PIFF - the complete review

Pune International Film Festival 2007 – despite what the newspapers might have said about the crowds it pulled, please be informed that the crowd was extremely disappointing. Even while it’s nice not to worry about not getting good seats, or worse watching a film sitting on the floor of the hall, it’s not at all nice to attend a film festival when the halls are half-empty and it feels like you’ve come for pathetic cinema, instead of the other way around. Also, the organization and the schedules were really screwed up this time – what’s with screening three Chinese films simultaneously and scheduling all the good films at the same time, so you’re forced to choose one and miss three others?

Now that I’ve got the criticism out of the way, let me go ahead and inform you that this year too was a great experience! I hardly saw any films in comparison to the last 2 years when I truly did camp out at ESquare for one week but I still managed to catch over a dozen films, short-films and documentaries. If the films I saw in the last two years appealed to the intellect, this year it was largely the senses and the emotions that were appeased.

Unlike last year, when I saw many serious films, I managed to catch some really big-budget, very mainstream European cinema, which was really fun, yet very moving and intelligent cinema:-

Les Bronzes (French Fried Vacation) – France – Patrice Leconte
An exceedingly side-splitting riotous film about a bunch of French people on a vacation – the insane activities, the hilarious attempts to get laid by all-and-sundry and the hysterical swimming gear had me screaming with laughter!

La Vie est Ailleurs (Life is Elsewhere) – Switzerland – Frédeéric Choffat
Three stories, three countries, one common theme, that life is elsewhere. A very interesting film – its main appeal (for me) was the fact that a large portion of the film was shot in trains and stations in France, Italy and Germany. Needless to say, nostalgia hit very hard as myriad images from December 2003 flew across my mind.

Winterskys (Kissed by Winter) – Norway – Sara Johnsen
A marvelously sensitive film dealing with loss - shot in Poland it revolves around a young doctor who loses her son to leukemia and consequently shifts to a small village. It goes on to deal with her various experiences as a county doctor, her attempts to rebuild her life and her struggle to come to terms with her role in her son’s death.

Tibor vagyok, de hódítani akarok (Young Dumb and Full of Love) – Hungary – Goergely Fonyo
The Hungarian version of American Pie – yes that’s it. How else could I best describe a film that deals with the humorous attempts by an adolescent to lose his virginity on a summer vacation, all the while armed with a fluorescent condom? There were also some hysterically funny scenes revolving around a golden cell phone, oops I meant dildo! ;-) Obviously big budget, very mainstream, but just so much fun. It’s almost liberating to watch such a crazy film at a film festival, normally associated with a more serious genre of cinema!

Ik omhels je met duizend armen (Thousand Kisses) – Netherlands – Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen
Once again, very big-budget and very mainstream cinema; this one dealt with relationships, guarding as it’s take-off point the relationships and lives of young professionals in the world of fashion and cinema/television. Much crazy fun, sex, partying and holidaying, but also another level of complexity in relationships at home, dealing with the fatality of a parent and losing the parent to euthanasia. As much as I enjoyed seeing this one, it was an equally heart-rending experience sitting through the scenes dealing with euthanasia and much as I miss him and wish he was still around, I’m suddenly very glad I didn’t have to see Papa go through that and want/opt for such an end.

Yadayim Kshurot (Tied Hands) – Israel – Dan Wolman
My second film by Dan Wolman – I’d seen Ben’s Biography last year, and like it, this too, was a sensitively and very intelligently made film dealing with very prevalent issues, yet not being preachy and militant about it. Without revealing much about it, the film basically deals with the attempts of a mother to obtain grass for her son who’s suffering from a fatal disease and needs grass to gain some respite from the pain. In the course of that one night, physically away from her son, she truly comes to know her son and ends up closer to him at the end of the night…and his life. An extraordinary film, worth watching – I’d go as far as asking you to actively search for the film and get your own copy!

And some others as well, namely – Cry, The Beloved Country, The Collector, Reyhaneh, the very strange Macedonia, the stranger A Bahraini Tale and the interminably long and boring The Road.

This year’s PIFF was also my real introduction to the documentary genre – saw some great documentaries which were not only informative, but extremely sensitively shot and touching.

Vietnam Symphony – Australia – Tom Zubrycki
A heart-warming documentary about the Hanoi music conservatory that had to move to the country-side during the Vietnam war, it narrated the experiences of the students as well as the villagers who welcomed the school and its member into their homes – some 40 years later the students, now professionals, go back to the village for a performance. An excellent experience, not only vis-à-vis to what it opened my eyes, but also from the angle of music (except perhaps for that one shrieking wonder!)

The Black Road – Australia – William Nessen
I wasn’t very sure about this film dealing with Aceh (otherwise famous for its struggles post-tsunami) and its struggle for independence from Indonesia. Informative, but highly disturbing, as would be expected from any film dealing with the subject of struggle and that too, such a militant and violent one – I emerged from the film wiser for sure, and wondering what really drives us to indulge in such horrendous deeds all in the name of power.

Rhythm is It – Germany – Thomas Grube and Enrique Sanchez Lansch
Interestingly the first German film I’ve seen despite 3 years of attending PIFF and the only German film I’ve seen apart from Run, Lola Run – an exhilaratingly liberating experience if I may so. Revolving around the production of a dance performance based on Stravinky’s Sacre du Printemps, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle (quite delectably handsome if I may so!) the performance brought together nearly 250 young debutant dancers from variously realms of society and their growth (professionally and personally) through the course of the preparation for the performance. My aesthetic senses and sentiments were highly delighted.

And then, ofcourse there was the Kristophe Kieslowski retrospective. Hard-hitting cinema that forced me to think – really glad I saw at least some of his films and would definitely recommend his films.