27 Nov 2021  |   05:20am IST

The festival is moving along

A Konkani film was featured at the festival and actors talked about growing through the roles they enacted and there was some talk about cultural sensitivity

Goa had its moment earlier in the week when the feature film ‘DCosta House’ produced by Dr Mrs Pramod Salgaoncar and directed by Jitendra Shikerkar was premiered under the special Goan section. A crime thriller it is about three criminals who are on the run, after a jailbreak. While on the run they take shelter in a house where the housemates are kept hostage. The story evolves from there on. An engrossing tale it caught the fancy of the viewers.

For the people behind the movie there was clarity of thought with regards to their motives. Jitendra Shikerkar, Director of the movie said “D’Costa House is a commercial film, it is meant for an audience who likes commercial cinema. We are not here to give a message; we are here to provide pure entertainment. It is meant for the crowds in North and South Goa who want total entertainment. For two hours you entertain yourself and then leave”. Prince Jacob urged everyone to patronise the film to watch it in the theatre and encourage Konkani cinema. For Viloshka D Costa the actress in the film it was their attempt to promote Goan cinema, Konkani films and promoting the language through the beauty of films. She urged everyone to follow them their culture and their language. Mayur Balve a delegate who watched movie said it was technically very good and the story line kept him engrossed.

Konkani cinema may be struggling to find its foothold but for Mariano Palacios a Mexican actor who has starred in the movie The Guest his aim with every role he takes on is to grow with every character.

He said “ As an actor I try to grow with every character. I try to portray various characters that challenge me.” The Guest which was screened in the World Panorama section also had its World premiere at 52nd IFFI in Goa this year and received rave reviews from the audience. It is a story of a couple whose lives unravel upon the arrival of an old friend of wife as guest at their home. Responding about a query about the intimate scenes in the film, Palacios said, “I think being able to bare your soul is the first step towards baring the soul of the character and then intimate scenes don’t appear difficult” “We shot for the film in a very unconventional way. We just started with a small rough script and built upon that,” said Palacios. He further informed that almost 80 percent of the movie was shot in one location.

Speaking about the change in the opportunities in the film industry upon the arrival of OTTs, Palacios said “The film industry in Mexico is very big. Only a very small percentage of those movies get theatres and others have to look for other avenues to release their film. At the end of the day it is the commercial aspect which matters for OTTs and hence small budget films and parallel cinema has not benefited much from the advent of OTT platforms.”

Palacios considers music as first among all the arts and he was happy that the music used in the film creates the curiosity and expectations among the audience about what is forthcoming.

Questions about respecting cultural values also arose during the interaction with the French film Director Julien Hilmoine who made Night Belongs to Lovers. A member of the audience said he did not respect cultural norms and this movie was being shown because it was a film festival and if not it would have been banned in the country.

It was an interesting day at the festival and things kept happening.