JOIN COCHIN FILM SOCIETY FOR A BETTER FILM CULTURE..
Four short films by
Subhash,
a Kochi-based documentary maker and cinematographer,
‘Victims,’ (154 seconds),
‘Teacherless Classrooms,’ (174 seconds),
‘When Boundaries Disappear,’ (161 seconds)
‘Prey and Hunter,’ (45 seconds) -
will be screened at 6.00 p.m. ,
at cochin media school, near south over bridge, s.a.road, ernakulam.
April 23, 2008
April 19, 2008
60th anniversary of 'Nirmala'
The 60th anniversary of 'Nirmala,' the first Malayalam film produced in Kerala by a Malayali producer, will be celebrated under the auspices of the Cochin Film Society on Sunday, April 20, 2008. The venue will be the Roof Top Auditorium of the Bharat Tourist Home, Ernakulam. The meeting will start at 3 p.m.
Culture and Education Minister M.A.Baby will inaugurate the function, organised jointly with the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. Cochin Corporation Mayor Prof. Mercy Williams will preside over the function. The Minister will honour four artistes who were associated with the film. They are, Smt. Baby Joseph, who was the heroine of the film as well as the daughter-in-law of Chevalier P.J.Cherian, the producer, (her husband Joseph Cherian was the hero), Sri.T.K.Govinda Rao, who was the lead playback singer, Smt. Vimala B.Varma, actress and playback singer and Smt. Gracy Davis, another actress.
Innocent, noted actor and president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), will be the chief guest at the function. Felicitations will be made by K.Chandran Pillai MP, Jose Thettayil MLA, M.C.Josephine, chairperson, GCDA, Adv. E.M.Sunil Kumar, Town Planning Standing Committee chairperson, writer K.L.Mohana Varma and film critic M.C.Raj Narayan.
JOIN COCHIN FILM SOCIETY FOR A BETTER FILM CULTURE..
Culture and Education Minister M.A.Baby will inaugurate the function, organised jointly with the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. Cochin Corporation Mayor Prof. Mercy Williams will preside over the function. The Minister will honour four artistes who were associated with the film. They are, Smt. Baby Joseph, who was the heroine of the film as well as the daughter-in-law of Chevalier P.J.Cherian, the producer, (her husband Joseph Cherian was the hero), Sri.T.K.Govinda Rao, who was the lead playback singer, Smt. Vimala B.Varma, actress and playback singer and Smt. Gracy Davis, another actress.
Innocent, noted actor and president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), will be the chief guest at the function. Felicitations will be made by K.Chandran Pillai MP, Jose Thettayil MLA, M.C.Josephine, chairperson, GCDA, Adv. E.M.Sunil Kumar, Town Planning Standing Committee chairperson, writer K.L.Mohana Varma and film critic M.C.Raj Narayan.
JOIN COCHIN FILM SOCIETY FOR A BETTER FILM CULTURE..
April 09, 2008
kite runner/trailor
The Kite Runner
Directed by Marc Forster
Produced by William Horberg, Walter Parkes, Rebecca Yeldham, E.Bennett Walsh, Laurie Macdonald
Written by Khaled Hosseini (novel)
David Benioff (screenplay)
Music by Alberto Iglesias
Cinematography Roberto Schaefer
Editing by Matt Chesse
Running time 128 min.
Country USA
Language Persian / English
Cast
Khalid Abdalla - Amir as adult
Zekeria Ebrahimi - Amir as a child
Ali Dinesh - Sohrab
Homayoun Ershadi - Baba
Atossa Leoni - Soraya
Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada - Hassan as a child
Nasser Memarzia - Zaman
Shaun Toub - Rahim Khan
Saïd Taghmaoui - Farid, the driver/guide
Henri Ramsey - family member (graduation)
Qadir Farookh - General Taheri
Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada - Omar (best competing kite flyer)
(The three boys were aged 11 and 12 at the time of the filming)
'The Kite Runner,' is a film directed by Marc Forster, based on a novel with the same title written by Khaled Hosseini, an American novelist and physician of Afghan origin. A 2007 film, 'The Kite Runner,' was nominated for the Academy Awards.
A bilingual film in English and Dari Persian (the official name of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan) with English subtitles, 'The Kite Runner,' tells the story of Amir, a boy from a well-to-do Kabul family and the sense of guilt that haunts him throughout his life for having betrayed Hassan, his childhood friend and the son of his father's servant. The story is set amidst the most turbulent events in Afghanistan's recent past, beginning with the fall of the monarchy following the Soviet invation in the Seventies, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the USA and the rise of the Taliban.
Amir and Hassan are inseparable boyhood friends, notwithstanding the social difference between them. However, as the country falls into political turmoil, Amir leaves the country with his father, leaving Hassan and his family behind. Shortly before that, Amir and Hassan had landed in trouble following a confrontation with Assef, a local bully. Hassan had fallen a victim of sexual molestation by Assef while trying to retain a kite he had retrieved for Amir. (Kite fighting was a popular pastime of Afghan children, in which opponents try to cut the strings of each other's kites which will be coated with a mixture of crushed glass and glue and Hassan was the 'kite runner' for Amir who brought back the fallen kites).
However, on that fateful day, Amir did nothing (or could not do) anything to save the honour of his best friend and this guilt followed him to his life in the USA. Finally, years later, he returns to an Afghanistan now under the Taliban, to save Soharab, the son of his once-best friend, Hassan, who is already dead.
Though most of the film is set in Afghanistan, the film was mostly shot in China, due to the political turmoil of Afghanistan.
60th anniversary of 'Nirmala'
The 60th anniversary of 'Nirmala,' the first Malayalam film to be made in Kerala and the second Malayalam talkie, is being observed in 2008. The film, produced by Chevalier P.J.Cherian hailing from Njarakkal near Ernakulam, holds credit to more 'firsts' in the history of Malayalam cinema. It was the first film in which playback singing was introduced in Malayalam. P.J.Cherian's son Joseph Cherian and daughter-in-law Baby Joseph were cast in the lead roles.
Directed by P.V.Krishna Iyer, the film had lyrics penned by the great poet G.Sankara Kurup and music composed by E.I.Warrier.
The Cochin Film Society will organise a seminar to mark the 60th anniversary of 'Nirmala,' on Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 3 p.m. The Minister for Culture and Education, M.A.Baby, will inaugurate the seminar.
Venue of the Seminar will be the BHARAT TOURIST HOME, near Rajendra Maidan, D.H.Road, Ernakulam.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008041050220200.htm&date=2008/04/10/&prd=th&
JOIN COCHIN FILM SOCIETY FOR A BETTER FILM CULTURE..
Directed by P.V.Krishna Iyer, the film had lyrics penned by the great poet G.Sankara Kurup and music composed by E.I.Warrier.
The Cochin Film Society will organise a seminar to mark the 60th anniversary of 'Nirmala,' on Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 3 p.m. The Minister for Culture and Education, M.A.Baby, will inaugurate the seminar.
Venue of the Seminar will be the BHARAT TOURIST HOME, near Rajendra Maidan, D.H.Road, Ernakulam.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008041050220200.htm&date=2008/04/10/&prd=th&
JOIN COCHIN FILM SOCIETY FOR A BETTER FILM CULTURE..
April 06, 2008
Salata Baladi
Salata Baladi ســلطة بـلدي
Screening on Thursday, April 24, 2008
Venue: Cochin Media School, near South Over Bridge, Ernakulam.
Time: 6.15 p.m.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAFJU2pkKTU
Golden Conch award for best Long Documentary - Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2008, Special Prize from the International Critics Jury Fipresci - MIFF 2008- 'Outstanding Documentary' Noor Award at the The Arab Film Festival San Francisco.
Synopsis
21st century Egypt, spurred by the rallying cries of a global clash of civilizations, risks drowning in a xenophobic frenzy. Mary, a grandmother, and her daughter (the filmmaker) join efforts to give Mary's grandson, Nabeel, a glimpse into possible alternatives: the family's 100-year history of mixed marriages. Like many Egyptians, after a century sprinkled with multiple immigrations, a few conversions and a few mixed marriages, Nabeel is a mix of Egyptian, Italian, Palestinian and Lebanese with some Russian, Caucasian, Turk and Spanish; from his Moslem, Christian and Jewish descendants he inherits a track record embracing Socialism, Fascism, Communism, Nationalism, Feminism and Pacifism.
But as the grandmother weaves her way through the family fairy tales, she bumps into her own fears and the continued silence shrouding one branch of the family grows distressingly louder. In an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people dispossessed by the creation of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948, Mary has been boycotting her Egyptian Jewish family in Israel for 55 long years. Inspired by the telling of her own stories and the fresh perspectives her 10-year-old grandson brings to them, she and her loving, eclectic circle engage in the breaking of arguably one of the most vicious taboos in modern Egypt.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
"It struck me that our history is contained in the homes we live in, that we are shaped by the ability of these simple structures to resist being defiled." (Achmat Dangor, Kafka's Curse).
The original inspiration for this film was simple enough: a love for my family's stories and a wish to share them. It was a story telling project. The energy that eventually propelled me into this adventure was more complicated. I saw my octogenarian mother aging and my 10-year-old nephew growing up under a shadow of satellite dishes and a rising clamor about some inevitable clash of civilizations. And a mixture of hope and fear overtook me. My mother's stories, woven across the 20th century, confound any straightforward understanding of the historical events during which they were played out and are almost always an exception to the reductive homogeneity with which we are taught to view 'History.'
In my family, religions and cultures get married when they appear to be divorcing in the global arena. In a world where my family's identities are being squeezed into irreconcilable positions, I needed to document my history before I became apologetic about it and the myth of its extinction was realized. But as my mother told her stories, I discovered that the film could not simply be a reclaiming of our treasured past: we found ourselves colliding with pockets of denial and silence. Without confronting the taboos of our present, my mother's stories were reduced to self indulgence and nostalgia. And so my story telling film became a witness to a new story still in the making -- a story about my family's efforts to once more climb the wall that unjustly insists on separating our principles from our humanity.
March 14, 2008
Aravindan Memorial Lecture
IN ASSOCIATION WITH CHANGAMPUZHA SAMSKARIKA KENDRAM
AT CHANGAMPUZHA PARK, EDAPPALLY
ARAVINDAN MEMMORIAL LECTURE BY
SRI. BALACHANDRAN CHULLICKAD
CHIEF GUEST: PROF.CHANDRADASAN
FOLLOWED BY SCREENING OF FILM 'VASTHUHARA'
( THE LAST FILM DIRECTED BY G.ARAVINDAN)
(G. Aravindan was born in Kerala. He began his career in the early 1960’s as a cartoonist in the journal Matrubhoomi. His cartoon series 'Cheriya Manushyarum Valya Lokavum,' (Small Men and the Big World) became very popular with the readers all over Kerela.
His film career began in 1974 with the film 'Uttarayanam.' Films in the former part of his career had a strong influence of spiritualism of satirist Sanjayan and the mystic paintings of K C S Pankcker. His film career spans to about 15 years. Films made by him were based on various subjects starting from contemporary issues to mythical stories to legends to plain and simple history.
Aravindan directed many movies including Uttarayanam, Kanchana Seeta, Thampu, Kummatty, Estheppan, Pokkuveyil, Chidambaram, Oridhatu, Unni, Vasthuhara. His last film was Vasthuhara (1990).
Aravindan died on 15th MARCH, 1991.)
Vasthuhara at Changampuzha Park
AT CHANGAMPUZHA PARK , EDAPPALLY
Vasthuhara (1991) by G Aravindan is a social film which takes a look into the lives of partition refugees from East Bengal. At a larger level, its the universal story of refugees, the dispossessed.
The film takes place in Calcutta, 1971. Story begins with rehabilitation official Venu (Mohanlal) coming to Calcutta in one of his regular visits to shift about 35 - 40 refugee families to Andaman Islands. The current rehabilitation plan is only for those who fall under the category of schedule caste farmers. People in Andaman too are not happy about taking in refugees. All the refugees have been staying in Permanent Liability Camp in Rana Ghat, West Bengal for the past two decades. Experiencing the shattered lives of poor displaced people deeply hurts Venu, who in his silent moments alone in his small lodge room frequently finds himself lost in the thoughts about the lives of the refuge seekers he meets during the day. Living an oppressed life, their only hope being the occasional promises of land, cattle and other grants by the bureaucratic state.
Aravindan takes us closer into the life of a refugee when Venu realizes that the sorrow of one refugee family is his own. One day, an old lady, Arthi Panicker (Neelanjana Mitra) comes to meet Venu in his lodge. She speaks broken Malayalam which surprises Venu. She is a refugee from East Bengal. She desperately wants to move out of the wretched Calcutta for a better future of her children, a daughter (who's completed MA but never appeared of the examination) and a son about whom she is very sad. Her daughter Damayanti (Neena Gupta) quit studies and is a communist revolutionary out on parole. Venu realizes that they are no one but his own uncle's family, his uncle Kunjunni Panicker whom he admired so much, a poet and revolutionary who left home long back (probably to join Bose's INA) when Venu was a child.
Venu visits home in Kerala, a typical matrilineal Nair household, to discuss about his chance meeting with Kunjunni uncle's family and also to secure their rightful share for them. Venu's mother has no sympathies for Arthi Panicker and her kids. Kunjunni uncle's land is in possession of Venu's aunt Bhavani (Padmini), who, as a beautiful teenager had secret affairs with both Kunjunni and his brother Anandan. Venu remembers his childhood days where he used to run secret errands for a young Bhavani played by Shobana. Aunt Bhavani is more sympathetic towards Arthi. Having never met the wife and children of the man she once loved, she's curious about them. She agrees to give them the land or money, whatever is convenient to them. (One gets the impression that at the late time of her life Bhavani is leading a lonely, guilt-ridden life, having destroyed the lives of both the brothers – She married Anandan who commits suicide, probably due to unhappy marriage.)
Venu returns back to Calcutta and reveals his identity to aunt Arthi. She is pleasantly surprised and she and Damayanti finally feel a sense of security and belonging in their lives. But Arthi rejects the financial help from her husband's family who hadn't allowed her to enter the compound of the house when she visited them years back. Arthi narrates the humiliation of having had to return back on a hot summer afternoon from the locked gates of her husband's ancestral house, both she and Kunjunni breaking down on their way back. Immediately after their return back East Bengal, the country gains independence and in the consequent partition they seeked refuge in Indian side. Kunjunni dies of cholera in the refugee camp and a pregnant Arthi is left on her own in abject poverty, with two year old Damayanti by her side.
Venu meets Damayanti's brother who is also a communist revolutionary hiding from the police. Venu's arrival into their life brings long lost hope and happiness. But its short-lived as its time for Venu to return to the Andaman Islands with the selected refugees. As the rest of Calcutta celebrates Durga Puja, a few bunch of refugee families are packed in the back of a goods truck and offloaded at the harbor. Arthi and Damayanti arrive at the harbor to see him off. Damayanti is not able to control her emotions and breaks down inconsolably as Venu hugs her, himself overcome by sadness. Arthi Panicker looks on emotionless, her face hardened by years of victimization.
The film ends tragically as Venu has to rush hastily into the ship about to depart, abruptly ending his goodbye to his uncle's family. As Venu rushes through the crowded stairways of the ship, a crying Damayanti shouts from behind, “Write to me Dada... Damayanti Panicker, Apilore Central Jail, Calcutta”.
The ship moves towards Andaman, beginning a new journey, a new era for a few Vasthuharas, towards the green shores of a new promised and somewhere in the eastern islands, a land new hope. But even as a handful of them find hope, another wave of exodus begins, which ends in the Indo-Pak Bangaldesh liberation war in Dec 1971. Displaced from their homes, unwanted outsiders in their land of refuge, doing sundry small time jobs, working in abject conditions as bonded laborers, some wait to return back to their land, some simply give up, and some others like Damayanti and her brother, become rebels.
Vasthuhara won the State Film awards for Best Film and Director in 1990.
Credits:
Direction & Screenplay: G Aravindan
Cast: Mohanlal, Shobhana, Neelanjana Mitra, Neena Gupta, Padmini
Cinematography: Sunny Joseph
Editing: K R Bose
Music: Salil Choudhury
(http://lostinmob.blogspot.com/2006/08/vasthuhara-dispossessed-spoiler.html)
Direction & Screenplay: G Aravindan
Cast: Mohanlal, Shobhana, Neelanjana Mitra, Neena Gupta, Padmini
Cinematography: Sunny Joseph
Editing: K R Bose
Music: Salil Choudhury
(http://lostinmob.blogspot.com/2006/08/vasthuhara-dispossessed-spoiler.html)
March 13, 2008
15-03-2008 6.00 PM
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
CHANGAMPUZHA SAMSKARIKA KENDRAM
AT
CHANGAMPUZHA PARK, EDAPPALLY
ARAVINDAN MEMMORIAL LECTURE
BY
SRI. BALACHANDRAN CHULLICKAD
CHIEF GUEST:
PROF.CHANDRADAS
FOLLOWED BY SCREENING OF FILM "VASTHUHARA"
( THE LAST FILM DIRECTED BY G.ARAVINDAN)
CHANGAMPUZHA SAMSKARIKA KENDRAM
AT
CHANGAMPUZHA PARK, EDAPPALLY
ARAVINDAN MEMMORIAL LECTURE
BY
SRI. BALACHANDRAN CHULLICKAD
CHIEF GUEST:
PROF.CHANDRADAS
FOLLOWED BY SCREENING OF FILM "VASTHUHARA"
( THE LAST FILM DIRECTED BY G.ARAVINDAN)
17-03-2008 6.00 PM
The Lives of Others/ Das Leben der Anderen (2006)
Runtime:137 min
Country:Germany
Language:German
Color:Color
Director:Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Writer:Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (writer)
The Lives of Others (original German: Das Leben der Anderen) is an Academy Award-winning German film, marking the feature film debut of writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
Synopsis:
The horrifying, sometimes unintentionally funny system of observation in the former East Germany. In the early 1980s, the successful dramatist Georg Dreyman and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland, a popular actress, are big intellectual stars in the socialist state, although they secretly don't always think loyal to the party line. One day, the Minister of Culture becomes interested in Christa, so the secret service agent Wiesler is instructed to observe and sound out the couple, but their life fascinates him more and more...
Awards and Nominations
Australian Film Critics Association 2007 Film Awards/
Best Overseas Film (commendation)
79th Academy Awards
Best Foreign Language Film winner
64th Golden Globe Awards
Best Foreign Language Film nomination
César Awards 2007
Best Foreign Film winner
Independent Spirit Awards 2007
Best Foreign Language Film
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007 audience award
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2006
Best Foreign-Language Film
European Film Awards 2006
Best Film
Best Actor: Ulrich Mühe
Best Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
German Film Awards 2006
Best Film
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actor
Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Production Design
Best Screenplay
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2007 Audience Choice Award
Vancouver International Film Festival 2006 People's Choice Award
Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma 2006 People's Choice Award
London Film Festival 2006 Satyajit Ray Award
Zagreb Film Festival 2006
Best Film
Audience Award
Copenhagen International Film Festival 2006
Best Male Actor
Audience Award
Seville Film Festival 2006 Silver Giraldillo
Locarno International Film Festival 2006 Audience Award
Warsaw International Film Festival 2006 Audience Award
Bavarian Film Awards 2006
Best Actor: Ulrich Mühe
Best Newcomer Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Best Screenplay: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
VGF Producer Prize: Wiedemann & Berg
Festival Screenings
Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema 2006
Toronto International Film Festival 2006 (Special Presentation)
Telluride Film Festival 2006
Pusan International Film Festival 2006
Vancouver International Film Festival 2006
Locarno International Film Festival 2006 (Piazza Grande)
London Film Festival 2006
The Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy 2006
Copenhagen International Film Festival 2006
Dubai International Film Festival 2006
AFI Los Angeles 2006
Sevilla Festival de Cine 2006
Festival de Cinema do Rio 2006
Athens 2006
Warsaw International Film Festival 2006
Wellington International Film Festival 2007
Zagreb Film Festival 2006
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2006
Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia 2006
Windsor (Ontario) International Film Festival 2006
Dublin International Film Festival 2007
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007
Sofia International Film Festival 2007
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2007
Traverse City Film Festival 2007
Meaford International Film Festival 2007
Cine Europa 10 Film Festival 2007, Manila, Philippines
12th International film festival of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.
Runtime:137 min
Country:Germany
Language:German
Color:Color
Director:Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Writer:Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (writer)
The Lives of Others (original German: Das Leben der Anderen) is an Academy Award-winning German film, marking the feature film debut of writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
Synopsis:
The horrifying, sometimes unintentionally funny system of observation in the former East Germany. In the early 1980s, the successful dramatist Georg Dreyman and his longtime companion Christa-Maria Sieland, a popular actress, are big intellectual stars in the socialist state, although they secretly don't always think loyal to the party line. One day, the Minister of Culture becomes interested in Christa, so the secret service agent Wiesler is instructed to observe and sound out the couple, but their life fascinates him more and more...
Awards and Nominations
Australian Film Critics Association 2007 Film Awards/
Best Overseas Film (commendation)
79th Academy Awards
Best Foreign Language Film winner
64th Golden Globe Awards
Best Foreign Language Film nomination
César Awards 2007
Best Foreign Film winner
Independent Spirit Awards 2007
Best Foreign Language Film
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007 audience award
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 2006
Best Foreign-Language Film
European Film Awards 2006
Best Film
Best Actor: Ulrich Mühe
Best Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
German Film Awards 2006
Best Film
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actor
Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Production Design
Best Screenplay
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2007 Audience Choice Award
Vancouver International Film Festival 2006 People's Choice Award
Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma 2006 People's Choice Award
London Film Festival 2006 Satyajit Ray Award
Zagreb Film Festival 2006
Best Film
Audience Award
Copenhagen International Film Festival 2006
Best Male Actor
Audience Award
Seville Film Festival 2006 Silver Giraldillo
Locarno International Film Festival 2006 Audience Award
Warsaw International Film Festival 2006 Audience Award
Bavarian Film Awards 2006
Best Actor: Ulrich Mühe
Best Newcomer Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Best Screenplay: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
VGF Producer Prize: Wiedemann & Berg
Festival Screenings
Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema 2006
Toronto International Film Festival 2006 (Special Presentation)
Telluride Film Festival 2006
Pusan International Film Festival 2006
Vancouver International Film Festival 2006
Locarno International Film Festival 2006 (Piazza Grande)
London Film Festival 2006
The Helsinki International Film Festival - Love & Anarchy 2006
Copenhagen International Film Festival 2006
Dubai International Film Festival 2006
AFI Los Angeles 2006
Sevilla Festival de Cine 2006
Festival de Cinema do Rio 2006
Athens 2006
Warsaw International Film Festival 2006
Wellington International Film Festival 2007
Zagreb Film Festival 2006
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2006
Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia 2006
Windsor (Ontario) International Film Festival 2006
Dublin International Film Festival 2007
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007
Sofia International Film Festival 2007
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2007
Traverse City Film Festival 2007
Meaford International Film Festival 2007
Cine Europa 10 Film Festival 2007, Manila, Philippines
12th International film festival of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.
18- 03- 2008 6.00 PM
AT ADHYAPAKA BHAVAN ,
KARIKKAMURI CROSS ROAD ,
ERNAKULAM, COCHIN-11
KARIKKAMURI CROSS ROAD ,
ERNAKULAM, COCHIN-11
WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST?
Written, directed, photographed, edited and produced by Bae Yong Kyun;
Korean, with English subtitles;
music by Chin Kyu Yong;
Synopsis:This unique Korean film explores the relationship between an elderly Zen master, an orphaned boy, and a young monk named Ki Bong. With little time left before his impending death, Master Hyegok teaches his two students all he knows about Zen Buddhism, which he has devoted his life to. In order to learn, both Ki Bong and the orphan Hae Jin must face and overcome their feelings of guilt for past deeds. Ki Bong left behind his blind mother and family when he came to the monastery; Hae Jin accidentally caused the death of a bird. After the old man's death, the monk and the orphan attempt to use their master's teachings to achieve spiritual enlightenment
Review/
Zen and the Art of Making Its Tenets Into a Movie
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
"I am insubstantial in the universe, but in the universe there is nothing that is not me," reflects Hye Gok (Yi Pan Yong), an elderly and ailing Zen Buddhist monk in Bae Yong Kyun's ravishingly beautiful film "Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?"
Not long after Hye Gok speaks these words to his young student Ki Bong (Sin Won Sop), his riddle finds a haunting visual corollary. As Ki Bong scatters the ashes of his teacher in a mountain pool strewn with autumn leaves, the colored foliage floating on the pool's surface intermingles with the reflections of leaves still clinging to the trees above.
At the same moment, the monk's reflection and his shadow overlap. The sounds of water, wind, birds and faraway animals blend with the imagery to evoke as intense an experience of being in nature as one could hope to glean from a film. Life and death, shadow and substance, image and reflection, all seem united and indistinguishable.
The scene, which the camera holds for several seconds, is one of many stunning visionary moments in the film, which opened yesterday at the Walter Reade Theater. Produced, directed, written, photographed and edited by Mr. Bae, a South Korean film maker, the movie, whose title is a Zen Buddhist koan, is a glacially slow but often spellbinding attempt to find a cinematic language for the Zen mode of perception.
The film tells the stories of the aging monk, his student and an orphaned child, Hae Jin (Huang Hae Jin), who live together in a remote Zen monastery on Mount Chonan, in South Korea. Several of the film's most striking early scenes portray the child's spiritual rites of passage.
One day, he throws a stone at a bird and seriously wounds it. Taking the creature home, he tries to nurse it back to life, but it dies. The boy hides its carcass under a rock, which he later turns over to discover the remains being devoured by maggots. Then he instinctively gives it a proper burial.
In a scene that suggests a Rousseau painting sprung to life, the child, while running through the woods at night, encounters a cow that has broken free from its shed. The two stand inches apart, gazing into each other's eyes. When Hae Jin has a toothache, Hye Gok ties a string around the tooth and yanks it out. Hae Jin's saving of his extracted tooth prompts a lesson in renunciation of the physical body.
Ki Bong also has difficult rites of passage. Both Hye Gok and Ki Bong pursue enlightenment through such intense physical challenges as meditating for hours on a rock while being lashed by icy river rapids that chill them to the bone. The young monk, who renounced the world to live in the monastery, returns briefly to the urban slum where he left behind his elderly blind mother. Sensing his presence, she greets him, but he doesn't acknowledge her call and steals silently and guiltily out of the house.
His most solemn task is the ritualistic cremation of his teacher in a mountain clearing. As his body becomes covered with ashes and soot from the blaze, he begins to grasp Hye Gok's teaching that birth and death are one.
Again and again, the film finds visual analogues for the oneness of the universe and the enlightenment to be found through the renunciation of earthly desires. In gazing into the physical world with a fixity, clarity and depth rarely found in the cinema, "Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?" goes about as far as a film can go in conjuring a meditative state.
Not long after Hye Gok speaks these words to his young student Ki Bong (Sin Won Sop), his riddle finds a haunting visual corollary. As Ki Bong scatters the ashes of his teacher in a mountain pool strewn with autumn leaves, the colored foliage floating on the pool's surface intermingles with the reflections of leaves still clinging to the trees above.
At the same moment, the monk's reflection and his shadow overlap. The sounds of water, wind, birds and faraway animals blend with the imagery to evoke as intense an experience of being in nature as one could hope to glean from a film. Life and death, shadow and substance, image and reflection, all seem united and indistinguishable.
The scene, which the camera holds for several seconds, is one of many stunning visionary moments in the film, which opened yesterday at the Walter Reade Theater. Produced, directed, written, photographed and edited by Mr. Bae, a South Korean film maker, the movie, whose title is a Zen Buddhist koan, is a glacially slow but often spellbinding attempt to find a cinematic language for the Zen mode of perception.
The film tells the stories of the aging monk, his student and an orphaned child, Hae Jin (Huang Hae Jin), who live together in a remote Zen monastery on Mount Chonan, in South Korea. Several of the film's most striking early scenes portray the child's spiritual rites of passage.
One day, he throws a stone at a bird and seriously wounds it. Taking the creature home, he tries to nurse it back to life, but it dies. The boy hides its carcass under a rock, which he later turns over to discover the remains being devoured by maggots. Then he instinctively gives it a proper burial.
In a scene that suggests a Rousseau painting sprung to life, the child, while running through the woods at night, encounters a cow that has broken free from its shed. The two stand inches apart, gazing into each other's eyes. When Hae Jin has a toothache, Hye Gok ties a string around the tooth and yanks it out. Hae Jin's saving of his extracted tooth prompts a lesson in renunciation of the physical body.
Ki Bong also has difficult rites of passage. Both Hye Gok and Ki Bong pursue enlightenment through such intense physical challenges as meditating for hours on a rock while being lashed by icy river rapids that chill them to the bone. The young monk, who renounced the world to live in the monastery, returns briefly to the urban slum where he left behind his elderly blind mother. Sensing his presence, she greets him, but he doesn't acknowledge her call and steals silently and guiltily out of the house.
His most solemn task is the ritualistic cremation of his teacher in a mountain clearing. As his body becomes covered with ashes and soot from the blaze, he begins to grasp Hye Gok's teaching that birth and death are one.
Again and again, the film finds visual analogues for the oneness of the universe and the enlightenment to be found through the renunciation of earthly desires. In gazing into the physical world with a fixity, clarity and depth rarely found in the cinema, "Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?" goes about as far as a film can go in conjuring a meditative state.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)