KOCHI: The 10th edition of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala will feature an array of films depicting contemporary conflicts and human conditions. A total of 33 films, including nine documentaries and 14 short films, will be screened in the International category. Terrorism, genocide, aftermaths of war, protests against fascism are some of the major thematic concerns of the films to be screened in section at the festival to be held from June 16 to 20.
War Memorial is a revival of letters send by British soldiers to their family members during Second World War. In total disregard of the Senegalese Constitution, Abdoulaye Wade, who had been in power for twelve years, presented his candidacy for a third term in 2012.
The Revolution Won’t Be Televised talks about the demonstrations of the Senegalese population during the presidential elections of 2012. While I am not your Negro investigates the plight of black population in America, Happily Ever After records a love story during Arab Spring.
The filmmaker falls in love amidst all the political turmoil of Egypt. When her boyfriend decides to leave the country because of the upsetting social and political conditions, she does everything she can to convince him to stay. A Feeling Greater Than Love explores the links between revolution and cinema and focuses on the workers’ struggle of Beirut. Mostly Sunny is an interesting documentary portrait of porn actress turned Bollywood starlet Sunny Leone.
In 2014, 276 teenage girls came together for exams in Chibok, Nigeria. Soon, nearly all of them disappeared and their school was burnt down. In Waiting for Hassana, Jessica, an escapee, shares her haunting account of a friendship violently interrupted by Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group. Brave Bunch, a film shot from the perspective of children, is woven around the heroic and tragic 63-day struggle to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany occupation during World War II.
In the film, a group of kids finds an authentic dairy from the Warsaw Uprising. Looking for its owner, they stumble into the Warsaw Uprising Museum. Son of Kali is about Probir who comes to India fleeing the Hindu genocide in Bangladesh. He reaches in the middle of a major Hindu festival and he feels like a child in a religious Disneyland. He is accompanied by his childhood Muslim friend Anuar, who is enjoying the Hindu festival in his own way.
The festival screening 210 films under various categories will be held at Kairali, Sree and Nila Theatres in the city. Oscar Nominated film Life Animated by Roger Ross Williams and Sakhisona which bagged the best short film award at The Rotterdam International Film Festival are the inaugural films.