IFFK Day 1: Two Films that Looked like Documentaries and a Documentary that Looked like a Film

The first day at IFFK 2010 started, as is the precedent, at Kalabhavan at 9 AM. For a change, the first screening this year comprised two films: Cameroon Love Letter, directed by Khavn De La Cruz, and Unreal Forest, directed by Jakrawal Nilthamrong. Both the films are part of Forget Africa package of Rotterdam Film Festival. And both the films are bold experiments on film craft, but are unkind to a casual viewer, as the directors’ names are to the tongue. Still, each of these films is memorable in its own unique way and is worthy first screenings of the latest edition of IFFK.


Unreal Forest

The film meticulously plays the celluloid double card trick –a film within a film – that no longer amuses seasoned film watchers. But it serves the purpose for the director, as it neatly conveys the problems faced by filmmakers in Africa and the plight of the poor. The first part is the documentary-like unfolding of making of a film and the second part is the film itself.

Cameroon Love Letter

The second film of the screening was even more unconventional. The film was made from documentary footages from Cameroon. But it deals with a poignant tale of break-up and love between two metro-sexuals. There is no obvious link between the visuals and the narration. But the cocktail of haunting music, the scathing, yet lyrical parting letter written by the woman protagonist (who never comes on the screen, but her letter appears as subtitles on various parts), and the monologue by the protagonist of the movie creates an absorbingly unique ambience on the screen.

A majority of the viewers, it seemed, could not stand two stylistically path-breaking films at one go. The screening started house-full. But when it ended after more than two hours, there were only a handful of spectators.

HHH- A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Later, I watched HHH- A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, directed by Olivier Assayas, at Kalabhavan. My original idea was to see Black and White, a Turkish film that is tipped by the local media as one of the must-watch films of this festival. But a last minute change in schedule by the organizers spoiled the plan. Most people only realized it is a documentary only when they entered the cinema hall. No more, some of them pleaded, especially after the first two films. But the documentary turned out to be livelier than the films that preceded it.

This is the director’s tribute to the prominent Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The determination and strong character of the subject shone throughout the documentary. Sequences of the some of his films too are nicely weaved into the narrative. There is not even a single dull moment in the movie, thanks mainly to the documentary-maker’s craft and partly also due to the dynamic personality of its subject.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Hopefully, it will be even better than this.