KOCHI: Bringing in a clear female perspective, the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala will showcase a string of films by women directors in various sections. The International Competition category includes movies by three women directors - Yesim Ustaoglu’s ‘Clair Obscur’, Vidhu Vincent’s ‘Manhole’ and Santwana Bardoloi’s ‘Midnight Keteki’.
The award winning Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu in her film ‘Clair Obscur’ discusses women’s life frankly through her two protagonists -- Chenaz and Elmas. Like in her previous film, ‘Somewhere in Between’, she focuses on the conflict between female sexuality and tradition in this film too.
Vidhu Vincent is the first woman director from Kerala to make it to the competition category of the IFFK with her film, ‘Manhole’, which deals with the atrocities faced by manual scavengers in Kerala.
The film is inspired by the story of Ravi Kumar, an auto driver, whose ancestors were manual scavengers, a community whose existence is conveniently denied by both the government and the public.
Directed, produced and written by Santwana Bardoloi, an accomplished radio and theatre actress from Assam, ‘Midnight Keteki’ is another film to be screened under the International competition category.
The selection of French filmmaker and actress Mia Hansen Love as the ‘Contemporary Filmmaker in Focus’ reinforces the presence of women filmmakers in the 21st IFFK. Mia Hansen’s five movies including ‘All is Forgiven’, ‘Father of My Children’ and ‘Things to Come’ will be screened under this category.
Another highlight of the IFFK is ‘Daisies’ directed by Vera Chytilova. The film, a remarkable work of 1966, laid the foundation for the Czech New Wave movement. The film was banned by the Czech Government for “depicting the wanton”. Chytilova, the sole woman filmmaker of the Czech New Wave movement, was also forbidden from making movies till 1975.
Deepa Mehta’s ‘Anatomy of violence’ portraying the misogyny of the society, and Konkona Sen Sharma’s directorial debut ‘A Death in The Gunj’, a realistic drama featuring Kalki Koechlin will also be screened at IFFK.
Other Indian women filmmakers who have made it to the IFFK are Ananya Kasaravalli, Sumithra Bhave, Leena Yadav, Mitra Farahani, Soo Jung Kim, Ana Cristina Barragan, Claudia Varejao, Mira Nair, Kristina Grozeva, Lea Fehner, Hala Khalil, Julia Ducournau, Elia. K. Schneider, Ruxandra Zenide, Marjan Ashrafizadeh and Lina Luzyte.