IFFK 2008 – Day 7 – Night

Remya Theatre was jam-packed for Song of the Sparrows, directed by Majid Majidi, one of IFFK’s all-time favorite directors. I was fortunate to get a balcony seat even though I had reserved a seat via the online reservation facility. There were instances, particularly during the screening of Breath by Kim Ki Duc in Kalabhavan Theatre, in which people who had reserved tickets online had to leave the hall shaking their heads because there were no seats available. Also, the DGP of Kerala Police was also present along with family members. So policemen were naturally on their toes.

Well, the film did not live up to my expectations. It is a story about a middle aged laborer who works in an ostrich farm. He is happy despite their poor financial position. One day, an ostrich runs away and as a result he loses his job. He goes to Tehran to get a hearing aid for his daughter and ends up working as motorcycle taxi-walla. His life actually flourishes and he brings a lot of scraps, like broken doors and window frames, from the city in the hope that these would help him to collect enough money to buy a hearing aid for his daughter. He in fact makes a heap of these items. His life takes a new turn as all these items fall over him and he is severely injured. The rest of the film is how he and his family cope with the new development.

As one would expect of a Majidi film, Song of the Sparrows is picturized extremely well. It provides a kind of feel good factor. But beyond that, there is not much in it, or I could not find any thing. The film does not invade your heart, or brain for that matter, like Three Monkeys, which I saw just before this one. But judging from the reaction of the audience – thunderous clapping at the slightest provocation – I think the film is well received here.

After the film, I went to see the Open Forum. The theme was IFFK 2008 feedback. There were good things said about the festival – a few negative aspects as well. The good things included online reservation, a number of good films, and sincere effort from the part of the organizers. The negative things included usual culprits such as lack of sufficient number of good films, poor scheduling, and signature film – and strangely online reservation also. The organizers said scheduling has a lot of constraints such as availability of prints, screening facilities in theatres, and specifications regarding the number of screening from distributors. Interestingly, a number of delegates chose the opportunity to criticize the mainstream Malayalam directors for lack of good films in Malayalam. One of the participants said these people should not be allowed to select films for the festival and hold any organizational positions. He was obviously referring to Kamal, the Malayalam director who was the chairman of the preview committee for competition, Indian, and Malayalam cinema.

Afterwards, I went to Kairali Theatre to watch the Turkish film My Marlon and Brando, directed by Huseyin Karabey. It tells the story about a girl trying to make a trip to the war-torn Suleimania in Northern Iraq to meet her lover during America’s war against Saddam Hussein. The first half of the movie narrates the anguish and agony of the girl waiting for the lover in Istanbul. But then she takes a brave, but dangerous, decision to go to Northern Iraq. The second half of the movie shows her journey. The Turkey-Iraq border is partially closed. One can come from Iraq, but entry to Iraq is not allowed. So, she goes to an Iranian town close to Suleimania, and waits for her lover to turn up.

My Marlon and Brando is a subtle realistic movie, not a sentimentally romantic one as the synopsis may have indicated.