells him, but encouraged by her friend Irene, later steals him back.

Dora is initially reluctant to be responsible for the boy, but she ends up deciding to take a trip with him to Nordeste, in order to find his father's house and leave him there.

Dora tries to leave Josué on the bus but he follows her, forgetting his rucksack which contains Dora's money. Penniless, they are picked up by a kindly, religious truck driver who abandons them when Dora grows too friendly. By hitching they reach Jisus' house but he has sold it to buy alcohol. In the town, Josué saves them from destitution by suggesting Dora write letters for pilgrims. This time, she posts the letters.

By chance, they find Josué's two half-brothers. Their father has disappeared, but Dora reads the letter he had sent six months ago: he had gone to Rio in search of Josué's mother and the son he has never seen. The brothers realise he too must be dead. The next morning, while Josué sleeps, Dora takes the bus for Rio. Josué wakes up too late to prevent her departure. Both are left with a photo by which to remember one another.


(Over 1,500 boys auditioned for the role of Josué. The winner, Vinícius de Oliveira, was a shoe-shine boy.The movie was shot entirely in the sequence of its script.
When Fernanda Montenegro set up her table at Central do Brasil, real people (who didn't recognize her) approached her to write letters for them. Some of these real requests were incorporated in the film by Salles.)