Lihaaf
Rahat Kazmi
India.  2019.  85 min

A period drama, the film is based on Ismat Chugtai‘s most celebrated story “Lihaaf” (published 1942).  The film inter weaves the plot of same sex relationship between Begum and her masseuse and the trial that Ismat underwent after being slapped with a case of obscenity on publishing the story.  The film raises themes of homosexuality and freedom of speech that our society is grappling with even today.

RAHAT  KAZMI

Rahat Kazmi was born at a small village called Pamrote, a town Surankote,  district Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir state of Indian side on 23rd July 1980.  He belongs to a family of sufi poets and spiritual personalities in the state.  His grandfather (mother’s father) late Walayat Ali Shah Bukhari was a sufi poet, a spiritual personality and a great socialist.  Rahat started writing poetry in his grandfather’s guidance and the later stared writing stories also. Rahat’s flair for Urdu poetry and storytelling brought him in film line.  Rahat started his career by writing and directing for local doordarshan channel of Jammu and later he shifted to Mumbai and started a serial “Tamanna” in 2002-3 for DD Metro.  Later Rahat joined ETV Urdu channel and worked as in house director for almost three years and directed almost 300 episodes of different programmes for ETV URDU channel.  Rahat Kazmi started his film career as writer and director with his debut feature film title “DEKH RE DEKH” (2009).

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Rahat Kazmi :    rahatkazmifilms@gmail.com

Josef, Born in Grace
Susant Misra
India.  2019.  100 min

“Joseph: Born in Grace” is an adaptation of a short story “Joseph” written by Umakanta Mahapatra and is set in the foothills of the Himalayas between 1960 and 1980 in India.  Father O’ Hara (Victor Banaerjee),  a missionary doctor with the help of his caretaker Maularam (Sudarshan Juyal),  raises an orphan baby Joseph (Hitesh Bisht).  While still a young boy, Joseph is sent to Dehradun for his studies and vocational training.  Joseph (Subrat Dutta) returns back with a reputation as a great cook as well as his love for alcohol.  Film explores in its unfolding of time, the different paths that Father O’ Hara, Joseph and Maularam take in their respective journeys for spiritual fulfillment through memories.  Through static mis-en-scenes, the narrative of the film reflects the all-encompassing nature of time, pre-empting and repeating itself in allegorical hues.

SUSANT MISRA

While he was studying at FTII his diploma film Nischal Badal was screened at the competitive section of Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany.  After completing his diploma, in 1993 he directed his first feature film Indradhanur Chaai that won him the Grand Prix at the Sochi International Film Festival in Russia and was official selection in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1995.  Biswaprakash was his second film that was also screened at several international festivals and won Silver Lotus for Best Oriya Film in the National Film Awards in 2000.  Dharini is his third feature film that was made both in Hindi and Oria.  He also made three documentaries, Dhenkanal – A Multifaceted Paradise, Samarpanam on the eminent Bharat Natyam dancer Malavika Sarukkai and Pearls of Wisdom on Oriya Literature for the Children’s Film Society, India.

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Ashok Mahapatra :    ashok@uakathachitra.com

Ea, Ma, Yau
Lijo Jose Pellissery
India.  2018.  120 min

Set amidst the Latin Catholic community in Chellanam beach near Kochi in Kerala, the film revolves around the death of Vavachan, a master mason, who comes home after a lapse of time, and suddenly meets with his death. Before his death, he shares with his son Eeshi, memories about the burial of his father and in turn, his own desire to be buried decently. Eeshi readily promises him a grand burial. After Vavachan’s sudden and shocking departure, Eeshi earnestly arranges for his father’s funeral; he wants it to be performed with due respect, with all the usual rituals, colorful paraphernalia and celebrations that go with it. But this simple gesture of love and respect of a son for his father, meets with unpredictable obstacles and unseemly reactions from different quarters. over everything. With this intense, emotional core, the film journeys into the complex web of human emotions.

LIJO  JOSE  PELLISSERY

Lijo Jose Pellissery, son of late Malayalam actor Jose Pellessery, has directed five films Nayakan (2010), City of God (2011), Amen (2013), Double Barrel (2015), and Angamaly Diaries (2017).

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Lijo Jose Pellissery :    lijojosepellissery@gmail.com

Spring follows Winter
Liu Junfeng
China.  2019.  90 min

An elderly man living in a poor rural village comes across a bag full of cash on the street. He returns the bag to its owner but soon realizes that he’d given the bag to the wrong person. Burdened with guilt and responsibility to find the bag and return it to its rightful owner, he wanders through different villages, looking for the person who took the bag full of money. The old man’s good intentions to help a stranger ends up causing trouble for his family and the people around him. Contrasted with the elderly man’s goodness of heart, the reactions of his family members, the victim, and the perpetrator show how selfish humans can be. The story of this film is based on an actual incident that happened to the director’s grandfather.

LIU  JUNFENG

LIU Junfeng, born in Handan, Hebei Province, China Graduated from Hebei Normal University, Beijing Film Academy. His short films Secret of Xiaoshan (2015), Love Letter (2017) won awards in China and Cannes film festivals.

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Liu Junfeng :    390724413@qq.com

Trijya
Akshay Indikar
India.  2019.  91 min

In an age where, being oblivious to your true self has increasingly become a reality for many, such a path to self-discovery can lead to feelings of loneliness, confusion, fear and doubt.

Artistically inclined villager Avdhut Kale struggles to find his place in the metropolis of Pune. Working as a reporter for the local newspaper, he is stuck with helping his colleague write the horoscope section or trying to meet the demands of his editor who wants to publish factual but sensational news.

“Radius — Trijya” traces the journey of Avdhut, from his hometown in rural India and how he faces the reality of his own dreams and aspirations about life in a large city. It takes us through the challenges of today’s modern way of life and the compromises one inevitably makes along the way to find peace and a place we can call our own.

AKSHAY  INDIKAR

The Indian filmmaker comes from a nomadic family and studied at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. His directing debut Trijya premiered at the 2019 Shanghai International Film Festival where it was nominated in the categories of Best Film, Best Director and Best Cinematographer in the Asian New Talent Award. The film went on to screen at numerous international festivals. He is currently developing his next feature film, Chronicle of Space.

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Akshay Indikar :    akshayindikar1@gmail.com

Khanaur (Bitter Chestnut)
Gurvinder Singh
India.  2019.  100 min

Seventeen-year-old Kishan, a good boy from a village in the Himalayas, helps his grandma and mother, listens to his father and earns some extra money working in a restaurant for tourists. But he feels the call of the big, wide world. He knows that moving to the big city is not without risks from the stories of prison and abuse he hears from returning friends. Kishan’s family try to talk him out of his plans. His father’s carpentry workshop offers a secure, albeit predictable, life.

Bitter Chestnut is an intimate, authentic coming-of-age story, thanks largely to working with local, non-professional actors. At the same time, the film depicts migration to the cities – an existential threat to traditional village communities. Despite the call of adventure, Kishan is still deeply rooted in his village, and this becomes ever clearer as the seasons slide by almost unnoticed.  His life is like the fruit of the bitter chestnut tree from the title; according to tradition, it has to be washed for seven days in succession before being edible.

GURVINDER  SINGH

Gurvinder Singh is an Indian film director. He is best known for his Punjabi language films Anhe Ghore Da Daan, and Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) which premiered at Venice and Cannes Film Festival respectively.  Gurvinder is an alumnus of the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune from where he studied film-making and graduated in 2001. He travelled extensively through Punjab between 2002 and 2006, living and traveling with folk itinerants, documenting folk ballads and oral narratives. It led to his first documentary ‘Pala’.  He continued to make short experimental works and documenting arts/artists for the next few years. In 2005 he was invited by avant-garde Indian filmmaker Mani Kaul to be his teaching assistant for a master-class at FTII,  which led to a close association with the filmmaker who became his mentor. He translated and published a book of conversations of Udayan Vajpeyi with Mani Kaul, titled ‘Uncloven Space’.  His latest film is ‘Infiltrator’ starring Veer Rajwant Singh which is a 15-minute short story in an international omnibus called ‘In the same garden’.

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Gurvinder Singh :    gurvindarsingh@gmail.com

One Man Dies a Million Times
Jessica Oreck
USA.  2019.  92 min

Caught in the grip of a war-torn Russian winter, the city is starving to death. Despite their hunger, Alyssa and Maksim heroically work to preserve the treasures of the world’s most important seed bank – treasures that hold the key to the future of their country’s food supply – even though its sustenance could mean their survival. Part documentary, part fiction, One Man Dies a Million Times isn’t just about romance or war or food security, it’s about fighting for what you believe in, fighting for the ones you love, and fighting for your own survival.

JESSICA ORECK

Jessica Oreck makes projects across mediums in an effort to re-inspire a sense of wonder about the world of the every-day.

She’s made several feature films, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009), Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys (2013), and The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (2014)), that have been shown around the world. Her latest feature, a non-fiction/fiction hybrid, One Man Dies a Million Times premiered at SXSW 2019.

Jessica also works in paper-based animation, creating educational content for TED and other online networks (Mysteries of Vernacular (2011), In a Moment of Vision (2017), Memoirs of Vegetation (2020) and The State Name Project (2020)).

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Jessica Oreck :    jessica.oreck@gmail.com

The Hive
Eylem Kaftan
Turkey.  2019.  93 min

Before she dies, Ayşe’s mother tells her that she will leave Ayşe her much loved bee hives to manage. Ayşe’s modern life has moved her away from the mountains of her childhood – a life in which the bees and their honey were central.

THE HIVE is inspired by a character I met, while shooting a documentary series I was directing about ‘urban farmers’.  The beekeeper I met in Northeastern Turkey was an impressive woman who lived in the West for several years and then returned to her hometown to take charge of the bee hive of her family. The stories she  told me about her struggle with bears pulled me into her world like a powerful magnet. I felt an urge to make this film.

EYLEM  KAFTAN

Born in Turkey, Eylem Kaftan completed a B.A. in Philosophy at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.  She then continued a Masters program at İstanbul Bilgi University in Cinema and TV.  She completed another Masters program in film and video at York University. Her first documentary, Faultlines, investigates the aftermath of the earthquake which hit Turkey in 1999. It won Best Short Film and the Jury Prize at the Planet Indie Film Festival in Toronto in 2002. Kaftan then wrote and directed Vendetta Song (2005) produced in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada.  This documentary about her personal journey into the honour-killing of her aunt in a small village in Turkey was broadcast on Vision TV and Télé-Québec in Canada and has received several awards including CIDA Prize for Best Canadian Documentary on International Development at Hot Docs; the Quebec Film Critics Association Award for Best Medium Length Documentary; Best Documentary, Calgary International film festival. The film also won the 3rd prize at the International Women’s film festival in Torino, Italy.

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Eylem Kaftan :    eylemkaftan21@gmail.com

Move the Grave
Seung o Jeong
South Korea.  2019.  98 min

With the story of a family gathering before moving their father’s grave, this film is full of episodes that make us realize the wearifulness of living. The eldest daughter Hye-young receives a message saying that she has to move her father’s grave, on the day she was asked to leave the company.  She contacts with her younger sisters and brother, and they assemble at their uncle’s house. Her younger sister Geum-ok has a hard time with marriage, Geum-hee feels stressful with preparing for her wedding, and Hye-yeon is struggling with her belated college life. The only male in her family, her youngest brother Seung-rak has not even shown up at all. They constantly quarrel and scratch themselves but ironically affirm their respective dignity.

JEONG O SEUNG

INTERVIEW  WITH  THE  DIRECTOR

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Indiestory :    indiestory@indiestory.com

Brotherhood
Pavel Lungin
Russia.  2019.  113 min

1988-1989. The end of the Soviet-Afghan war. The USSR begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet General Vasiliev’s son – a pilot named Alexander gets kidnapped by the mujahideen after his airplane crashes. As a result the 108th motorized infantry division’s long awaited return home gets put on hold for one last mission:  bring the General’s son back.  Based on true events the previously untold story of the courageous and tragic withdrawal campaign (through the Salang pass) reveals the danger the horror and the complexity of human nature during wartime.

A film of many names and based on actual events, Brotherhood (aka Leaving Afghanistan) can be seen as Russia’s first Vietnam movie. Bucking the last years’ trend of flag-waving films – such as Stalingrad (Fyodor Bondarchuk, 2014), Tankers (Konstantin Maximov, 2018) and T-34 (Aleksei Sidorov, 2019) – set during the Great Patriotic War, Brotherhood quickly ran into trouble in Putin’s Russia by instead dealing with the Soviet Union’s forgotten war in Afghanistan.

PAVEL  LUNGIN

Pavel Semyonovich Lungin (born July 12, 1949) is a Russian film director. He is sometimes credited as Pavel Loungine (as in the American release of Tycoon).

Born 12 July 1949 in Moscow, Lungin is the son of a scriptwriter and linguist. He later attended Moscow State University from which he graduated in 1971. Lungin worked primarily as a scriptwriter until given the opportunity to direct Taxi Blues at age 40.

Lungin was awarded the Best Director Prize at 1990 Cannes Film Festival for the film Taxi Blues starring Pyotr Mamonov.  That same year he took up residence in France, while making films in and about Russia with French producers. Two years later, his next film Luna Park would also compete at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. In 1993 he was a member of the jury at the 18th Moscow International Film Festival.

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Pavel Lungin :    pavel.lungin@gmail.com