For the first time, the annual FILCA (Film Lovers’ Cultural Association) film festival has shifted its venue to the suburbs of the capital city. The renovation work at Kalabhavan has forced the impoverished FILCA to abandon its idea of a city venue and instead look for rural audience. They are, however, making plans to provide to and fro trips to the festival venue for viewers. The festival will be held from July 20 to 26.
FILCA secretary Parameswaran Nair said that FILCA has been planning to reach out to the rural audience for sometime now. ‘’This time, since Kalabhavan was not available, we could not afford other venues. We could have opted for halls or other small theatres but we thought it is the best chance to realise our dream of hosting the fest in a village,’’ he said.
FILCA has now tied up with a film society in Aryanad, which will host the 12th episode of the film fest at Athira theatre there. The opening film is Marathi film ‘Deool’ by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni. In total, 43 films will be screened, including short films and documentaries.
The highlight of this year’s fest is the Kim Ki Duk retrospective. Kim’s ‘Address Unknown’, ‘The Coast Guard’, ‘The Bow’, ‘3-Iron’, ‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…Spring’, ‘Samaritan Girl’ and ‘Time’ will be screened. In Indian Cinema category, films based on Tagore stories will be screened. ‘Khudito Pashan’ by Tapan Sinha, ‘Teen Kanya’ and ‘Ghare Baire’ by Satyajit Ray, ‘Kabuliwala’ by Hemen Gupta, ‘Char Adhyay’ by Kumar Shahani, ‘Natir Puja’ by Rabindranath Tagore (restored film) and a documentary on Tagore by Satyajit Ray will be screened.
In the Country Focus, it is Iranian movies which will be screened. This section has ‘White Balloon’ and ‘The Circle’ directed by Jafar Panahi, ‘Children of Heaven’ and ‘Colours of Paradise’ (Majid Majidi), ‘Certified Copy’ and ‘Where is the Friend’s Home?’ (Abbas Kiaorostami) and ‘Aadir & Simir, A Separation’ (Asghar Farhadi).
The Homage section will screen Theo Angelopoulos’s ‘The Suspended Step of the Stork’ and C P Padmakumar’s ‘Samhomanam.’
In World Cinema category, the films are ‘Honey’ - Semih Kaplanouglu (Turkey); ‘Mid- August Lunch’ - Gianni Di Gregorio (Italy); ‘Uncle Bonmee Recalls His Past Lives’ - Apichatpong Weeresathukal (Thailand); ‘Rabbit Hole’ - John Cameron Mitchell (USA); and ‘White Ribbon’ - Michael Haneke (Germany).
The Malayalam Cinema Today will showcase ‘Adaminte Makante Abu’ - Salim Ahmad;, ‘Veettilekkullu Vazhi’ - Dr Biju; ‘Pranayam’ - Blessy; ‘Beautiful’ - V K Prakash; ‘Pakarnattam’ - Jayaraj; ‘Akam’ - Shalini Usha Nair; and ‘Indian Rupee’ - Ranjith, which is also the closing film.
The Short Films and Documentary section will have ‘Pestering Journey’ by K R Manoj; ‘Suhara Parayan Bakki Vechathu’ by Dr Babu Gopalakrishnan; ‘Punarjani’ by Madhu Eravankara; ‘Paddle’ - Preethi Panicker; ‘Conditions Apply’ - Lijin Jose; ‘Sneham’ - Taj Bashir; and ‘Jwalamukhikkal’ - Manoj Palodan.