::: PRESS RELEASE :::

15th INTERNATIONAL

FILM FESTIVAL 
of KERALA  2010 december 10-17, thiruvananthapuram

Organised by Kerala State Chalachitra Academy

for the Department of Cultural Affairs, Affairs, Govt. of Kerala 

                                                                                                                                                    

LATIN AMERICAN FILMS
DOMINATE COMPETITION SECTION:

Julie Dash Jury Chairperson

Spanish language Latin American  films dominate in the Competitive Section, which is the most attractive part of the International Film Festival of Kerala. Including two Indian premieres, five out of the 14 feature films which contest for the prestigious Rs. 1 million Suvarna Chakoram award (The Golden Crow Pheasant Award) to the best feature film are from Spanish speaking Latin America. Two Malayalam films are also found place for the run

The other awards include The Silver Crow Pheasant Award, Best Debut Film Award, Audience Prize to the Director of the most popular film voted by the festival delegates, FIPRESCI Award, and Netpac Award for the best film in the competition section from Asia, chosen by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema.

Afro-American Director Julie Dash, heads the jury- who is a faculty at Universities- Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton heads the jury.

The Last Summer of La Boyita, directed by Julia Solomonoff , which tells the story of a pre-adolescent world, Wine of  Diego Fried, which deals with the encounter and disencounter between a man and a woman shot in mise en scène manner, Optical Illusions, a delightful satirical comedy that brings to the surface, pokes fun at our own assumptions of reality, and our own ways of looking at the world by the director Cristian Jimenez,  Portraits in a Sea of Lies by Carlos Gaviria which gives the experiences of cousins merge with a portrait of Colombia, a country that has been in a civil war for the last sixty years and A Day in Orange by Alejandra Szeplaki of three girls unknown to one another and from different worlds but are bound together by an invisible strand, comprise the Spanish brigade in the competition section.  

The entries from Malayalam filmdom comprise Palerimanikyam Oru Paathira Kolapathakathinte Katha by Ranjith Besides unraveling the design behind a murder, through a blend of politics, history, anthropology and criminology, the story throws light on the socio-political situations that existed in Kerala’s interiors till the middle of the last century and T.D. Dasan Std. VI B by Mohan Raghavan which deals the child’s desire to see his father, and the beginning is made when he gets a clue from a piece of paper he finds in his mother’s trunk. The wanderings of the boy’s mind and the real unravel of world which is a mix of dreams, desires and the present are portrayed in the movie.

The Japanese Wife of Aparna Sen about an Arithmetic teacher in a school in the rural area strikes up a longstanding friendship with a Japanese girl, Miyage, a pen-friend, and I am Afia Megha Abimanyu Omar by Onir, a film on issues and dilemmas that afflict and bruise modern society in India are the presence of Indian cinema in the competition.

Persian film Walking on the Rail by Babak Shirinsefat traces the interwoven, daily struggle for survival in the lives of social outcasts far removed from the political and social concerns of the well-off. The story itself is inspired from the true-life experience of real people.

Korean film Animal Town by  Jeon Kyu-hwan deals with the uneventful daily lives of the two men in the depressing city are interrupted by a wild boar sighting. The description of a heartless city life and the shocking end deliver a chilling blow.

The Arabic film from Tunisia, Buried Secrets by Raja Amari, tells the myriad secrets of the members living in both the deserted house and its servants quarters. 

Zephyr, a Turkish film by Belma Bas, is about a strong-willed adolescent girl’s determination to be with her mother who is about to leave her again. This makes her take a step that reveals the complex mind of the child.

The Egyptian film, Heliopolis by Ahmad Abdalla, is an ensemble drama which brings in focus a generation’s fight for their dreams in the face of harsh realities, brings in a sharp critique of Egyptian society matched by a nostalgia-drenched longing for life before the 1952 Revolution.

The jury also includes forerunner of the Kazakh new wave film maker ERMEK SHINARBAEV, with four feature films and eleven short films added to her credit. MARIA NOVARO, APICHATPONG in all are with the unconditioned frame works of film, that breaks the hectic Thai studio system. To conclude both  screenplay writer and a still photographer SOONI TARAPOREVALA.