Thiruvananthapuram: The International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), unlike the Cannes, Toronto or Venice festivals, does not focus as much on premieres. However this year, the festival will have 21 premieres of which six are World Premieres. Among the World Premieres is Manhole, the first film of Thiruvananthapuram-based journalist Vidhu Vincent. It is about manual scavengers, a topic on which Vidhu has made a documentary before. Western Ghats, Horror Story of Bhaapaa and Midnight Keteki as well as Malayalam films 6 Feet and Godsay will be premiered at IFFK.
IFFK will be the first Asian festival to show Navid Danesh’s Duet. The director had in 2013 made a short film of the same name, which was nominated for the Cinefondation award at Cannes. Mexican films Tamaara and the Lady Bug and The Arrival of Conrado Sierra will have their Asian Premeires at IFFK. On The Other Side, which has won 21 awards including a Special Mention at Berlin, will have its Indian premiere here.
Korean Filmmaker Hong Sang-soo’s Yourself and Yours is another Indian premiere at IFFK. The auteur has many awards in his kitty, the most recent one being Locarno International Film Festival’s Golden Leopard for his Right Now, Wrong Then. Morris from America, a coming-of-age movie, has already been raved about at various international festivals. Its lead actor Craig Robinson has got several awards, including the Special Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival.
Man who filmed disposessions all set to chair film fest jury
It would be incorrect to say that the IFFK jury will be chaired by a Palestinian exile. But Michel Khleifi, is someone who was forced to emigrate to Brussels from Nazareth, the Arab heart of Israel, as Palestinians like him could not register as students in Israel. His movies seem to have come from someone constantly trying to find his way back to his home, and failing each time. Take ‘Zindeeq’, his most recent film (2009). It tells the story of a Palestinian filmmaker living in Europe who returns to Palestine to make a film about its volatile past.
Michel Khleifi
He is recognised as a voice of dissent. And dispossession has been a theme which surfaces in many of his films. In 2004, he with Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan, travelled along the Israel-Palestine border documenting the lives of people on either side. ‘Route 181’, the documentary born out of that collaborative project, won accolades and criticisms. The intent of the film, he shared in an interview, was to show that there was much Jews and Arabs could accomplish together. At IFFK, his most acclaimed work, ‘Wedding in Galilee’ will be shown. The 1987 film was awarded the International Critics Prize at Cannes.
