Sin categoría

KODIYETTAM (Ascent) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

KODIYETTAM (Ascent)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1977.137 min
Cast :  Gopi, Lalitha, Thikkurisi Sukumaran

The film captures the ascent of the protagonist, Shankaran Kutty, from a carefree individual to a mature responsible adult. The opening sequences, canned by the director himself, shows Shankaran Kutty- attending a temple festival. The film proceeds to show the irresponsible and often nomadic life style of Shankaran Kutty.  Shankaran Kutty, though seemingly at the beginning of middle age, spends most of his time playing around with children, joining political processions and helping the villagers when he is not attending temple festivals. He is provided for by his younger sister who works as a house maid in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. His sister in an attempt to get his life organized arranges a marriage for him. But to the dismay of his new wife, Shankaran Kutty continues his life style often staying away from home for weeks. The already pregnant wife soon leaves him, and Shankaran Kutty does not make any attempt to have her back at home.

Sin categoría

KATHAPURUSHAN (The Man of the Story) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

KATHAPURUSHAN (The Man of the Story)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1996. 107 min
Cast : Vishwanathan, Mini Nair, Aranmulla Ponnamma

Kathapurushan is an award-winning feature film directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The film is in Malayalam. It stars Vishwanathan, Mini Nair, Aranmula Ponnamma, Narendra Prasad and Urmila Unni. It won the Golden Lotus Award for Best Film at the National Film Awards in 1996. Kathapurushan is a journey exploring the recent history of the state of Kerala in India.

Kunjunni’s parents separate soon after his birth, and he’s left to be cared by his mother, void of paternal care and affection. He is brought up by his mother with the help of his grandmother, an estimate manager and his friend Meenakshi, the daughter of a maid servant working in Kunjunni’s house. Inspired by his Uncle, who was initially a Gandhian, and eventually a Marxist, Kunjunni finds himself drawn to left-wing ideologies during his studies at college, believing that communism is the answer to heal all social hardships and inequalities. Eventually he joins an extremist Marxist group, and his affairs land him in trouble. After an attack at a police station, Kunjunni is arrested and taken to court, but later acquitted of all charges.

Sin categoría

ELIPPATHAYAM (Rat Trap) Adoor Gopalakrishnan

ELIPPATHAYAM (The Rat Trap)
Adoor Gopalakrishnan
India. 1982. 120 min
Cast : Jalaja, Karamana Janardanan, Rajam Nair

Elippathayam is a 1981 Malayalam film written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. It is critically considered by many to be one of the most outstanding pieces in Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s filmography.

A middle-aged man, Unni, and his three sisters struggle as the feudal way of life becomes unviable in Kerala. Eventually, succumbing to the adverse conditions surrounding him, Unni becomes helpless like a rat in a trap. The ‘rat trap’ is a metaphor for a state of oblivion to changes in the external world, such as the disintegration of the feudal system, in which some are caught and which leads to destruction.

Gopalakrishnan says in his interview that the movie was inspired by the feudal characteristics of his own family. Silence is a huge trope in the move, with large swathes of silence in dialogue.

Sin categoría

Keeper of swing (Andrea Barrionuevo) Spain

Keeper of swing
Andrea Barrionuevo
Spain. 2016. 61 min

For over forty years located inside a University Halls of Residence in Madrid, existed an important and influential venue for music, art and culture, known as “El Johnny”. This documentary is a trip through memory lane of “El Johnny” as seen by Alejandro Reyes.

Andrea Barrionuevo. Besides studying a degree in Advertising and Public Relations, Audiovisual Communication and a Masters in Management of the Film Industry in 2015 at the Carlos III University, Andrea had international experience in the field of
production in different companies such as EGEDA US ( in Los Angeles and Miami) , Malevolo (Madrid) , Future Films and Hanway Films in London. In 2013 she created with Marta Longás her own production company where they make their own projects. Currently she combines her work in Pocket Rocket Films with her position as production assistant in Morena Films. ” Keeper of Swing ” is her debut as a producer as well as a director .

Homage to Gita Sen

Homage to Gita Sen

Films Selected at Imagineindia 2017

CALCUTTA 71 (Mrinal Sen) India

KHARIJ (Mrinal Sen) India

Gita Sen was born in a small suburb of Calcutta. She started acting at a very young age in political plays with some of the stalwarts of Indian theatre.  Gita started acting in films from the late 1940s. Her first film role was in a film called Dudhara, where she met the writer of the story, Mrinal Sen, and later married him in 1953. During this period she also acted in Nagarik, the first film made by her friend, Ritwik Ghatak. She dropped out of acting after her son was born in 1954 but resumed theatre acting again in 1966 with Utpal Dutt. She came back to film acting in Calcutta 71, a film made by her husband, Mrinal Sen. She continued to work in films until her last acting role in Mahaprithibi (1991), During this period some of her memorable roles were in films like Ek Din Pratidin, Akaler Sandhaney, Aarohan, Chalchitra, Khandhar, and Mahaprithibi. Even though her acting career was relatively limited in number of films and plays, she gained the respect of the audience and fellow actors through the depth of her emotional performance. Almost all of her roles were to portray lower middle class women, struggling to survive, and she portrayed them with unprecedented dignity and depth.

Text by Kunal Sen

Homage to Gita Sen

Calcutta 71 (Mrinal Sen)

Calcutta 71
Mrinal Sen
India.  1972.  132 min.
Cast:  Ranjit Mullick, Utpal Dutt, Geeta Sen.

This film is considered to be the second of Calcutta’s trilogy of Mrinal Sen, the others are Interview and Padatik. Calcutta 71 is a collection of stories that represent the seventies and shows the naxalite activity, the hunger of ordinary people, and social and political corruption. The first story is about a low-middle-class family staying in a cabin in a slum area. On a rainy night they are forced to leave the house and move to another safe haven, but they find that many others have already taken refuge before them. The second story is about another middle-class family of mother and two mature daughters who could not cope with hunger and poverty and succumbed to prostitution. Their cousin Nalinakhya, who lives in Delhi, comes to visit them and knows the hard reality. This story is based on a real story by Probodh Kumar Sanyal called ‘Angar’. The third story is a middle-class rural family where the eldest son of a family is involved in smuggling rice into the city, leaving his school and his education. It is a criticism of the way of life and the attitude of the rich. The fourth story is about the upper-class society of Calcutta, singing and listening to a concert of music with cocktails and without any exposure to ordinary people. A high-class man talks about philosophy and says he is very disappointed about the condition of the poor in India. He is actually a hypocrite, who exploits the poor employees of his factory and makes money by torturing them. Continue reading Calcutta 71 (Mrinal Sen) →

Homage to Gita Sen

Kharij (Mrinal Sen)

Kharij
Mrinal Sen
India.  1982.  99 min.
Cast:  Anjan Dutta, Mamata Shankar.

A servant boy, a minor, engaged in a middle class family dies mysteriously locked in a kitchen. Police enquiries reveal he was sleeping in the kitchen near a burning coal oven to keep himself warm in winder. Post-mortem report confirms death by carbon-monoxide gas poisoning. The happy household is suddenly thrown into a psychological trauma. Torn between a sense of guilt and fear of a police case and consequently scandal, the young employer and his wife expose their petty, hypocritical selves. Fearing accusation from the father of the deceased, they make futile attempts to please him. That nothing happens to them and the father departs quietly, leaves them completely defeated and crushed. Continue reading Kharij (Mrinal Sen) →

NEWS

Presentation of Imagineindia 2016 at Barceló the travel brand Xperience

LOGO_B the Travel Brand Xperience

THE BEST FILMS OF  IMAGINEINDIA AT B the travel brand Xperience

Imagineindia International Film Festival, already in its 15th Edition, presents at the headquarters of Barceló the travel brand Xperience the best films that have shown at the festival and few premieres. IMAGINEINDIA is one of the few film festivals in Madrid where you can see the best recent films of the international scene.  These projections are a prelude to the festival which starts on 17 may, and will display the best films of previous editions and some surprises of this year. The festival, supported by the great actors like Gran Wyoming, Hugo Silva, Javier Gutiérrez or Angela Molina, proposes stories that will not leave you indifferent. As far as Calcutta, Ervil, or Kazakhstan, their films will fill our screens with color at B travel brand Xperience. Hope you enjoy it!

B The Travel Brand Xperience                                                                                     Calle Miguel Ángel 33 (esquina Plza Gregorio Marañón)               Metro Gregorio Marañón.

4 APRIL (19.30)
NABALOK                                                                                                                                 Director: Bauddhayan Mukherji
India. 2014. 51 min.                                                                                                                    Spread over 34 years of the Bengali life, Nabalok (The Innocent) the first piece of Teenkahon explores a transgressive facet of a relationship that exceeds the norms of social acceptability.

Written by Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay, the film is the story of an 8-year-old boy’s emotional attachment and obsession with a newly married girl in the village. A relationship that stirs up a hornet’s nest, opens a can of worms and peers into the frailties of human relationships through a tragicomical glass.

MOUSSE
Director : John Hellberg
Sweden. 2013. 35 min.                                                                                                          What could be easier than robbing a small bookie place on the outskirts of town? It’s during the year’s biggest horse race event and the betting center Washington’s Tobacco looks like the ultimate hit for some fast cash. Mousse is a man of pride and principles and is fed up with living as a second-class citizen. But what happens when he faces principles different to his own?

11 APRIL (19.30)
JAI HO
Director : Umesh Aggarwal
India. 2014. 60 min. Biography                                                                                       Allah-Rakha Rahman has the honour of single-handedly catapulting Indian Film Music on to the world stage.
Considered one of the world’s most influential people by Time Magazine, his prolific body of work, over 120 film scores worldwide– at last count – in a career spanning two decades, makes him one of the world’s all-time top selling recording artists. The Film explores the evolution of his style of music – a fusion of Eastern sensibilities and Western technology. Through various turning points in his life and significant milestones, the Film celebrates an Indian icon who is no less than a global phenomenon.
Spanning across Los Angeles, London, Chennai and Bombay, the Film brings to its viewers, a hitherto unseen and unheard narrative of one of the greatest musicians the world has ever known.

ANONYMOUS
Director : Ayan Banerjee
India. 2015. 14 min.                                                                                                                  What is that one thing we cannot live without? Even before we open our eyes in the morning, and not until we close them after a long tiring day. Or probably even after that. In our dreams and nightmares…what is that one thing we cannot afford to lose?

18 APRIL (19.30)
TOLL BAR
Director : Zhasulan Poshanov
Kazakhstan. 2015. 60 min                                                                                                           Rauan works at a parking lot in a prestigious residential area. Aidar passes him daily in his luxurious car. The auto belongs to his father, who works in the oil business. Rauan and Aidar are both determined to build their own lives themselves. They live in the same city, their paths cross in the same yard, but there is an abyss between them. They are separated by a toll-bar between wealth and poverty. One day Aidar and Rauan will clash and their worlds will clash. What will the results be..?

NADA S.A
Directors : Caye Casas / Albert Pintó
Spain. 2014. 15 min                                                                                                                       NOTHING Co. is a tale, almost a caricature, about those jobs we hate but we have to keep because of economic reasons: even if the time is gold, money always wins.

25 APRIL (19.30)
BOLLYWOOD BULEVARD
Director : Camille Ponsin
France. 2012. 73 min                                                                                                                      Sanjay is a gypsy from Rajasthan. He’s 22, has a lady-killer smile and an overwhelming energy. He lives in a tent with his parents on a Delhi’s street camp. The father is a blacksmith, the mother sells the tools he makes. Sanjay is a teacher in a slum school. But his dream is to be a model and an actor. He goes and tries his luck in Bollywood, being coached by Nasser Abdullah, a supporting role actor.

More Info :

http://www.quarkprod.com/films/bollywood-boulevard/?lang=en#.VvzDPuKLTIU  

ESPERA
Director : Victor Ribeiro
Brasil. 2015. 7 min.                                                                                                                             Regina Bastos lives on a desert island. Her life has become quiet and lonely since the departure of her great love Beto Bruel. For over twenty years Regina will go to the beach every afternoon looking at the sea waiting for him to bring her love back.

3 MAY (19.30)

Ankhon Dekhi
Rajat Kapoor
India. 105 min. 2013

With the presentation of the writer OLGA CASADO .

Ankhon Dekhi centers around Raje Bauji, played by Sanjay Mishra who, after a dramatic incident, decides that he will only believe what he sees with his eyes

9 MAY (19.30)
Frozen
Shivajee Chandrabhusan
India. 103 min. 2007
This is a touching and somber journey of Lasya, who lives with her father Karma and younger brother Chomo in a remote village in the Himalayas. Pristine snow capped mountains surround their tiny hamlet and barren harsh land stretches for miles into nowhere. One day the army moves in, settles a hundred yards across their doorstep. The last bit of comfort the family draws from their familiar surroundings changes into a harsh ceaseless irreversible conflict. The film depicts the life of this family whose dream like existence is interrupted by inevitable odds, one after the other.