PIFF 2012 Day 5 and end

Ok. I missed out whole of day 4 due to my office work. But I guess not really good films were shown on that day. So I didn’t really miss much. J

This happens with most of the working people. Most of them attend Film festival only on weekend days. Only true film fans make it point to remain away from work and attend all days; like my friend Anmol. He makes a detour from hometown Kolhapur to every city in which festivals are noteworthy, like MIFF in Mumbai, IFFI in Goa etc. He deserves a special blog post for his “religiousness” about “cinema”.

Coming back to PIFF, on Day 5, I managed to attend.

We started with French film “An Ordinary Execution”. Though film is French, it’s about Russian dictator Stalin’s doctor (or pain-healer to be precise), whose life gets blown away when she is summoned by Stalin, hearing he reputation of pain-healing (using Reki-like technique). Based on true story, film captures the fear of living in communist regime; and proportion in which affects a simple family when one of them gets associated with hyper-sensitive issues like Dictator Stalin’s health. Performance of lead cast was definitely noteworthy.

That’s the magic of movies. You experience life of historical figures as if you are sitting next to them or roaming around with them. Film makers dealing with such subjects pay so much attention to the details in recreating the era and characters of the period, that you cannot help but appreciate the efforts.

Now, I would like to share few words about communist period movies. At times, those movies scare you unbelievably. I don’t deny bit of exaggeration here n there. But what’s most important lesson that I learn from them is, we need to really appreciate and respect the “freedom” that we enjoy in democracy and enjoying that “responsibly” is best way to do that. For example, when you have “liberty” of carrying your cellphones inside theatres, there is “responsibility” of putting them on silent mode. Most of the educated adults tend to forget that.

Second film was Mexican (Spanish) film called a “Stone’s Throw Away”. It is story of simple shepherd in Mexico who chases his strange dream of treasure hunt in snow by making a long journey that includes illegal crossing of US-Mexico border. Kudos to casting of lead, that fits in character of simpleton perfectly. That makes all events in his journey only believable. Film ends in back-to-square- one state as if “nothing” happened. But film works and succeeds in giving audience “something” satisfying.

I made a short journey across the town (to Inox screen) to watch third film. It was Hollywood sports drama “Money Ball” starring Brad Pitt. It’s based on true story and book based on life of baseball team manager Billy Beane who tried economical-statistical theory of “Money Ball” to achieve record breaking streak of 20 consecutive victories with his team Oakland Architects. Theory suggests choosing cheaper players to achieve team’s objectives based on numerical analysis. Film brings out exceptional performance from Brad Pitt and is told quite effectively. Billy’s management acumen, his failure as player, superstition about not watching games, fatherhood and ideal of searching for new “meaning” in baseball instead of chasing money, all comes profoundly. Intuition vs Science debate in sports is also captured.

Fourth film was German-Turkish-Swiss film “180 degree”. Basically it is a relationship drama about multiple families that get tied together due to an accident. All characters are forced to make to 180 degree turnaround in their attitudes or beliefs.  Film has few loose ends and has shorter plotline, but it partly succeeds in showing internal turmoil that all characters pass through in about 12 hours after the accident. Background score plays important part in that success.

I liked one scene in 180 degrees, where father of injured boy and mother of dead girl visit in hospital room. Mother is curious to know more about friendship of her deceased daughter with Turkish boy, like where they met en all. She starts by asking in German if boy met her daughter in school. Now, boy's father doesn't understand German well. He just understands word school and feels that lady is school teacher. He responds by explaining that there was accident and boy would attend school when he gets well. Now lady doesn't understand Turkish and she is confused. So she shows autograph book of daughter in which boy has sketched girl's beautiful face asking whether boy drew that. Now man only gets that she's asking about sketching hobby of his son. He gets emotional and tells how he had once scolded his son for his drawing and how his son was quiet in receiving his anger. Lady feels that man understands boy's affection for girl and is sad about her demise. So both interpret what they wish but in words that mean entirely different. Amazing scene!!

Last film was Canadian "Romeo Eleven" about Algerian polio-crippled boy. It was touching tale of his struggle to cope up with his ambition of living normal life. He lives a virtual life as business man trotting globe, mostly chatting with female friend. His lies are exposed and he breaks down, angry with family and world around. But time is the healer, boy accepts the reality and moves on. Social circle of minority Algerians in Canada, happy and bustling with their joys and togetherness becomes a metaphor for the boy and his aloofness. Film could have been melodramatic but restraint in portraying this tale makes it very realistic and heart-felt as well.

So that summed up my PIFF 2012. As it turns out, while writing this paragraph, I could not make it to 6th and 7th days. Best film was awarded to Germal film "If not us, who" that I had already seen the other day.

Hope to enjoy more films before 11th PIFF 2013.

Cheers!!

PIFF 2012 Day 3

Hungarian film about folk dance troupe "Maiden Danced to Death" was first film of first day. It was about two brothers and their passion for Hungarian folk dance. Elder one migrated away to Canada due to circumstances some 20 years ago and is media promoter now with broken marriage & losing stakes in own company. Other remained back with troupe struggling with insufficient resources & motivation. Elements of rivalry exist between both. Elder one returns with hopes of reviving lot of things and after lot of efforts, arguments and bitter revelations, all ends well. Story has undertones of natural vs professional conflict. But what I liked most are the superbly captured folk dance routines and rehearsals with melodious music.

BTW "Maiden Danced to Death" is the name of famous Hungarian folklore in which a maiden girl is made to dance by local guys till she is thrown out of the dance floor, symbolizing her exclusion out of society, which is equivalent to death in those times. Interesting isn't it.

After squeezing tea down our cold throats in shortest interval that we got, we rushed for French relationship drama film "My Little Princess". Film had autobiographical touch of director Eva Inesco's relationship with her mother when she was small. Little girl is ushered into world of modelling by mother without respecting the limits of social decency. Relationship strains when girl's school life starts falling apart due to comments of her friends. Confusion of love and caring with professional ambition takes its toll, with girl ending up in corrections school hating her mother badly. Performance of the both ladies was the hallmark of the film.

I found the presentation of glamour world different in this film. In the sense, it never takes over the focus from relationship between the ladies. Nowhere the glamour is glorified to the extent you start liking the glitz and glitter.

Third film was Albanian drama film "Amnesty". This is second film on Albania in the past two days. Some GK: This small n picturusque country is located in south eastern Europe; considered poorest in Europe, its aiming to improve economically to be able to join European Union.

Now back to film "Amnesty". Word amnesty is generally used in political context and means pardon given for political crimes. So I had expected film to be related to some political tension in Albania or something like that. But it turned out to be another relationship drama about disconnected man and woman brought together by policy of Albanian govt under which normal prisoners were allowed to spend night with spouses in prison once a month. Relationship brews but story twists when govt grants amnesty by releasing several prisoners. The dilemma in front of both leads gets abruptly solved  when both are killed by woman's father in law. I felt that ending very compromising and we joked outside that probably writer-director were rushed by producers to finish the film due to lack of budget. But leading lady's efforts are definitely noteworthy.

Next was Russian film "Sparrow". Producer of the film was present for the screening and enthusiastically informed audience about the film's speciality. That it is a film that captures remote Russian village and its common folk, which is very rare in Russian films. That people in Russia do not care about ongoing political controversies in the contry. Common men have common problems just like in India. In the end, he hoped that, as 70% India is rural, we would like the film. This statement seemed funny to me, as PIFF crowd that gathers for films is typically urban.

"Sparrow" is nick-name of smart kid named Mitya in the village whose great great grandfather or so first brought the herd of horses to the village which survived and grew by miracle. So villagers have protected and cherished this herd. But latest village council wants to sell it due to debts and lower production of crops. Most of the film presents Mitya's family and his know-all smartness. Dilemma over herd comes at very end when Mitya attempts something extraordinary.

Sparrow reminded me of Mangesh Hadawale's Marathi Tingya. Both characters Tingya and Mitya have that innocence, charm and smartness that stands out on backdrop of beauty and simplicity of village. I liked beautifully shot (Siberian?) grass landscapes and wild horses. Brilliantly written dialogues of Mitya the Sparrow evoked many laugthers.

Generally, I do not prefer reading synopsis of the film before viewing it. I like watching movie with element of suspense about story. But unfortunately I had to read synopsis of the last film to select between two.

I chose German film called "Sleeping Sickness". Funny part was that synopsis respresented only half or lets say one third of the film about missionary doctor's inability to decide about returning to Germany to his family, when his WHO assignment is ending. However, rest of the film takes place 3 years after when an African-European doctor (born and brought up in Paris) is on WHO evaluation trip to the same assignment of German doctor. Film ends in depths of African jungles raising lot many questions about the story and characters than answers it can provide. Though scene-sequences and dialogues are thought provoking, I found writer-director undecided about the focus of the film. For example, film tries to comment on developmental strategy in African countries and physicality of Africans in couple of unrelated scenes.

Different colours of relationships, starting with brothers, mother-daughter, man-animal, man-woman and lastly man-nature, marked rather absorbing and tiring day.

I have observed that PIFF selection panel makes a point to include films of different subjects, regions and cultures. And I like this approach as it gives me broader understanding of outside world than just the knowledge of art or business of cinema.

Hope to capture more variety in remaining days.

Cheers!!

PIFF 2012 Day 2

We literally had to rush for first movie of day 2 due to my overtime for last post. Theatres were already packed due to weekend.


First movie was French drama "Love like poison". Its "coming of age" story of a catholic girl of 14 who comes on vacation to her village in Southern France. There she has to face broken relationship of parents, growing realization of adolescence and attraction towards male teenager friend. Important thing that I realized (once again) was that irrespective of region, religion has great influence on your value systems, especially your ideas of right or wrong. Its great responsibility of religious teachers and grown up adults to differentiate between this influence and freedom of spirit or individuality. The character of local priest symbolizes this responsibility in film. Beautiful leading lady and Southern French landscape apart, film provided a warm feeling, especially in the relationship that she develops with her grandfather. Last scene of her funeral speech on grandfather's death is truly touching.


Second movie was Chinese film "Diago". Its about Macanese (from former colony called Macau) protagonist searching for his true identity on the backdrop of handover of Macau to China from Portugal. Colonial hangover & search of identity amongst local population in times of political handover is rarely exploited in art works. Especially, former European colonies in Asian regions (like Goa and Pondicherry in India) prvide that excellent east vs west dilemman. I felt that film had kind of picture book feel in most of the scenes, where charaters remain frozen in frame. Characters were kind of mechanical and lifeless. These properties reminded me of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's films. But Kaurismaki's films had interesting plot lines on the other hand. Since I mentioned Goa, all that we know about Goa's colonial hangover days is the freedom struggle of pro-Marathi and Konkani population. It would be interesting to check whether any story like Diago existed there.


After ample of break time for lunch and rest, we came back for German film "If not us, who". It is a political drama based on true events of post-Nazi Germany and biography of author Bernward Vesper. Film takes us through relationship of Bernward and his girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin interspersed with political events of 1960s Germany. It reminded me of Sudhir Mishra's Hindi flim "Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi" based on same period of Indian history with similar characters.


Being lover of history, I like films with political and historical contexts as you get an opportunity to experience historical figures in action. Unlike book description, you experience those figures with social atmosphere captured on screen with researched scripts.


Moreover, the period depicted in film was rife with social upheaval all over the world. Cold war and capitalism - communism conflicts spawned number of social movements and created cultural symbols like hippy lifestyle, rock bands etc. Interestingly, most of social movements were remarkably radical (at times violent) in stark contrast to previous non violent movements of Gandhi, Mandela or Martin Luther King. I guess, that's the reason they failed to make significant impact on the course of socio-economic history. Another reason for failure is the lack of support of masses they thought were fighting for. This is beautifully expressed in a scene in film in which female prison guard questions Gudrun about this support and puts for her philosophy of "four steps forward and three backwards" of making social progress.


Fourth film of the day was Iranian film "Separation". This film is already very popular in festival circuits. So much so that regular festival visitors seemed uninterested by the very mention of it. But they strongly recommended it for first time watchers. Film is story of middle class family of bickering couple, Alzheimeric father and young daughter. Couple has already filed for separation mainly because of wife's insistence on leaving Iran. But husband does not want to leave his father in his senile state. They hire a pregnant woman to look after father. Then some events happen that put all characters in web of lie n deceipt. Plot line is very tight and engaging. USP of most Iranian films is the simplicity of plot and characters that makes film so real and natural that you never feel people acting in the film; especially, the younger cast. Directors like Majidi have created a beautiful legacy from otherwise controversial Persian land.


I felt so contented and exhausted after four films that fifth film was kind of necessary ritual to be completed. And literally it was. Israeli film called Policeman moved with such painful pace and uninteresteing scenes that I preferred shutting my eyes for some part of it. However, film got interesting in last half an hour with last five minutes packing up the entire message that I felt writer director duo was trying to convey from this satirical film.


I felt that drifting of urban elite youth behind exaggerated ideals of second revolution was common thread between Israeli and German film.


Summing up, second day belonged to interesting and dynamic films that we thoroughly enjoyed.
Let's hope there are more such films in store.


Cheers!!

PIFF 2012

This is 10th year of Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) and its 9th year of my attendance.

PIFF has been one of the most cherished annual events for me.

I made lot of new friends there and watched some of the great works of art apart from gathering lot of knowledge of nature, people, culture, customs, relationships, wars, regimes, politics etc etc.

I have decided to make most of this year's feast and write about it as well. Let's see how it goes.

Cheers!!

PIFF 2012 Day 1

We (me and Anmol) were seated at Citypride Kothrud screen 1 at 9:10 am for Irish film "The Other Side of the Sleep" to start. Film was cold and eerie tale of colder character of young girl suffering from sleep-walking disorder. Mysteriously told, the film takes us through frozen nights and dark spaces of small town and unstable mind of the leading lady. Moving at slower pace, those 90 minutes made typical Pune winter morning even colder.

We stepped out for Sun shine and a "cutting". Crowd had started pouring in. First batch of catalgue books was already finished and late realizer kaka-kakus were thronging desks with complaints.

People had queued up outside for Italian relationship drama film "Kiss me Again". So getting seat for our choice - Polish film "Joanna" was not much of trouble. Film was sad but brave tale of lady protecting a Jew kid girl from Nazis in Second World War times. Joanna's is wating for husband who left for army when war started and has hasn't reported existence since then. Her big aparment is subject of envy of officials and neighbourhood. On top of it, she is struggling to make the ends meet due to war time unemployment. That pretty much sets stage of dramatic events. Tender relationship between the intelligent girl and Joanna is beautifully etched. I was really saddened by tragic end of brave protagonist. But I guess, that's how writer wanted to underline the shattering of people due to unforeseen events in war.

Subjects of majority Polish films that I have seen (may be a coincidence) revolve around consequences of second world war. I like Polish films for their detailed scenes, characters and subjects. I have never been to Poland, but from these films like (Krakow, Pianist being noteworthy) I have learnt that Poland had very rich culture. Second world war ruined Poland the most. That's very unfortunate for a nation and its people.

After Joanna, we rushed for lunch and returned just when Iranian film "Alzheimer" started. I had suspected it to be about an Alzheimer's patient. But it turned out to be rather symbolic tale of longing of woman for long lost husband. Man's respected businessman brother and rest of the family has accepted him to be dead and sent his wife to asylum due to her non-acceptance of husband's death. But she has enough sanity and guts to run "lost person" ad in the newspaper by bribing prison officials. Unaware of the ad, family takes her out to celebrate 20th death anniversary of husband. Ad runs in the newspaper and opportunist thugs plant an trickster impostor as her husband to milk money. Presented with a touch of humor, film follows the mayhem that ensues and emotional turmoil of wife and brother of lost man. Not entirely true to the reputation of Iranian films, Alzheimer treads somewhat French black comedy track. Character of trickster impostor steals the limelight due to his histrionics.

After 3rd film, there was rather long gap. However, Marathi film "Shala" forced audience to queue outside theatre more than an hour before its start. Based on, by now popular, novel of the same name by Milind Bokil, film has generated lot of interest due to online promotion campaigns. Film's star cast (literally शाळकरी मुलंमुली :-) ) were astounded by the huge crowd. Personally I saw the heroine Ketaki with OMG (Miss World announcement) type expressions :-). I too am fan of the novel, but will help Marathi film industry by watching the film after its commercial release.

I watched German film "Albanian" instead. Director of the film Johannes Naber introduced himself before start of the film. We had watched its trailer on festival website earlier night. But actual film was much slower. Reminidng me of 90s Hindi films, it was a make-so-much-money-to-marry-my-girl kind of test-of-love-story. Combining that with plight-of-illegal-migrants-in-developed-Europe, film had lot to offer. However, slow pace took the steam out of film, forcing me to count minutes-left-to-finish after evey now and then. Lively performance of the hero was only the saving grace that I found.

One thing about the pace. My observation is that most of the films in international film festivals are slow paced. I think this is mostly because those masters (wannabe or acclaimed) of the film craft want you to notice subject depth, their hardwork, application of techniques, imagination, thought process and what not. So you need LOOAAADDDSSS of patience to watch these films. Again its essential part of your movie-watching-skill. More so if you are pure at heart (I mean not related to any film making or appreciating profession) movie buff. Not all films are slow paced, but when they are, its test of your movie-watching-skill.

Last film of the day was Polish film about football fans "Flying pigs". This was wholesome entertainment film of the day, with all masala; right from sports, violence, family, relationship, extra marital, loyalty, betrayal to professionalism and coroporate vs traditional fanfare. I am too tired to tell the complete story; may be you can read it in online PIFF catalogue. I liked the film for being good blend. Its one of the best films I have seen on subject of sports-fan-ship.

Last film ends with quotes meaning - family is the the last resort and man's involvement in making his family being "second half" of life.

So God bless me with my continuing fellowship of films in "second half" of my life. More to come tomorrow.

Cheers!!