Films to watch out for in Mumbai Film Festival 2013

This year, Mumbai Film Festival has a new system in place. Delegates (see how you can become one here) have to reserve tickets using an online ticketing portal. Much like any online booking system, the MFF ticketing portal will let you reserve a seat for the films you want to see over the next two days. So if you log on today, you can book tickets for the films you want to see over Friday October 18th and Saturday October 19th. Since there’s a lot to choose from, here’s our list of the Best of MFF for the next two days. Most of the films will have repeat screenings in different venues over the course of the festival. You can see the entire schedule here. FRIDAY Closed Curtain Metro Screen 5, 10am Directors: Jafar Panahi, Kamboziya Partovi Panahi has been banned by Iranian authorities from making films for the next 20 years, but that’s clearly not going to stop the director. This is the second film he’s made since the ban was imposed (his last one was smuggled out of Iran on a USB hidden in a cake). Closed Curtain is about a writer (known as Writer), his pet dog (called Dog) and being a prisoner. The Act of Killing Metro Screen 4, 10.30am Director: Joshua Oppenheimer Produced by Werner Herzog and Errol Morris (among others), this documentary is one of the most beautifully-shot and disquieting films you’ll see. Between 1965 and 1966, 500, 000 are estimated to have been killed in Indonesia by gangsters who acted as executioners for a government that wanted to purge the country of Communists. Oppenheimer tracks down a few of the executioners and gets them to film a dramatized re-enactment of the killings. Matterhorn Cinemax Screen 1, 12.30pm Director: Diedrik Ebbinge Fred is a widower who lives alone. Leo is a homeless tramp. Fred lets Leo live with him, which raises eyebrows in the stuffy Dutch town where they live. But things get progressively weirder, more absurd and surprisingly emotional as the film progresses. Matterhorn won the Audience Award of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer Cinemax Screen 4, 12.45pm Directors: Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin A documentary on the three women whose trial caught international attention. Nadia, Masha and Katia are Pussy Riot, a feminist punk protest band whose satirical performances landed them in jail. Filmed over six months, the documentary suggests the band suffered an old fashioned trial from the Soviet era (the kind in which the verdict is decided well in advance and the trial is entirely for show). [caption id=“attachment_1178101” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A still from The Immigrant. Courtesy: Facebook[/caption] The Immigrant Liberty, 3pm Director: James Gray The lead actors in the film are Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Renner and Joaquin Phoenix. That in itself is enough to get most of us to book a ticket. Phoenix plays a pimp who cons Cotillard into prostitution. It’s a weird but emotional tale about predators and redemption, shot beautifully by Darius Khondji. Qissa Metro Screen 3, 3pm (also at Cinemax Screen 4, 3.15pm, on Saturday) Director: Anup Singh A father of three daughters is desperate for a son. When his next child is born, he decides to raise the child as a boy even though she is a girl. Set in Punjab in the Partition era, Qissa, starring Irrfan Khan and Tilottama Shome, is about a father’s terrible decision and his child’s determination to do him proud. Blackfish Cinemax Screen 5, 3.30 pm Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite The water park Seaworld claims whales live longer in captivity, but Cowperthwaite isn’t convinced and her documentary about Tilkum, an orca, might well convince you she’s right. Tilikum was involved in the deaths of three people and Cowperthwaite argues his aggression arose from how Tilikum was treated in captivity. Jadoo Metro Screen 2, 6pm (also at Cinemax Screen 2, 5.45pm, on Saturday) Director: Amit Gupta Two brothers are also two rival restaurateurs who haven’t spoken to each other in 10 years. Set in Leicester, England, Gupta’s film is about a divided family that is forced together by a looming wedding and the love of food. Jeune et Jolie Liberty, 7pm Director: Francois Ozon Isabelle is 17, virginal and all set to explore her sexuality. And where else can that lead to (especially in a French film) but to a chic hotel room with a whiff of prostitution in the air? But of course, there are more twists to this tale. The film follows Isabelle through four seasons (each marked by a song) and is a beautifully-shot exploration of the adolescent female psyche. It doesn’t get more French than Ozon’s new film. Picasso’s Gang Metro Screen 2, 8.30pm Director: Fernando Colomo In 1911, the Mona Lisa (or “La Giaconde”) was stolen from the Louvre in Paris. Guess whom the Parisian police want to question? Pablo Picasso. This actually happened and and Colomo has a lot of fun with this absurd tale. And no, Picasso didn’t actually steal the Mona Lisa. You’ll have to see the film to find out who did. (Or Google. But the film is way more fun.) The Butler Metro Screen 5, 8pm Cinemax Screen 3, 8.30pm Director: Lee Daniels Eugene Allen was the first black man in the White House and he was a butler to eight presidents, from Truman to Reagan. This is a fictionalised account of his life. Cecil Gaines is a butler, like Allen, and with a stupendous talent for being at the right place at the right time, Gaines is able to witness pretty much every important incident in modern American history. SATURDAY Inside Llewyn Davis Liberty, 10am Directors: Ethan and Joel Coen Llewyn Davis could have been the new Bob Dylan, but despite his prodigious talent, he remained in obscurity. The film follows this talented singer as he makes his way from obscurity into further obscurity. It’s got a gorgeous soundtrack and is one of those rare films that is both entertaining and philosophical. The Missing Picture Metro Screen 1, 10am Director: Rithy Panh Panh’s documentary film about the Khmer Rouge was part of Un Certain Regard at Cannes and has been selected as the Cambodian entry for the Best Foreign Film at The Oscars. What makes this film particularly unnerving is Panh’s decision to use unanimated clay figurines along with archival footage to tell the story of the genocide unleashed by the Khmer Rouge. It’s utterly chilling. The World of Goopi and Bagha Metro Screen 3, 3pm Director: Shilpa Ranade An animated Hindi version of the fantasy story of Goopi and Bagha, characters who became unforgettable thanks to Satyajit Ray’s films on their magical adventures. Blue is the Warmest Color Liberty, 8pm Director: Abdellatif Kechiche A teacher meets an art student — with blue hair, naturally — and her life changes. Lesbian love stories aren’t that easy to come by, but this one’s been held up as one of the most poignant you’ll ever see. You wouldn’t imagine hair dye can be used as such a poetic device to show the changing nature of a relationship — from its most vibrant and happiest to a fading melancholy. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. Mood Indigo Metro Screen 4, 3.30pm Director: Michel Gondry A miniature mouse-man, a walking typewriter, shoes that bounce around like overexcited puppies — only Gondry can create a world with these delights, and that’s the world of Mood Indigo. Romain Duris and Audrey ‘Amelie’ Tautou meet, fall in love and then have to face all sorts of unhappiness. It’s boy-meets-girl in a world cuckoo enough to make Salvador Dali look normal. The Ax Metro Screen 4, 6pm Director: Costa Gavras What do you do when there’s too much competition? In Gavras’s brilliant The Ax, the hero literally eliminates the men standing in his way. When a bumbling, mild-mannered chap resorts to such violent measures, you can’t help but giggle even as you’re horrified. MFF has a Gavras retrospective that you absolutely shouldn’t miss. Brahmin Bulls Metro Screen 4, 8.30pm Director: Mahesh Pailoor Sidharth is estranged from his wife, hasn’t spoken to his father in years and is saddled with his wife’s cat. This film promises to be one of the more refreshing takes on how American Born Confused Desis negotiate their American present with their Indian roots. The film stars Sendhil Ramamurthy as Sidharth and Roshan Seth as his father. Before Midnight Cinemax Screen 3, 3.30pm Director: Richard Linklater First there was Before Sunrise, then there was Before Sunset and now the trilogy draws to a close with Before Midnight. Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke’s relationship has warmed the hearts of romance-lovers over decades. This time, Hawke and Delpy present a wonderful and poignant exploration of marriage that will leave you rooting for them more than ever. Don Jon Cinemax Screen 3, 8.30pm Director: Joseph Gordon Levitt This one’s directed and written by Joseph Gordon Levitt who also stars in the film. And what is his role? He’s the modern Don Juan. Frankly, that’s all most of us need to convince us that we must see this film. Don Jon is addicted to porn, which gets in the way of him finding love. Can he break that addiction and find love? Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore are there to help him as he makes his way through addiction. The Great Beauty Cinemax Screen 4, 8.15pm Director: Paulo Sorrentino Set in the Berlusconi era, Sorrentino’s gorgeous new film is a look at Italy’s decline in the recent past. Jep Gambardella is an ageing journalist through whose eyes we see the glamorous and grotesque in Italy (and Rome in particular). It’s lush, uncomfortable and has been described as a Technicolor La Dolce Vita.