The wait has been over and curtains will be raised for IFFK 2007 today. Buddha Collapsed in Shame (by Hana Makhmalbaf) is the opening film of the festival. It is going to be screened in Nishaganthi Auditorium at 7 pm after the inaugural ceremony. (Mind you, the Buddha in the movie does refer to the actual Buddha and not the Buddha of Bengal and now Nandigram fame, though the latter has every reason to collapse in shame.) That is the formal part of it. But the actual screening of the films starts from 9’o clock in the morning. So let us dive into the aesthetic pool of, hopefully, remarkable celluloid art.
The following are today’s films, their timings and synopsis (Source; IMDB, Wikipedia, Yahoomovies). Apart from these, three documentaries, Nomads TX (Sree Theatre, 3 PM), A Song for Arrgyris (Kalabhavan, 9 AM), and Potosi, The Journey (Kalabhavan, 6.30 PM), are also going to be screened. Complete schedule can be downloaded from http://www.iffk.keralafilm.com/schedu.htm.
Samiya (Kairali, 11.30 AM)
it is a moving drama about Algerian girls in France, growing up
modern on the outside and miserable on the inside in a strict Muslim
household where they're little more than servants.
Comment: Samia tells an old story about a teenager who rebels against
her family values asserting her demands to be her own person. In the
case of "Samia", the teen is an Algerian girl living with a traditional
Muslim family in France. During this short film we get to see Samia
sulking, fighting with her brother, sulking, hanging out with friends,
sulking, going to the seashore, sulking, refusing to have her hymen
examined and, yeah, more sulking. The film shows some traditional and
presumably Algerian costuming, dancing, music, meals, etc.
Sopyonje (Kalabhavan, 3 PM)
One day in the early 1960’s, Dongho, a man in his thirties (Kim
Kyu-Chul) arrives at a village inn. He is absorbed in deep thought
while listening to a Pansori song by a woman of the inn. In his
childhood, Yubong, a vagabond singer of Pansori (Kim Myung-Gon), comes
to his village. Yubong falls in love with Dongho’s widowed mother. He
leaves the village with Dongho, the widow, and his adopted daughter
Songhwa (Oh Jung-Hae). However, the widow dies while delivering
Yubong’s baby. Yubong teaches Songhwa Pansori music, and teaches
Dongho the drum. Songhwa and Dongho are raised as a pair of Pansori
singer and drummer. They wander about doing Pansori for a living, but
their lives are getting harder during and after the Korean civil war.
With the influence of western culture, Pansori gradually becomes less
appreciated and favored, even despised by people. Dissatisfied with
his miserable life, Dongho leaves home after having a dispute with
Yubong. Broken hearted, Songhwa refuses to do Pansori. Yubong makes
her go blind in an attempt to complete her Pansori. Blind Songhwa
manages to lead a pitiable life after Yubong’s death. Time passes and
Dongho comes back with guilty feelings to look for Songhwa and Yubong.
He finally encounters Songhwa. Songhwa sings her Pansori at his
request with the accompaniment of his drum. After spending one night
together, they separate again. Songhwa leaves to continue her vagabond
life.
Dark Habits (New Theare, 3 PM)
Unconventional Spanish comedy set in wild-and-crazy convent.
Over-the-top sex-and-drugs subject matter, uneven pace will deter many
viewers, but fans of director Almodóvar's bitchy yet good-natured
surrealism will still enjoy. This is Almodóvar’s first film to have a
proper producer and be made for a proper film company, rather than be
made on the hoof like his previous projects. Almodóvar has since
distanced himself from the film as he felt that he had to bow to
commercial considerations.
The Father (Kairali, 3 PM)
A WWII officer returns to discover family and peacetime aren't much to
his liking in the ultra-traditional Russian meller "The Father." Pic is
based on an Andrei Platonov short story whose indictment of the
conflict's emotional toll was too strong for the postwar Russian
government, but pic's existence renders the point universal. Story's
connection to Ernest Hemingway -- he translated the long-banned seven
pages and professed influence from them -- could attract literate auds,
though stolid drama seems best for fests, regional play and niche
ancillary.En route home, Captain Alexei Ivanov (Alexei Guskov, also
co-producer) meets pregnant young soldier Masha (Svetlana Ivanova) and
pretends to be her husband so her family will reaccept her. Later, he
grows bored with his wife, Lyuba (Polina Kutepova), and two kids, and
suspicious of Lubya's faithfulness during his absence. Acting honors go
to young nonpro Vassili Prokopiev, whose stern orders to mother and
sister, honed during dad's absence, steal pic outright. Tech package is
solid, though the almost operatic decay of the production design seems
too expansive for focused drama. Pic's May 9 domestic release coincided
with Russia's commemoration of WWII's cessation, called Victory Day.
Paris, je t'aime (Sree, 11.30 AM)
Paris, je t'aime is a 2006 film starring an ensemble cast of American,
British and French movie actors. The title means "Paris, I love you".
The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films.
Meisie (Kalabhavan, 11.30 AM)
Meisie is a gentle and humane film which is set on the peripheries of
the Kalahari Desert. The film focuses on a young girl, Meisie (Abrina
Bosman) who has an astonishing talent for mathematics, but is prevented
by her father from going to the local school. Instead, she is forced to
tend goats and practices her maths with stones on the desert sand. The
arrival of an inspirational new teacher in the town results in a change
that impacts on Meisie’s life forever.
Foreigner (Kripa, 3 PM)
A teenage girl (Agustina Munoz) wanders around the desert with her
little brother, knowing her powerful father (Carlos Portaluppi) is
determined to kill her, in the belief this sacrifice will end a
terrible drought. Offering an occasional POV on the spare action is an
out-of-place foreigner (played in Polish by Maciej Robakiewicz), who
looks as puzzled as most viewers will at what's going on. Film's strong
point is its setting in a rocky, burnt-out desert whose elemental
forces, thrown onscreen in knockout Cinemascope by lenser Gerardo
Silvatici, create an atmosphere of timeless tragedy. Pacing is leaden.
Blind (Ajantha, 3 PM)
It is a story about a blind boy (may be around 20 years of age) –
played by Joren Seldeslachts - who is wild and lives with his mother in
a palatial county type house; and his care taker lady (may be around 30
years of age) – brilliantly enacted by Halina Reijn (remember
Zwartboek?) - who is suffering from albino – i.e. body does not produce
enough pigment and the a person has pale or colorless skin, eyes and
hair. Joren starts falling in love with Halina without noticing about
her albino disease because he is blind. Halina tries hard to evade
Joren's closeness – but is not able to resist her own fears, and falls
in love with Joren. Katelijne Verbeke plays the boy's mother who
notices this attraction and is against their relationship. The good
news comes when the boy is about to get his sight back and that is the
time Halina goes away – so that Joren would always remember her as a
beautiful girl. But Joren is persistent and after regaining his sight
desperately searches for Halina. Do they meet? And what happens after
that – I will not tell you and spoil your show.The backdrop is – I think Belgium or Bulgaria! The snow clad landscape
is captured with nature's ecstasy. The music is fantastic. Some scenes
are so greatly executed that without a word – just by images the
director communicates so many things, and that is the art of cinema.
Good movies bring you back to the soul – the core of our human values
and purity of love.
Monkeys in Winter (Dhanya, 3 PM)
Plots of the three strands are only glancingly related, with just
settings and minor details shared. For instance, in both of the last
two stories, characters watch a nature documentary on TV about monkeys
protecting their young during a snowstorm. These simian images not only
give pic its title but also provide ironic counterpoint to characters
here who behave in so-called "unnatural" ways.
Opening segment, pic's most straightforward, is set in 1961 and tracks
Dona (Bulgarian thrush Bonka Ilieva-Boni), a lusty woman of Gypsy
extraction, living in the suburbs outside the capital of Sofia and
raising three kids by herself. Deserted by her b.f., and with bailiffs
threatening to seize the family's meager possessions, Dona accepts an
offer from a local party official to match her with an elderly spouse.
But when her vile new husband makes a move on her young daughter, Dona
reacts with primal fury.
The story set in 1981 follows law student Lucretia (newcomer Diana
Dobreva, whose long black hair and sorrowful eyes evoke a living
Modigliani figure). In order to avoid being sent back to the sticks
upon graduation, she tries to get herself knocked up by another
student. When she really does get pregnant, however, her lack of faith
in her b.f.'s love leads her to commit the aforementioned "unnatural"
act out of fear he'll leave her.
Final strand centers round Tana (local star Angelina Slavova), the wife
of wealthy businessman Lazar, whose property development project just
happens to involve destroying Dona's now-derelict house. Happily in
love, Tana and Lazar have everything except a child. When Lazar is told
he's infertile, everything turns sour.
Brides (Remya, 3 PM)
Set in 1922, is the story of a mail order bride, one of 700, aboard the
SS KING ALEXANDER, who falls in love with an American photographer. She
is bound for her new husband, in New York; he is on his way home to a
failed marriage.
Comment: A touching yet subtle story of love, longing and desire. The
tragedy of the situation of these mail-order brides, lost without a
connection to their homeland, without money, family or hope for the
future. This was a beautifully shot and acted film. The director
Pantelis Voulgaris should be congratulated. Damian Lewis has never been
stronger, a gorgeous leading man, who gives his character Norman, such
a natural on screen presence, that there appears to be nothing
artificial about him. Niki is a fine leading female character, strong,
resolute, yet naturally human and weak. The love story, not just
amongst the principles simmered and grew, the sexual tension not forced
or faked. Wonderful.
Budha Collapsed in Shame (Nisaganthi, 7 PM)
The beauty and grief of present-day Afghanistan receives epic, poetic
treatment from Hana Makhmalbaf, the youngest member of master director
Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s remarkable family. Set in Bamian, the actual town
where the Taliban’s destruction of cultural treasures sickened the
world, Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame is an exotic and frightening
journey into the minds of the children who live in that desolate area –
and children affected by violence everywhere.
Like many Iranian filmmakers, Makhmalbaf chooses a little girl as her
narrative engine. When we meet this extraordinary young creature,
Baktay (Nikbakht Noruz), all she wants to do is go to the school for
girls that has opened up across the river. But she must overcome
Herculean obstacles to attend, starting with her family’s extreme
poverty and her mother’s indifference. In one incredible sequence, she
has to negotiate the purchase of the requisite pen and paper through a
complex transaction involving stolen eggs. She must also traverse a no
man’s land populated by a band of wild boys who delight in war games.
She is “captured” by them going both ways – once as an American spy,
then as a Taliban spy – and these scenes encapsulate Makhmalbaf’s
thesis about how violent “liberation” refracts in a child’s mind.
The film feels extremely authentic, largely due to the stripped-down
neo-realist style of the Makhmalbaf family’s projects and the fact that
they cast local non-professional actors for all the roles. But this is
not a documentary. The film sneakily reveals all sorts of narrative
surprises and political critiques despite its simple exterior. And, as
custom dictates in this kind of film, the little girl is almost too
cute for words, evoking gushes of sympathy toward her numerous trials.
The film’s title comes from Hana’s father. According to her, Mohsen
meant that “even a statue can be ashamed of witnessing all this
violence and harshness happening to these innocent people and,
therefore, collapse.” Shots of the looming emptiness in the Bamian
cliff faces that once housed these serene Buddhas are indeed among the
film’s most devastating moments.
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