'Monsoon Wedding' for main competition section at Venice film festival

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

TOKYO, SEPT. 3. India's Ms. Mira Nair has made it to the Venice International Film Festival, currently on at Lido, an island just off the city made famous by Shakespeare's play of love and revenge.

Ms. Nair's `Monsoon Wedding', starring Mr. Naseeruddin Shah and Ms. Lillete Dubey, comes from the maker of `Salaam Bombay.' Returning to her origins, Ms. Nair has made, this time, a movie closer to traditional Indian cinema. `Monsoon Wedding' interweaves five stories which unfold during a grand wedding in New Delhi.

Ms. Nair's work is one of the 20 entries in the Festival's main competition section, and this is the second consecutive year that India has found a place in this prestigious slot.

Last year, Mr. Buddhadeb Dasgupta's `Uttara' in Bengali was not only part of the competition, but also took home the Golden Lion for Best Direction.

This year's competition will also include names like Mr. Walter Salles (the man who made the much-talked about `Central Station') with his `Behind the Sun', Mr. Larry Clark (who made the controversial `Kids') with his `Bully', Mr. Amos Gitai (`Eden' from Israel), Mr. Andre Techine (`Far Away' from France), Mr. Ken Loach (we remember his superb `Bread and Roses') with his `The Navigators' and Mr. Richard Linklater (`Waking Life' from the U.S.).

Movies from Iran (`Void Votes'), Mexico (`Y Tu Mama Tambien'), Austria (`Dogdays'), Italy (`Light of My Eyes') and Hong Kong (`Hollywood Hong Kong') will also figure in the competition.

Of course, for every work that finds a berth in this category, there are ten others, maybe equally good, which cannot be accommodated because there really is no space. Some of these are taken in, but outside competition.

But as the Director of the Venice Festival, Mr. Alberto Barbera, says, ``if the films in the so-called sidebars are not made by heavyweight directors or do not have A-grade stars to guarantee media attention, even the most original pictures outside the competition can struggle to be noticed...I can mention titles like `Boys Do Not Cry', `Being John Malkovich' and `Pollock'...''

To avoid this, Mr. Barbera has this time introduced a major innovation. In what many consider to be a radical departure from an international festival format, Venice's competition has been coupled with a ``second competition.'' The movies for these have been drawn from a selection that is more experimental, usually from younger directors bold enough to risk their stakes.

Here, one finds newcomers like Mr. Zhang Yang from China (`Quitting'), Mr. Akihiko Shiota from Japan (`Harmful Insect'), Mr. Werner Herzog from Germany (`Invincible'), Mr. Jefrey Jeturian from the Philippines (`Larger than Life'), Ms. Sandra Goldbacher from the U.K. (`Me without You') and others.

What Mr. Barbera hopes to achieve by this feature is to try and demolish the rigid division between established auteurs and those who are not.

``Our aim is to break down barriers and oblige audiences to rethink their critical values and determine their own distinctions...We have tried to go against expectations, to play around the two competitions and the differences between them, and create an element of surprise and curiosity,'' Mr. Barbera said in Venice at the start of the event.

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Section  : International
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