The Festival Logo: 'Nabagunjara' (ନବଗୁଞ୍ଜର)‘Nabagunjara’, meaning ‘Naba’ (nine) and ‘Gunjara’ (sound), is depicted in traditional Patachitra painting as a composite figure of nine animals. The images of this creature are found in the paintings of the Himalayan Princely states and South India; however, the written version of the story of Nabagunjara is found only in the Sarala Das (15th century) Odia Mahabharata. Lord Krishna here reveals to Arjuna in Nabagunjara form to test his devotion. The depiction of the creature is found in the Jagannath temple, Puri. The creature is also found in the Ganjifa playing cards; it is the king card and Arjuna is the minister card. In the form of Nabagunjara, Krishna expresses the plurality of approaches to the understanding of reality. The ultimate reality that Krishna teaches Arjuna is one, but it may appear different to different people depending on their point of view and their own innate'svabhava' or nature.
The Hindu tradition is neither monolithic nor unitarian but instead plural and multifaceted, where multiplicity rather than uniformity is the watchword and, therefore, approaches to this reality also have to be varied. Therefore, we think this symbol of plurality could be a way to look at the composite art of Cinema. Nabangunjara not only represents the essence of acceptance and diversity but also is a representation of different perspectives that cinema throws light on and through. The entire idea of several animals unified through an eternal soul somewhere or the other, shows the unpredictable nature of cinema that keeps exploring and surprising the human mind through sight and sound in varied ways. The spirit of this motif is deeply ingrained in the Odia society, from small Vaishnava temples around the street corners of coastal Odisha to the sanctum of faith in the Jagannath temple. It makes sense that it stands out as the symbol of the work we are trying to do
FILM LINE UP AT IFFB 2019
Ee Ma Yau
Director-Lijo Jose Pellissery / 120 mins / India / Malayalam / 2018
The story of ‘Ee. Ma. Yau.’ is set amidst the Latin Catholic community in Chellanam beach near Kochi in Kerala. It revolves around the death of Vavachan, a master mason, who comes home after a lapse of time, and suddenly meets with his death. Before his death, he shares with his son Eeshi, memories about the burial of his father and in turn, his own desire to be buried decently. Eeshi readily promises him a grand burial. After Vavachan’s sudden and shocking departure, Eeshi earnestly arranges forhis father’s funeral; he wants it to be performed with due respect, with all the usualrituals, colorful paraphernalia and celebrations that go with it.
Abraham
Director- Konarak Mukherjee / 127 mins / India / Bengali, English / 2018
This is an interpretation of the mythical tale of Abraham, delving into the dark and macabre world of religious fanaticism and dogma. God is wrathful and His judgement is upon our world. God would burn down the sinful and decadent human civilisation to the ground. He, the preferred child of the lord, pleaded with God in order to delay the apocalypse and took up the task of ridding the civilisation of sin… one sinner at a time.
Ajji
Director - Devashish Makhija / 128 mins / India / Hindi, Marathi / 2016
Little Manda is found raped and dumped in a trash heap in her slum. Her parents are more concerned with survival than dignity and want to forget and move on. The cops are powerless to help as the rapist is a local politician's son. But Manda's grandmother Ajji cannot accept the injustice of it all. Can a frail, arthritic and powerless old woman grapple with the big bad wolf? Is there still hope for justice in a cruel world?. There are no easy answers.
Eeda
Director - B. Ajithkumar / 152 mins / India / Malayalam / 2018
Anand and Aiswarya who hail from nearby villages in North Malabar. A chance meeting in their native place develops into a passionate affair in Mysore. But their lives suddenly become intertwined in a series of violent events. Separated from each other, they try to overcome the obstacles and unite once again. And their frantic attempts to escape tightens the knot further. Will their love weather this storm?
Teen Aur Aadha
Director - Daria Gai / 121 mins / India / Marathi, Hindi / 2017
Teen Aur Aadha unfolds a unique narrative through three unbroken 43-minute shots, exploring one house across three eras. Fifty years ago, it housed a school and an apartment where a young boy shared a cramped room with his paralyzed grandfather, who harbored sinister plans for the boy's leap-year birthday. Twenty years later, it became a brothel, focusing on a naive concubine and her peculiar client. Thirty years on, the same walls hold a mysterious serenity.
Mishing
Director - Bobby Sarma Baruah / 75 mins / India / Sherdukpan / 2018
A Manipuri Army deserter grows roots in the Sherdukpan community of Arunachal Pradesh and suddenly disappears only to resurface decades later and once again vanish behind a curtain of curious
questions.
Aamrityu
Director - Arup Manna / 81 mins / India / Assamese / 2018
After four years away fighting a lost cause, Amrit returns to a changed village. His brother is wiser, his father weaker, and the once-familiar community now whispers and stares. Struggling to adapt and haunted by doubts, Amrit grapples with the harsh realities of life. Will he find hope or succumb to fear as he seeks his path forward?
Chuskit
Director: Priya Ramasubban/ 89mins/ Ladakhi/ 2018
Young Chuskit dreams of going to school, but after an accident leaves her paraplegic, her strict grandfather, Dorje, insists school can't accommodate her. As tensions rise at home, her family is torn between honoring Dorje's traditional views and supporting Chuskit's determination. Chuskit must either change her grandfather's mind or accept the limits he sets.
Ave Maria
Director:Vipin Radhakrishnan/ 75mins/ Malayalam/ 2018
Rex, a diffident, pervasive man who works as a driver in the holy town of Velankanni meet Maria Gomez, a Catholic devotee with strong religious beliefs in a peculiar situation during one of his debaucheries. Maria later takes the help of Rex for completing couple of her errands gets acquainted with him further and it ends up changing both their lives in the most unexpected of ways.
Humans of Someone
Director- Sumesh Lal/ 95mins/ Malayalam/ 2018
A man gets obsessed with late filmmaker Padmarajan, whose films become inextricably entwined with his own life, including his relationship with his long-time girlfriend, Sarah. While wandering the streets in a daze, a loopy idea strikes him – start filming this situation, and see what happens.
Pariyerum Perum BA.BL
Director- Mari Selvaraj/ 154mins/ Tamil/ 2018
Pariyerum Perumal, an idealistic youngster, enrolls at the law college optimistic of the future that lies ahead of him. However, a chain of events ensue that wake him up to the realities of the world he lives in.
The Young Karl Marx
Director- Raoul Peck/ 118mins/ German/ 2017
At 26, Karl Marx, with his wife Jenny, meets Friedrich Engels in Paris in 1844. Engels' insights into the English proletariat complete Marx's revolutionary vision. Amid censorship, raids, and upheavals, they spearhead the labor movement, sparking a transformative political and theoretical shift.
Ami O Manohar
Director - Amitabha Chatterjee / 118 mins / India / Bengali / 2018
Two solitary individuals meet each other every day in the city of Calcutta and share the stories of their imaginary life. But one day when death makes an appearance, the truth is revealed.
Ashwathama
Director - Pushpendra Singh / 120 mins / India /Hindi / 2017
After bandits raid their home killing his mother, 9-year-old Ishvaku is sent to his uncle's village to start a new life with his cousins. Still in shock and pain, Ishvaku tries to cope with his loss by entering an imaginary realm. But the difficulties and mysteries of reality won't let him go that easily.
Ka Bodyscapes
Director - Jayan Cherian / 99 mins / India / Malyalam / 2017
Three young people, Haris, a free-spirited gay painter; Vishnu, a rural kabaddi player and Haris’ object of desire; and their friend Sia, an activist who refuses to conform to dominant norms of femininity, struggle to find space and happiness.
'96
Director - C. Prem Kumar / 157 mins / India / Tamil / 2018
Ramachandran, a free-spirited travel photographer, visits his hometown Thanjavur and plans a reunion for the class of '96. At the event, his high school sweetheart, Janaki, arrives, sparking nostalgia and unresolved emotions. The two reflect on their bittersweet love story from 22 years ago, sharing life updates in a single night.
Bulbul can sing
Director - Rima Das / 95 mins / India / Assamese / 2018
Bulbul, a young girl, living in village in Assam, India, fighting her way through love and loss as she figures out who really she is!
.
Haanduk
Director - Jaicheng Jai Dohutia / 83 mins / India / Assamese, Moran / 2016
Heramoni, mother of untraced extremist Mukti, whose last rites she had performed receives intimation that his death cannot be confirmed by the outfit and knows not how to respond while Biplob, who had left the outfit and is alone, unable to be part of the mainstream surrendered rebels, has his own problems of existence.
Kyoyang Ngarmo
Director - Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam / 91 mins / India / Tibetan / 2018
When a young, exile Tibetan woman unexpectedly sees a man from her past, long- suppressed memories of her traumatic escape across the Himalayas are reignited and she is propelled on an obsessive search for reconciliation and closure.
Oath
Director- P.K. Bijukuttan/ 82mins/ Malayalam/ 2018
Oath proceeds through the depth and expanse of tender human love and the movie breeds the seed of melancholy and agony in the heart of spectator visualising the tragic life of a mentally challenged son and his helpless father. The thread of the movie is the never ending quest for the reason behind tragedy and the lethargic solitude after this fatal incident.finally it turns the finger towards the spectator himself.Blood relationship abandoned by the senseless society.
Sudani from Nigeria
Director - Zakaria / 115 mins / India / Malayalam / 2018
Majid, a football passionate from Malappuram , is working as a Soccer club manager in the region. Samuel, a Nigerian footballer who is recently hired by Majid is unfortunately met with a severe back injury in an accident. Having Samuel being prescribed for a two-month bed rest Majid is obliged to take him his own home promising a perfect nursing. They form an unlikely bond despite their cultural differences.
Bhayanakam
Director- Jayaraj/ 124mins/ Malayalam/ 2018
A First World War veteran is coming to a small Backwater village in Kuttanand, India as a Postman. He is distributing money orders and letters to the family of soldiers as a symbol of happiness. He turns out to be an Omen of death once Second World War starts. The pain and impact of Second World War is shown through the telegrams and postman’s dilemma.
Udalazham
Director - Unnikrishnan Avala/ 119mins/ Malayalam/ 2018
The protagonist, Gulikan, was married in childhood, as part of their custom, to Mathi. He, being a transgender, is unable to fulfil his marital vows, and is constantly abused and raped by the predatory men he encounters both in the village and the city. Change of jobs, friendship with a dance teacher and a Tile Company owner doesn't make much of an impact in his life. Gulikan is unable to thrive in a racist and hostile city. Udalazham is about his plight, back to nature.
Pratibhasam
Director- Vipin Vijay/ 158mins/ Malayalam/ 2018
Maya the protagonist, on her way to the college, hears a radio news of a strange geometrical figure with the shape of a ‘tetrahedron’ that appears from nowhere besides the Nazca lines in Peru. In the mean time, Maya’s friend Divya's father, Neelan, goes missing. Few days later he is found from a distant land with signatures of pre-historic habitats around the place. Maya meets a few people from distant lands, of different races, roaming around a desolated architecture. Are they humanoid creatures? By the end of the film, through a dream passage that connects both Maya and Divya, we get to know about the disappearance of Maya.
Nayinte Hrudayam
Director- Sreekrishnan KP/ 120mins/ Malayalam/ 2017
Victoria
Director- Sebastian Schipper/ 138 mins/ German/ 2015
Victoria, a young woman from Madrid, meets four local Berliners outside a nightclub. Sonne and his friends promise to show her a good time and the real side of the city. But these lads have gotten themselves into hot water: they owe someone a dangerous favor that requires repaying that evening. Shot in a single take over the night and filmed in 22 locations of Berlin.
Aedan
Director- Sanju Surendran/ 130mins/ Malayalam/ 2017
Hari, a young writer in the countryside, lives a quiet life with his mother, finding brief excitement in the doctor’s wife. He visits Peter Sir, a retired teacher, where they play a morbid game, betting on obituary notices. Among the picks, Peter recognizes two men, Shaji and Kuriakose, whose deaths reveal stories of murder and love.
Toni Erdmann
Director- Maren Ade/ 162 mins/ German/ 2016
Winfried, a prank-loving music teacher, surprises his career-driven daughter Ines in Bucharest, disrupting her corporate life. Adopting the eccentric alter ego "Toni Erdmann," he poses as her CEO's life coach, pushing boundaries with bold antics. Despite their clashes, the father-daughter duo grows closer through their unconventional connection.
FATITH AKIN RETROSPECTIVE
Impulsive, raw, and wild, Fatih Akin’s films explore the intersection of cultures, freedom, and reconciliation. His breakout masterpiece Gegen die Wand (Head-On) (2004) tells the story of Sibel, a German-Turkish woman, and her unconventional marriage with Cahit, a broken alcoholic, sparking redemption for both. This marked the start of his “Love, Death and the Devil” trilogy, followed by The Edge of Heaven (2006), weaving tales of six lives across Germany and Turkey, bridging religions, cultures, and histories.
Akin’s work, rich in music blending punk and Turkish folk, breaks boundaries, with highlights like Crossing the Bridge, an exploration of music subcultures, Soul Kitchen (2009), a comedic gem, and The Cut (2014), tackling the Armenian genocide. His cinema is a vivid blend of raw emotion, cultural intersections, and rhythmic storytelling.
Girish Kasaravalli’s films are full of rituals, ceremonies, legitimization games, legal procedures and codes of communication and social conduct. These narratives are all structured around notions of inclusion and exclusion, of inclusiveness and exclusivity. They are all about who is in a particular game and who is not. Even though Kasaravalli’s films are about rituals, the films, themselves, are never rituals. Even though they have been present in one form or another throughout his filmography, the key question that Kasaravalli’s films have put emphasis on has moved from that of socio-religious institutions and their laws, through that of authorization of those laws by those whom it applies to, to that of justice and its many conflicting definitions that seek to pin down its meaning, all the while having at their focal points the effects that these questions have on the social standing of women.
Ghatashraddha delves into a system of social legitimation that is built on suppressing differences, deviances and dissent. (Having a homosexual teenager in the school is provocative even today). Kasaravalli portrays these rituals – religious and social – in high detail that they seem to almost possess a power beyond the people who perform them.
Shot mostly indoors with the production design dominated by deep red and brown colours, Thai Saheba is reminiscent of similarly-themed films of the same decade by Hou and Zhang, especially in the way the women orbit the largely unseen patriarch of the house and how the personal becomes inseperably entagled with the political.
His debut film Piravi (1988) won the Caméra d'Or – Mention d'honneur at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. He was the premiere chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the first academy for film and TV in India and was also the executive chairman of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) from 1998 to 2001. He is best known for his award-winning films Piravi (1988), Swaham (1994), Vanaprastham (1999) and Kutty Srank (2009). He won the National Award for Best Director for his debut film Piravi. He also won two Kerala State Film Awards for Best Director for his films Swaham and Vanaprastham.
Based on the controversial Rajan case, Piravi presents a sombre picture of the missing man's family. The mental anguish resulting from the young man's disappearance is too much for his 80-year-old father Raghava Chakyar (Premji) to bear. It has mostly to do with the fact that the son was born much later: there is a 60-year gap between father and son. Despite having an elder daughter (Archana), it's obvious that both parents have a soft corner for the son.
In Vanaprastham, an illicit relationship between a Kathakali dancer and a young woman from an upper caste family, results in an illegitimate child. He faces hardships when she refuses to let him see their child.
"Film-making is not an esoteric thing to me. I consider film-making – to start with – a personal thing. If a person does not have a vision of his own, he cannot create."
Ghatak, Ritwik (1987); Cinema and I.
Ghatak was born a rebel. He questioned the ideas and attitudes towards culture and art prevalent at the time. When he was forced to appear before a one-man commission, so-called progressive thinkers branded him a Trotskyite. He criticized commercial cinema, which he felt left no scope for creativity and research. Ghatak put things on screen that worried him, made him happy or sad. He was basically an aesthetic artist and was personal in his films. Films that failed to highlight Indian culture were meaningless so far as he was concerned.
Ritwik Ghatak made his second feature, Ajantrik (The Pathetic Fallacy, 1958), based on a short story by renowned writer Subodh Ghosh (1909-1980). The film depicts an obsessive relationship between an eccentric, lone-wolf cabdriver, Bimal (Kali Banerjee), and his 1920s Chevrolet jalopy, affectionately called Jagaddal (which literally means “immovable” in Bengali).
Ghatak’s narration style was the exact opposite of Ray’s — making the audience uncomfortable. His last film, Jukti Takko Aar Gappo, bore his trademark rebellion, with the director himself playing the lead character of an alcoholic, disillusioned intellectual who comes across the first band of Naxalites in Bengal, though he denied basing it on a political ideology.
“In it, the political backdrop of West Bengal from 1971 to 1972 — as I saw it — has been portrayed. There is no ideology. I saw it from the point of view of not a politician. I am not supposed to please a political ideology,” he said in an interview.
