True Noon: The States and The People

IFFK 2009: Day 2 Night

True Noon, a Tajikistan Film directed by Nosir Siadov, is a delightful, yet poignant film about how people’s life change by the interference of the governments. A number of films have dealt with this theme. Still, this film is fresh and beautifully shot.

The story happens in a mountainous border village between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet states, which have become independent states after the fall of communism. The film develops around Kiril, an old supervisor of the weather observatory in the town, and his beautiful apprentice, Niloufar. He wants to leave to his Moscow to be with his wife, children, and grandchildren. He wants to hand over the duties to Niloufar, but there are many hurdles. She is about to be get married. They have to persuade the husband and other relatives about sending her to work after marriage. In addition, she does not have a formal certificate.

All such problems go to backstage as the army makes its appearance on the town. The army personnel put a barbed wire fence right across the village. Schools, hospitals, and many other institutions are on one side and many people are stranded on the other. It leads to some funny scenes, where a teacher stands and teaches on the one side of the fence and students sit and learn the other side.

Kiril is forced to cut the barbed wire, when the Niloufar’s mother feels pregnancy pain (her husband is determined to get a son). However, sensing this, the army men put mines on the path. The situation becomes dangerous as the marriage date of Niloufar nears and leads to a tense climax.

True Noon reminds one of a famous short story in Malayalam: Nalam Lokam (The Fourth World) written by NS Madhavan. It deals with the problems take place in a space shuttle, jointly launched by India and the then USSR, after the fall of the Soviet Republic. But the film is not as satiric as the story.

Reservation: Official versus People’s

More people arrived at IFFK 2009 on the second day. At least in some places, tempers started to fray. People are still to come into terms with the advanced reservation facility. In most places, not all people who reserve seats in the balcony bother to turn up. This led to many vacant seats in balcony; that too, when unreserved people are sitting in the front row, craning their necks upwards to watch the movie.

People soon learnt about this aspect somehow. Today before the screening of True Noon, some people demanded entry into the balcony even though they do not have a reservation. They actually tried to force their way in. It led to some angry arguments between the staff and the delegates. Perhaps, it is a fitting introduction to a film that deals with the trouble that an official decision brings to people!

However, the problems here are absolutely not the fault of the organizers. They have done well to provide even a simple sms reservation facility. Perhaps, they should start a cancellation facility too. I think they should also ban further reservation option of those people (at least a ban of one or two days) who do not turn up after reserving a balcony seat.