As an artist, it’s imperative that I ponder over social sensibilities, diversities, upheavals, economic challenges, social structure, cultures and customs. Movies reflect all these aspects through storytelling and visual aesthetics, which consume me.
I’ve been attending Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) for the past 3 years. In a span of 3 days, I watch 9 movies and still don’t feel satiated for the simple reason that these movies awe me. I carry these movies with me through the years, the stories, characters, locations, countries, emotions, cultural references so much more that cannot be expressed in words. This year too I’m here at PIFF for my sheer love for movies.
Hats off to Jabbar Patel sir and his PIFF team for their consistent, and sincere efforts to plan and execute such a well-organized event that brings the best movies around the world on a single platform.
The movies that I saw at PIFF 2023 screened at the Pavilion Mall, PVR Icon, Senapati Bapat Marg:
Day 1 – Monday – 7th February 2023
Movie: Minsk
Director: Boris Guts
Estonia
Image courtesy: https://t1tallinn.com/en/film/minsk/
The movie is about the August 2020 street protests in Minsk, Belarus and the movie turns violent in the latter part.
It’s a single-take movie and was created without any editing cuts.
Reflections:
Though the movie gets violent and stuns you at the end, it is a must-watch for the way its shot and an understanding of the political scenario in Belarus. Democratic rule is what people wish but dictatorship is thrust upon them by rulers who refuse to acknowledge the right and the intellect of the people to believe that they need to be ruled, not empowered.
A series of mass protests were held against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. Protestors faced violent persecution, torture, sexual abuse, and rape. Viasna Human Rights Center has documented 1,000 testimonies of torture victims by the end of 2020.
Amidst the heightened emotions and violent scenes, I was pleasantly surprised to listen to a song by my favorite band Radiohead in the movie.
Reviews on IMDb – some reviews shared by Belarusians have criticized the movie saying that it is not the true picture of what happened during the protest.
Read more about the August 2020 protest: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/11/belarus-violence-abuse-response-election-protests
You can watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSVLFu4a9-A
Read more about the film: https://minskfilm.com/
Movie: The Blue Caftan
Director: Maryam Touzani
Morocco
Image courtesy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17679584/
The movie centers around Lubna Azabal (“Adam”) as Mina and Saleh Bakri (“Costa Brava, Lebanon”) as Halim. A married couple owns a store in Morocco’s oldest town in the city of Salè.
It’s a caftan store meticulously made by Halim a traditional art that seems to be challenged by machine-made embroidery. They try hard to catch up with the customer demands though Halim is passionate about the art and hardworking. They need a helping hand thus, hire a young apprentice Youssef (Ayoub Messioui). Halim is involved in Youssef and their life changes.
The movie is about the compulsion of concealing homosexuality since same-sex involvement or sexual acts are illegal and can be punished with imprisonment.
Reflections:
It’s a sensitive movie with superb performances by the artists. The scene where the three actors dance to the tune of a song being played in their lane is fantastic. The bond that the married couple share is so deep and beyond all practicalities. The intimate scenes are shot well.
I loved the music composed by Kristian Eidnes Andersen and Cinematography by Virginie Surdej.
Excellent work by Maryam Touzani!!
Movie: The Star is Moving –
Natchathiram Nagargiradhu
Director: Pa Ranjith
India
Image Courtesy: Movie Crow
It’s a Tamil movie set in the backdrop of a theatre group and weaved with complex thoughts about social issues pertaining to love in Indian society. It touches on many aspects like honor killing, arranged marriage system, casteism, the generation gap, transgender individuals and gay relationships. The theatre group is run by Subeer played by the actor Regin Rose.
Rene (Dushara Vijayan) and Iniyan (Kalidas Jayaram) living in a romantic relationship break up and the movie begins by stating ‘Love is political’. Rene is a Dalit and Iniyan makes her realize it which she despises. Later on in the movie, Rene speaks her heart out to Kalaiyarasan who plays the character Arjun and transforms as the movie progresses from an orthodox person to a more receptive and open-minded person.
Reflections:
The opening scene begins with references to casteism and orthodox values that are losing their relevance among the young generation. Though it’s tough for the young generation too to live with the changing scenario of Indian social structure and rebellion. Biases are a result of our upbringing and education. Well, it isn’t that simple too. It’s a complex mesh of thoughts that we all prefer not to untangle. I like the fact that the movie is hopeful about the changing social scenario but the onus should not lie on a few.
I loved this movie the direction, acting, and dialogue.
Special mention about the music composed by Tiburtius Vinodh Rubin, better known professionally as Tenma and the leader of the indie band ‘The Casteless Collective’. Music is foot-tapping, melodious and fresh adding to the vibrance of the movie.
You can watch the film on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81594244
That was about my Day 1 @PIFF2023.
To be continued….
Travel 