The best of the silver screen

This weeklong event will showcase a palette of award-winning, thought-provoking films on various topics and will be held at Lavanya Theatre in Ulsoor.

Other than the screenings and seminars, workshops will also be held, including a seminar on the future of films in today’s digital age with a special focus on animation. The aim of the festival is to allow the entire film community from both India and Germany to come together and interact. Film-makers like Sanjay Nag (‘Memories in March’), Shaji Karun (Kutty Srank), Paresh Kamdar (Khargosh), Yasemin Samdereli (Almanya) and Heinrich Breloer (‘Buddenbrooks’) will be present for question-answer sessions after their films are screened.

“In this film festival, we are showing nine Indian films as well as eight German films. This gives a chance of a real dialogue between two unique film cultures,” says Christoph Bertrams, Director, Max Mueller Bhavan. “I strongly recommend everyone to attend the screening of ‘Buddenbrooks’, a German film revolving around arranged marriage, popularly an Indian concept. It is very interesting to see how Yasemin has dealt with it and her perception of it,” he adds.

Manu Chakravarthy, a film critic, has another take on the festival and explains that it has heavy cultural implications in today’s globalised world. “This is a cultural negotiation between two countries, which has been ongoing for quite a while. There is no national cultural narrative in a country like India with so many different languages and regional film industries.”

Hindi feature films like Udaan and ‘Peepli Live’ will be screened as well as films of other languages like Bettada Jeeva (Kannada), Balgandharva (Marathi ) and Kutty Srank (Malayalam). Among the German selection, children’s films like ‘Vicky the Viking’ and youth-centric films like ‘Rock It!’ will be screened.

“The film selection was made by special committees based on the number of awards the film won, the freshness of its content and different techniques used,” says N Shashidhara, Secretary, Suchitra Film Society.

Registration forms can be found online at www.goethe.de/bangalore or at Max Mueller Bhavan, Suchitra Film Society, Alliance Francaise and British Library. Passes are
being issued from November 14 and can be collected at the Max Mueller Bhavan.