film synopsis

Transcription

film synopsis

FILM SYNOPSIS
1 5 - 2 3 J U LY 2 0 1 1 C H E N N A I
am
Cathe
dral
Road
Music
Academy
ore
Muthu La
Kamaraj St
Kalakshetra Roa
Towards
Mylap
d
Kalakshetra
Foundation
Anna St
Lattice Bridge Road
Towards Adayar
Krishnamac
hari Roa
d
Russian
Centre of Culture
and Science
kshmi St
Tow
ard
s Nu
nga
mb
ak k
TT
KR
oa
d
Location Map
ECR Road
Towar
ds Peru
ng
udi
Thiruvanmiur
Bus Terminal
Marundiswarar
Temple
Venues
MainScreen : Russian Centre of Science and Culture
Kasturi Ranga Road, Alwarpet, Chennai - 600018
ParallelScreen : Kalakshetra
Muthulakshmi Road, Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600041
02
Contents
Retro-View
04
Indian Films
08
Korean Films
14
World Films
20
Women Cinema
39
Parellel Screen
48
Screening Schedule
52
Index Indicates serial number, page number
03
RETRO -VIEW
01
Mirch Masala
Ketan Mehta
1985 | 125min | Colour
India
02
Bhumika
Shyam Benegal
India
During British rule in India, a Subhedar, along with a
regiment of soldiers, is sent to collect taxes due from
a small town. When the lusty Subhedar sees a young
married woman named Sonbai, he tries to seduce her
but she humiliates him and runs to take shelter in the
enclosed compound of a pepper factory, chased by
soldiers. The elderly, but brave, Chowkidar Abu, closes
the reinforced door to the factory and refuses to let the
soldiers in. This angers the Subhedar, and he asks the
town Mukhiya to get Sonbai to him, failing which he will
destroy the town. The terrified Mukhiya and the rest
of the townspeople decide to turn over Sonbai to the
Subhedar on the condition that he does not molest any
more women. The Subhedhar, angered at this show of
defiance, refuses to agree to any conditions. The villagers
and Mukhiya must now decide whether to hand over
Sonbai to him, or destroy their village and continue to
molest their wives, daughters, and sisters.
This film is broadly based on the memoirs of the wellknown Marathi stage and screen actress of the 1940’s,
Hansa Wadkar, who led a flamboyant and unconventional,
life. The film focuses on an individual’s search for identity
and self-fulfillment. The film depicts the transformation of
a vivacious teenage girl into a wiser but deeply wounded
middle-aged woman.
04
Tribute to Smita Patil (India)
03
Tarang
KUMAR SHAhani
India
04
Debashishu
Utpalendu
Chakrabarty
India
Sethji is a widower, a businessman who lives a comfortable
life with his only daughter, Hansa, his son-in-law, Rahul,
and a grandson, Munna. Rahul is his right-hand man and
a nephew named Dinesh assists in running the business.
Petty rivalries and jealousies develop in the family and
soon Sethji and Rahul feel that Dinesh is now trying to
undermine the business. Shortly after, Sethji and Hansa
die and Rahul has to manage the business on his own.
But many questions remain unanswered. Why was no
one attending to the ailing Sethji? Why was Hansa’s death
covered up? What of the affair that Rahul had with Janki,
their maidservant, who is full of venom against the family
and what is Anita’s involvement?
This powerful and realistic film is a study of poverty,
illiteracy, natural calamities and the toll they take on the
human soul. It is the story of a rural couple who are trying
to survive after their village was destroyed by a flood. The
wife gives birth to a deformed baby, which is pronounced
as a ‘child of the devil’ by the local Hindu priest, who
forces the couple to abandon the child and exiles them
from the community. The story moves to a bizarre and
heart-breaking conclusion.
05
RETRO -VIEW
01
Paju
PARK Chan-ok
Korea
02
Jealousy is my
Middle Mame
Park Chan-Ok
Korea
Eun-mo is back in her hometown of Paju after spending
three years of soul-searching in India. However, the
reality she returns to is far from comforting as she is
faced with many difficulties. A demolition squad threatens
to tear down the apartment block that she lives in. The
tenants of the apartment fight tooth and nail to prevent
this. She also dreads the reunion with her widower
brother-in-law, Joong-shik, the anti-demolition task force
leader who has information about insurance policies and
about her sister’s tragic death.
Lee Won-sang is a graduate student working on his
thesis. He works part-time to save enough money to
study abroad. One day when he is told by his girlfriend
that she had fallen in love with a married man, he turns
away coldly. He comes to meet the man in question,
Han Yun-shik while helping his friend who works at a
magazine publishing company. On an impulse, he decides
to get a job there. He meet Park Seong-Yeon who is a
veterinarian and an amateur photographer and gets to like
her. Knowing that Seong-yeon does not like her job as a
veterinarian, Yun-shik offers her a job as photographer
at the company. He wants to seduce but, finds himself
genuinely drawn to Seong-yeon. Won-sang discovers
what is going on between the two and pursues Seongyeon even more sincerely even while he despairs at the
thought that he cannot make Seong-yeon truly happy.
06
Films by Park, Chan-Ok (Korea)
03
Warm Swamp
Park Chan-Ok
Korea
04
Heavy
Park Chan-Ok
Korea
05
To be
Park Chan-Ok
Korea
A daughter is torn apart when her family becomes
troubled by her brother’s divorce. Even her boyfriend
cannot comfort her as he still cannot put his old exgirlfriend out of his mind.
Mother secretly smokes a cigarette in the restroom
and feels sorry for herself because after spending
all her life taking care of her children, she now
has to take care of her grandson who does not
have a mother. As director Park Chan-Ok states,
“ My adolescence was also traumatic. I became pessimistic
and rebellious while facing the numerous problems and
questions we learn to accept as adults.... The memories
of my adolescence are heartbreaking, but also beautiful
because of the emotional and spiritual growth that I
experienced ”. The film reflects the poignancy and terrible
beauty of existence.
Hee-Jeong finds a rim of underwear exposed, in a subway
full of people. She is aware of a greasy looking man and
glares at his hands. However, the one groping her body
was not this man, but a young boy standing right beside
her. Hee-Jeong feels offended. Hee-Jeong touches the
hip of a woman, standing in front of her. The woman is
unaware but Hee-Jeong persists. As the woman prepares
to get off the train, Hee-Jeong longs to see her face. She
alights with the woman and, follows her but loses her in
the crowded subway station.
07
Indian Films
01
Kutty Sraank
Shaji N Karun
02
Man Beyond
the Bridge
Laxmikant
Shetgaonkar
03
Where
healing is a
tradition
Gargi Sen
04
Annapoorna/
Goddess of
Food
Paromita Vohra
This is a film about a mariner who operates a cargo vessel
between the sea port of Kodungalloor near Kochi, once a roaring
port town in Kerala. One day, the local police station discovers
an unidentified body that has washed ashore. A Budhist nun
and another woman identify the rotten body as that of Kutti
Sraank. Yet another woman rejects the claim made by the other
women and argues that the body is not that of Kutti Sraank.
Eventually each woman shares the details of their relationship
with Kutti Srank. Kutty Sraank ultimately turns out to be a man
who convinced three very different women collectively that
he was a committed and faithful husband to each one of them
individually. When one life was being lived out, he succeeded in
keeping his other two lives a secret.
A widowed forest ranger in the Western Ghats strikes up an
unlikely relationship with a madwoman whom he finds lost and
alone in the woods. Ignoring the gossip of the nearby village,
Vinayak takes the woman into his home. But when she becomes
pregnant, the family is brutally cast out. Told in the native tongue
of Konkani, a language otherwise hardly used in Indian cinema,
this is a beautiful film of loneliness, compassion and the eternal
struggle against bigotry.
They have remedies for virtually every disease. They use herbs
and plants for medicinal preparations. Their knowledge system
is based on centuries of experience that is passed down through
the generations, orally. The expertise and skills of these women
are valued by their community, who do not have access to any
other forms of medical services. Yet there is a need to vitalise
and appropriately credit this knowledge which is rapidly being
appropriated by the forces of the market.The film is a eulogy to
Halamma, Chandramma, Shivamma, Jayamma, Sunandamma
and countless such women who are the unsung saviours of
many a life.
Set in the lanes and by-lanes of central Bombay’s mill area, the
film is a portrait of a women’s co-operative named Annapurna.
Started in 1975 by 14 khanawalis – women who prepared meals
for migrant workers, thus earning the name ‘food-lady’. The
organisation has today swelled to a membership of 150,000
and has it’s own credit co-operative bank, short-stay home and
08
05
catering centre. The film observes the everyday life of these
women and intertwines it with the story of how the organisation
grew. An exploration of the politics and economics of women’s
work, the film is a tribute to the fearless women who started
Annapoorna and the feisty women who continue to run it.
Beyond The
Wheel
Across cultures, tradition bars women from engaging in
activities of a certain kind- using the plough, casting a fishing
net or throwing the potter’s wheel. This film takes a look at
three Indian women potters, across the rural-urban, moderntraditional divides, in the context of the taboo of women and
the wheel. For the ‘modern’ artist, Shampa, the taboo of course
does not exist. ’Traditional’ artists Sara and Neelmani do not
touch the wheel. The film looks at how the taboo is turned on
its head as they find a creative route to its circumvention, in the
process, inventing their ‘own wheel’.
Rajula Shah
06
Dancing With
Hands Held
Tight
Krishnendu Bose
Kavita Das Gupta
07
Almoriana
Vasudha Joshi
Eighty percent of rural women are engaged in livelihoods
dependant on natural resources in India. This intense
relationship, throws up a whole range of issues and questions.
Do we all at large value the knowledge systems, which may
have developed among these women? How have women
coped with coercion from the state in their accessing of natural
resources? This film tries to explore these questions through
four focused engagements- with the fisherwomen off the coast
of Karnataka ; with the Apatani Women of Ziro, the North
Eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh ; with the adivasi and dalit
women of Kashipur in the Eastern Indian state of Orissa and
with the women of Sonebhadra, in the Central Indian state of
Uttar Pradesh. Four compelling life stories that are examples of
extraordinary courage and fortitude.
This is a cinematic document of the Dussehra festival in the
Himalayan town of Almora in Uttaranchal.
09
08
The Duels of
Hola Mohalla
Vani Subramanian
09
Indoor
K.J.Siju
10
Conditions
Apply
Lijin Jose
11
And She Flies
Mugil Chandran
12
Rowing Her
Way Through
The River of
Life
Krishnendu Bose
Kavita Das Gupta
2009 | 2min45sec | Colour
Winner of the Golden Statuette for the Best Film on Religion
at the International Festival of Short Films on Culture, Jaipur
in 2007, this film is a cinematic document of the Hola Mohalla
festival at Anandpur Sahib in Punjab. The festival marks the
establishment of the Khalsa Panth by Guru Gobind Singh and is
a weeklong celebration of Sikh valour and freedom.
The film, based on true stories, depicts a night in the life of a
middle class family woman and her daughter who go through
their everyday life of domestic violence which such passivity
that the violence itself becomes a routine, accepted aspect
of their lives. The man in their lives, husband and the father,
respectively, takes away the laughter from their lives and
terrorizes their existence. They wait for the dawn to come. Is
this what happens indoors, in other places, with other mothers
and daughters too? Will the dawn ever come?.
During the world economic recession, a young woman in
Bangalore, the IT capital of India, who loses her job, is forced
to take an extreme step in order to comply with her mounting
financial liabilities. The film examines two days in her life during
those hard times and is possibly one of the world’s shortest
love stories.
Ammu, a Tamil girl born in a refugee camp in the north east
of Sri Lanka, desires to fly. This desire leads her to a path of
mystery and magic.
This is a story of a brave girl who is not ready to give up her
self respect at any cost. Despite adverse circumstances, she
wants to lead her life, her way. Pooja Malhotra is facing a crisis.
Her husband, an advertising film executive, has thrown away his
secure job. They have to vacate the company’s flat. Pooja seems
to have come to the end of her tether. Much to Pooja’s surprise
her husband provides her with a spacious flat. She feels very
fulfilled but soon her secure world is once again threatened
by something much bigger - her husband, is involved with a
film actress, who wants marriage, children and a permanent
relationship.
10
12
13
It’s a Boy!
(It’s going to
be a boy)
Vani Subramanian
2008 | 30 min | Colour
12
14
Positive Living
C. Vanaja Kumari
12
15
Autumn in
the Himalayas
Malgorzata Skiba
12
16
Blood on my
Hands
Surabhi Saral,
Manak Matiyani and
Anandana Kapur
17
Buru Gaara
Shriprakash
12
18
Sengadal
LEENA MANIMEKALAI
(Premiere)
This film travels to Bombay, Delhi, Benares and Shillong, going
back in time to reveal how the current crisis of sex ratios had
been foretold by those on the forefront of the campaigns against
sex determination and pre-selection. It assesses government
initiatives, looks beyond the rhetoric and uses the lens of culture
to explore common beliefs about daughters and sons within the
family and men and women in society.
This documentary is the story of women living with HIV, who
defied destiny and persisted on their journey in life, against
social ostracism and an uncertain future, with dignity and hope.
This film brings to light the story of a group of elderly Buddhist
nuns from Ladakh, the last generation of unordained and
uneducated women in robes. They lead quiet lives in isolated
high mountains working as domestic helps and road construction
labourers. Neglected by religious and social systems for
centuries, the new Nyerma Nunnery is their last call for
dignity, enhancement and purification of their religious status.
This film examines how a woman’s menstrual cycle is altered
from being a marker of her fertility to something that renders
her untouchable and hence subject to multiple taboos and
regulations. As an individual, a woman or girl is isolated in
her struggle to come to terms with the transformations in her
body.
The film depicts poignant stories of a tribal journalist and a poet
in Jharkhand and how they express themselves through these
forms to resurrect and comment upon issues relating to tribal
identity and culture.
Dhanushkodi, the Indo-Sri Lankan border town, is the crucible
wherein history is brewing. It is a this concoction of defeated
lives and exhausted dreams. Leena Manimekalai, the filmmaker
herself, Soori, a half-wit Sri Lankan Tamil refugee, Munusamy,
a fisherman, Rosemary, a social worker in the Jesuit Christian
Refugee Services, try hard to retain their sanity. Their interactions
with the dead or living refugees, their skirmishes with the Indian
and Sri Lankan governments, their personal lives overrun by
external events, form the kernel of this powerful narrative.
11
19
12
Chilka Banksstories from
India’s largest
coastal lake
In a canvas spread over four decades, a banyan tree, on
the banks of the lake Chilka, silently whispers tales of the
lake and of fisherfolk, from the time when there was no
export bazaar to the time when there may be no lake.
Akanksha Joshi
20
12
Kanyashala
Ganga Mukhi
21
12
The Lijjat
Sisterhood
Kadambari
Chintamani /
Ajit Oomen
Students from Kanya Vidyalaya, an all-girls’ school at Vajreshwari,
share poignant stories of how they joined the school and their
dreams for the future. Along the way, the film looks at how
a segregated, all-girls’ space is an extension of existing social
norms, both enabling and restrictive.
The film documents the success story of a three hundred
crore women’s cooperative- the Shri Mahila Griha Udyog
Lijjat Papad- through the eyes of four key protagonists, their
colleagues and their families and explores what it means to be
part of this sisterhood.
22
12
To Think Like
a Woman
Arpita Sinha
The film reflects on the numerous silences that shroud the lives
of young, educated, ‘independent’, ‘modern’, single women in
urban India. Conversations with four such women reveal inner
conflicts, dissonances and a crisis of identity.
23
12
Partners in
Crime
Paromita Vohra
Is piracy organized crime or class struggle? Are alternative
artists who want to hold rights over their art and go it alone
in the market, visionaries or nutcases? Is the fine line between
plagiarism and inspiration a cop-out or a whole other way of
looking at the fluid nature of authorship? Full of wicked irony,
great music and thorny questions- metal heads who market
their own music, folklorists who turn tribal aphorisms into
short stories, music archivists who hoard and share everything
they can get their hands on, anti-piracy fanatics who think
piracy funds terrorism, a smooth talking DVD street salesman
who outlines the efficiency of the illegal market, media moguls,
lobbyists, “monetizers, downloaders, uploaders, the biggest
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hit song of 2010 and the small time nautanki singer whose song
it was inspired by – this film explores the grey horizons of
copyright and culture during times when technology is changing
the contours of the market.
12
24
A Fragment
of History
Uma Chakravarti
25
12
Oranges and
Mangoes
Priyanka Chhabra
Subbalaxmi had no formal education- but a chance incidenther grandfather’s failing eyesight- led her to read the newspaper
for him and paved a way for her to read and write in both
Tamil and English. This early exposure to politics led to a
lifelong engagement with the freedom struggle and the coming
together of individual aspirations and collective struggles at a
particular moment in India’s history.
What happens when it pours in the desert? Or when mangoes
grow where there were oranges before. In villages across
India, climate change is real and palpable. Over the last few
decades, the weather is changing and so is a way of life. The
changing climate affects not only livelihoods but cultures of
entire communities. Folk songs about rain and nature take us
through villages of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu
and West Bengal. And voices of people allow us to witness
the realities of climate change.
13
Korean Films
01
Viewfinder
KIM Jeong
02
Goodbye
Mom
Jeong Gi-hun
03
The Actresses
E J-yong
04
A Brand
New Life
Ounie Lecomte
** Winner, Network
of Asian Women’s Film
Festivals (NAWFF)
Award, 2010
The film showcases moments in the lives of several people who
meet by accident at the Namgang Rest Stop, off a highway in
southern South Korea. Kyung is in search of her runaway sister.
Chang is a computer whiz who has recently lost his job, Kim
Vac is a reporter-photographer who frequents the place and
Ona is an orphaned media artist who works there, dreaming
of a New Asia Highway. These four characters are connected
by a sense of loss and by their attempts to negotiate that loss
in a digital age.
At a girls’ high school at the seaside in Busan, Aeja, is recognised for
her ability to write well. She dreams of a career as a professional
novelist and moves to Seoul after her graduation. Her mother,
Young-hee, neglects Aeja and disapproves of her wild and freespirited life. After moving to Seoul, Aeja hardly visits Younghee. One day, Aeja gets a phone call that Young-hee has cancer
and is in hospital. Aeja reluctantly returns to Busan to take care
of Young-hee.
On Christmas Eve, in order to shoot Vogue’s special edition,
six actresses ranging from their twenties to their sixties
come together at a studio. This is the first attempt in Korea
to break the golden rule of the fashion world, that actresses
who are accustomed to being in the spotlight are never
to be in one place for a group photo shoot. The shoot
is therefore a disaster from the word go. A psychological
warfare erupts starting with the proposed order of arrival - who
comes early and who is to arrive later. This becomes a sensitive
issue. Things get worse when the actresses have to pick what
to wear. Their voices grow louder and there is dissent and
growing confusion in the air.
It’s early autumn, somewhere in a small town in South Korea.
Jinhee who is nine years old, sets off on a journey. She does
not know where she is going but she has to follow her father
and she has to obey. Somewhere near Seoul, her father entrusts
her to an orphanage for girls run by Catholic nuns in the hope
that she will be adopted. Jinhee resists. She cannot believe that
her father whom she loves very much has abandoned her. She
tries to make him come back. She attempts in vain to run away.
She finally has to accept her fate and is forced to hope and wait
for her possible adoption.
14
05
The 8
Sentiments
Sung ji hye
06
Women’s
Labour &
Poverty
Kim Mi-re
07
Variety
Survival
Talkshow
Se-young Jo
On the night of 30 June, 2007, five hundred women workers
in the hypermarket chain Homever, occupy the counters
at Homever’s World Cup Stadium branch. On 1 July 2007,
the Non-Regular Worker Protection Bill came into effect.
The women rage against the company’s cruel cancellation of
contracts and its inhuman discrimination. However, what was
planned as a two-day store occupation becomes a marathon
strike lasting 510 days!
Women who have been victims of sexual violence join a
group called ‘Small Talk’ and begin to reveal their experiences.
By talking to others, they bare their hearts and re-discover
themselves and help each other grow. And as they collide with
the outside world, they grow stronger. With wit and courage,
they deconstruct the stereotype of victims and therein lies
the strength and beauty of their ‘survival talk’.
This is a documentary about people in their 20s. In-Sik, who
works in a pub, Min-Hee, an office worker for seven years and
Seung-Hee, a lower-sub script writer at a broadcast station,
happily accept the proposal to appear on film. Each of their
lives sparkle in a unique way, but others do not recognize or
acknowledge the light they radiate. The film documents these
ordinary-extraordinary lives for an entire year.
08
09
This film is a love story about a man and three women. Min
Jong-hun, the hero of this film, is in his mid-30s and works as
a curator at a gallery in Seoul. He visits Pusan eight times to
meet a woman named Eun-ju. The problem however is that his
feelings towards Eun-ju change constantly with every trip. His
eight visits to Pusan show eight aspects of love in a compressed
way, starting from the first encounter to the final break-up.
Coming Out
Travel
Sappho
This documentary focuses on a woman aged 30 whose mother
is worried that she is unmarried. While on a trip together, her
mother tells her that she is unhappy about the fact that her
daughter is living with another girl, without any intention of
finding a boyfriend. The daughter decides to disclose her sexual
identity to her mother that night.
15
10
Shocking
Family
KYUNG SOON
11
Bandhobi
Shin Dong-il
12
Passerby #3
SHIN Su-won
2009 | 90min.50sec
Colour
13
A Perm
LEE Ran-hee
“Is there anyone in all of Korea who is really free from her
family”? This is a coming-of-age film that thinks about the
submergence of the self within the family while recording the
viewpoints of three women in their twenties, thirties and forties
respectively, who search for the meaning of their individual
existence.
Min-seo is a rebellious 17-year-old high school girl. She lives in
an apartment with her mother and her mother’s unemployed
younger boyfriend. Min-seo hates them both, but despises
her mother the most. She wants to go to university just like
her classmates, but money is tight. Karim, a migrant worker in
his late twenties is from Bangladesh. He has only one month
before he must leave the country and is searching hard to find
his old boss who has not given him his salary. On the first day
of summer vacation, Min-seo runs into Karim on a bus and the
two set off on an emotional journey together.
Ji-wan lives with a teenage son, Si-young and her husband,
Sang-woo. She quits her job as a school teacher and starts
working on a script to become a film director. She has worked
on her script for many years but making it into a film seems
almost impossible. With the pressure of writing a script,
Ji-wan, who has been depressed for a long time, feels that the
house is overflowing with ants that crawl all over her computer
keyboard.. Soon she starts to write a script about music bands in
connection with which she goes to a Rock Music Festival for an
interview. There she encounters a fantastic rainbow scene on
an empty stage and finds an abandoned music score. Although
her script is never made into a film, her son who plays a guitar
in a school band, extracts a part of her script and turns it into
a song called ‘Passerby #3’.
As soon as Loan arrives in Korea from Vietnam to live with her
Korean husband, her mother-in-law takes her to a beauty salon
first and gets her a perm.
16
14
The Things
She Can’t
Avoid in the
City
A woman finds a very cheap house in the city, but her house
is lifted into the air by a huge crane, thanks to a new city plan.
It soon becomes very hard for the protagonist to manage
her life in the city.
PARK Jee-youn
2008 | 12min | animation
Colour
15
Midnight
Blues
LIM Na-moo
16
Children Of
The Old Days
Nam, Da-Jeung
Yeongsin, Miju and Sukhui are friends who went to high school
together in the late 70s. They have not seen each other in a long
time, but one day they decide to go visit the grave of a friend
who committed suicide when she was 20. It is autumn and at the
cemetery, the three women spend the afternoon reminiscing
their friend. At the cemetery, they meet a young soldier who is
there to visit his mother’s grave on his first holiday home from the
army. In the evening, they go to a bar in Insa-dong and the four
of them spend the evening together.
She had only been gone for one night, but the world has
changed to an unfamiliar place with nowhere for children to go
back to. With no home and no school, children learn, hovering
over the grey city, like ghosts.
17
My name
is Pity
HONG TAE YI
2008 | 19min 41sec
Colour
18 A
Something
un-expected
HONG TAE YI
19
My Red Pants
KWON, Yong -Sook
One night, 20-year-old Jinha is invited by her 6-year old self to
regress into her childhood.She looks back at her past experience
with her grandfather who, believing in a monk’s words, treated
her accordingly.
One night, fifth-grader Jin Sook experiences something she
has never experienced before. She has her first period. This
incident annoys her and gives her a headache. This unexpected
news from her body make Jin-sook cry for one whole day. Her
imagination soon overwhelms her.
While going through some old clothing, Hyunlee comes across
a red track suit she used to wear often. Not knowing of the
special bond between Hyunlee and her track suit, her boyfriend
Busik tries on the track suit. It is not his nor does it fit him
17
properly. Hyunlee is worried that her favorite track suit suffused
with special memories will be stretched out of shape because
of her boyfriend.
20
Comi
LEE Eun-chun
2010 | 21min3sec |
Colour
21
Mother ’s
Romance
KIM , Jin Seok
2010 | 28min30sec |
Colour
22
A Perfect
Sight
In 2017, a simultaneous interpreter machine COMI becomes
available to the public and a huge contents market is created for
diverse voices on COMI. A COMI voice actress Bomi is popular
because of her sweet voice, but she does not have the courage
to talk directly to the person she is interested in. Bomi finds out
that the person she is interested in has a foreign girlfrie nd who
uses COMI with her voice on it.
Young-soon is a forty year old single mom who lives together
with her self-centered and immature college-going daughter.
One day she receives a phone call and from then on her endless
hours of doing nothing begins to change. The world around
Young-soon seems to become beautiful again. However, there
is an unexpected ordeal awaiting Young-soon.
A college student Jung-Soo visits Ji-Yeon’s college where he
witnesses a couple’s heated fight, out in the open
KIM, Han-Gyeol
2010 | 14min34sec |
Colour
23
Apple
JUNG,Chul
2009 | 19min45sec |
Colour
24
Daughter of
Choroloque
Park Misun
Yeon-Ju who is jobless, is awakened by her mother and she
feels very depressed. Yeon-Ju and her mother keep fighting
over small things while shopping for food and preparing for a
memorial ritual. They soon have a big argument. It turns out
that the memorial service was in fact, for Yeon-Ju’s birth mother.
Yeon-Ju runs off to her room and hides there.
This is a story about how, in the absence of a father, three
female miners in Bolivia and their daughters lead hard, painful,
but beautiful lives. The women live and work hard, carrying the
weight of life, against a backdrop of dazzling, beautiful scenery.
18
25t
Earth’s
Women
KWON Woo-jung
26
Mom
Yoo Sung Yup
2009 | 90min50sec |
Colour
This film is a story about three women who have been friends
since their college days. They feel at home in rural communities
despite their urban backgrounds. Kang Sun Hee had dreamt
of becoming a peasant activist; Byun Eun Joo followed her
husband to the country and So Hee Ju who came from
a privileged background had always been fascinated with a rural
life. Their engagement in the peasants’ movement ultimately
results in less time spent with their children and families. This
documentary follows their lives for more than a year—the lives
not only of “peasants” but also of “women,” both marginalized
positions in South Korea.
This is a film about the most special three-day trip taken by a
most ordinary mother and her daughter. One day, in the midst of
autumn, Ji Sook suddenly goes to her mother’s house and starts
being a “good daughter”. Although happy to see her daughter,
the mother feels anxious by Ji Sook’s sudden visit and abnormal
behaviour. The original play greatly succeeded in popularising
what came to be known as the “Mom Syndrome” in Korea.
19
World Films
01
Hearts
Suspended
Meghna Damani
India/USA
02
Where The
Heart Lies
Samar Minallah
2008 | 53min | Color
Afghanisthan
03
Lalon
Tanvir Mokamel
2007 | 140min |Colour
Bangladesh
This film is a short autobiographical documentary that reveals
how highly educated South Asian immigrant women struggle
to survive in the United States on their H4 or dependent
spouse visas, which deny them work authorization. Once
independent, now completely dependent, they face loneliness,
depression, loss of self-identity, strained marital relations and,
in extreme cases, exploitation and abuse. Through a unique
expressionistic combination of visuals, monologue, verite
footage and interviews, the film takes us on a journey into the
director’s inner turmoil. It is a search for spiritual strength, with
an aim to bring hope and political change for other women who
are frozen in time because of the restrictive nature of this visa.
This is a film of conversations with Afghan refugee women
living in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, as they
speak their hearts out on issues regarding displacement and
conflict. Physically, these women may be repatriated back to
Afghanistan, but for most, their heart lies in a foreign soil which
cradles their loved ones. They are torn between the choice of
returning home and of leaving the bodies of their loved ones in
a foreign land. The film tries to go behind the reportage about
reconstruction, to the heart, which cannot be rebuilt with bricks
and mortar alone, to express what it means to live a life full of
uncertainty, to be forced to reconstruct their lives, over and
over again. ‘
Lalon Fakir, the celebrated Baul poet profoundly influenced
generations of Baul-Fakirs of Bangladesh and India. The Bauls of
Bengal, a sect of mystical troubadours give prominence to the
human body as divine. Drawing from Buddhist Tantra, Hindu
Vaisnavism and Islamic Sufism, the Bauls depict asceticism,
the transience of life and secular ideals. Not much is known
of Lalon’s life and many details remain shrouded in mystery.
The film traces the poet’s life and ideas through the lyrics of
his songs. Some prominent cultural figures of Bengali society
of that time: Jyotirrindranath Tagore, Kangal Harinath and Mir
Mosharraf Hossain also appear in the film. The film locates the
cultures of the caste-ridden, subaltern, rural populace of Bengal
within the normative ideals of the Bauls.
20
04
Unwanted
Women
Tahmineh Milani
Iran
05
Two Women
Tahmineh Milani
Iran
06
Café Transit
Kambouzia Partovi
Iran
07
Coming of
Age
Judy Kibinge
2007 | 11min 42sec |
Colour | Kenya
This film is a tale about the struggles of women in modern-day
Iran. Sima is forced to put up with her philandering and abusive
husband, Ahmad. He is so blatant with his indiscretions that he asks
Sima to cover for him when he plans a trip with his girlfriend, Saba.
In a country like Iran, where unmarried couples can be arrested for
fraternizing in public, Ahmad needs Sima to pretend that Saba is his
cousin--a situation that proves both humiliating and dangerous.
Country girl Fereshteh and city girl Roya, schoolmates at Tehran
University in the early ‘80s, become friends. Their friendship and
their innocent fun are clouded only by the presence of a young
man who stalks the pretty Fereshteh demanding that she marry
him. Family pressure decides Fereshteh’s destiny, forcing her
into a marriage with a man she does not love. Her friend Roya
meanwhile, is living precisely the sort of life that Fereshteh aspires
to live. The two female characters in this film are a single person
with two personalities - the heroine’s actual personality and her
potential personality, what she is and what she wants to be but
cannot because of society and its values.
The central theme of this film is the role of women in male
dominated societies. Its heroine, Reyhan, has become a widow
and has two small children to take care of. Her deceased
husband’s brother, Nasser, offers to look after her by making her
his second wife. Reyhan, however, is an independent woman and
spurning Nasser’s offer, decides instead to re-open her husband’s
unsuccessful diner. This puts her in direct competition with Nasser,
who owns a much bigger and successful diner. As her diner
gradually builds up a loyal clientele, the tension between her and
Nasser escalates, particularly so when a Greek truck driver takes
a liking to Reyhan.
This coming of age story depicts the three ages and stages of
democracy as seen through the eyes of a girl growing up. The
Kenyatta era, a time of great optimism and post-independence
euphoria is reflected in the innocence and naivety of the young
girl. As Kenya enters its next era, of dictatorship under Daniel Arap
Moi, the gloom of oppression and confusion is reflected by teenage
turmoil and finally, all grown up, the audience is confronted with
Kenya’s third stage of democracy under Mwai Kibaki and is left
wondering if democracy, with all its free speech and openness, can
ever really come of age.
21
08
Teresa
Tatiana Gaviola
Chile
09
El Cortejo
Marina Seresky
Spain
10
Remembrance
of Things
Present
Chandra Siddan
Canada | India
11
Talking Head
Fathima Nizaruddin
UK | India
12
Living
Without Men
Luo yi
Teresa, the latest film by Tatiana Gaviola, chronicles the life of
Teresa Wilms Montt, a writer of in the early twentieth century,
particularly remembered for the controversies, accusations that
surrounded her and for the persecution that she was subjected
to. Her legendary beauty meant that she was a muse to manyher husband Gustavo Balmaceda and Vicente Huidobro, among
others.
Capi is the oldest gravedigger in the cemetery. Used to working
amidst the suffering of others and the jokes of his colleagues,
there is only one person capable of taking him out of his daily
routine. Every month, for the last few years, he waits for Marta
to take flowers to the grave of her husband. She is his last
hope.
Chandra Siddan, a Canadian immigrant, returns to Bangalore,
India after being away for twelve years. Long divorced and
newly re-married, she enquires into the reasons that led to her
early first marriage arranged in the mid-70s by her Hindu urban
middle-class family. She confronts her parents and relatives
with her lost childhood while also presenting to them, her new
husband. Reuniting with her daughter, Smruthi, (now in her
twenties), Chandra finds her refreshingly liberated. But the life
of her parents’ teenage servant, Sudha, shows that the past is
anything but over.
The film is a satirical response to the way mainstream media
looks at Muslim women as ‘victims’. The filmmaker, herself a
Muslim, is deeply troubled by this image and sets out to make a
“positive film about Muslim women”. Her attempts lead her to
three characters in East London- a painter, an aspiring politician
and a community support worker. Each character has her own
unique take on how she deals with the question of Muslim
identity. The film reveals how the subjectivity of the filmmaker
influences the film in such a way that the film is as much about
its maker as it is about the subject.
In the 1920’s, Chinese women when given two optionssubmitting to an arranged marriage or taking a vow of celibacy
for life- most preferred the latter. Instead of serving a husband
and children at home, they earned their living in spinning
22
13
China
factories and moved into a nursing home after retirement. Now
in the 1990’s, they tell their stories with pride and loneliness,
but with no regret
Monsoon
Reflections
Drawing its title from a poem by the Nepali poet Lekhnath
Paudyal, who depicts the monsoon season as sublime and
blissful, this film focuses on the melancholy and grit of two
female Nepali field hands as they carry out their monsoon
routines in Lekhnath, Nepal. It is a sensorial riposte to Paudyal’s
idealistic depiction of the monsoon as ‘joyous from start to
finish,’ and reflects upon issues relating to labour, gender and
fleeting pleasure in rural Nepal.
Stephanie Spray
Nepal
14
Stitches
Speak
Nina Sabnani
UK /India
15
Tapologo
Gabriela Gutiérrez
Dewar, Sally
Gutiérrez Dewar
South Africa
16
Piter Fm
Oksana Bychkova
Russia
This film is an animated documentary which celebrates the art
and passion of the Kutch artisans associated with Kala Raksha.
The film traces multiple journeys made by the participants
towards defining their identities and towards forming the Kala
Raksha Trust and the School for Design. The film uses their
narrative art of appliqué and embroideries through which they
articulate their responses to life and to events as traumatic as
earthquakes and as joyful as flying a kite. Through conversations
and memories, four voices share their involvement in the
evolution of a craft tradition.
In Freedom Park, a squatter settlement in South Africa, a group
of HIV-infected former sex-workers create a network called,
Tapologo. They learn to be home-based carers for their
community, transforming degradation into solidarity and squalor
into hope.
This is a spring lyric comedy about two young people who find
themselves at a cross-road where each has to decide what is
of prime importance in their lives. Masha is a DJ at a popular
Petersburg radio station while Maxim is a young architect. Masha
is preparing to marry her former classmate Maxim. Maxim has
won an international architecture competition and is going to
work in Germany. Masha and Maxim are not sure if they want
to go through with the wedding. Maxim still pines for the girl
who deserted him. Masha feels that her fiancé is not the man
she needs.
23
17
When we
leave
Feo Aladag
Germany
18
The Hair
Dresser
Doris Dorrie
“Stop dreaming!” says the mother to her twenty-five-year-old
daughter Umay when she and her young son Cem appear at
the door of her parents’ Berlin apartment. Umay has run away
from an unhappy marriage in Istanbul and has returned to Berlin
because she wants to lead her own life again. She knows that
she’s expecting a lot from her parents but she hopes that their
loving relationship will mean more to them than the pressure
of social conventions.But before long she realises that her
family cannot simply ignore their deep-seated traditions and the
situation could well break them.
Set after the fall of the Berlin wall, the film follows a single
mother who lands a job as manager at a hairdressing salon.
But when the new boss insults her as soon as she arrives, she
decides to open her own salon across the street.
Germany
19
A Year Ago in
Winter
Caroline Link
Germany
20
Ghosted
Monika Treut
Germany
This film, an adaptation of Scott Campbell’s Aftermath, is an
intense, urgent, haunting drama about the tangled webs people
weave and the ensuing hurt suffered by a modern family,
transposed from present-day America to present-day Germany.
Set in Munich and on nearby Lake Starnberg, the film is a subtle,
soft, positively unspectacular glimpse into the lives of a family
that has been traumatised, paralysed and petrified by the death
of a loved one. It is also a film about loss and how we deal with
it, about mourning, pain and about letting go.
Monika Treut returns to narrative filmmaking after a decade
in documentary work with a mysterious love story about a
Hamburg artist, Sophie, who is trying to come to terms with
her Taiwanese lover Ai-Ling’s murder. To ease her grief, Sophie
creates a video installation about Ai-Ling, and when she brings
the exhibition to Taipei she meets the ambitious and seductive
Mei-Li, a journalist who is investigating Ai-Ling’s death. Unable
to forget her dead lover and confused by Mei-Li’s advances,
she flees back to Hamburg. But when Mei-Li turns up on her
doorstep, Sophie begins to suspect something strange is going
on
24
21
The Widow
Colony
Harpreet Kaur
2008 | 73min | Color
USA | India
22
Women Are
Heroes
JR
France, Kenya
23
Dreams in
Another
Language
Lucia Rikaki
Cyprus
This film takes an in-depth look into the lives of the widows
of the Sikh men who were killed in the anti-Sikh massacre
of November, 1984. The film explores the suffering of
these women, their battle for justice and their struggle for
survival in India. “The Widow Colony – India’s Unsettled
Settlement”, borrows its name from the settlement in Tilak
Vihar, on the west-side of New Delhi, which is locally called
the Widow Colony or Vidhva Colony. The film takes the
viewer to the areas of Trilokpuri, Kalyanpuri, Sultanpuri
and Mongolpuri, the same localities that suffered the major
brunt of the Sikh killings in November of 1984. Along with
the testimonies of the widows, supplemented with imagery
of the killings and of the destruction that followed the
assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the film conveys
the intensity of the tragedy that occurred 21 years ago.
This is a documentary film that resembles an extended behindthe-scenes shots of the eponymous art project by JR who
covered buildings, trains and bridges in the most remote places
with gigantic black-and-white portraits of poor but dignified
local women. Digital still and moving images and the score cowritten by Massive Attack are often impressive. The film is made
with views of the cities JR visited. These breathtaking sequences
are linked to short interview fragments. JR’s hands can be seen
manipulating his photo camera, but his face remains hidden.
Images of the gigantic portraits in situ are often arresting, with
the posters and their surroundings shot and framed in equally
striking compositions. The overall effect is intended to celebrate
the heroic women of the title.
Sometimes people come together for the most unexpected
of reasons to become family. 46 teachers, 200 students, 21
nationalities. An original education experiment, a creative game
of coexistence. The kids at Faneromeni school are taught about
acceptance, coexistence and the wealth of various cultures.The
particular geographical and political set up of the school, situated
only 500 meters from The Green Line separating the country,
also provides very interesting ground for reflecting upon the
recent history of Cyprus and of new, migrating nations.
25
24
The Aegean
in the Words
of the Poet
Lucia Rikaki
Aegean Islands
25
Des Enfants
Dans Les
Arbres
Bania Medjbar
Algeria, France
26
Tambores de
agua
Clarissa Duque
Venezuela
27
Life above all
Oliver SCHMITZ.
South Africa
28
Puzzles
Natalia Smirnoff
Argentina
This film is a cinematic voyage based on the words of travel
writers and poets from around the world who visited and wrote
about the Aegean archipelago over the centuries. Images from
the Aegean islands and the sea links these stories that blend
poems and records of journeys to the Aegean, over centuries,
by writers who felt compelled to share with the world, the
emotions that the archipelago inspired in them. As viewers, we
are confronted with vivid descriptions of similar emotions which
the Aegean continues to trigger in visitors , to this day.
This is a story of the suburbs painted in magical-realistic hues.
Karim and his sister Coralie, live with their mother in a housing
estate overlooking Marseilles. Every morning they stare from
afar at the prison where their father is and listen to the radio
that sends messages to the inmates. This conversation which
is always one-way is like “speaking to the air” for Karim. When
the police search the house for the umpteenth time, the two
children set off on their bikes on a journey of initiation in the
city, with the Utopian dream of freeing their father.
In the company of the contemporary dancer Tatiana Gómez,
whose presence is the narrative thread of the film, the director
investigates the different expressions of music in Venezuela,
and the strength of their African roots. The very particular and
evocative practice that allows the encounter of two continents,
Africa and America, is represented by the “tambores de água”.
The result of two years of research, the film documents the
relationship with today’s communities of African origin in the
area of Barlovento and their survival in the age of globalization
This film is an emotional and universal drama about a young
girl who fights the fear and shame that have poisoned her
community. The film captures the enduring strength of loyalty
and a courage powered by the heart. The film is based on the
international award winning novel, “Chanda’s Secrets”.
Maria del Carmen has reached a difficult moment: Her husband,
Juan has his business and is eminently satisfied with his wife’s
status as a loving drudge at home, while her two kids, Ivan and
Juan Pablo, are reaching the age where they are moving out or
26
otherwise preoccupied with their lives. Lacking any interests
outside the home, Maria del Carmen needs a purpose again,
or at least a passion. At a shop, she sees a flier from someone
looking for a partner for a puzzle tournament. Without letting
her family know, she meets the rich bachelor Roberto, who,
struck by her unorthodox but rapid puzzle-solving skills, agrees
to take her on as his partner. In the coming weeks, Maria tells
her family that she is looking after a sick aunt while she and
Roberto solve puzzles together at his mansion. A new world
gradually opens up.
29
The Neighbour
NAGHMEH Shirkhan
Iran
30
Abuelos
Carla Valencia Davila
Ecuador, Chile
31
Tabou
Mereim Riveill
Tunisia
This is a film about five generations of Iranian women at grips
with immigration, separation and solitude. “I think that anyone
who emigrates, for whatever reason, always has a sense of loss
inside and a desire to fill that void,” says the director. What
should they do to adapt? What are they ready to leave behind?
And what can they not let go of? Shirin, who lives alone in
Canada in the Iranian community of Vancouver, tries to answer
these questions in a film which is like a love story between
mothers and daughters.
A diary of a personal journey where the director sets off in
search of the stories of her two grandfathers, near and far at
one and the same time. Remo, a self-taught Ecuadorian doctor,
wanted to achieve immortality through his profession. Juan, a
Communist activist, was assassinated during the Chilean military
dictatorship in 1973. By listening to the accounts of her relatives
and people who knew her grandfathers, the young filmmaker
reflects upon the family; upon the history of Ecuador and Chile
and upon the different places she visited during her research,
the green mountains of Ecuador and the bleak desert region
where Juan was buried in a mass grave.
The delicate question of sexual harassment in the family
is approached with great sensitivity in this film. Layla who is
eighteen years old, is on the brink of adulthood and is trying to
come to terms with her first sexual experiences.The awakening
of her body brings back memories from her childhood , emotions
that that she had long suppressed. The film is a desperate plea
to free words so that deep-rooted taboos can be broken.
27
32
Thank you
Mama
Omelga Mthiyane
South Africa
33
Jamila And
The President
Ratna Sarumpaet
Indonesia
34
The Road
Under Heavens
Kamara Kamalova
Uzbekistan
35
Pomegranates
and Myrrh
Najwa Najjar
Warwick Market in Durban is a place that has meant a great deal
f or generations of poor black South Africans. On the one hand
the traders earned a certain profit at that market and on the
other, their customers could do their shopping there every day
at reasonable prices. But during the World Cup, the legendary
market was threatened by demolition to clean up the area and
make way for a modern and expensive shopping centre. The
filmmaker discovers and describes that place when she visits the
market with her mother.
One bright sunny day, the whole country is shocked by the
news of the death of a minister. A young female prostitute
named Jamila, appears at the police station claiming that she is
the murderer responsible for the crime. The case becomes a
controversy in an instant, spreading all over the nation. During
the course of the trial, Jamila is convicted and sentenced to
death. Jamila has one final request- she wants to meet the
President, a well-known Moslem preacher. However, this is
refused as there is no precedence of any President meeting
a convict or granting clemency in person. On the day of her
execution, Jamila expresses her bitternes and questions God
about her given fate. The preacher approaches her and pursues
her to pray for God’s mercy.
This film has all the elements of a classic melodrama. A boy and
a girl fall in love. Immersed in the euphoria of their emotions,
they forget about customs and traditions. While the boy can
walk away from his responsibilities, the girl pays the price
of being the subject of malicious gossip and of mothering an
unwanted child. And just like in classic melodramas about
deceived and deserted maidens, before she is ready to end her
life, another man arrives, and by accepting her as she is, saves
both her and her child. Despite this melodramatic structure, far
from sponging on the emotions of the audience, the film is full
of life and hope, carrying the audience into a world of dreams
where life can be beautiful despite its pain.
Free-spirited dancer Kamar finds she is alone when her husband
is jailed. While dealing with the grief of separation, Kamar must
face the moral strictures of her community. She meets Kais,
a Palestinian returnee, with whom she begins a relationship,
28
36
Palestine
founded in their mutual love of dance and fuelled by the
emotional strength it creates within them both.
Persian Cat
Walk
Mahdis, 20, lives in Tehran and wants to be a model. In this
country where what a woman wears is strictly regulated and
often monitored by special patrols, it is virtually impossible to
follow western fashion. Even within the family, conflicts erupt.
Mahdis’s mother embraces the prescribed dress code even as
she sympathises with her daughter, while her very religious
father does not. Through Mahdis’s story, which takes us in to
Tehran’s fashionable circles, we see this country’s response to
modernity and the its prevalent image of women.
Marjan Alizadeh
Iran
37
7 Women
Sara Rastegar
Iran, France
38
A Time of The
Heart
Ali Özgentürk
France
39
Tulay
German-Years
of Fire and
Cenders
Didem Pekun
Turkey
40
Leyla and
Mecnun
Abroad
This film showcases Iran, thirty years after the revolution. The
film depicts the lives of women who chose to stay back in the
country and portrays how they manage to keep on living with
the strict laws imposed by the regime. Woven like a colourful
Persian rug, the testimonies of these women from all walks of
life, reveal the complex motives of a traditional way of living and
its adaptation to the realities of today’s Iranian society.
This romantic crime story begins with the events that involve
four youngsters at Pera Palas in the 1950’s. In the 1980’s,
memories are rekindled at the same hotel and one of them is
murdered. In 2004, with an unexpected twist of fate, the secret
is revealed.
The film explores the legacy of an influential singer who
came of age at the time of social upheaval. Her music served
as platform for political activism. She had a complicated and
intense relationship with her partner Erdem Buri, who was also
politically persecuted. Using her own story as a parallel minor
narrative, the filmmaker explores the themes of art, identity,
and politics.
Quite contrary to how Özkaya remembers her parents, their
love story starts by the saying “They were like Leyla and
Mecnun” – a well known love story in the Islamic world, like
Romeo and Juliet. While visiting the village where her parents
were born, Özkaya finds a stack of old letters, letters with love
29
41
Zeynep Ozkaya
Holland, Turkey
songs from her mother and her father. These letters reveal a
passionate love story between Turkey and the Netherlands. For
centuries we have listened to the voice of Mecnun expressing
his love for Leyla through poetry and songs. But what about
Leyla, what is the tenor of her voice?
Married to
the Camera
The film shows us the unknown face of the TV world through
a very popular show in Turkey called “Marriage with Esra Erol”,
that aims to marry people in front of the camera. It focuses on
the people looking for a glimpse of hope in the hallways of a
huge TV studio: a popular presenter who feels at ease on stage
but prays backstage for good luck; a director whispering in her
earphone in order to make the show more exciting; a peculiar
spectator whose job it is to criticize; audience clapping when
ordered and a young man dancing to hip-hop music without
ever having been in a disco in his life.
Doga Kilcioglu
Turkey
421
Sidewalk
Sisters
Yasemin Alkaya
Turkey
43
Perfect
Picture
SHIRLEY FRIMPONG
MANSO
Ghana
Turkish actress and filmmaker, Yasemin Alkaya, tries her hand
at the documentary form with her powerful look at three
women with ties to her past. Elif Caglayan, a childhood friend
of Alkaya,who now lives in Ankara, is trying to make a living as a
singer, while her two children fend for themselves in Izmar. Elif
and her sisters, Funda and Aysun, have spent much of their adult
life coming to terms with a traumatic childhood in which their
parents were killed during an accident that left them terrified but
physically unhurt. Over the course of time, Funda and Aysun
becomes mentally ill and it falls on Elif to take care of them.
Eventually the burden of doing so becomes too much for Elif and
her husband to bear and they desert the siblings, leaving them to
an unknown fate. Living in a country with no social security net,
Funda and Aysun fall prey to violence and exploitation. Their
reunion with Elif and Yasemin is both poignant and troubling.
In what appears a perfect life, the three beautiful young women
make bold attempts to change their lives even when destiny
plays a joke on them. With a marriage that seems almost
doomed from the beginning, to an affair with an unlikely person
and the endless pursuit of love, the three friends learn the harsh
lessons of life, the challenges of marriage, the fatality of falling
in love and the rewards of having a good laugh in the midst of
sorrow.
30
44
Imani
Caroline Kamya
Uganda, Sweden
45
Ava
Chika Anadu
The film takes place on a normal day. For three people, this
day is no ordinary one. Mary, who works in the house of a
high-society lady, encounters some serious difficulties when she
is forced to pay a bribe to save her sister from the clutches
of the corrupt police force. It is also the day when12-yearold Olweny, a child soldier, leaves the rehabilitation centre
to return to his parent’s war-damaged village. And while hiphopper Armstrong is putting together a dance performance,
he is forced to enter into a complicated arrangement with a
former childhood friend of his, who has risen through the ranks
to become the “Ghetto King”. Although the paths of the three
protagonists do not cross, this one day demands an unusual
amount of grit from each one of them. On a subliminal level
however, the film is also about how living in Uganda today,
forces one to develop this sort of strength, just to survive.
A woman, a few hours away from her wedding, is reflecting on
her relationship with her husband to-be.
Nigeria
46
Pink Saris
Kim Longinotto
UK, India
47
Coolie Pink
and Green
Pat Mohammed
Trinidad & Tobago
If you’re shy, you’ll die.” This is just one of the catchy aphorisms
uttered by the formidable Sampat Pal Devi, leader of the Gulabi
Gang (a.k.a. the “Pink Gang”), the centre of this stirring film.
Her base is the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where
entrenched tradition continues to condone child marriages,
dowry deaths and abuse inflicted upon wives by husbands and
in-laws. The Gulabi Gang seeks to help women from the lowest
caste, known as dalits or “untouchables.” The female gang
members assert their presence by wearing bright pink saris and
make good on Sampat Pal’s assertion that: “there is no higher
power than a woman.”
Despite the significant presence of East Indians in the Caribbean,
Indian culture is yet to be seen as being truly indigenous. This
film projects a new way of seeing Caribbean Indian culture,
through the story of a young Hindu girl who is learning the
beauty of her culture, even as an elder in her community
attempts to hold her in a traditional mould. While the girl is
sympathetic to the elder’s views, she already lives in a hybrid
culture and must celebrate both.
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48
Jeffrey’s
Calypso
Vashti Anderson
Trinidad
49
Didi & Gigi
Marie Ka
2008 | 7 min20sec |
Colour
Senegal
50
Mokhtar
Halima Ouardiri
2008 | 15 min | Colour
Canada
51
Pieces
D’Identité
Mweze Ngangura
Belgium
52
From A
Whisper
Wanuri Kahiu
Nairobi
This film examines the complexities of race and class relations
as well as the experience of being a Caribbean immigrant in
the Midwest. It is also a compelling story of a young, oncesheltered Trinidadian girl who fights her way past the cheese
factories, beer parties, and frozen lakes to discover who she
really is. The film is brutally honest, but it also has upliftingly
funny moments as it dances to the pulse of calypso music.
Didi and Gigi are twins. They embark a modelling career
together. All is well until one fateful day when destiny
separates them. When Didi meets somebody special, Gigi
becomes intensely threatened and jealous. She has no
option but to do the unthinkable. Marie Ka’s film is a hilarious
tale about sibling rivalry, narrated in an unexpected way.
Based on a true story, Mokhtar recounts the tale of a young
boy who lives with his family of goatherds in a remote,
Moroccan village. One day, the boy finds a fallen owl and
decides to keep it, despite the fact that the owl is considered a
bad omen. Mokhtar’s new pet becomes a symbol of rebellion
against his family and an icon of his fledgling independence.
Kinship, religion and spirituality are all confronted in this
astounding piece that celebrates inner and outer strength.
Mani Kongo is the king of the Bakongo. His only daughter,
Mwana, left for Belgium to study to become a doctor, but all
contact with her has been lost. Mani Kongo decides to travel
to Belgium in search of his beloved daughter. On arriving
he has to cope with the very best and the very worst of
the black diaspora, as well as with prejudices rampant in
European society. He finds good friends amongst the poor
low-class whites and learns that nothing is ever black or white
Abu is a quiet and hardworking intelligence officer who keeps
to himself. When he meets Tamani, a young, rebellious artist in
search of her mother, he decides to help. Unknowingly, Tamani
churns up memories of Fareed, Abu’s best friend who also
lost his life in the US Embassy bomb blast 10 years ago. The
discovery about the death of Tamani’s mother forces everyone
involved to learn how to forgive, deal with their own faith and
confront what they fear the most – the truth. The film is based
32
on the real events surrounding the August 7 bombings on the
US Embassy in Nairobi in 1998.
53
Homeland
Jacqueline Kalimunda
France
54
Soul Boy
Hawa Essuman
Kenya
55
Mum
Adelheid Roosen
2009 | 19min17sec |
Colour
The Netherlands
On the green hillside of Kigali, the clouds are threatening to
break out and Rwanda remembers the genocide that occured
ten years ago. Ten years ago, the director of this film was
twenty years old. She lost her father and her mother and was
only twenty herself during the country’s independence years.
The film is a journey around Rwanda, with characters from
two different generations- those who were twenty years old
during the genocide and those who are old enough to have
been twenty during the sixties, the independence years. The
film is a trip back in time to question repeated violence, fate
and cruelty.
Fourteen year-old Abila lives with his parents in Kibera, one
of the largest slums in East Africa. One morning the teenager
discovers that his father is ill and delirious. ‘Someone has stolen
his soul’, mumbles the father as he sits huddled in a corner. Abila
is shocked and confused but wants to help his father and goes
in search of a suitable cure. Supported by his friend Shiku who
is the same age as him, he learns that his father has gambled his
soul away in the company of a spiritual woman. The teenager
does not want to believe this and sets about looking for the
witch. When he finally discovers her in the darkest corner of the
ghetto, she gives him seven challenging tasks to save his father’s
lost soul. Abila embarks on an adventurous journey which leads
him right through the microcosm of his home town.
This film is a documentary about the director’s mother who has
developed Alzheimer’s disease.“I don’t see her dissolving, I see
her appearing, I see her as an Alice in Wonderland: she is falling
through time, I fall after her, discover where she is, what she is
going through, what she is doing or saying. My mother has left
on a journey and I am travelling with her, as her luggage”, says
the director who uses the camera to record and enter into her
mother’s world. The film is a very visual, loving and humorous
attempt to understand this elusive disease.
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56
Aviatrix of
Kazbek
Ineke Smits
The Netherlands
57
Slovenian girl
Ineke Smits
Slovenia
58
Invisible
Strings-The
Talented
Puskar Sisters
Agnes Sos
Hungary
59
Katja’s sister
Mijke de Jong
Netherlands
Marie has a vivid imagination. On the flat island of Texel, she
dreams about mountains and even collects pictures of them.
She would rather like to do something with her life instead of
marrying the beachcomber’s son. But, being the only girl in a
big and poor family during the war, she does not seem to have
much of a choice. Relationships and positions are tightened
even more by the reality of war. Marie tries to outlive this reality
by dreaming. The sudden arrival of a regiment of Georgians
stationed on the island bring colour, life and love into Marie’s
life. On the island, the encounter of cultures leads to clashes
and reconciliation, misunderstandings and fraternization, tragic
and comic situations. When the Georgians revolt against the
Germans, Marie takes the side of the Georgians.
Aleksandra is a 23-year-old English language student. She comes
from a small town. Her parents are divorced. No one knows
that Alexandra runs personal advertisements with the nickname,
“Slovenka” or “The Slovenian Girl” and that prostitution is her
secret source of income. She is very good at manipulating
others, is an accomplished liar and a bit of a thief. She resents
her mother and regards her as being selfish. Her ambition is to
escape the banality of her home town and to settle in the big
city, but her clandestine job leads her to a dangerous encounter
with local criminals.
This is a documentary about two sisters, Juli ,12 and Ágnes,
18. Both of them play the violin wonderfully. Agnes, the older
sister, is talented, but everybody thinks that it is the younger
sister Juli who is a child prodigy. However, it is not their talent
in music or their technique, but their personality, their spirit and
the unusual nature of their sisterhood that fascinates everyone,
including the director.
This film is an intimate portrait of a 13-year old girl,who loses
her mother and older sister to the world of prostitution.Some
people find the girl removed from reality. Her older sister
Katja dismisses her as stupid. But this is only a first impression,
perhaps the result of the girl’s subconscious desire to remain a
child. Or perhaps, her strange behavior is a defense against the
uninspiring life that she leads, a cruel existence shared with her
34
sister and mother. Having emigrated from Russia some years
previously, the girl’s mother tries to build up a life in Amsterdam
and is drawn into the world of prostitution. Katja follows her
mother into the same obscure world. The protagonist, Katja’s
sister, adores her older, more beautiful sister.
60
Joy
Mijke de Jong
Netherlands
61
May I enter?
Koštana Banović
The Netherlands
62
My mother ’s
farm
Ilze Burkovska
Jacobsen
The Netherlands
63
The
Seamstresses
Biljana Garvanlieva
Macedonia
The title refers to the name of the film’s protagonist rather than
any sense of exultation the viewer will feel from watching this
film. Joy is first seen as a baby being placed in a bag and dumped
on a bench by her mother. Now at eighteen, she has become
obsessed with finding the mother who abandoned her and left
her at the mercy of the care system.
In this film, the director takes her exploration of the relationship
between the Self and the Other a step further. Faced with a cult
where the Self is annihilated to allow an invasion of otherness
and inspired by this radical form of (dis)embodiment, she no
longer seeks to approximate the Other, but to become one
with it. The director documents on film, the(im)possibility of that
project. The film moves back and forth between the position
of an outsider-witness of ceremonies (a camerawoman who
observes and remains at a distance) and that of a participating
insider (a person truly involved).
This film is a portrait of a strong woman from a weak part of
eastern Europe. The director tells the story of her mother’s
life and work in the new post Sovjet country. Tale Kalnas’s
life is documented with the historical changes in Latvia as a
background. This up-close and personal film uses footage from
the founding of the farm in 1991 until it closes down in 2007.
This is a story about the seamstresses in the small town of
Shtip in Macedonia. The seamstresses in Macedonia are the
Cinderellas of a globalised world. The textile industry is
flourishing there. They attend to their most loyal customers
like Benetton, Versace, H & M, and do so even faster then the
Chinese competitors. A seamstress has to sew 120 shirts a day.
If she wants to buy one of her shirts at Benetton, she would
have to work hard for a month. While the women of Shtip are
fully occupied, the men are unemployed. This film focuses the
female gaze on the consequences of globalisation in a country
that has no “new men”.
35
64
Cholita Libre
Jana Richter
Germany
65
Third Person
Singular
Mostofa Sarwar
Farooki
Bangladesh
66
Fata Morgana
Joanna Wesseling
Portugal
67
The Good
Herbs
María Novaro
Mexico
This film focuses on the world of Lucha Leibre, or free-wrestling,
a mix of sport, theatre and choreography. It showcases the
protagonists with their colourful, glittering skirts, like flowers on
the tarmac. They are full of grit and they are stronger than all
the men in the world. They are wrestlers and they fight on the
stage to prove that this world can change.
This film showcases the multi-dimensional problems of a
modern Bangladeshi girl named Ruba Haque who becomes the
victim of her in-law’s tyranny. Her mother-in-law does not let
her stay in their house when her husband is imprisoned. She
comes back to her mother’s house but cannot tell her mother
about her relationship with her ex-boyfriend. She leaves her
home only to confront the harsh realities of a male-dominated
society. The film depicts the social and religious taboos faced by
women in a repressive society.
After being abandoned by her father, the seven-year old Eva
prays every day to her Virgin Mary statuette, hoping he will
come back. One night, her mother Margaritha brings home
José, a man she met while she was out. The next morning,
while Margaritha is off to work, Eva finds him and believes that
her wish has come true. Eva is determined to ensure that José
is indeed the father whom she has been dreaming of.
Lala is in charge of the university’s botanical gardens and is
a plant expert. She lives alone, proudly separated from an
unseen husband. She is a beacon of independence to her hippie
daughter Dhalia, a young single mom, raising her young son on
her own. Dhalia begins to worry when her mom’s frequent
memory lapses begin to be tinged with paranoid delusions, that
there is a man in the house. As Lala’s mind becomes more and
more disorganized, she entrusts Dhalia with her research into
herbal remedies from pre-Columbian Mexico, which can heal
not just the body, but the human soul. This is not the kind of film
that finds a magical remedy for Alzheimer’s, but the idea that
there is a long and wise tradition available, somehow cushions
the sadness of the story, leading to a difficult but surprising
ending.
36
68
Habana Eva
Fina Torres
Venezuela, Cuba
69
I travel
because I
have to come
back
Karim Ainouz,
Marcelo Gomes
Brazil
70
What I Love
Most
Delfina Castagnino
Argentina
71
La Yuma
Florence Jaugey
Nicaragua, Mexico,
Spain, France
In a Havana, shaken by Fidel’s retirement, a young seamstress,
trapped in a sweatshop job, dreams of designing beautiful dresses.
Frustrated by her lazy, though adorable Cuban boyfriend,
she meets a sophisticated ex-patriot Cuban-Venezuelan who
dazzles her with a glamorous future. After many deceptions
and surprises, Eva has to choose between the two men she
loves. Her’s is an unexpected decision, a humorous metaphor
of Cuba’s options for the future.
José Renato, a 35-year old geologist, is sent on a field trip to the
scrublands of the Sertão, a semi-arid isolated region in the northeast of Brazil. The aim of his survey is to assess possible routes
for a water canal from the region’s only voluminous river. For
many of the region’s inhabitants, the canal will be a lifeline, the
chance of a future and a source of hope. But for those living on
the canal’s direct course, it means only requisitions, departure
and loss. As the field trip progresses, it seems that José Renato
has something in common with the places he visits: emptiness,
a sense of abandonment and isolation. Like an astronaut who
has travelled in outer space, or a sailor who has crossed the
oceans, for José Renato, nothing will ever be the same again.
Pilar lives in the South. She has recently lost her father and
is now on her own. María has come to visit her, to keep her
company and to take a break from the boyfriend she is on the
verge of leaving. Neither has the wherewithal to comfort the
other. Neither knows what they want. They barely know what
they do not want. They do not want to go back to their lives.
They do not want to think about the future. They do not want
to be alone. They do not want their holiday to end.
This film, the first fiction feature to emerge from Nicaragua in
twenty years, gives an insight into the life of a young woman
with few prospects, but with a very strong will. Eighteen year
old Yuma’s biggest dream is to become a boxer. In the ring, she
can find a release for the pent-up aggression caused by living in
the slums of Managua, amidst a loveless family and friends, who
are throwing their lives away in petty crime. Her dreams of a
boxing career is the only hope that Yuma has for a favourable
future. Her persistence is repaid when famous boxing teacher
Polvorita takes her under his wing. While Yuma is successful in
37
the boxing ring, her private life gets more and more bleak. She
realises that it is time to take matters into her own hands.
72
Cold Water of
the Sea
Paz Fábrega
Costa Rica, France,
Spain, The Netherlands,
Mexico
73
Alice’s House
Chico Teixeira
Escritor
2007 |90 mins | Colour
Brazil
Rodrigo and Mariana are an affluent, loving young couple. Late
one night, they are driving along the remote south Pacific coast
when they come across seven-year-old Karina, who appears
lonely and desperate. She tells the couple that she has run away
from home and confesses to them a dark secret. Rodrigo and
Mariana resolve to stay with the girl through the night and help
her but find in the morning that Karina is gone. The couple
check into a hotel and continue with their holiday but Mariana,
haunted by what the girl has told her, becomes increasingly
more distressed.
The house in question is a messy São Paulo apartment bursting
at the seams with male entitlement. With an ailing mother,
three teenage sons who do little but lounge and thieve and a
husband whose job as a taxi driver offers plenty of opportunities
to stray, Alice has few distractions from her menial work at a nail
salon. So when a lover from her past reappears, bearing gifts
and compliments, she is more than ready to accept his offer.
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Women’s Cinema / Women and Cinema:
June Givanni, Rada Sesic and Gonul - Donmez Colin speak about packages that
they have curated specially for the 4th SWIFF, 2011.
Screen Griots
‘We need to make films about Africa to counterbalance the images that we don’t see’ ‘Do not allow what we are perceived to be, to become what we are’
‘African women filmmakers must have their space whether it be virtual or real’
‘Creating a culture where we love and venerate our film’
‘The future of Africa depends on what we will do for the women of our generation’
Quotes from the African Women Filmmakers Forum, Goethe Institute, Johannesburg, South
Africa, September 2010
Storytellers carrying the history and culture of African society are sometimes called ‘griots’ and
were predominantly regarded as male. However, the less formal but widely significant impact
through their nurturing and building roles, African Women are the traditional storytellers
in their societies, and with the spread of film on the continent, more and more they are
becoming the ‘screen griots’ of today.
This year’s selection of African and diaspora films – new and repertory - at the Samsung
Women’s International Film Festival, includes three award-winning debut features from East
Africa: Wanuri Khaiu’s 2008 Kenyan feature From a Whisper; Caroline Kamya’s 2009 Ugandan
feature Imani (two of her doc shorts were shown at SWIFF last year – Dancing Wizard and
the Real Saharawi); and Hawa Essuman’s 2010 Kenyan feature Soul Boy from Kenya. These
films signal a generation of young women that are committed to careers in the industry and
have the talent to make that happen.
African cinema has often been regarded as having little more than cultural value for an
inquisitive world audience. However, West African cinema’s international profile is currently
dominated by the commercial phenomena that is ‘Nollywood’ – a popular, low-budget,
prolific, mass produced film industry targeting a massive local Nigerian market but reaching
a sizeable pan- African audience. The neighbouring country of Ghana also has a similar
burgeoning film production industry of popular, low budget video feature films. Alongside
these are filmmakers who have trained in film abroad and have returned to their country to
make feature films rooted in their own cultures and stories. That is true of the 3 filmmakers
mentioned above. It is also true of one filmmaker who has chosen the commercial route of
‘genre’ films –romantic comedies - the Ghanaian director, Shirley Frimpong Manso, whose
39
most successful film Perfect Picture is presented in this years SWIFF festival. The film won a
number of major award categories in the African Movie Academy Awards in 2010, and has
been very profitable on the video feature market.
Another characteristic feature of West African cinema is the historic presence of the much
acclaimed Francophone African cinema. This year’s feature film by a male African director,
featuring a female co-lead is one of the popular features from Congolese filmmaker Mweze
Ngangura, known for his comedic approach to presenting the trials and tribulations of
Congolese lives, both in his first feature La Vie Est Belle, and his second, which will show
here - Piece D’Identité.
The Documentary and Short films in this year’s selection from African and the African
diaspora includes the 2005 award-winning documentary feature Homeland from Rwandan
director Jacqueline Kalimunda who is about to release her first feature film High Life in France,
and who is one of this year’s Focus Features Africa First, short film project award winners.
Another of this years Africa First short film awardees, is the Nigerian Filmmaker Chika Anadu
who has just completed a Cannes Residence training and whose first Short film Epilogue was
shown at SWIFF last year, and her second short film AVA is included this year. Alongside
these are two other short films Mohktar the tenderly observed short story from Morocco
by Canada-based director; and the humorous and imaginative Didi & Gigi from Senegalese
director Marie Ka.
There is no developed film industry to speak of in the Caribbean (beyond Cuba), but there
are filmmakers who have reached world recognition such as Raoul Peck from Haiti, Perry
Henzel from Jamaica and Martinique’s Euzhan Palcy, to name a few individuals that are proof
of the potential that region has to offer. Talented story tellers are determined to represent
the Caribbean on film, and each year festivals in the region celebrate those developments
from the Caribbean and its diaspora. A small selection of those films are represented each
year in the selection for SWIFF. Governments in the region are also beginning to respond to
the potential that film has for their country’s profile and their people’s self representation.
Jamaica is the most developed film producing country in the English speaking Caribbean; but
Barbados is showing interest and Trinidad has been supporting local development of film for
some time – but female directing talent in the region is still taking time to come to the fore.
The African diaspora countries are represented this year with two films from Trinidad - the
short fiction film Jeffrey’s Calypso by Vashti Anderson; and the artistic presentation of IndoCaribbean culture, in Patricia Mohammed’s documentary, Coolie Pink and Green – featuring
the Indian diaspora which constitute the majority ethnic group in the Caribbean countries of
Trinidad and Guyana.
The selection this year is completed with a film from the acclaimed British documentary
director Kim Longinotto, whose feature Sisters In Law co-directed with Cameroon director
Florence Ayisi was included in the Pan African selection at SWIFF in 2008/2009.
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Longinotto’s latest feature, Pink Saris premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival,
offering audiences her highly developed observational talent and this is one of its first screenings
in India. Dealing with the subject of women taking a stand against domestic violence that has
universal resonance, though it is presented here in the specific context of Indian society.
June Givanni
International Curator, African Diaspora in the USA; UK and from the African subcontinent 4th
Samsung Women’s International Film Festival, Chennai, India, 2011.
Cinema –The Eye Of The World
A human being is a cell of society. To keep spotlights on those cells and to understand
their specific ins and outs, we get to know about the whole of society. The backbone of
many chosen films in this year’s European program for the Samsung Women’s International
Women’s Film Festival, presented in India by InKo Centre, consists of contemplations about
people that mainstream society considers in one way or another as ‘the others’. Almost all
of the stories deal with important issues in Europe today: immigrants, refugees or people
who simply see things differently than the majority of the society, that mostly stands for
conservatism and embraces the status quo. Although these stories are local, they are at
the same time very much universal, recognizable in every part of today’s world, including
India, the country that knows so many shapes of ‘others’. In learning about ‘them’ we mirror
ourselves and see more clearly what our position is in this new and fast changing world. As
the world changes, a part of it takes position against those who were some 50 years ago
very much welcomed as a fresh labour force, the hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants
that are nowadays more and more considered a burden in a growing number of Western
European countries. When filmmakers take on the role of ‘the eye and the conscience’
of the society, they often focus on the issues that scream for help. That’s why the Dutch,
Latvian, German, Slovenian, Macedonian and other European cinema that I have chosen
for this edition of the InKo festival brings intriguing stories about ‘the others’. No matter
whether we talk about other ethnicities, religious or sexual preferences, ‘the others’ are
always a danger for those who seek shelter and confirmation in mainstream values and
beliefs. Although I don’t like to approach a form of art as either a ‘typical’ male or female act,
I do experience that the world of cinema, widely seen as a profession, industry and creative
force, is mostly occupied by men. So, it becomes very refreshing and encouraging to see
that more and more female cineastes are successfully making space for themselves. Do they
tell stories differently? Women film makers are just creative people who know how to tell
a relevant story using an exciting cinematic language. They don’t treat ‘others’ like victims,
they understand them profoundly and bring to the spotlight urgent topics, share important
experiences, involve passion and enthusiasm to provoke and excite the audience. Or, after
all, maybe women directors do see things from the female angle, from the perspective of
41
one who has had the experience of being put aside, and knows indeed what it means to be
different than male in many societies.
However, in this programme, I have taken two strong films that tackle very peculiar stories
with an extreme passion and understanding that are done by male film directors. Slovenian
Girl by director Damjan Kozole, who did several art house films earlier, unfolds gently
around a rather silent female introvert who communicates with the outside world only when
necessary and only when rebelliously opposing conservative forces. A student engages in a
hard and daring struggle to move her modest life to a higher level in the big city. The drama
falters however when she visits her father, and witnesses his attempts to revitalise his rock
band with his buddies. In this ex socialist (ex Yugoslavian Republic of Slovenia) and relatively
newly accepted European Union country, the pursuit of money is the vital problem for many.
Here it is the force that induces action. It’s a clever metaphor for the dubious values of
capitalism and personal gain that have spread fast through the new Europe and is infecting
many Eastern European states.
I have taken the liberty to – this time only – take some great films on women made by male
directors, but also to take one Asian film in my European art house program. Namely, after
having presented a wonderful, daring and intriguing Bangladeshi film at the Rotterdam Film
Festival a year ago, I believe that the Indian audience should also see this brilliant cinematic
piece. Third Person Singular Number, by Mostofa Sarwar Faooki, is a stylistically exciting modern
tale about an open-minded career woman in today’s Dhaka. Ruba, marvellously performed
by Nusret Imrose Tisha, chooses not to be married but lives together with Munna, who
suddenly ends up in jail. The rest of the film tries to find an answer to the question: can
a single woman live alone, is she allowed to handle her life by herself and is society open
enough to grant her trust and freedom? While negotiating her independence, the protagonist
remembers her childhood and, in a very lucid cinematic manner, returns to the past. Tapu,
a famous musician from Bangladesh, gave to this film not only his inspiring music but he also
appears in one of the main roles.
The whole programme consists of a dozen intriguing films: fiction, shorts and documentaries
that represent daring, brave and provocative cinema which poses many questions and leaves
the audience both inspired and puzzled. Five films are coming from The Netherlands, a
country with a rather small cinema scene but often dynamic and provoking, especially when it
comes to the works of female fiction and documentary makers. One with a very sophisticated
cinematic language and engaging stories to tell is Mijke de Jong, whose feature films always
challenge the audience. In her profound manner, she tackles the problem of ‘the others’
and manages to take the audience very deep inside. After Blue bird, that we screened at the
last edition of InKo festival in Chennai, where she spoke of bullying in schools and a family
with a handicapped child, she turns now her artistic eye towards the immigrants. Katja’s
Sister explores the life of a Russian immigrant in Amsterdam. How do two sisters survive in
a city that offers very few opportunities to a beautiful Russian female? Joy, the latest film of
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Mijke de Jong, tackles two intriguing relationships of a young woman, first as a daughter who
never knew her mother and secondly as a girl whose boyfriend belongs to the culture of ‘the
others’, coming originally from the Balkans. Could he with his, very much patriarchal culture,
ever understand a Dutch girl who grew up motherless in Amsterdam? Director Mijke de
Jong is one of the most refined female film makers, managing to surprise us with every new
work. Her films are being selected for prestigious festivals like Cannes and Berlin.
The third Dutch fiction feature film is Aviatrix of Kazbek by Ineke Smits. Having lived a part
of her life in the Caucasus region, the director has created a story about the people from
two cultures she understands deeply, the Dutch and the Georgian. A Dutch girl from a small
island tries to outlive the hardships of the reality by dreaming. Having a vivid imagination,
she keeps hoping to go somewhere else. The sudden arrival of Georgians stationed on the
island brings a big change in Marie’s life. Meeting the Georgian man Goga, Marie falls in love
for the first time. But how the rest of the island deals with the presence of ‘the others’? The
encounter of cultures leads to clashes and reconciliation, to misunderstandings, to tragic, but
also comic situations.
Another Dutch film in the program is the short documentary Mum by Adelheid Roosen.
Although short by duration, this film has an enormous power and remains in our thoughts
for a long time. It’s an amazingly strong piece that started discussion everywhere I have
witnessed the screening. The film is created with sophistication and an original cinematic
vision. It’s an intimate film of the director herself and her demented mother. Daring, brave
and provocative, the film opens up many questions, leaving the audience both puzzled and
shaken. After all, my aim for this program is to excite an active, curious Indian audience that
is willing to keep the films alive after the screening through debates and discussions, opening
new possibilities to challenge conformism, rigidness and conservatism. And Mum is exactly
the film that touches the hearts and minds of every single spectator.
Another personal documentary also involves a mother-daughter relationship. Latvian/
Norwegian film maker Ilse Burkovska Jacobsen follows her mother in the intriguing
documentary My Mother’s Farm. During the period over several years that included ‘glasnost’
and ‘perestroika’, Ilse portrays the struggle of her ageing mom, who endured several
historical political moments: the USSR occupation, Latvia’s hard-fought independence, the
fall of the red army, and eventually the joining of the EU, which meant having to transform
from a small single Latvian farmer under a post Soviet regime to one within the EU with all
its strict regulations.One more cinema verite documentary Cholita Libre: If you don’t fight,
you’ve already lost , by German film maker Jana Richter, whose debut film Gauchos, we have
screened last year at the InKo festival as well, brings the struggle of strong women. With their
colourful, glittering skirts these women fighters are showing how much it takes to succeed
in Latin American macho society. Cholitas are female wrestlers, practising a sport that is a
mixture of theatre, choreography and athletics at the same time. And as they point out –
43
what they want, they get. If not in reality, then on stage, because the wrestle is just like real
life – if you do not fight to stay in it, you have already lost.
Fata Morgana by Joanna Wesseling is a short but strong film; a universal story of a child of
either divorced or never married parents. Eva, a girl of seven, longs to have a father figure
again in her life. She also belongs to the ‘weaker’ in her society: left by father, lonely and sad,
she goes through the experience of meeting the boyfriend of her mother.
An Eastern European born, Netherlands based film maker Kostana Banovic goes to Latin
America to find some answers to her mental intrigues. May I enter is a filmmaker’s personal
quest to revisit and investigate places where she experienced a special force earlier.
Common women who deal with spirituality and religion in a Brazilian village are the subject
of her contemplative journey. Being part of the movie herself, Kostana keeps a good balance
between the private and intimate on one hand and universal and communicative on the
other.
Macedonian/German documentary maker Biljana Garvanlijeva takes us in her film Seamstresses
to the South of Europe, to Macedonia. There, most of the factories are closed, the economy
stagnates and the men are macho and lazy. The only bread winners are hard working women
who had to change their lives for worse after capitalism and democracy were introduced
during the 1990ties. A relevant topic, eloquent characters and a charming style that allows
serious talks, humour and cinematic poetry all at the same time.
The Invisible Strings: Puskar Sisters by Hungarian film maker Agnes Sos is a brand new
documentary that witnesses the success of two violin players who grew up and were
educated under the same roof. Yet, they are different. They struggle and challenge life in a
different manner. The filmmaker, who followed them for many years, with the sharp eye of a
talented observer, haunts the precious moments of the sister’s inner dramas. A documentary
that keeps us glued to the screen by wonderful music, the lovely sister’s peronalities and the
strong bond that they nourish but also question.
These films in the program show that female film makers have the ability to reach the hidden
sides of women’s lives, portraying them not as weak or victims, but as strong, active and
provocative participants that matter in all societies. At the same time, film makers emphasize
how some daring actions of the film heroes confront patriarchal societies with their absurd
and rigid outlook on change.
Rada Sesic
International Curator for Europe
4th Samsung Women’s International Film Festival, Chennai, India, 2011
44
Silence! She is shooting.
Women as images have carved niches in the hearts of spectators since the beginnings of
cinema- Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Cahide Sonku, Türkan Şoray, Nargis, Meena
Kumari.How about women as image-makers? Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win
an Academy Award for Best Director. Jane Campion is the only woman to win the Palme
d’Or. Do we need women’s film festivals? Aren’t we preaching to the already converted, or
founding girls’ clubs to counteract the established boys’ clubs and thus, secluding ourselves
further from the centre? The aim of women’s film festivals is not flexing of muscles for an
equal combat against the opposite sex as misconceived by a number of sceptics but rather
to have our voices heard better by acquiring the space we need for better exposure. This is
more important today, especially in the East where new voices are being heard, new genres
created and hitherto, the unspoken revealed with certainty and determination. A close look
at some of the works of the Japanese Naomi Kawase, Indian Aparna Sen or Manju Bora,
Chinese Nin Ying, Pakistani Sabiha Sumar, Turkish Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Iranian Samira Makhmalbaf
and Jocelyne Saab from the Lebanese Diaspora would reveal exceptional point of views
rendered with guts, taste and talent.
Kamara Kamalova from Uzbekistan is the most important woman filmmaker of Central Asia.
The pains and joys of being young come alive in her films from Atrof Qorga Burkandi /All
Around Was Covered by Snow (1995) about the emotions and insecurities of a young girl to
Dikar /The Savage (1988), which speaks of the injustices of the Soviet system through the story
of young lovers. Yol Bulsin/Dorogapod Nebesami /The Road Under the Skies (2006), which we
have included in the program also possesses that special element which addresses the young
people directly, hence its immense success with young audiences from India to Uzbekistan.
But the road to the top has been a thorny one for Kamara. To enter the prestigious VIGK
(All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow) in the early 1960s was far from
easy for a woman although the graduation was not the end of her worries. She had to make
25 animation films and work for TV before she could shoot her first film. Circumstances are
different today but each epoch brings with it its own problems. With relative freedom gained
after Independence, Uzbek cinema, just as other national cinemas of Central Asia is battling
with lack of funds on the one hand and the hegemony of Hollywood on the other. It took
eight years to complete The Road Under the Skies although Kamara owns her private studio.
The film is inspired by a legend, which is familiar to the Uzbek people as Kamara told me
during an interview, but she was not interested in a narrative-driven film. She chose a style
that was not realistic, but rather naturalistic and surrealistic, reflecting national customs and
traditions and most importantly, the rituals. To this purpose, she used the national poetry
and music. The result is a visual feast, nothing short of Paradjanov, who was a close friend
of hers.
In Turkey, a new generation of women filmmakers has emerged with strong social and political
45
issues on their agenda. Yaşam Hırsızları/Sidewalk Sisters by Yasemin Alkaya, a successful actor’s
second documentary is about the tragedy of those rejected by society, narrated from a deeply
sensitive and personal point of view. Also very personal is the story of Zeynep Ozkaya’s
parents, immigrants to Holland. Leyla ile Mecnun Gurbette/ Leyla and Mecnun Abroad (2010),
not only tells you what happens when love grows old, but how circumstances beyond one’s
control, such as starting a new life in another country with all its tensions and culture shocks,
may bruise love. Kamerayla Izdivac/ Married to the Camera (2010) by Doğa Kılcıoğlu is reality
TV Turkish style, recording a popular program where lonely hearts (among whom is a 75
year old men in a nursing home) are matched for marriage. The film is at times funny but
also thought provoking in holding a mirror to the hopes and fears of ordinary people who
seek to better their lives through love, or at least affection, attention and understanding from
another human being. Tülay German-Years of Fire and Cenders (2010) by Didem Pekun is the
long awaited documentary on a very talented singer who lived in exile in Paris because of the
political stance she has chosen. Her professionally successful life is also a life of nostalgia and
longing for her country.
A feature film by a veteran male Turkish filmmaker, Ali Özgentürk is also included in this
program, a film chosen for its focus on an exceptional woman character, not as an icon,
not as a goddess, not as a fallen woman (the clichés are many), but as a warm human
being (remarkable acted by one of the finest actors of Turkish cinema, Hülya Avşar) with
her weaknesses and strong points. Özgentürk had created a memorable woman character
in his first film Hazal (1979) about a young village girl caught in the merciless claws of feudal
customs and traditions and Kalbin Zamanı/Time of the Heart (2004) confirms the filmmaker’s
keen eye and sensitive lens in creating real woman characters.
Iranian young women are also concentrating on documentaries but unlike their Turkish
colleagues, their working conditions are not so favourable to pointing the camera candidly
to every situation and quite often, we see women from the Diaspora taking the initiative.
One such example is Sara Rastegar whose 7 Women reflects with sharp accuracy the lives of
different women characters, whereas Marjan Alizadeh shows another world in her Persian
Cat Walk.
Jocelyne Saab, the Lebanese artist exiled in Paris who is never shy to experiment with form
and content explores love in a rather unique film language in What‘s Going on? (2010),
whereas the young Palestinian Nawjar Najjar Pomegranades and Myrrh (2009) holds a mirror
to her country’s turmoils, which affect everyone, but especially women on a very personal
level.
Expanding the geography, we reach Indonesia, also a majority Muslim country, where customs
and traditions affecting the lives of women are not much different although influences of
Buddhism are evident in all forms of art, including cinema. A remarkable aspect of Indonesian
cinema is the large number of women producers. Ratna Sarumpaet is a senior theatre
46
director, a dramaturge, an actor and an important human rights activist who has based her film
Jamila and the President (2009) on her play about prostitution and child trafficking, an important
social and political malaise in her country. Despite initial adversity, the film was Indonesia’s entry
to the Oscars in the foreign language. Christine Hakim, the top actor of Indonesian cinema and
as well as a successful producer, is remarkable as the head of the prison guard.
In the last decade, political and economical developments around the world have reshaped and
challenged the old paradigms of ‘national cinema’. The established national identities of cinematic
tradition have begun to dissolve, giving way to alternative criteria for defining identity. One may
say that this program includes examples from the works of women from predominantly Muslim
Asian countries. However, cultures are diverse and the challenge is to find some unity among
such diversity.
Gönül Dönmez-Colin
International Curator, Middle East & Turkey4th Samsung Women’s International Film Festival,
Chennai, India,2011
47
ParallelScreen at Kalakshetra
This section features a specially curated package of films, courtesy the Films
Division of India and The GoetheInstitut that comment on other arts forms- films
on music;on dance; on architecture as well as films that commemorateremarkable
women of extraordinary substance and grace.
01
Indira
Priyadarshini
Yash Choudhary
This is a biographical film about the life of the former Prime
Minister of India, Smt. Indira Gandhi and portrays just how
profoundly she was influenced by her father’s writing.
India
02
Kalakshetra
V. Packirisamy
India
03
Chinna Pilliamma
v.S. Nagarajan
This film vividly portrays the efforts taken by Smt. Rukmini Devi
Arundale to set up Kalakshetra in the early part of the 20th
century to reviving Bharatnatyam. Under Arundale’s guidance
the institution achieved national and international recognition
for its unique style and perfection. In 1962, Kalakshetra moved
to a new campus in Besant Nagar, Chennai. In January 1994,
an Act of the Indian Parliament recognized the Kalakshetra
Foundation as an Institue of National Importance.
This is the story of an illiterate woman who creates awareness
among women about their rights, initiates the Kalanjiyam
movement (Sthree Sakthi movement) and won several awards
for her selfless service.
India
04
Mallika
Sarabhai
Arunaraje Patil
India
05
Forever A
Legend-
This is a biographical film on the renowned dancer and social
activist, Mallika Sarabhai. The daughter of classical dancer,
Mrinalini Sarabhai and renowned space scientist, Vikram
Sarabhai, Malika is an accomplished Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam
dancer. She is also known for her contributions in the fields
of theatre, television, film, writing and publishing. She is also a
TED fellow and has won several accolades including the Sangeet
Natak Akademi Award.
This biographical film on Smt. M.S. Subbulakshmi, portrays how
the ancient and glorious tradition of carnatic music was enriched
by the fervent devotion and bhakti bhavana of the legendary
48
M.S.SubbaLakshmi
Rajgopal V
MS; how she rose to be ‘A Legend Forever’ and how her
mellifluous voice continues to be revered by millions of music
lovers the world over.
India
06
Aisee Thi
Nariyan
Uma Shankar
India
07
TeejanbaiA Pandvani
Singer
This film shows women’s contribution to India’s freedom
struggle. Mahatma Gandhi said, “When the history of India’s
freedom struggle is written, women will occupy a prominent
position”. The history of India’s freedom struggle from 1857 to
1947 wholly justifies this statement. In the first movement for
freedom in 1857, Rani Lakshmibai played a leading role along
with other fighters. Bhagini Nivedita, Annie Besant, Sarojini
Naidu, Kanaklata Barua, Matangini Hazra and many other
women, plunged body and soul into India’s freedom struggle in
its various phases. This film includes interviews with freedom
fighters such as Hansa Mehta, Kamala Chatterji, Chandrakali
Tripathi, Aruna Asaf Ali, Captain Lakshmi and Usha Mehta
Pandvani, meaning the story of Pandavas, is an age- old tradition
of story-telling in Chhattisgarh. This film vividly portrays
the struggles and achievements of Teejanbai, the first female
Pandvani performer.
V. Packirisamy
India
08
Padma
Suresh Menon
India
The famous Bharatnatyam dancer, Dr. Padma Subramanyan,
talks about her life and art in this film. During her illustrious
dancing career, the acclaimed dancer received several awards,
including the Padma Shri (1981) and the Padma Bhushan (2003),
which are among the highest civilian awards in India. She was
given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards in 1983. International
awards include the Nehru Award of the Soviet Union (1983)
and Japan’s Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize. Dr Subramanyan
has a bachelor’s degree in Music, a Master’s degree in EthnoMusicology, as well as a Ph.D. in Dance. She has authored many
articles, research papers and books.
49
09
Nargis
Priya Dutt
1991 | 63min | B & W
India
10
Aaj Ki Nari
swadesh pathak
This is a biographical film on the late Nargis Dutt with scenes
from many of her most memorable films and interviews with
her family members and friends. The film brings back fond
memories of this great actress who was also a wonderful human
being.
This film portrays the progressive image of Indian women in a
male-dominated society. Today, women play a vital role in all
spheres of human activity and have created their own identity.
India
11
Mother
Teresa
amar kumar
bhattacharya
India
12
Sangeet
Martand
Pandit Jasraj
This film is a tribute to Mother Teresa, highlighting her
achievements in serving the poorest of the poor and her
powerful message of love for all of humanity.
This is a biographical film on the world-renowned Hindustani
vocalist, Pandit Jasraj
Madhura Jasraj
2001 | 47min44sec |
Colour
India
13
Indian Women
In The 21st
Century
This film is a tribute to the “new, emerging” women in India and
portrays their entrepreneurship, dedication and confidence.
raghu krishna
India
14
Maharani
Laxmi Bai
Ashok Kumar
This film is a tribute to the great Maharani Laxmi Bai – her spirit
of nationalism, her organizational capabilities, her ideology
of treating everyone equally,
her compassion for fellow
countrymen and her fearless courage.
India
50
15
Sanchari
Arun Khopkar
India
16
Alcina - Georg
Friedrich
Händel
János Darvas
Germany
17
Genoveva Robert
Schumann
Nikolaus
Harnoncourt
This film takes a holistic view of the classical dance form of
Bharatnatyam- the philosophical aesthetics of the art, its form and
structure as well as the process by which the tradition is handed
over from a teacher to her student.The name Bharatnatyam, a
classical dance tradition from Tamilnadu emerges from bhaava
(expression), raga (music), tala (rhythm) and natya (theatre).
Deeply rooted in the Bhakti tradition, it was earlier performed
in temples by Devadasis. This film synthesizes the philosophical
aesthetics of the dance form with the techniques required to
perform it as well as the process involved in the transfer of
knowledge from the teacher to the student.
Imagine a hidden island lost in time, a land of temptation
without love, whose mistress is Alcina the sorceress. She has
Ruggiero clasped tightly to her bosom, but he is not the only
one. However, this nobleman’s rightful lover refuses to abandon
her beloved and comes to the island, sparking various further
intrigues, including a confrontation between these two women
who want the same thing but for different reasons.
Genoveva is Robert Schumann’s only opera. It was composed
in the 19th century. The story takes place around 730 AC
in Strasbourg. Genoveva is the wife of Earl Siegfried of the
Pfalz who wants to fight against the Moors together with his
warriors. Therefore he asks Golo to be his wife’s guardian
and administrator of his castle. But Golo who is in love with
Genoveva would rather go with them to fight.
Germany
18
The Rite of
Spring
Pina Bausch
Germany
Igor Stravinsky’s “Le sacre du printemps” is amongst the most
frequently choreographed musical works of its canon. Of
the countless choreographic interpretations, Pina Bausch’s
version is seen as being by far the most radical and emotionally
moving. The dancers attest the violent passion of Bausch’s
“Frühlingsopfer” with an overwhelming physical presence
and intensity, snatching their movement from the thick earthy
battleground on which they dance. Following the absolute
conviction of their choreographer, they dance for their lives.
51
Screening Schedule
Movie Director name - Country 15.7.2011 | day 01
Time
(hrs)
(S.no, Pg no)
Russian Centre of Science and Culture
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
Alice’s House Chico Teixeira &
Escritor - Brazil Hearts Suspended Meghna Damani
India/USA
A Perfect Sight Kim Han-Gyeol - Korea SCREEN 1
Women are Heroes JR  - France/Kenya Blood on My Hands Surabhi Saral,Manak Matiyani &Anandana Kapur -Turkey
SCREEN 2
Viewfinder Kim Jeong - Korea Jeffrey’s Calypso Vashti Anderson * - Cuba AUDITORIUM 1400-1700
Bhumika Shyam Benegal - India SCREEN 1
Lalon Tanvir Mokamel* - Bangladesh A Fragment of History Uma Chakravarti
India
Index
The Eight Sentiments Sung Ji-Hye - Korea Annapoorna Paromita Vohras - India 73, 38
01, 20
22, 18
22, 25
16, 11
01, 14
48, 32
02, 04
03, 20
24, 13
05, 15
04, 08
In conversation with Park Chan-Ok 1700-1800
Korea
AUDITORIUM
1800-2100
Jealousy is My Middle Name
Park Chan-Ok º - Korea
02, 06
52
Movie Director name - Country Time
(hrs)
Index
(S.no, Pg no)
SCREEN 1
Pieces D’Identité Mweze Ngangura
Congo Belgium Comi Lee Eun-Chun - Korea Stitches Speak Nina Sabnani - India/UK 51, 32
20, 18
14, 23
My Mother’s Farm Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen 62, 35
Norway/Lativa
16.7.2011 | day 02
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
To Be P ark C han -O k º - Korea
05, 07
Heavy P ark C han -O k º - Korea
04, 07
Warm Swamp P ark C han -O k - Korea
03, 07
SCREEN 1
Abuelos Carla Valencia Davila - Equador/Chile
Almoriana Va sudha J oshi - India
30, 27
07, 09
SCREEN 2
La Yuma Florence Jaugey - Nicaragua/Mexico/Spain/France
A Perm L ee R an -H ee - Korea
71, 37
13, 16
AUDITORIUM
Mirch Masala Ketan Mehta º - India
1400-1700
01, 04
Midnight Blues Lim Na-Moo - Korea
15, 17
42, 30
Tulay German - Years of Fire & Cenders
Didem Pekun - Turkey
39, 29
Conditions Apply Lijjin Jose - India
10, 10
SCREEN 1
Sidewalk Sisters Yasemin A lkaya - Turkey
SCREEN 2
Autumn in the Himalayas Malgorzata Skiba - India
Cholita Libre Jana Richter - Germany
15, 11
64, 36
53
(hrs)
Index
In conversation with Ketan Mehta
1700-1800
India & Naghmeh Shirkhan Iran
AUDITORIUM
1800-2100
º
Paju Park Chan-Ok - Korea 01, 06
The Aegean in the Words of the Poet
Lucia Rikaki - Cyprus / SCREEN 1
Mokhtar Halima Ouardiri * - Canada The Neighbour Naghmeh Shirkhan º - Iran/Canada 17.7.2011 | day 03
(S.no, Pg no)
24, 26
50, 32
29, 27
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300

Piter FM Oksana, Bychkova - Russia Buru Gaara Shri Prakash - India SCREEN 1
Unwanted Women Tahmineh M ilani - Iran And She Flies M ugil Chandr an - India AUDITORIUM
1400-1700
Habana Eva Fina Torres º - Venezuela,Cuba Cold Water of the Sea Paz Fabrega
16, 23
17, 11
04, 21
11, 10
68, 37
72, 38
Costa Rica/France/Spain/ The Netherlands/Mexico
SCREEN 1
From a Whisper Wanuri K ahiu - Kenya Tapologo Gabriela Gutierrez Dewar & 52, 32
15, 23
Sally Gutierrez Dewar - South Africa
In conversation with Fina Torres Venezuela
1700-1800
AUDITORIUM
1800-2100

The Hair Dresser Dorris Dorrie
Germany Dreams in Another Language Lucia Rikaki Cyprus
SCREEN 1
A Year Ago in Winter Caroline Link 
Germany
72
18, 24
23, 25
19, 24
54
(hrs)
Index
Oranges and Mangoes Priyanka Chhabra
India
25, 13
ParallelScreen Tagore Hall, Kalakshetra
1800-2100
Sanchari Arun Khopkar º - India 18.7.2011 | day 04
(S.no, Pg no)
15, 51
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
The Good Herbs Maria Novaro - Mexico SCREEN 1
Cafe Transit Kambouzia Partovi - Iran Mum Adelheid Roosen - The Netherlands SCREEN 2
Positive Living Vanaja Kumari - India My Red Pants Kwon Yong Sook - Korea Variety Survival Talkshow Se-Young Jo
Korea SCREEN 1 1400-1700
Perfect Picture Shirley Frimpong Manso
Ghana
AUDITORIUM
Tarang Kumar Shahani º - India SCREEN 2 Two Women Tahmineh Milani - Iran Coming Out Travel S appho - Korea 67, 36
06, 21
55, 33
14, 11
19, 17
07, 15
43, 30
03, 05
05, 21
09, 15
In conversation with Kim Longinotto 1700-1800
& June Givanni Venezuela
AUDITORIUM 1800-2100
Pink Saris Kim Longinotto º - UK/India Didi & Gigi Marie Ka * - Senegal SCREEN 1 Katja’s sister Mijke de Jong º
The Netherlands
Earth’s Women Kwon Woo-Jung - Korea 46, 31
49, 32
59, 34
25, 19
55
(hrs)
Index
1800-2100
Alcina – Georg Friedrich Händel
Jose Wieler, Sergio Morabito - Germany Aisi Thi Nariyaan
Uma Shankar - India 19.7.2011 | day 05
(S.no, Pg no)
16, 51
06, 49
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
Deba Shishu Utpalendu Chakraborty - India 04, 05
Coming of Age J udy K ibinge - Kenya
07, 21
28, 26
The Lijjat Sisterhood K adambari Chintamani /
A jit O omen - India 21, 12
AUDITORIUM
1400-1700
Kutty Sraank S haji N K arun º - India The Seamstresses Leni Riefenstal - Macedonia Something Un-expected Hong Tae yi - Korea
01, 08
63, 35
18, 17
SCREEN 1
Puzzles N atalia S mirnoff - Argentina
SCREEN 1
Teresa Tatiana Gaviola - Chile Beyond the Wheel Rajula Shah - India Talking Heads FathamaI Nizaruddin
UK/India 08, 22
05, 09
11, 22
In conversation with Kumar Shahani Shaji N Karun & Anjali Shukla
India
1700-1800
AUDITORIUM
1800-2100
Third Person Singular Mostofa Sarwar
Farooki - Bangladesh Monsoon Reflections Stephanie S pr ay
Nepal 65, 36
13, 23
56
(hrs)
Index
SCREEN 1
May I enter? Koštana B anović
The Netherlands Chilka Banks - Stories from India’s largest
coastal lake Akanksha Joshi - India Where The Heart Lies Samar Minallah
Afghanisthan 61, 35
19, 12
02, 20
1800-2100
Forever a Legend – M S Subbulakshmi
Rajagopal - India Maharani Laxmibai Ashok Kumar - India Aaj Ki Nari Swadesh Pathak - India 20.07.2011 | day 06
(S.no, Pg no)
05, 48
14, 51
10, 50
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
Bandhobi Shin Dong-IL - Korea Ava Chika Anadu - Nigeria
SCREEN 1
Shocking Family Kyung S oon - Korea Thank You Mama Omelga Mthiyane
South Africa 11, 16
45, 31
10, 16
32, 28
AUDITORIUM
1400-1700
Goodbye Mom J eong G i -H un - Korea Joy Mijke De Jong º - The Netherlands SCREEN 1
Women’s Labour & Poverty K im M i -R e
Korea Persian Catwalk Marjan Alizadeh - Iran The Things She Can’t Avoid in the City
Park Jee-Youn - Korea In conversation with Monika Treut Germany Mikje De Jong
1700-1800
AUDITORIUM
1400-1700
Ghosted Monika Treut º - Germany 02, 14
60, 35
06, 15
36, 29
14, 17
The Netherlands
20, 24
57
(hrs)
Index
The Road Under Heaven Kamara Kamalova
Uzbekistan SCREEN 1
A Time of the Heart Ali Ozgenturk
Turkey Tambores de Agua Clarissa Duque
Venezuela
34, 28
38, 29
26, 26
1800-2100
Nargis Priya Dutta - India Padma Suresh Menon - India Teejan Bai V Packirisamy - India Mallika Sarabhai A runa R aje Patel - India 21.07.2011 | day 07
(S.no, Pg no)
09,
08,
07,
04,
50
49
49
48
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
Life Above all Oliver Schmitz - South Africa 27, 26
Des Enfants Dans Les Arbres
SCREEN 1
Dog Talk Nabi/Jimin/Son Kyung-Hwa - Korea Mother’s Romance Kim Jin Seok
Korea
Bania Medjbar - Algeria/France
25, 26
08, 15
21, 18
AUDITORIUM
1400-1700
Homeland Jacqueline Kalimunda *
Rwanda
Slovenian Girl Damjan Kozole
Slovenia SCREEN 1
When We Leave Feo Aladag - Germany Married to the Camera Doga Kilcioglu
Turkey 53, 33
57, 34
17, 24
41, 30
In conversation with Paromita Vohra 1700-1800
and Vani Subramanian India
58
(hrs)
Index
AUDITORIUM
1800-2100
A Brand New Life O unie L ecomte *
Korea
Leyla and Mecnun Abroad Z eynep Ozk aya
Holland, Turkey My name is Pity Hong Tae Yi Korea SCREEN 1
The Widow Colony
Harpreet Kaur - USA/India Partners in Crime Paromita Vohra º - India l 04, 14
40, 29
17, 17
21, 25
23, 12
1800-2100
Kalakshetra V Packirisamy - India Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj
Madhura Jasraj - India 22.07.2011 | day 08
(S.no, Pg no)
02, 48
12, 50
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
The Actresses E J-Yong -Korea Tabou M er eiam R iveill - Tunisia SCREEN 1
Dancing With Hands Held Tight
Krishnendu Bose & Kavita Das Gupta - India The Apple Jung Chul - Korea Living Without Men Luo Yi - China 03, 14
31, 27
06, 09
23, 18
12, 22
AUDITORIUM
1400-1700
º
Jamila and the Presient Ratna Sarumpet
Indonesia I travel because, I have to come back
Karim Ainouz & Marcelo Gomes - Brazil SCREEN 1
Remembrance of Things Present
Chandra Siddan - Canada/India 7 Women Sara Rastegar - Iran/France The Duels of Hola Mohalla
Vani Subramanian º - India 33, 28
69, 37
10, 22
37, 29
08, 10
59
(hrs)
Index
(S.no, Pg no)
In conversation with Ratna Sarumpet 1700-1800
Indonesia
AUDITORIUM
1800-2100
Aviatrix of Kazbek Inek Smits
The Netherlands 56, 34
Fata MorganaWerner Herzog Germany
66, 36
Soul Boy Hawa Essuman * -Kenya 54, 33
16, 17
09, 10
SCREEN 1
Children of the Old Days - Korea
Indoors Kj Sijju Nam - India
Passerby #3 Shin Su-won - Korea 12, 16
1800-2100
The Rite of Spring – Igor Stravinsky
Pina Bausch, Pit Weyrich - Germany 18, 51
Indira Yash Chaudhary - India
01, 48
11, 50
Mother Teresa
Amar Kumar Bhattacharya -India
23.07.2011 | day 09
AUDITORIUM
1100-1300
Man Beyond the Bridge
Lakshmikant Shetgaonkar - India Where Healing is a Tradition
Gargi Sen º - India SCREEN 1
Mom Yoo-Sung Yup - Korea Coolie Pink and Green
Pat Mohammed º - Trinidad & Tobago AUDITORIUM
Pomegranates and Myrrh
02, 08
03, 08
26, 19
47, 31
1400-1700
35, 28
N awjar N ajjar - Palestine 60
(hrs)
Index
(S.no, Pg no)
Imani Caroline Kamya º Uganda /Sweden SCREEN 1
What I Love Most Delfina Castagnino
44, 31
Argentina 70, 37
13, 11
It’s a Boy! Vani Subramaninan º India Rowing Her Way Through The River of Life
Krishnendu Bose and Kavita Das Gupta - India Invisible Strings - The Talented Puskar
Sisters Agnes Sos - Hungary In conversation with Caroline Kamya Uganda and Pat Mohammed
12, 10
58, 34
1700-1800
Trinidad & Tobago
PANEL DISCUSSION & CLOSING FILM
1800-2100
Freeing the Lens: Fact, Fiction and the Freedom of Expression
Sengadal Vani Subramaninan º India (Premiere)
SCREEN 1
Daughter of Choroloque Park Misun
18, 11
Korea
24,
20,
09,
22,
Kanyashala Ganga Mukhi India El Cortejo Marina Seresky Spain To Think Like a Woman Arpita Sinha India ParallelScreen Tagore Hall, Kalakshetra
1800-2100
Chinnapillai Amma V S Nagarajan - India Genoveva – Robert Schumann
Martin Kušej Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Germany 18
12
22
12
03, 48
17, 51
61
CUlTURAl PARTnERS
For further details contact:
InKo Centre, 51, 6th Main Road, Raja Annamalaipuram, Chennai - 600 028.
T: 044 2436 1224, F: 044 2436 1226 E: [email protected] W: www.inkocentre.org
InKo Centre is a registered, non-profit society supported primarily
by TVS Motor Company and hyundai Motor India limited; the Korean
Association in Chennai and a host of Indian and Korean companies
based in Chennai.

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