Savour films from across Europe

Film lovers can now get a taste of the best movies from the European Union. The Suchitra Film Society on Tuesday announced a week-long ‘European Union Film Festival’, which will be held from March 21 to March 28. The festival will have ‘Women’ as the  theme.

“The inaugural function will be held at the Mount Carmel College auditorium on March 21 at 6 pm. The inaugural movie will be ‘Fast Girls’, a British film. The chief guest, Vani Ganapathy, will inaugurate the festival along with Ian Felton, British Deputy High Commissioner. The theme for the festival is ‘Women’ and all the films that will be showcased in the festival will be about women from different countries,” says K V Ravindranath Tagore, the chairman of Suchitra Film Society.

Around 24 films from different countries of Europe will be screened at three different venues — Suchithra Film Society, Alliance Francaise and the Bangalore International Centre.

“The entry to the festival is free but we are providing free passes for the festival in all these three venues. The seating is on first-come-first-serve basis, hence people with the passes will be given priority. The passes for the inaugural function will be available at the British Council Library,” informs Anand Vardarajan, the secretary of the society. Films from countries like Greece, England, Germany, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Sweden, Poland, France, Slovakia, Spain, France and many more will be part of the festival.

Some popular films like ‘Lora from Morning till Evening’, ‘Applause’ and ‘Beyond’ (which had been nominated for the Academy Awards), will also be shown in the festival. “Our target is to attract more and more women so that they can see the kind of life women in these countries lead. I am sure that it will be an eye-opener for the men in our society as well. This year, we only have three centres. However, by next year we will be able to arrange for more centres in the City. On weekends, there will be three shows at the Suchitra Film Society and one at other centres,” informs Anand.
He adds that the countries of the European Union have given the best of their movies.

“The slots for screening these movies have been decided based on a lottery. We are hoping that there will be an open session after the movies especially during the weekends. We hope that people come and watch these movies and also encourage others to see them,” he says.

Shivaram, vice-president of Suchitra Film Society,was also present at the event.