IFFK 2018: Asghar Farhadi's Everybody Knows to open film festival; Majid Majidi to head international jury

Bengali filmmaker and poet Buddhadeb Dasgupta will be chief guest at the opening ceremony of the 23rd edition of International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) to be held from 7-13 December, 2018. 190 films from 65 countries will be showcased across 465 screenings. Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows, starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, will open the festival.

 Hat tip to the human spirit

The festival, which was earlier called off due to the Kerala floods, will be themed around positivity with a segment called ‘The Human Spirit: Films on Hope and Rebuilding’, featuring six films. Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fisher Stevens’ Before the Flood, Justin Chadwick’s Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Wim Wenders’ Pope Francis: A Man of his Word and Malayalam director Jayaraj’s Vellapokkathil (In The Floods).

 A special on Bergman

One of the high points this year will be a segment celebrating Swedish director Ingmar Bergman , in which some of his finest works will be screened. One of the most influential filmmakers of all time, his films were often themed around isolation and being stuck in the past. The ‘Celebrating Ingmar Bergman package’ will include Summer with Monika (1953, termed his most influential film), Smiles of Summer Night (1955, a comedy centred around an unconventional romance), Summer Interlude (1951), Persona (1966, considered to be his masterpiece), Cries and Whispers (1972), Autumn Sonata (1978), Scenes from a Marriage (1973) and Fanny and Alexander (1982, also released as a longer television series). Since 2018 also marks the birth centenary of Bergman, there will be a documentary paying tribute to the filmmaker titled Searching for Ingmar Bergman.

 Majidi heads the jury of the international competition category

Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi will be the jury chairman for the international competition category. His 2015 film, Muhammad: The Messenger of God, set in the sixth century, which chronicles the childhood of Islamic prophet Muhammad, will be screened at the jury films’ category. AR Rahman has scored the music. The film had stirred a hornet’s nest in quite a few Muslim countries. The Indian organisation called Raza Academy had issued a fatwa against the filmmaker and music composer, demanding a ban on the film. The Kerala State Chalachitra Academy is also planning to confer the lifetime achievement award to the Iranian maestro.  The other members of the jury include Tamil filmmaker Vetrimaaran, Marathi director Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni and Filipino director Adolfo Alix Jr; their films, Vada Chennai, Highway and Dark is the Night respectively will be screened in this category.

Remembering the master

This segment will pay tribute to Milos Forman with the screening of some of his iconic films like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, Black Peter, The Firemen’s Ball, Audition, and Loves of a Blonde.

Malayalam cinema today

This is one of the most popular categories at the festival with a total of 12 films being screened. Watch out for Soubin Shahir’s debut directorial Parava (2017), Aashiq Abu’s love story Mayaanadhi (2017) and Jayaraj ’s award winning Bhayanakam (2017). Others include Vipin Radhakrishnan’s Ave Maria (2018), Vinu AK’s Bilathikuzhal (2018), Unnikrishnan Avala’s Udazhalam (2018), B Ajithkumar’s Eeda (2017), Sumesh Lal’s Humans of Someone (2018), Binu Bhaskar’s Kottayam (2018), PK Bijukuttan’s O”ath (2018),  and Goutham Soorya’s Sleeplessly Yours (2018). 

Two Malayalam movies, Ee. Ma. Yau (Lijo Jose Pellissery) and Sudani From Nigeria (Zakariya Mohammed), will be screened in the international competition category along with two other Indian films - Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon (Taking the Horse to Eat Jalebis) and Widow of Silence.

A tribute to Lenin Rajendran

An advocate of parallel cinema, and an active communist, Malayalam filmmaker Lenin Rajendran’s Meenamasathile Sooryan (Mid-Summer Sun) will be screened under this section. It focuses on the anti-feudal upheaval of Kerala. Other films to be screened include the period classic Swathi Thirunal — a biographical work of the 19th century King of Travancore, Chillu (The Fragments), Mazha (The Rain) adapted from Madhavikutty’s Nashtapetta Neelambari, Daivathinte Vikrithikal (The Ways of God), an adaptation of M Mukundan’s novel of the same name, and Vachanam (The Word).

Indian cinema now

The highlight of this section will be Nandita Das’ Manto, based on the life of Saadat Hasan Manto. The film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the title role, Sreekar Prasad has done the editing, Resul Pookutty the sound and Sneha Khanwalkar the music. It was first screened at Cannes earlier this year.

Other films include Konarak Mukherjee’s Abraham, that delves into religious fanaticism and dogma, Devashish Makhija’s Bhonsle which debuted at Cannes, headlining Manoj Bajpayee, that captures the difficulties of the North Indian migrants in Mumbai. Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Urojahaj, which follows a man’s (Chandan Roy Sanyal) mad dream to fly the rusted shell of a downed World War II Japanese fighter plane that he finds in the forest, will also be screened. Amitabha Chatterjee’s Bengali film Ami O Manohar, Dr Bijukumar Damodaran’s Painting Life  and Vasanth S Sai’s Tamil film Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum are the other films in the category. Rahi Anil Barve’s critically acclaimed Tumbbad will be screened under the Midnight Screening.

Best of World Cinema

There are around 91 films from Bulgaria, Germany, France, Philippines, Iceland, China, Denmark, USA, Lebanon, Ireland, Thailand, Brazil, Poland, Korea, Srilanka, Russia, Mexico and Iran, to name a few.