An Irrelevant Dialogue
Moinak Guho
India. 2020. 32 min

An octogenarian couple, Shankar and Ila Bagchi, live a life of isolation confined within one room of a big, empty and time-worn house in the city. Childless by choice and unwilling to become a burden on their kin, they are in constant tussle with panic and fear. The thought of a deteriorated future – a life succumbed to bed-bounding sickness or alone without their sole companion, makes their existing loneliness only deeper. After having offered all that they could to the society including pledging their organs, they are convinced of the purposelessness of their present. Plagued by uncertainty of tomorrow and the weary mundanity of today, they resort to writing to the President of India.

MOINAK GUHO

Moinak Guho, is a filmmaker based out of Kolkata. An alumnus of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, where he completed his Post Graduation in Cinema, specializing in Direction and Screenplay Writing. During his coursework in SRFTI he has made short films, both fiction and non-fiction, under the scope of his curriculum and also outside of it with independent grants. This, “An Irrelevant Dialogue” his final project in SRFTI had its national premiere at the 13th SiGNS Film Festival, Kerala 2019, and its international premiere at the 39th FilmSchoolFest Munich, 2019, where it won the Best Cinematography award. The film has since won six awards and has been screened at several festivals. Most of his short films have traveled across festivals like, the 36th VGIK Student Festival, Moscow; 15th Mumbai International Film Festival, Mumbai; 11th IDSFFK, Kerala; 9th & 11th Cut.In, Mumbai; 4th Woodpecker Film Festival, New Delhi and several others. Besides these, he has also assisted Naeem Mohaiemen and Nishtha Jain in their latest films. He is currently writing his next film.

DIRECTOR,S STATEMENT

Inspired from a true story of a living couple in India, this film is a fictional interpretation of their lives. Through the essayist portrayal of the lives of this couple the film tries to explore a global dialogue which is still considered a taboo across the world leaving two or three countries in particular. What fascinated me immediately as I read the story in a newspaper last year, is primarily the character of the old man in whose arguments I found a reflection of myself and realizing that he believed in these ideologies back in his youth was pleasantly surprising as well as resonating. Standing deep into the 21st century where we all are living isolated lives and the constant change in lifestyle with advancement in technology has made “choice” an incremental index to personal freedom, I believe this conversation that the film aims to initiate becomes essential to engage with, albeit uncomfortable. However, in reality, with these characters being insignificant someone, the argument being against the established “normal” apparently seems to be irrational and inconsequential. An irrelevant dialogue.

INTERVIEW WITH MOINAK GUHO

CONTACT

MOINAK GUHO : moinakguho@gmail.com

You Are Here
Orkhan Abulov
Russia. 2020. 23 min

As chance would have it, a young geologist and an aspiring artist meet in the Caucasus Mountains. They develop a liking to each other and spend an evening and a night together. They have their whole long lives ahead of them, and even after decades, the gleam of that meeting will persist.

ORKHAN ABULOV

Orkhan Abulov was born in 1992, in Moscow. Studied in Moscow international film school. Twice laureate of the “Artistic word of Russia” Contest. Graduated from Moscow theatre school. Performs in the plays of Russian state theatre “Satyricon”. Participated in master-classes of Roma Film Academy rector, Adriano De Santis. Starred in Russian films “Legends about Krug”, “Paupers”, “Trotsky”, “Vertinsky”, “Syrian sonata”. Since 2016, adopted a role of a film director.

Filmography
“Totu” (2016)
“About Snowflakes and Metal” (2018)
Clip Bulevard Depo «No Flag!» (2019)

POSTER

CONTACT

FESTAGENT : hello@festagent.com

Toxic
Valeri Baklanov
Russia. 2020. 27 min

Is it possible to tame a woman whose heart is broken? Alina does exactly what everyone would like to do if he had a dozen extra lives. The involuntary companion of Alina’s crazy actions is the teenager Denis, whom she met in the police.

VALERI BAKLANOV

Born August 19, 1984. As a child, the first was the desire to invent, and then direct. So he did not graduate. He was involved in hypothetical directing at the Institute of Cinema and Television in the studio of Yuri Nikolayevich Klepikov, having received the specialty of a screenwriter. At the St. Petersburg School of New Cinema, he took up practical directing in the workshop of Edgar Bartenev and Alexander Savchuk.

CONTACT

FESTAGENT : hello@festagent.com

Black Bass
Rakesh Narwani
Spain. 2019. 15 min

Things are not being easy for Dani and his father knows. That is why he set up a fishing day hoping to cheer him up. The problem is that, sometimes, what is good for one is not good for everyone.

RAKESH NARWANI

Rakesh studied a degree in Audiovisual Communication in Malaga, completing his studies with mobility grants in Parma and New York. He worked as a waiter at Caffe Reggio in Greenwich Village where classic films such as Serpico were shot. He returned to Spain to study a Masters in Fiction Screenwriting at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca.

He debuts in 2013 with 15M: The city wakes up!, a documentary feature film co-directed with the journalist Laura Rueda, selected in relevant film competitions such as the Malaga Film Festival or the Toulouse Spanish Film Festival. The social film, made in a collaborative way, was supported by the writer and economist José Luis Sampedro.

His first short films, Clóset (with the Spanish actor Pepe Viyuela) and Black Bass (with the famous Spanish actor Antonio de la Torre) have already obtained about twenty awards in important national festivals such as Abycine, Curtas Noia and Festival de Málaga. These projects have also been present in the competitive sections of festivals such as Huesca, Fescigu and the Medina del Campo Film Week.

Together with the visual artist Paula Villegas, he created the production company Bazar Films, developing fiction, documentary and advertising projects for various agencies and clients such as Málaga C.F, Les Roches or La Fábrica de Cruzcampo.

My Parents’ Bazaar, their new documentary project, has just started its financing phase after receiving the Creation Grants from the Malaga Film Festival. This autobiographical film tells the story of the particular diaspora of a family of Indian merchants in Spain and the closure, after four decades, of the mythical family business, the Kirpa Bazaar.

POSTER

CONTACT

Ismael Martín : info@selectedfilms.com

Glad to See You
Vladimir Golovnev
Russia. 2020. 24 min

Two country men vying for the girl who already died… According to their beliefs her soul a few days is near and sometimes returns.

VLADIMIR GOLOVNEV

Vladimir Golovnev born in Omsk city in 1982. In 2004 he graduated historical faculty of Omsk State University. In 2005 he received the diploma of Independent School of cinema and TV INTERNEWS in Moscow (Faculty Directing Film and TV).
Filmography:
« Unwordly», doc., 2008
« The Curtain», doc., 2008
« The Game», doc., 2010
«The Sanctuary», doc., 2012
« Two Childhoods», doc., 2016
«Letsplay», doc., 2019

POSTER

CONTACT

FESTAGENT : hello@festagent.com

The Flute
Hari Viswanath
India. 2020. 106 min

The story of 8 years old boy along his mom and grandfather, who found what is running in his blood, gets inspired and struggle to excel like his father who lives abroad. But the truth is Like son, Like father!!

HARI VISWANATH

An International Award winning director, his debut film “Radio Set” won the Best Film Audience award at Busan International Film Festival 2015, South Korea and Won 2 more awards and 12 official Selections in International festivals. His Short film “Monitor” was also selected in Indian Panorama Section at IFFI Goa 2018. He also served as the Jury member of Indian Panorama section of International Film Festival of India 2017, Goa. Bansuri is his second feature film.

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DIRECTOR,S NOTE

This is the film, shows how a same material Bamboo, has influenced the life of three generations of people, an old man with walking stick, a watchman with bamboo lathi and a small boy with a bamboo flute.

POSTER

CONTACT

Hari Viswanath : harrytoonz@gmail.com

200 Meters
Ameen Nayfeh
Jordan. 2020. 90 min

Mustafa and his wife Salwa come from two Palestinian villages that are only 200 meters apart, but separated by the wall. Their unusual living situation is starting to affect their otherwise happy marriage, but the couple does what they can to make it work. Every night, Mustafa flashes a light from his balcony to wish his children on the other side a goodnight, and they signal him back. One day Mustafa gets a call that every parent dreads, his son has been in an accident. He rushes to the checkpoint where he must agonisingly wait in line only to find out there is a problem with his fingerprints and is denied entry. Desperate, Mustafa resorts to hiring a smuggler to bring him across. His once 200-meter journey becomes a 200-kilometer odyssey joined by other travellers determined to cross.

AMEEN NAYFEH

Ameen Nayfeh was born in Palestine in 1988. In 2012, he graduated with an MFA from the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts in Jordan with the goal of telling authentic stories from his region. He has written, produced and directed award-winning short films, and has been freelancing for film and TV production for the past six years.

POSTER

CONTACT

True Colors : fabio@truecolours.it