He
is one of the best out there and he is bringing possibly his best work in years
to Goa. Yes, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is bringing his Hitchcockian thriller Wife of Spy
will be the closing movie at the 17thedition of the Indian
Film Festival to be held in Goa this year. The festival which was earlier
scheduled to be held in November but had to be postponed due to the virus will
be different this year. The
film festival usually attracts stars from Bollywood, the south Indian film
industry, and actors and directors from around the world who like to keep in
touch with what is happening in the largest film producing country in the
world.
Last
year when the virus struck it changed everything it touched. That included the
film making industry. This year the festival will be a hybrid affair. Subhash
Phal Dessai Vice-Chairman ESG said “The festival will be on from the Jan 16-24
will be a hybrid affair. We want to boost the economy, attract tourists to Goa
and this is an opportunity for us to resume our business. This year we have
invited around 224 films, Indian Panorama, International, and Goan section. We
will not be organizing any peripheral activities that would otherwise be
organized during the festival. We do not want to take a risk and expose people.
The art park, the children’s park, the open-air screening, a lot of
installations has been cut down. Anything that attracts crowds has
been discouraged. The core activity ie screening films will be our
focus.” The
film festival will be all about screening new films, releasing new movies,
master classes, retrospectives, and all other shows that are meant for the
occasion. The screenings will take place in auditoriums around the city of
Panjim. Phal Desaai said “We have seven auditoriums at our disposal all within
a distance of one km. In the four auditoriums of Inox, we have two in
Maquinez palace and one in Kala academy. There will be a lot of restrictions. Though
Kala Academy has a sitting capacity of one thousand but due to MHA guidelines,
we will not allow more than two hundred. In
all our auditoriums we will allow only around 800-900 people in total to ensure
everyone is safe. Seats will be kept empty and viewers will have space between each other.
Two hundred in Kala Academy and hundred, each in the two rooms in Maquinez
Palace will be accommodated”. The inauguration and the closing ceremony
was earlier scheduled for the Kala Academy but due to all the restrictions in
place it was decided to schedule it at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium and
which has a capacity in thousands but they will not allow more than 200 or 300. Due
to the pandemic, they have still not received confirmation from stars with
regards to their participation. Perhaps one could safely presume that stars
closely aligned with the present political dispensation would make their
presence felt. Akshay Kumar or Kangana Ranaut could be safe bets. The decisions
to invite stars are taken by the Directorate of the film festival in Delhi.
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Now
to the serious bit- the films
The
festival will be inaugurated by Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round”. A Danish
filmmaker, he along with Lars Von Trier to start the Dogme 95 movement in film
making which aimed at simplifying the process. This movie was considered one of
the best movies of the year and it focuses on four high school teachers
who consume alcohol on a daily basis to see how it affects their social and
professional lives. The closing film Wife of spy is a return to form by
Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
The
list of movies in the Indian Paronama section is an interesting mix of films
featuring the various languages spoken in the country. From A Dog and his Man
in Chattisgarhi, Aavartan in Hindi, Avijatrik in Bengali to Gatham in Telegu
the film festival is a celebration of storytelling in the various languages of
the country. Govind Nihalani the stalwart of alternative cinema will be
present with Up Up and UP in English. Films in Pahari, Manipuri, Marathi,
Malayalam, Oriya, Sanskrit make a very interesting bouquet of films. As
of yesterday, the concerned authorities in Delhi had to date not finalized the
list of foreign films to be showcased in the festival. This is expected to be
confirmed by the end of the week. All
these films will be showcased at the various auditoriums. Masterclasses and
Retrospectives will be conducted offline. With regards to online
shows, all the films to be released here and all films to be selected will be
shown online. All delegates who register will be issued a card; they will have
to book the show online. Others can pay Rs 600 online and get a package that
will allow people to watch the opening the closing and the list of movies being
shown online. Around
forty international guests were scheduled to come over but to date, no
confirmation has been received from them. They are based in countries as
diverse as Russia, Germany Canada, the UK to name just a few. There will be 400
guests from the domestic film industry. One can only hope this
celebration of cinema will go ahead smoothly and not cause any hardship to
anyone.
