KAIRALI

LE GRAND SOIR

France-Belgium/2012/DCP/Colour/92’/French

Direction, Screenplay: Benoit Delepine, Gustave de Kervern

Production: Jean-Pierre Guerin, Andre Logie

Cinematography: Hugues Poulain

Editing: Stephane Elmadjian

Sound: Bruno Seznec

Cast: Gerard Depardieu, Benoit Poelvoorde, Albert Dupontel, Barbet Schroeder, Yolande Moreau, Miss Ming, Brigitte Fontaine, Stéphane Durieux

Awards/Festivals

Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Special Jury Prize, Melbourne. London, Warsaw

This is the story of two brothers-dynamic opposites of each other- whose paths converge when tragedy strikes one. Self-professed “oldest punk in Europe with a dog,” Not is a forty-something non-conformist who wears the punk uniform of camouflage fatigues, mohawk and jackboots. His brother, Jean-Pierre, is a mattress salesman in a chain store and he is Not’s opposite, straight- laced and line-toeing. When Jean-Pierre’s life starts falling apart and he is threatened with unemployment, the veneer of acquiescence quickly crumples and it doesn’t take long for Not to woo him over to the rebellious side of the street. Characteristically scabrous but still charming, this Un Certain Regard entry sends up its soul deadening strip-mall milieu and takes jabs at the failings of a consumerist society without ever taking it- self too seriously.

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WHEN I SAW YOU (Lamma Shoftak)

Palestine-Jordan-Greece/2012/Colour/93’/Arabic

Direction, Screenplay: Annemarie Jacir

Production: Ossama Bawardi

Cinematography: Helene Louvart

Editing: Annemarie Jacir, Panos Voutsaras

Sound: Raja Dubayah, Kostas Varibopiotis

Music: Kamran Rastegar

Cast: Mahmoud Asfa, Ruba Blal, Saleh Bakri, Ali Elayan, Firas Taybeh, Ruba Shamshoum, Ahmad Srour, Anas Qaralleh, Ahmad Massad

Awards/Festivals

Toronto, Abhudhabi, Sao Paulo, Carthage, Cairo

Eleven-year-old Tarek and his mother Ghaydaa have settled temporarily in the Harir camp in Jordan, but in the chaos they have been separated from Tarek’s father Ghassan. Every day, he and his mother anxiously monitor the trucks unloading refugees, longing to be reunited with Ghassan, but to no avail. Only a few miles away from the Harir camp, in the clandestine encampments that border Israel, the atmosphere is radically different, as armed Palestinian freedom fighters are training for battle. When Tarek and his mother cross paths with them, the boy is emboldened and chooses to stay with them, forc ing his mother to follow suit. Passionate but devoid of didacticism, “When I Saw You” is a ma-

ture and quietly moving evocation of the very real barriers surrounding the Arab diaspora, and the life-affirming spirit of those who struggle to break free of them.

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PRESENT TENSE (Simdiki Zaman)

Turkey/2012/DCP/Colour/110’/Turkish

Direction: Belmin Soylemez

Production: Hasmet Topaloglu

Screenplay: Belmin Soylemez, Hasmet Topaloglu

Cinematography: Peter Roehsler

Editing: Ali Aga, Belmin Soylemez

Sound, Music: Cenker Kokten

Cast: Sanem Oge, Senay Aydin, Ozan Bilen

A young unemployed woman applies to a fortunetelling cafe lying that she has experience. While she reads the coffee cups of different women, she also tries to find a way out for herself. Divorced, disconnected from family, about to be thrown out of her flat, she is surrounded with troubles. Her mind is made up: she will escape to America. Or will she?

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NOW, FORAGER

USA-Poland/2012/DCP/Colour/93’/English

Direction: Jason Cortlund, Julia Halperin

Production: Julia Halperin, Kit Bland

Screenplay: Jason Cortlund

Cinematography: Jonathan Nastasi

Editing: Julia Halperin

Sound: Jeremy Fleishman

Music: Chris Brokaw

Cast: Jason Cortlund, Tiffany Esteb, Gabrielle Maisels, Almex Lee

Awards/Festivals

Vermont, Leeds, Flyway, Kaunas Mannheim-Heidelberg

Lucien and Regina are foragers - they gather wild mushrooms in the woodlands of New Jersey and sell them to restaurants in New York. Their lifestyle is simple, their income unstable. To improve the financial security and to follow a more fulfilling personal career path, Regina decides to take a job cooking at a high-end restaurant. Lucien disapproves and instead, he proposes to give up their apartment and live as full-time itinerant foragers. As individual desires take them down divergent paths over the course of a year, their marriage slowly comes apart. The film juxtaposes the fictional story about the growing distance between the two lovers with pictures of the seasons passing and beautiful close-ups of mushrooms in the wild. Now, Forager: A Film about Love and Fungi is a beautiful story on food, work, and love, narrated with honesty and passion.

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KALABHAVAN

MEKONG HOTEL

Thailand-UK-France/2012/DCP/Colour/61’/Thai

Direction, Production, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Sound: Chai Bhatana

Music: Chalermrat Kaweewattana

Cast: Jenjaira Pongpas, Maiyatan Techaparn, Salda Kaewbuadee, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Chai Bhatana, Chatchai Suban

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Locarno, Toronto, New York, Vancouver, London

A portrait of a hotel near the Mekong River in the north-east of Thailand, the film shuffles between the different realms of fact and fiction, expressing the bonds between a vampire-like mother and her daughter, a pair of young lovers and the river. The film also weaves in layers of politics, destruction and a drifting dream of the future. The new film from Thai master and Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, “Mekong Hotel” is at once a soothing lullaby, a film à clef, fragments from an unrealized project, and a fascinating experiment in collaboration. Exploring themes that are central to his work, such as re-incarnation, the legacy of violence that once dominated Thailand’s northeast, and unabashed romantic love, Mekong Hotel evinces a sense of yearning bathed in radiant, sunset shades.

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POST TENEBRAS LUX

Mexico-France-Germany-Holland/2012/ Colour/120’/Spanish-French-English

Direction, Screenplay: Carlos Reygadas

Production: Jaime Romandia, Carlos Reygadas

Cinematography: Alexis Zabe

Editing: Natalia Lopez

Sound: Gilles Laurent, Sergio Diaz, Raul Locatelli

Cast: Nathalia Acevedo, Adolfo Jimenez Castro, Willebaldo Torres, Eleazar Reygadas, Rut Reygadas

Awards/Festivals

Cannes - Best Director, Lima Latin American Film Festival- APRECI Prize, Best Film, Toronto, Leeds

Post Tenebras Lux tells the story of a young family with two small children living in a beautiful wooden house, surrounded by lush green forest and grey mountains. The main character is the father of the family, a handsome man in his mid-30s, who can be very gentle with his kids one minute and batter his dog the next. Reygadas observes their everyday life, but Post Tenebras Lux is not a conventional family chronicle. The realistic tone and slow—paced narrative makes it very difficult to distinguish what is a ‘real—life event’ and what is the protagonist’s imagination. This film is an intimate diary of a man, who wants to have a happy, full life, to live close to nature, and who does so. At the same time, he antici- pates the loss of his dreams and relishes the prospect.

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SAMHITA-THE SCRIPT

India/2012/35mm/Colour/138’/Marathi

Direction: Sumitra Bhave, Sunil Sukthankar

Production: Mukta Arts Ltd. in Association with Ashokk Movies Pvt. Ltd.

Screenplay: Sumitra Bhave

Cinematography: Sanjay Memane

Editing: Mohit Takalkar

Music: Shailendra Barve

Cast: Devika Daftardar, Milind Soman, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Uttara Baokar, Jyoti Subhash

Writing a script about man-woman relationship is a process of deep agony which brings about realizations about real life too. An ailing film producer wants his wife to produce a film on his favorite story: that of the passion between a king and a court singer. The producer’s wife, Shirin, hands over the responsibility to Revati, who is going through a tough phase in the relationship with her floriculturist husband. She meets the woman writer Tara — an aristocrat spinster. Hemangini, a well-known actress who is in a live-in relationship with a painter, is chosen for the role of the court singer.

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36

Thailand/2012/DCP/Colour/68’/Thai

Direction, Production, Screenplay: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit

Cinematography: Pairach Khumwan

Editing: Chonlasit Upanigkit

Music: Wuttipong Leetrakul, Yellow Fang

Sound: Sorayos Prapapan

Cast: Koramit Vajrasthira, Wanlop Rungkamjad, Sirima Aksornsawang, Puangpaka Aksornsawang, Itthisak Treesanga, Siriporn Kongma

Awards/Festivals

Busan-New Currents Award, Fipresci Award Hong Kong Asian Film Festival

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s experimental film 36 consists of 36 static camera shots that tell a story of how we store memories in the digital era. Sai, a location scout, working for a studio, takes pictures whenever she’s working and stores them on her computer. One day, she discovers that she has lost all the files saved on her laptop and sets about trying to restore them with the help of an old friend, Kai. The film hinges on Sai’s missing photo files, but the main character is not a person: Memories stored on digital devices and disappearing old buildings are the main characters. The film portrays memories in a very dry way, suggesting that our memories are as unstable as old buildings, liable to disappear if someone loses a snapshot. We cannot guess when stored memories might be lost. The past is important to Sai, and ironically, one of the reasons why Sai and Oom, an art director who goes location hunt- ing with her, fail to recognize each other’s feelings is perhaps their insensitivity to the present.

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MAI MORIRE

Mexico/2012/DCP/Colour/84’/Spanish

Direction: Enrique Rivero

Production: Paola Herrera, Enrique Rivero

Screenplay: Enrique Rivero, Aleka Rivero

Cinematography: Arnau Valls Colomer and Gerardo Barroso

Sound: Alejandro de Icaza, Jose Miguel Enriquez

Editing: Enrique Rivero, Javier Ruiz Caldera

Music: Alejandro de Icaza

Cast: Margarita Saldana, Amalia Salas, Juan Chirinos

Awards/Festivals

Rome

Chayo returns to her hometown to care for her elderly mother and cope with her death. Surrounded by love and sublime beauty, Chayo has to give up something that as a woman and mother is inalien- able. That will be the price of her freedom.

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NEW

SHAMELESS (Bez wstydu)

Poland/2012/35mm/Colour/84’/Polish

Direction: Filip Marczewski

Production: Beata Gzik

Screenplay: Grzegorz Loszewski

Cinematography: Szymon Lenkowski

Editing: Wojciech Jagie, Rafal Listopad

Music: Pawe Mykietyn

Cast: Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maciej Marczewski, Anna Prochniak, Pawel Krolikowski, Dariusz Majchrzak

Awards/Festivals

Karlovy Vary, Chicago

A story of forbidden love.18-year-old Tadek feels overwhelmed by his feelings for his sister and wants to prove him worthy of her affection, regardless of the consequences. His sister is also emotionally isolated, living in a relationship with the local neo-fascist group leader, and she longs for intimacy and tenderness as much as her brother does. And hence, she finds it difficult to thwart her brother’s attentions. Then, a 17-year- old gypsy girl called Irmina appears. She is dreaming about a breakaway and believes Tadek can help her. And Tadek, fighting for the love of his sister, ignores her for quite some time. A simple, yet convincing film, Shameless also offers an interesting probe into the kind of life rural Poland has to offer.

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CHAYILIAM

India/2012/35mm/Colour/90’/Malayalam

Direction, Screenplay: Manoj Kana

Production: Neru Cultural Society, Kozhikode

Cinematography: K G Jayan

Editing: Manoj Kannoth

Music: Chandran Veyattummal

Sound: N Harikumar

Cast: M R Gopakumar, Anumol K, Jijoy, Chempil Asokan, P K Meenakshiamma, Prevish, Jaya Unnikrishnan, Elsi Sukumaran

Chayilyam is about the ‘shades of red’ that make up the feminine. Gauri, who attains divine status when the goddess begins to speak and dance through her and her menstruation, comes to a premature end. A widow recovering from the shock of her husband’s death, she is pulled apart by various forces: while the society worships and makes a goddess out of her, her father-in-law wants to bring her back to normal life. But all that Gauri wants is to be an ordinary woman and mother to her son. Finally, she casts away the burden of rituals and sets out to find herself. Set in North Malabar, the film draws from the orgasmic energy of theyyam, a vibrant temple ritual.

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3 (Tres)

Uruguay-Germany-Argentina-Chile/2012/ 35mm/Colour/119’/Spanish

Direction: Pablo Stoll Ward

Production: Natacha Cervi, Hernan Musaluppi, Cristoph Friedel

Screenplay: Gonzalo Delgado Galiana, Pablo Stoll Ward

Cinematography: Barbara Alvarez

Editing: Fernando Epstein, Pablo Stoll Ward

Sound: Daniel Yafalian

Music: Reverb, Sebastian Del Muro Eiras

Cast: Humberto de Vargas, Sara Bessio, Anaclara Ferreyra Palfy, Nestor Guzzini, Matias Ganz, Carolina Centurion, Ines Bortagaray

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Valdivia, Toronto, Sao Paulo Latin American Film Festival- Itamaraty Award

Sixteen-year-old Ana lives alone with her divorced mother, Graciela. Feeling ignored by a new wife (who remains unseen throughout the film, her existence signalled only by overflowing ashtrays), Rodolfo, Ana’s father and Graciela’s ex-husband, decides that he wants to spend more time with the family he left ten years previous. At a time when the two women are beginning to find their groove — and Graciela has finally met someone new — Rodolfo begins to show up at their house unannounced, pronouncing interest in Ana’s handball games or wanting to have dinner to- gether. Slowly, Rodolfo begins to insinuate himself back into their home.

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LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

France-Japan/2012/DCP/Colour/109’/Japanese

Direction, Screenplay: Abbas Kiarostami

Production: Nathanael Karmitz, Abbas Kiarostami

Cinematography: Katsumi Yanagijima

Editing: Bahman Kiarostami

Sound: Reza Narimizadeh

Cast: Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno, Ryo Kase, Denden , Mihoko Suzuki, Kaneko Kubota, Hiroyuki Kishi, Reiko Mori, Kouichi Ohori, Tomoaki Tatsumi, Seina Kasugai

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Toronto, New York, Vancouver, AFI FEST

Akiko (Rin Takanashi) is a student who works as a high-class call girl to pay for her studies. A brilliant, elderly academic Takashi (Tadashi Okuno) is one of her clients. They meet in Tokyo. An extraordinary relationship develops between them…

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I LIVE IN FEAR (Ikimond No Kiroku)

Japan/1955/B&W/103’/Japanese

Direction: Akira Kurosawa

Production: Sojiro Motoki

Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Fumio Hayasaka, Hideo Oguni

Cinematography: Asakazu Nakai

Music: Masaru Sato, Fumio Hayasaka

Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Minoru Chiaki, Eiko Miyoshi, Kyoko Aoyama, Haruko Togo, Noriko Sengoku

An elderly businessman, Nakajima (Toshiro Mifune), has become convinced that Japan will be destroyed in a nuclear attack. He decides to move his family to Brazil. His family thinks he is being irrational. They decide to involve the Tokyo Family Court in their squabble. Harada, a volunteer worker for the court, hears the complaints on both sides and rules in favour of his family. This makes Nakajima increasingly desperate and, in a final effort to force his family to accept his decision, commits an act which has tragic repercussions for everyone. One of the first Japanese commercial features to directly address the fear of nuclear holocaust, I Live in Fear was an unusual and unexpected movie for director Akira Kurosawa. Compared to his previous film, Seven Samurai, I Live in Fear has a claustrophobic intensity with much of it shot in the manner of a documentary.

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SREE PADMANABHA

WAR WITCH

Canada/2012/DCP/Colour/90’/French- Lingala

Direction, Screenplay: Kim Nguyen

Production: Pierre Even, Marie-Claude Poulin

Cinematography: Nicolas Bolduc

Editing: Richard Comeau

Sound: Claude La Haye, Francis Péloquin

Cast: Rachel Mwanza, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien, Serge Kanyinda, Mizinga Mwinga, Ralph Prosper, Jean Kabuya, Jupiter Bokondji, Starlette Mathata

Awards/Festivals

Berlin-Best Actress, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention, Tribeca, Toronto, AFI FEST

After her village is burned down by rebels and her parents killed during a civil war in Africa, Komona is forced into the jungle, to be trained as a child soldier. Her brutal commander not only trains her in the use of arms but also orders her to sleep with him. Searching for shelter amidst the horror, she falls in love with a slightly older boy. After they escape from the camp, Komona does her utmost to return to her village. She wants to bury her parents to prevent them from having to wander eternally over the wasted land as ghosts. Told from the perspective of an adolescent girl, the film – shot in authentic loca- tions in Congo and cast mainly with non-professional actors – visualizes the horrors of civil war and the suffering of children and civilians. Realistic images are interspersed with dream sequences which are rooted in African legends and resonate with infinite grief about hardship and misery. Despite all the horrors she encounters, Komona proves to be a beacon of hope for a continent yearning for peace and humanity.

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DRAPCHI

India/2012/35mm/Colour/78’/English

Direction: Arvind Iyer

Production: Iceberg Nine Films

Screenplay: Pooja Ladha Surti

Cinematography: Trevor Tweeten

Editing: Harshal Thakur

Sound: Tim Beale

Music: Arnav Srivastava

Cast: Namgyal Lhamo, Arnav Srivastava Sarosh Izedyar

Awards/Festivals

Kairo, Warsaw, Osians Cinefan

Drapchi is based on a true story and events from the life of famed Tibetan opera singer Namgyal Lhamo. Yiga Gyalnang, (played by Namgyal Lhamo) a traditional Tibetan opera singer, is abducted one summer morning and finds herself in near complete isolation in an underground prison cell for what the Chinese government sees as rebellion through her songs of freedom. After two years, she breaks free and escapes to Nepal and from there, to the West.

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THE LAST STEP (Pele Akher)

Iran/2012/DCP/Colour/88’/Persian

Direction, Screenplay, Production: Ali Mosaffa

Cinematography: Alireza Barazandeh

Editing: Fardin Sahebzamani

Cast: Leila Hatami, Ali Mosaffa, Alireza Aghakhani, Hamed Behdad

Actress Leila bursts into laughter on camera during the filming of a dramatic scene. Her improper behaviour is a reaction to the recent death of her husband Koshrow, who accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. And it is Koshrow who serves as the film’s somewhat unreliable narrator, appearing in the movie even after his death. Director Ali Mosaffa has loosely adapted Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and the James Joyce story The Dead (1914). He has once again cast his wife, noted actress Leila Hatami, in the lead. He himself took the part of the heroine’s husband.

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FOUR SUNS

Czech Republic-Germany/2012/DCP/Colour/105’/Czech

Direction, Screenplay: Bohdan Slama

Production: Pavel Strnad, Petr Oukropec

Cinematography: Divis Marek

Editing: Jan Danhel

Sound: Jan Cenek

Music: Vypsana Fixa

Cast: Jaroslav Plesl, Anna Geislerova, Marek Sacha, Karel Roden, Klara Meliskova, Jiii Madl

Awards/Festivals

Rotterdam, Haifa, Sundance, Karlovy Vary Cockatoo Island Film Festival, Seattle

Set in a small Czech village, Four Suns is the story of Jara, who lives with his wife, their young daughter and his teenage son Véna from a previous marriage. He gets sacked and decides to work with his friend Karel, who is very spiritually inclined. But it remains to be seen if Karel’s talents will be of any value. In his new film, Bohdan Sláma sides once again with the so-called ‘unstable characters’ in society and, more than ever, he confronts them with issues of faith. The film shows not only a profound understanding of its protagonists, but also of their ongoing quest for a spiritual anchor, the absence of which might be the root cause of their anxiety. Four Suns is a loving, almost magical story about growing up, believing and letting go.

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FILMISTAAN

India/2012/DCP/Colour/117’/Hindi

Direction, Screenplay: Nitin Kakkar

Production: Satellite Pictures Pvt.Ltd.

Cinematography: Subhransu Das

Editing: Shachindra Vats

Sound: Arun Nambiar, Fasial Majeed

Music: Arijit Datta

Cast: Sharib Hasmi, Inaamulhaq, Kumud Mishra, Gopal Datt

Sunny, a wanna-be-actor who works as an assistant director in Mumbai is summarily thrown out at every audition. Undeterred, he goes with an American crew to the remote areas of Rajasthan to work on a documentary. There, an Islamic terrorist group kidnaps him. The house in which he is confined belongs to a Pakistani, whose trade stems from pirated Hindi films, which he brings back every time he crosses the border. Soon, the two realize they share a cultural bond. The film shows how cinema can be the universal panacea for co-existence.

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NILA

STAVISKY

France-Italy/1974/35mm/Colour/115'/French

Direction: Alan Resnais

Production: Alexandre Mnouchkine, Oscar Dancingers

Screenplay: Jorge Semprun

Cinematography: Sacha Vierny

Editing: Albert Jurgenson

Sound: Jean-Pierre Ruh and Bernard Bats

Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Francois Perier

Awards/Festivals

Cannes Film Festival, Special Tribute, Charles Boyer, 1974, New York Film Critics Circle, Best Supporting Actor, Charles Boyer, 1974

France, 1933. Police inspector Bonny is conducting a private investigation into the activities of Serge Alexandre, who is actually the infamous Russian swindler Stavisky. This is just one of Alexandre’s tribulations, however. His business empire is about to crumble owing to lack of funds. To escape ruin, he resorts to increasingly desperate measures and as his world collapses, there would be only one way out… A compelling and seductively stylish period piece, Stavisky investigates historical events. In Stavisky, Resnais adopts a subjective framework and also plays with our notion of time, using flashbacks and fast-forwards to break the linear narrative.

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THE BALLAD OF RUSTOM

India/Hindi/35mm/Colour/120’/2012

Direction, Screenplay: Ajita Suchitra Veera

Production: Vellanki Usha Rani, Ajita Suchitra Veera

Cinematography: Shanti Bhooshan Roy

Sound: Boby John

Music: Andrew T Mackay

Cast: Sunny Hinduja, Gaurav Ghatnekar, Ashwath Bhatt, Alok Chaturbedi

Awards/Festivals

Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival-Best Director

Rustom works in a small government office in the countryside. His life consists of wandering from place to place in the small town, spending time with Kapil who works on the suburban trains; living with the eccentricities of his Boss; and being magically transported into his imaginary other- world in the far reaches of this beautiful and lonely countryside that may be undergoing a quiet upheaval.

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THE TEMPLE (Deol)

India/2011/Colour/135’/Marathi

Direction: Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni

Production: Abhijeet Gholap

Screenplay: Girish Pandurang Kulkarni

Cinematography: Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti

Editing: Abhijit Deshpande

Music: Mangesh Dhakde

Cast: Girish Kulkarni, Nana Patekar, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Sonali Kulkarni

Awards/Festivals

Busan, South Asian International Film, Festival- New York, Abu Dhabi, MAMI- Mumbai, National Film Award, Govt of India- Best Feature Film, Best Actor

In the rural areas of Maharashtra lies a peaceful village called Mangrul. One day Keshav, a village youth, sees lord Dattatrey in his dream while taking a nap under a tree. He makes a hue and cry in the village saying God made an appearance for him. A journalist sensationalises the news and now there is a temple for Dattatrey. Mangrul will never be the same...

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CHICKS (La Vie Au Ranch)

France/2009/Colour/90’/French

Direction: Sophie Letourneur

Production: Emmanuel Chaumet

Screenplay: Delphine Agut, Sophie Letourneur

Cinematography: Claire Mathon

Editing: Michel Klochendler

Music: Maxence Cyrin, Benjamin Siksou

Sound: Julien Cloquet

Cast: Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain, Eulalie Juster, Mahault Mollaret, Elsa Pierret, Jade Tong Cuong, Angele Ferreux

Awards/Festivals

Rotterdam, BAFICI, Locarno, Entrevues FilmFestival, Audience Award, Best Feature Film

The communal life of a group of Parisian girls revolving around an apartment affectionately known as ‘the Ranch’, is the stage for Sophie Letourneur’s debut feature, which tells of a life of talking, smoking, drinking and partying. Bold, natural and utterly believable, Chicks underlines how poorly served cinema often is for female characterisation. Letourneur and cinematographer Claire Mathon’s camera is relatively steady given their subjects; it’s more observational than restive, practically anthropological. But the movie does reflect its characters through its narrative—with little actual plot,it feels as aimless as a young literature major. Stuff happens; the girls bicker with boyfriends, break away from their group of friends to become individuals, move from the collectivity of childhood to the autonomy of adulthood, coupled and not. Like its characters (and most people), the movie mellows as it moves forward.

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KARMA

Sri Lanka/88'/Colour/2011/Sinhala

Direction: Prasanna Jayakody

Production: Rasitha Jinasena

Screenplay: Prasanna Jayakody, Jagath Manuwarna

Cinematography: Palitha Perera

Editing: Bathiya Dunusinghe, Rangana Singharage, Sudesh Kumarasinghe

Sound:Lionel Gunarathne

Music: Nadeeka Guruge, Sumudu Guruge

Cast: Jagath Manuwarna, Michelle Herft, Nadeeka Guruge

Piyal is filled with guilt after his mother’s death. He tries to relieve his repressed tensions through Amanda, a woman living near to his apartment Amanda is a woman of fantasies. Through brief encounters, Piyal begins to perceive Amanda as the woman able to fill his emptiness. Amanda is soon diagnosed with breast cancer. Piyal realizes the deep meaning of relationship between a man and a woman…

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DHANYA

7 DAYS IN HAVANA

France-Spain/2012/DCP/Colour/129’/Spanish-English

Direction: Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Elia Suleiman, Julio Medem, Gaspar Noe, Juan Carlos Tabio, Laurent Cantet

Production: Didar Domehri, Laurent Baudens, Gael Nouaille, Alvaro Longoria, Fabien Pisani

Screenplay: Leonardo Padura

Cinematography: Daniel Aranyo, Diego Dussuel

Editing: Thomas Fernandez, Rich Fox, Veronique Lange, Alex Rodriguez, Zack Stoff

Sound: Eva Valino, Charly Schmukler, Nicolas De Poulpiquet

Music: Xavi Turull , Descemer Bueno, Kelvis Ochoa

Cast: Daniel Bruehl, Emir Kusturica, Elia Suleiman, Josh Hutcherson, Vladimir Cruz, Mirta Ibarra, Jorge Perugorria

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, San Sebastian, Rio, Melbourne, Edinburgh, Karlovy Vary, Cockatoo Island Film Festival

A contemporary portrait of this eclectic, vital, unique city, told through a single feature-length movie made of seven chapters and directed by seven internationally acclaimed directors. Each chapter depicts a day of the week through the extraordinary lives of its characters. A world away from the familiar cliches, the film aims to express the soul of Havana and its diversity in a touching, entertaining and funny style. All stories have independent plots, but the connections between them create a powerful dramatic unity. Emblematic Havana landmarks form the backdrop to the chapters in which several characters appear more than once, organically connecting the narratives and demonstrating that in Havana all social spheres intersect.

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LOVE LIKE POISON (Un Poison Violent)

France/2010/Colour/92’/French

Direction, Screenplay: Katell Quillevere

Production: Justin Taurand

Cinematography: Tom Harari

Editing: Thomas Marchand

Music: Olivier Mellano

Cast: Clara Augarde, Youen Gourvil Leboulanger, Lio, Stefano Cassetti, Michel Galabru

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Seattle

Its spring break and 14-year-old Anna returns from boarding school to her village in Brittany, where she lives with her mother in the house of her elderly and ailing paternal grandfather. In her father’s absence, the young girl quickly understands that her parents are no longer together. Upon further investigation, Anna realizes that one of the reasons for this separation is their dis agreement about faith. Soon, things become complicated by the increasingly depressed mother’s attraction to an easy-going young village priest. Meanwhile, Anna is caught between her own religious convictions—she’s due for her confirmation—and her teenage sexual stirrings, which are awakened by choirboy Pierre. This naturalistic, coming-of-age film depicts the cycle of life from adolescence to adulthood, confirming the ongoing demands of the flesh and the way they frequently conflict with religious faith.

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THE RESIDENTES

Brazil/2010/70’

Direction: Tiago Mata Machado

Production: Joao Dumans, Tiago Mata Machado

Screenplay: Tiago Mata Machado, Cinthia Marcelle, Emilio Maciel

Cinematography: Aloysio Raulino, Andrea C. Scansani

Editing: Joacelio Baptista, Tiago Mata Machado

Music: Andre Wakko, Juan Rojo, David Lansky, Vanessa Michelis

Cast: Melissa Dullius, Gustavo Jahn, Jeane Doucas, Simone Sales de Alcantara, Deliani Lima, Roberto de Oliveira

The residents of a soon to be demolished building have set up a temporary autonomous zone to declare war on a world where utopia and poetry have gone astray. They are a kind of Situationist urban guerilla, spending their days creating havoc at both a material and immaterial level. A woman is kidnapped, close combat is mimed, pubic hair formed into a mustache. Many of their joyfully nonsensical actions go round in circles, a sign already of their ironic self-reflection: When it comes down to it, they are merely an aesthetic imitation of the slogans, gestures and postures of the 1960s and 1970s political and artistic practice. Ultimately, the residents announce the end of their own avant-garde movement and abandon their building to demolition.

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REMYA

ELLES

France-Germany-Poland/2011/35mm/Colour/99’/French-Polish

Direction: Malgoska Szumowska

Production: Marianne Slot

Screenplay: Tine Byrckel, Malgoska Szumowska

Cinematography: Michal Englert

Editing: Francois Tourmen, Jacek Drosio

Sound: Andre Rigaut

Cast: Juliette Binoche, Anais Demoustier, Joanna Kulig, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Krystyna Janda

Awards/Festivals

Toronto, Berlin, Tribeca

Anne, a well-off Paris-based mother of two and investigative journalist for Elle, is writing an article about university student prostitution. Her meetings with two fiercely independent young women, Alicja and Charlotte are profound and unsettling, moving her to question her most intimate convictions about money, family and sex. The most provocative film at this year’s Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals, Elles stars Academy Award- winner Juliette Binoche as Anne.

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THE DELAY (La demora)

Uruguay- Mexico- France/2012/35mm/Colour/84’/Spanish

Direction: Rodrigo Pla

Production: Imcine

Screenplay: Laura Santullo

Cinematography: Maria Secco

Editing: Miguel Shverdfinger

Sound: Fabian Oliver, Alejandro De Icaza, Sergio Diaz, Arturo Zarate

Music: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum

Cast: Roxana Blanco, Carlos Vallarino

Awards/Festivals

Moscow- Grand Prix, Berlin, London, Sydney Latin American Film Festival, Chicago, Calgary Latin Wave, Melbourne, Haifa

Overworked and underpaid, a forty-something mother of three is driven to abandon her senile father so she can take better care of her children. Her trip to the social security office reveals that she is too poor to afford to put her father in a home, but still too wealthy to qualify for benefits…

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OMAR KILLED ME (Omar m’a tuer)

Morocco, France/2011/35mm/Colour/85’/French, Arabic

Direction: Roschdy Zem

Production: Jean Brehat, Rachid Bouchareb

Screenplay: Olivier Gorce, Roschdy Zem, Rachid Bouchareb, Olivier Lorelle, Omar Raddad, Sylvie Lotiron

Cinematography: Jerome Almeras

Editing: Monica Coleman

Music: Alexandre Azaria

Sound: Brigitte Taillandier

Cast: Sami Bouajila, Denis Podalydes, Maurice Benichou, Salome Stevenin, Nozha Khouadra, Ludovic Berthillot

Awards/Festivals

Toronto, Istanbul, CPH PIX, Palm Spring Hong Kong, New York

In the summer of 1991, a wealthy widow was beaten and stabbed to death at a beautiful villa in the south of France. Omar Raddad, the woman’s Moroccan gardener, became the prime suspect because of one bizarre clue: the words Omar m’a tuer —a grammatically incorrect phrase that roughly translates as Omar has kill me —written in the victim’s blood. Despite gaps in the investigation and no forensic evidence, Raddad was convicted and sent to prison for 18 years. Only Pierre-Emmanuel Vaugrenard, a journalist, believed in his innocence and went to work to prove it. Director Roschdy Zem, who has turned from acting (with Bouajila in Days of Glory) to directing, tells this story of racism, politics, and injustice with the clarity of a documentary and the pacing of a thriller.

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HOLY MOTORS

France-Germany/2012/DCP/Colour/115’/

French, English, Mandarin

Direction, Screenplay: Leos Carax

Production: Martine Marignac

Cinematography: Caroline Champetier

Editing: Nelly quettier

Sound: Erwan Kerzanet

Music: Neil Hannon

Cast: Denis Lavant, Kylie Minogue, Eva Mendes, Edith Scob, Michel Piccoli

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Rio, New York, Busan, Sitges

Holy Motors gives us a glimpse into 24 hours in the life of a being moving from life to life: by turns, murderer, beggar, company chairman, monster, worker, family man…Monsieur Oscar seems to be playing roles, plunging headlong into each part. He is alone, but for Céline, the slender blonde woman behind the wheel of the vast engine that transports him around Paris. He’s like a conscientious assassin moving from target to target, in pursuit of the beautiful gesture, the mysterious driving force, the women and the ghosts of past lives. But where is his true home, his family, his refuge? Holy Motors does a good work in painting the sponge-like quality of movies, their malleability, and their capacity for reinvention. Yet, it is a maddening, self-satisfied, though never smug, game of spot-the-reference that seems intended only for a particular type of cinephile.

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SREEKUMAR

INNOCENCE

Australia-Belgium/2000/Colour/94’/English-French

Direction, Production,Screenplay: Paul Cox

Cinematography: Tony Clark

Editing: Simon Whitington

Music: Paul Grabowsky

Cast: Julia Blake, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Kristine Van Pellicom, Kenny Aernouts, Terry Norris, Chris Haywood

Awards/Festivals

Montreal World Film Festival-Grand Prix des Ameriques, People’s Choice Award Taormina International Film Festival- FIPRESCI Prize

Former lovers Claire and Andreas are shocked to discover that after a 45-year separation, they are neighbours in the same Melbourne neighborhood. Andreas has been a widower for 30 years, while Claire is happily though not passionately married to John, whom she hasn’t slept with for two decades. Andreas and Claire resume their heady relationship, much to the disapproval of their loved ones. When Claire decides to tell her husband about Andreas, he feels betrayed but he is also grateful for the excitement. Director Paul Cox cuts between footage of the couple in the present and the past, examining how they have and haven’t changed over the years, and the bond that continues to keep them together.

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TODAY (Tey)

Senegal-France/2012/Digibeta/Colour/86’/French-Wolof

Direction, Screenplay: Alain Gomis

Production: Eric Idriss Kanango, Gilles Sandoz

Cinematography: Christelle Fournier

Editing: Fabrice Rouaud

Sound: Alioune Mbow, Jean-Pierre Laforce

Cast: Saul Williams, Djolof M’Bengue, Anisia Uzeyman, Aissa Maïga, Mariko Arame, Alexandre Gomis, Anette Derneville Ka, Helene Gomis, Charlotte Mendy

Today is the last day of his life. He knows this to be true even though he is strong and healthy. Nonetheless, Satche accepts his imminent death. Walking through the streets of his home town in Senegal, he takes in the sites of his past. Time and again he hears the same reproach: why didn’t he stay in America, where he would have had a future? Satche encounters his final moments filled with fear but also with a sense of joy.

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ARIRANG

South Korea/2011/DCP/Colour/100’/Korean

Direction, Screenplay, Production,Cinematography, Edit, Sound: Kim Ki-Duk

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, New Horizons International Film Festival, Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival Toronto, Sitges, Hawaii, AFI FEST, Taipei Stockholm, Shanghai, Tokyo FILMeX- Audience award

South Korea, winter 2010-11. Film-maker Kim Ki duk is shown living in a skeletal hillside home in the country, with just a cat for company. He chops his own wood, eats plain, simple food, sleeps in a tent inside the house and, claiming to be unable to make films any longer, and interviews himself in a confessional-cum-obituary. Occasionally, he sings the melancholic Korean folk song Arirang. Finally, he drives into Seoul to take vengeance against those who “betrayed” him. An autobiographical narrative, Kim Ki Duk’s Arirang gives a tantalizing glimpse into the mind of an obsessive filmmaker. The film won an award in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 2001and also bagged Australia’s most prestigious prize for documentaries- BIFFDOCS- in the same year.

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TOOMELAH

Australia/2011/106’

Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Music: Ivan Sen

Production: David Jowsey

Cast: Daniel Conners, Michael Conners, Daneeka Conners, Christopher Edwards

Awards/Festivals

Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard

Set in the mission town of Toomelah, a tiny Indigenous community ridden by poverty, addiction and violence, Toomelah focuses on ten-year-old Daniel who dreams of becoming a gangster. He is kicked out of school and befriends a local gang leader. Trouble begins when a rival gangster ar- rives back from jail to reclaim his turf. A show down ensues and Daniel is thrust into a world of violence. Suddenly alone, he has to work out where his life is heading …. Toomelah reveals the challenges of the young Gamilaroi people of Australia struggling to preserve their identity. The film is “incredibly moving... The kids’ wide eyed view of the depredations of their community, and the rough mob humor, are artfully juxtaposed, and the film as a whole is both memorable and very moving” (Filmink).

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MELANCHOLIA

Denmark-Sweden-France-Germany/2011/Digibeta/Colour/136’/English

Direction, Screenplay: Lars von Trier

Production: Meta Louise Foldager, Louise Vesth

Cinematography: Manuel Alberto Claro dff

Editing: Molly Malene Stensgaard

Sound: Kristian Eidnes Andersen

Music: Richard Wagner

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Cameron purr,Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt

Awards/Festivals Cannes- Best Actress, New Zealand, New York

Philadelphia, Melbourne, Hamptons

Melancholia is a psychological disaster film from director Lars von Trier. Justine and Michael celebrate their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of Justine’s sister Claire and brother-in-law John. Despite Claire’s best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia – 20 times the size of Earth-is heading directly towards Earth threatening the very existence of humankind. Claire, supposedly the calm one, succumbs to hyperventilating panic; for depressive Justine, the apocalypse is an ecstatic relief.

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SREE

KANCHANA SEETHA (Golden Seetha)

India/1977/Colour/90'/Malayalam

Direction, Screenplay: G. Aravindan

Production: K. Raveendranathan Nair

Cinematography: Shaji N. Karun

Music: Rajiv Taranath

Cast: Ramadas, Venkateshwaralu, Chinna Pulaiah, Sobha Kiran

Based on the Ramayana, the film alludes to the golden image of Seetha, which Rama sets by his side for the Aswamedha Yaga. The poet Valmiki, moved by this event, composed the story of Rama as an epic. The film also explores Rama's extreme sense of duty that forces him to forsake Seetha, contrasted to his intense longing for her. The epilogue shows Rama begin his endless journey, as he walks towards the river holding the fire in his hand.... Seetha is never seen in the film. She is represented here by the spirit of nature and its movements and sounds-the wind rustling in the trees or rain bringing harmony where discord threatens. Aravindan casts Rama Chenchus, tribals from Andhra Pradesh, who consider them- selves descendants of the original Rama, as the mythological figures.

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ITHRAMAATHRAM

India/2012/35mm/Colour/98’/Malayalam

Direction, Screenplay: K.Gopinathan

Production: P.K.Santhoshkumar, A I Devaraj

Cinematography: K.G.Jayan

Editing: B.Ajithkumar

Sound: N.Harikumar

Music: Jaison J.Nair

Cast: Shwetha Menon, Biju Menon, K.P.A.C.Lalitha, Nedumudi Venu, Siddique, Malavika

This script is structured around the unexpected death of 38-year-old Sumitra, and the responses it evokes in those close to her. Her humane approach to all, unlike her asocial husband and introvert daughter, had endeared her to the entire village. Through the memories of people who come to pay their last respects, the nuances and complexities of relationships are explored. Reflections on an individual’s death become a wondrous evocation of the colour, zest, and zeal of village life. As if death makes life more joyous, more livable.

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ONE NIGHT THE MOON

Australia/2001/57’/English

Direction: Rachel Perkins

Production: Aanya Whitehead, Paul Humfress And Kevin Lucas

Cinematography: Kim Batterham

Editing: Karen Johnson

Music: Mairead Hannan

Cast: Paul Kelly, Kaarin Fairfax, Memphis Kelly, Kelton Pell, Ruby Hunter

Enthralled by the loveliness of the moon over the rugged Australian landscape, a young white girl steps out of her bedroom window and then, is nowhere to be seen. The distraught parents seek the help of the local police, and the Aboriginal tracker Albert is entrusted with the task of finding her. But the father refuses to let a “blackfella set foot on his land”, and gathers a group of White men who ultimately end up erasing all the clues as to her whereabouts. Realizing the futility of this endeavor, the mother takes up the responsibility and goes in search of Albert. Racism, family, power hierarchies…all become themes in this movie, which is based on the true story of Aboriginal tracker Riley. Its appeal lies in its operatic form, its departure from the ‘norms’ of mainstream cinema and its focus on the tragedy of a white family.

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KANIMAMBO

Spain/2012/94’/Blu-ray/Colour/Spanish

Direction, Screenplay: Abdelatif Hwidar, Carla Subirana, Adan Aliaga

Production: Luis Minarro, Sergio Castellote

Cinematography: Pere Pueyo, Federico Ribes

Editing: Manuel Barriere, Rafa Montesinos

Cast: Capitulo “Custodio”: Maria Mabjaia, Kevin Mabjaia, Abdelatif Hwidar, Nelson Mabuie, Dani Antonio, Paulo Guambe

Awards/Festivals

Malaga Spanish Film Festival

Mozambique is a country racked by civil war, poverty and sickness. But it is also a place where the extraordinary becomes ordinary, where plain men and women become heroes of everyday life, battling to maintain their dignity and working diligently for a better future. One director goes in search of the Mozambican woman; another tells the story of deaf Joanna who accompanies a blind young musician to market; and the third recounts how a rural doctor copes with chronic lack of supplies. Three views of a remarkable country.

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AJANTA

NOS VEMOS PAPA

Mexico/2011/35mm/Colour/89’/Spanish

Direction, Screenplay: Luca Carreras

Production: Edher Campos y Luis Salinas

Cinematography: Germn Lammers

Editing: Figueroa Jara

Sound: Rodrigo Flores Esquinca

Music: Christian Basso

Cast: Cecilia Surez, Marcelo D’Andrea, Arturo Barba, Gabriela de la Garza, Moiss Arizmendi

Pilar loses the one thing in life that mattered to her and, from that moment on, time stops. The present begins blending with the past, and the heroine withdraws into a world of her own. Nos Vemos, Papá (See you, Dad) is an intimate story, a contemporary drama that deals with love, loss and solitude; a story in which we travel through the bitter sweetness of death and the way we deal with it.

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CHITRANGADA-THE CROWNING WISH

India/2012/Colour/138’/Bengali

Direction, Screenplay: Rituparno Ghosh

Production: Shrikant Mohta, Mahendra Soni

Cinematography: Abhik Mukhopadhyay

Editing: Arghyakamal Mitra

Music: Debojyoti Mishra

Cast: Rituparno Ghosh, Jishu Sengupta, Anjan Dutt, Raima Sen, Deepankar De, Koushik Bandopadhyay

Awards/Festivals

New York Indian Film Festival, Osian’s Cinefan

Rudra Chatterjee always wanted to become a choreographer but studied engineering to fulfill his father’s dream. Rudra wants to stage Chitrangada, a dance drama, on the occasion of Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary. In this play, Rudra plays the role of Madan, who helps Arjuna to fall in love with Chitrangada. Partha is a percussionist who wants to join Rudra’s group. During the rehearsal, Rudra and Partha slowly get close to each other. They long to adopt a baby. But the law of the land does not allow two men to adopt a child. Rudra considers becoming a woman in order to be able to do it. This results in an identity conflict in Rudra and he has a nervous breakdown.

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BELLE EPINE

France/2010/Colour/80’/French

Direction: Rebecca Zlotowski

Production: Frederic Jouve

Screenplay: Rebecca Zlotowski, Gaelle Mace

Cinematography: George Lechaptois

Editing: Julien Lacheray

Music: ROB

Cast: Lea Seydoux, Anais Demoustier,

Johan Libereau, Anna Sigalevitch

Awards/Festivals

Prix Louis Delluc, Best First Film-2010 Seattle IFF, Zurich IFF

Prudence Friedman is 17 years old. Her mother died a few days ago. Left alone in the family apartment and to her own devices, she encounters Maryline, a rebellious teenager who takes her to an illegal racetrack in Rungis, on the outskirts of Paris, where customized cars and bikes dangerously spin. Fascinated by the circuit gang, Reynald, Franck, and the others, Prudence attempts to establish her place among them by trying to pass her loneliness off for freedom. Neither sentimentality nor nostalgia for reckless years gone by can be found in the film, which makes its tale of teenage rebellion in the face of overwhelming grief fall closer to a sobering character study than a classical youth film.

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ANJALI

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Ukraine/2012/35mm/DCP/Colour/88’

Direction: Valentyn Vasyanovych

Production: Iya Myslytska

Screenplay: Valentyn Vasyanovych, Iya Myslytska, Mamaciej Sobieszczanski, Malgorzata Sobieszczanska

Cinematography: Iurii Dunai

Editing: Valentyn Vasyanovych, Maxym Vasianovych

Music: Oleksandra Morozova, Borys Shkolovyi, Kostyantyn Bushynsky, Valentyn Vasyanovych, Mykyta oiseyev

Cast: Taras Denysenko, Vitaliy Linetskiy, Lesia Samayeva, Semen Furman

Awards/Festivals

Odessa,Tirana

The protagonist, Tolik, comes from a family of doctors, but is fired after a fist-fight with some patients. However, he chooses to view this event as a chance to start a new life. Finally his dream of being a “free” poet will come true and maybe, if he’s lucky, fame and fortune will follow. He sets out with his old friend Slavik, a character who knows everything: the meaning of life, how to make money, how to be happy. He drags the protagonist into a series of absurd situations, and ultimately, Tolik ends up losing almost everything. But it seems that family drama and the adventures with Slavik would be the inspiration for truly magnificent poetry.

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THE INHERITORS OF THE EARTH (Bhoomiyude Avakashikal)

India/2012/DCP/Colour/114’/Malayalam

Direction, Screenplay: T.V.Chandran

Production: Anand Kumar

Cinematography: Ramachandra Babu

Editing: Johnkutty

Music: Sandeep Pillai

Cast: Kailash, Sreenivasan, Mythili, Shahabaz Aman, Meera Nandan

The film addresses the loss of identity of modern man jostled by the chance encounters of a selfimposed make believe world. As the film opens we see Mohanachandran Nair and Menon entering the compound of what looks like a forlorn house that has long been abandoned. Mohanachandran is delighted at the sights and sounds around. He gets to hear something about the house being a haunted one… The film treats space with an implied division between the house and its compound on the one hand and the world outside on the other.

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A DOCUMENT OF SEPARATION (Ozhimuri)

India/2012/35mm/Colour/126’/Malayalam

Direction: Madhupal

Production: PN Venugopal

Screenplay: Jeyamohan

Cinematography: N.Alagappan

Editing: V.Sajan

Music: Bijibal

Sound: Vinod P Sivaram

Cast: Lal, Asif Ali, Swetha Menon, Mallika, Bhavana, Jegadish, Nandulal

In Ozhimuri, the story flows out of a court room where the hearing of a divorce case is being held, into the realities of human existence. ‘Ozhimuri’ means divorce record usually written on palmleaf pieces. The film discusses the plight of the male in a matriarchal society and that of the female in a patriarchal scenario. Ultimately, it leads to some universal truths, concerning the entire human- ity. Based on a story by renowned Tamil writer B. Jeyamohan, the movie is set in the erstwhile Travancore. The narrative weaves together the stories of three generations in transition. Ozhimuri is also about a community that is caught in between two periods, cultures, languages, legal systems, family orders, political regimes, and social structures.

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TEARS OF NANDIGRAM (Nandigramer Chokher Paani)

India/2012/35mm/Colour/115’/Bengali

Direction: Sarfaraz Alam, Shyamal Karmakar

Production: Sarfaraz Alam

Screenplay: Manik Mandal

Cinematography: Fowzia Fathima

Editing: Sanglap Bhowmik

Sound: Sukanta Majumdar

Music: Prajna Dutta Saffu

Cast: R.Badree, Bidita K Bag, Heerok Das, Tanushree, Ronjini Chakraborty, Dweep Mithun, Tridib Ghosh, Ashok Vishwanathan

Man and nature coexist in a harmonious balance in Nandigram. This balance is threatened when the government decides to build a chemical hub in the village. People of Nandigram defend their right to land. In March 2007, police and Harmad (communist soldiers) open fire on a peaceful procession of farmers. In the months that followed, many men, women, and children were killed. 18- year-old Saeda believes her husband Naseer, who is lost in the mayhem, would come back. Rakhal is a young revolutionary who inspires the youth. Pushpo, pregnant and alone, devises methods to escape from a camp where Harmads blackmail people to wage a war and plunder wealth. On 10th November, Harmads attack Nandigram, leaving a trail of death and defeating people’s struggle. We see all this through the eyes of a young woman reporter.