CIFF was especially important this year because India was the guest of honour with 17 films in the Integral India and two in the International Competition for Long Feature films. Kabir Khan’s New York and Yash Tank’s debut film Madholal Keep Walking with both directors present to discuss their film post-screening. Subrat Dutta, who plays Madholal in the latter film, jointly won the Best Actor Award along with actor Fathy Abdel Wahab who won it for his performance in the Egyptian film Nile Birds. The festival was jointly inaugurated by Egyptian Minister of Culture, H. E. Farouk Hosni and Indian Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Raghu Menon. Around 23 Indian films were screened during the 10-day-long festival. It also organised a retrospective of Madhur Bhandarkar’s films.
Incredible India featured around 23 Indian films. This section was a happy blend of films by veteran directors and up-and-coming ones, old and the new, crossing barriers of language with films that were both entertaining and thought-provoking. Mainstream films like Kaminey, New York and A Wednesday were also screened in this section. Adoor’s Four Women, Girish Kasaravalli’s Gulabi Talkies, were screened alongside regional films like Satish Manwar’s Gabhricha Paus (Marathi) on farmer suicides in Vidharba, Maharashtra, Priya Darshan’s Kanchivaram, set against the backdrop of Kanchi’s silk weaving industry, Sameer Hanchate’s Gafla (Hindi) on the stock market scam, Seema Kapoor’s Haat - The Weekly Bazaar based on natha-pratha. NRI filmmaker’s Achchamundu. Achchamundu is about a young South Indian family living in the U.S. whose settled life is threatened with the entry of one Theodore Robertson into their lives. Raman, directed by Dr. Biju, is about the first ever Indian film that is a reaction against former U.S. President George Bush. The film focuses on how developed nations, through this monster called ‘globalisation’ encroaches into the lives of simple people drastically altering their lives and their future forever.
More than 30 leading Indian films personalities graced the festival. Adoor Gopalakrishnan was the chairperson of the international jury, actress Sridevi and husband Boney Kapoor were there, Madhur Bhandarkar and Irrfan Khan came later. Most of Indian film personalities were honoured with a trophy for their contribution to Indian Cinema. Vikas Swarup, Consul General of Japan, was part of the Digital Film Competition jury. Mudhal Mudhal Mudhal Varai (First Time)’ by Krishna Seshadri Gomatam was selected for the digital competition section. The film, about an aspiring filmmaker, who is desperately trying to make his first film and his future depends on his success in making it, bagged the Silver Award (jointly) in this section. The citation said that the award was “for its engaging look at man’s eternal struggle to understand the meaning of life and death. The other film that won the same award went to Exile In Paris (France) directed by Ahmet Zirek for “the director’s lived experience and creative use of phone conversations that gave an added dimension to the poignant quest for identity in a world full of borders.”
Eleven films from Algeria offered a rare perspective on Algeria with a batch of contemporary films with the exception of one film made in 1982. Night Shadow (2006) encapsulates 24 hours in the lives of five people who do not fit into the picture-postcard image of Geneva as a city of privilege. Alive (2008) is a shocking celluloid essay on how a group of women who came to a camp in a Saharan desert from Algeria in search of work were attacked, raped and brutalised by torturers. Yet, when they take their oppressors to court and go back home, triumphant, their families turn their back on them. London River (2009), depicts the travails of two strangers, who arrive in London after the 2005 terror attack on the city in search of their missing children. There was a special section called Festival of Festivals with 48 films drawn from countries like Turkey, Senegal, Spain, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Germany, France, Georgia, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Chile, Spain and Argentina. Guilt (Greece) is a shocking indictment on how men were subjected to becoming a guinea pig to sell a torture machine in Cypriot 50 years ago. Nine films were screened in the Arab competition for Long Films section.
The Syrian film That Long Night directed by Hatem Ali, bagged one of the two awards given away by the Ministry of Culture, Egypt, for the Best Film in the Arabic Feature Films Section for its bold portrayal of a relevant issue and a heart-breaking phenomenon gripping a community. The other top award went to the Palestinian film, Amreeka directed by Cherien Dabis. The film managed to bring together the finest aspects of scriptwriting, storytelling and performance to create an artistic work that is simultaneously entertaining. It also won the award for the Best Screenplay from the Ministry of Culture for Cherien Dabis.
The International Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) went to the French film The Hedgehog (France), directed by Mona Achache. The film is the story of an unexpected discovery made by an 11-year-old girl who is as gifted as she is suicidal. The film also bagged the Special Jury Prize for the young director. Klaus Haro of Finland won the Best Screenwriter award for Letters To Father Jacob “structuring a story that is constantly engaging and offering surprises as it goes onto celebrate the essence of humanity.” It also won the Prize for the Best Film for its excellent cinematic form and the deep study of human condition that went to its producer. The Golden Award in the Digital Competition section was won by The Rapture Of Fe (Phillipines) directed by Alvin B. Yapan “For its sensitive portrayal of a woman caught between an abusive husband and an impotent lover, in the process illuminating our understanding of human relationships.” Karolina Piechota won the Best Actress Award for her performance in Splinters (Poland).
A tribute to Italian cinema was organised with the screening of two films by Marco Bellochio, The Nanny (1999) and My Mother’s Smile (2002). The Nanny is about surrogate motherhood and the psychological impact on the two women concerned while the latter is also a psychological exploration of among brothers in a family whose mother has been murdered by one of them, who is insane. Eighteen films screened in Official Selection - Out of Competition mainly shed light into a scary world of mental instability, loneliness and alienation on the one hand and meaningless, purposeless violence on the other. Examples are - The Limits Of Control (USA/ Spain/ Japan), New Town Killers (UK), The Soloist (France), Ward Number 6 (Russia), Lost Times (Hungary), Mr. 73 (France) among others.
