The Hindu : National : Focus on Asian cinema at festival

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

National

National

Focus on Asian cinema at festival

Staff Reporter

16 films to be screened over next four days

BHUBANESWAR: The first Bhubaneswar Film Festival (BFF 2005) will be held from September 29. The theme of this year's festival will be Asian cinema with special focus on films from Iran.

Organised by the Film Society of Bhubaneswar, the five-day event will open with Iranian filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf's `At Five in the Afternoon,' followed by `Dust in the Wind,' a film from Taiwan. Over the next four days, the festival will screen 16 films.

According to Gadadhar Puty, president of FSB, there are 14 contemporary Asian films, including five Iranian films, that showcase some of the most celebrated and discussed works in recent years from the Asian continent.

The directors featured are a mixture of old and new names but each having a significant place in the cinema of his or her country.

"The screenings at BFF 2005 will give a broad overview of contemporary Asian cinema that shows a rich diversity of both form and content.

At the same time, they reflect many common themes that give expression to the issues confronting these societies. To give an example, many of these films deal with the status of women in society,'' Mr. Puty said.

Retrospective section

Besides, the festival has a retrospective section with four films that significantly mark the history of world cinema: Vittorio de Sica's `Bicycle Thief,' Akira Kurosawa's `Rashomon,' Satyajit Ray's `Pather Panchali' and Jean-Luc Godard's `Breathless.'

Filmmaker Nirad Mohapatra will give an introduction to each of these films. "The festival will be organised every year with different themes to attract filmmakers to showcase their work in Bhubaneswar," Mr. Puty said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National