The International Film Festival of India (IFFI)
2016 raised its curtains on Sunday, November 20, 2016 with Veteran filmmaker
Ramesh Sippy inaugurating the 47th edition. What marked the beginning of the
festival that would be screening around 300 films from 90 countries was the
influence of Asian films over the interactions.
IFFI’s day 1 commenced with the internationally
acclaimed Korean film director and writer, Im Kwon Taek being
conferred with a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Regarded as the
father of Korean Cinema, Im Kwon Taek has made more than 100 films, and has
been acclaimed internationally for several of his works. “I feel very happy to
receive such an honour at an international film festival, but I personally feel
that I have not yet created a masterpiece. To me, this award is a message to
continue making better films in the future to come,” he expressed. His career
spans more than 5 decades and he has made more than 100 films. In 2010, Im Kwon
Taek directed his 101th feature, ‘Hanji’ and his 102th feature, ‘Revivre’, in
2014, which was presented in the non-competition section of the Venice Film
Festival. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Asian Film Awards
in 2015.
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IFFI 2016 has brought about his second visit to
India. The first was around two decades ago. Talking about the visit, he said,
“I got a chance to visit India around 20 years ago, for a film festival. At
that time, I felt like going back home as soon as possible due to the cultural
differences. But when I went home, I did find myself missing India.” Though he hasn’t
watched many Indian films, he is well-acquainted with the film culture in the
country, which he finds great and distinctive. “Even I have made a film on
Buddha and reincarnation, subjects that are very close to Indian culture. It
would be a great opportunity to co-produce films with India,” he added while
talking about the influence of Indian cinema on Korean films. He said that he
is fond of the work of Shah Rukh Khan, and has watched and liked films such as ‘3
Idiots’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.
Day 2, among several screenings and
inaugurations, had a special interaction with Kalieaswari Srinivasan and
Antonythasan Jesuthasan, the lead actors of ‘Dheepan’, a 2015 French crime drama directed
by Jacques Audiard, a renowned French film
director and screenwriter. ‘Dheepan’ tells the story of three Tamil refugees
who flee the civil war-ravaged Sri Lanka and migrate
to France, with false identities, in an attempt to build new lives for
themselves. In a candid conversation, Kalieaswari and Antonythasan spoke about
the film that has won an international acclaim and their respective characters
and journeys.
Antonythasan, in ‘Dheepan’, plays a man who
migrated to Europe with false identity. It’s ironic that Antonythasan himself
had a similar, though in his words, a “more painful” life journey. “The
protagonist of the film has stark similarities with me. Even I had a fake
passport, I migrated to France illegally (though I am a legal resident now).
But I would like to say that I have seen much more suffering in my life, than
my character Dheepan in the film. Dheepan
goes from Sri Lanka to France in just a couple of days, with two people by his
side. It took me around five years, and I was all alone. My journey was much
more difficult,” Antonythasan maintained. Despite the similarities, he
confesses that he hadn’t met the director, nor did he share his story with him
before the film. The actor, who calls himself a writer before anything else,
finds Indian (especially Tamil cinema) today getting more commercial to the
extent that it’s losing its authenticity.
Kalieaswari talks about debuting her film career
in a film by Audiard as something she would have never ever imagined. “I must
say I am honoured working with a director of his calibre. What I find great is
that he doesn’t even speak that language in which most of the movie was shot.
However, he had an understanding of it, and could guide us on our dialogue
delivery accurately. I also had scenes where I had to speak in French. I learnt
a little French for the same, but honestly, it didn’t help much. But we had an
understanding of our films and rehearsed our parts in our own language, so
although I didn’t understand the dialogues, I could react appropriately. I
think most of Audiard’s movies show this kind of communication that goes beyond
the boundaries of language,” she shared. Being a theatre artiste first,
Kalieaswari admitted that she had a pre-conceived notion that films are easy as
compared to theatre, but now she has understood that both these media compete
with each other to make their fields even more difficult.
So, with an array of regional as well as
international films, best of the lot, being screened at IFFI this year, and
celebrities from world over visiting to interact, the 47th edition certainly promises
to be a unique experience for filmmakers as well as film lovers.
