An Opulent fifth day

The fifth day of IFFK 19th edition was opulent in every aspect. All the 11 venues witnessing a huge crowd, a total of 47 films were screened. Different from the previous days, this day witnessed more crowds to see Malayalam movies, especially Vidhooshakan by T K Santhosh and Alif by N K Muhammed Koya. 

The President directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, December 1 directed by P Sheshadri and Oonga directed by Devashish Makhija were the films which received best appraisal. Nine films were screened under the category of International Competition. Alif directed by N K Muhammed Koya, Six Feet High directed by Sanalkumar Sasidharan, Self Portrait directed by Ranjith, Jalamsam directed by M P Sukumaran Nair and 1983 directed by Abrid Shine were screened under the category of Malayalam Cinema Today.

In the Press conference session veteran directors Abrid Shine(1983), Sidharth Siva(Zahir), Salil Lal Ahmed(Calton Towers), M P Sukumaran Nair(Jalamsam) shared their views and experiences. Open forum witnessed a heating debate on the subject parallel cinema. T V Chandran, Klaus Eder, the Jury member, director K R Mohanan and cinematographer Sunny Joseph attended the function and C S Venkiteswaran moderated the session. 

Surjodoy Chatterjee, Head of Goethe Film Institute presented a paper on the topic ‘Goethe Film Archive for South India’ in the seminar session. He explained the past and present conditions of German cinema by showing relevant clippings. 

Another important session held today was the 12th Aravindan Memorial Lecture by the veteran Srilankan woman film maker Sumitra Peries. She admired the legendry film maker Aravindan by saying that he had a peak of magical realism in his way of storytelling. She extended her empathy on the effort Aravindan made to put Magical Realism in his film Kummatti without using any new digitalized technology. 

The Japanese director Hiroshi Toda(‘Summer, Kyoto), Kannada Director P Sheshadri (December 1), Hindi-Odia director Devashish Makhija(Oonga,) Bengali director Sekhar Das(The Tale of Nayanchampa), Tamil director Arun Kumr S U( Pannaiyarum Padminiyum) and Sidhartha Siva (Zahir) attended the Meet the Director programme. The programme was very lively as the veterans shared their experiences.