Fukuoka film festival opens

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

FUKUOKA (JAPAN), SEPT 15. The 11th Fukuoka International Film Festival opened here late last evening with Iran's love story set in the times of the Afghan refugee crisis.

The movie, by the renowned Iranian auteur, Mr Majid Majidi, seemed almost the natural choice to kick start the 11-day event in Fukuoka, situated by the Sea of Japan on one of the four major islands of the country, Kyushu. With the Afghan problem once again under the spotlight now after the terrorist attacks on the U.S., much of the discussion about ``Baran'' tended to veer around the plight of the millions of homeless Afghans scattered all over the world, driven to desperation as they were by Taliban's atrocities.

Mr Majidi, who could not be here on the opening night because he was stranded in North America following the tragedy in New York and Washington, sent a message to the festival in which he highlighted the human misery of a people first ravaged by the Soviet occupation (between 1979 and 1989) and now by Taliban's oppressive measures. He said there were 1.4 million refugees in Iran alone, though this was the official figure of the United Nations. Actually, there could be at least three million, with a couple of more millions outside Iran.

Mr. Majidi's work, a beautifully mounted piece, captures the unspoken love between society's two have-nots. An Iranian boy's anger at being displaced from his placid job by an Afghan refugee girl, soon melts into adoration and affection, when he finds her vulnerable in the face of a hostile environment.

Wonderfully paced and imaginatively pictured, ``Baran'' gave the festival, already mired in a controversy over the inclusion of two Chinese films banned by Beijing, some more food for thought.

Compared with the director's earlier cheerful subjects in ``Colour of Paradise'' and his bash at parent-child relationships, his latest creative effort portrays the dark side of humanity, where the gloom of the construction site (the movie's most important location) is lifted but briefly by the youth's selfless love for a victim of the crisis.

Mr Majidi said his next film titled ``Rain'' would talk in greater depth about the Afghan imbroglio. And ``Baran'' closes appropriately on a rain-soaked day.

Earlier in the day at a press conference, the festival's director general, Mr. Tadao Sato, regretted that Mr Majidi could not be present on the opening night, and fielding a question from The Hindu, said he was also unhappy that Ms Aparna Sen, whose ``Paromitar Ek Din'' (House of Memories), the sole Indian entry, could not also make it because she was unwell.

Saying that it was a sensitive study of middleclass values in an urban Indian setting, Mr Sato averred that he was familiar with that milieu, having visited Calcutta (where Ms Sen's story takes place in a traditional joint family) several times in the course of two decades.

``I have known the city, and I feel that Ms Sen's creation underlines most effectively the qualities of life there. It was, therefore, not very difficult for me to select `House of Memories' for this festival''.

He added that this year's selection was excellent, and hoped that the collection ``will contribute to deepening our understanding and friendship with Asia''. One did not, however, miss the point here.

Against the backdrop of Japan's worsening ties with its neighbours, most significantly China and Korea - following the Prime Minister, Mr Junichiro Koizumi's recent visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honours the nation's war dead, including those convicted of war crimes - Mr. Sato's expectation already appears to have met its first obstacle: China's dismay and anger at the festival's insistence on screening the two works banned in that country.

But with a special section on China and with 32 titles from 15 countries, the Fukuoka International Film Festival may be able to calm some of the ruffled feathers by sheer artistic indulgences.

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Section  : International
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