Ziya Us Salam

PANAJI: Some "wonderful cinema" and some "glitches" brought the curtains down on the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Chinese director Hasi Chaolu's The Old Barber won the Best Film award and the Golden Peacock along with a cash prize of Rs. 10 lakh for "making us ponder how to live in this changing world."

All the three top awards for the `Best Film,' `Special Jury' and the `Most Promising Director' went to Asian countries.

The Old Barber is a simple tale of a breed of people and places vanishing in the face of rapid urbanisation. The film has a real-life nonagenarian barber Jing Kui in a convincing performance as himself.

The jury, headed by Australian director Rolf de Heer and comprising French director Olivier Assayas, Polish actress Grazyna Szapolowska, Argentinian actress Leticia Bredice and India's national award-winning director Jahnu Barua, awarded the Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh to An Kung-Lee of South Korea for the Most Promising Director for her film A Short Life . The director was not present for the award ceremony.

The Special Jury Award, comprising a Silver Peacock and Rs. 5 lakh in cash, went to Bangladesh director Abu Sayeed's Nirontor (Forever Flows), the country's official entry to this year's Oscars under the Best Foreign Language category. The film will be competing with Rakesh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti for honours.

The jury found in Mr. Sayeed's film "a strong drama, ambiguities of relationship and a tale of a woman sacrificing herself for her family" in a non-judgmental way.

Two Indian films in this section, Ahsan Muzid's Sonam, the first Arunachali film in Monpa dialect, and Sharada Ramanathan's Sringaram failed to make the cut in a competition of 11 films from three continents.

However, contrary to the announcement, there was no entry from Africa, rendering it a two-continent race, with Asian cinema winning the accolades ahead of Latin America. Films and directors from South Korea, China and Bangladesh got all the awards.

The closing ceremony of the festival, held at the Kala Academy auditorium, was a more sober function with a performance by Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, who played experimental music. "We are honoured to perform here though we don't belong to the film fraternity," they said. The brothers played compositions from their new album "Truth."

The festival, meanwhile, got thumbs up from the chief guest, director Aparna Sen. She said the festival's USP lay in celebrating Indian cinema. "At IFFI, there is an Indian Panorama section that celebrates the regional cinema of the country. IFFI brings all cinemas of India under one roof. It is a celebration of the many shades of India."

Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane offered his congratulations to the winners.

He admitted "there were certain hiccups at the festival."

Expressing "regrets for the inconvenience," the Chief Minister promised the "people would be wiser for the experience" next year.

Ziya Us Salam

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