Films that take on the times

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On the fifth day of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), two films in the international competition category - Malayalam film ‘Two Persons’ and French film ‘I Still Hide to Smoke’ - will have premiere shows at IFFK. Six movies in all from the category will be screened on Tuesday.

‘Two Persons’, directed by Prem Shankar, tells the story of a young man’s life experiences and circumstances in the backdrop of demonetisation. The debut feature film of Rayhana, ‘I Still Hide to Smoke’, portrays the life of two women in different states. Sanju Surendran’s ‘Garden of Desire’, Sabit Kurmanbekov’s ‘Returnee’, Ali Ghavitan’s ‘White Bridge’ and Ayub Qanir’s ‘The World of Which We Dream Doesn’t Exist’ are the other four in the competition section.

For more women behind the scenes

A two-day women’s workshop at Apollo Dimora begins on Tuesday. To be attended by women filmmakers and technicians, the workshop is aimed at facilitating greater participation of women filmmaking talent.The workshop will start with an opening address by film director and editor Arunaraje. Urmi Javekar, Judy Gladstone, Geethu Mohandas, Sanjay Ram, Anshulika Dubey, Vidhu Vincent, Anup Singh, Amit Masurkar, Alessandra Speciale, Rada Sessic, Cary Sawhney, Marco Mueller, Rima Das and Daria Gai will take classes on scripting, digital space, promotion, packaging and funding.

‘Thai filmmakers scared to criticise current-day Buddhism’

Thai director Anucha Boonyawatana said film directors in her country are scared to question Buddhism in their films. Speaking at the Meet the Directors session, she said such attempts are being threatened and films are being banned. “My films are a collection of things I love. I stand for the absolute freedom of artists,” she said.

Director Prashanth Vijay said he had attempted to take a film free of the conventional filmmaking style. He was of the opinion his lack of experience in the field helped him make the movie ‘Athishayangalude Venal’ an unconventional one.

Mahesh Narayanan, director of ‘Takeoff’, mentioned how an anecdote can be effectively portrayed on screen. Sabit Kurmanbekov, director of the film ‘Returnee’, said he represents the Kazakhstan movie fraternity. “‘Returnee’ is a government-funded movie. I tried to portray the life of my people. The film depicts the life of people who fled from my native place due to the socio-economic crisis,” he said.