Jio MAMI

17th MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL

with

29 OCTOBER–5 NOVEMBER 2015

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 12 October 2015

ME S SAG E
I am pleased to know that the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is being organised by the Mumbai
Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) in Mumbai from 29th October to 5th November 2015.

Mumbai is the undisputed capital of Indian cinema. This festival celebrates Mumbai’s long and fruitful
relationship with cinema. For the past sixteen years, the festival has continued promoting cultural and
intellectual exchange between film industry, media professionals and cinema enthusiasts. As a much
awaited annual culktural event, this festival directs international focus to Mumbai and its continued
success highlights the prominence of the city as a global cultural capital.

I am also happy to note that the 5th Mumbai Film Mart will also be held as part of the 17th Mumbai Film
Festival, ensuring wider distribution for our cinema.

I congratulate the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image for its continued good work and renewed vision
and wish the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and Mumbai Film Mart grand success.

(CH Vidyasagar Rao)

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 M E S SAG E
Mumbai, with its legacy, vibrancy and cultural milieu, is globally recognised as a Financial, Commercial and
Cultural hub. Driven by spirited Mumbaikars with an indomitable spirit and great affection for the city, it
has always promoted inclusion and progress whilst maintaining its social fabric.

Home to the Hindi and Marathi film industry, Mumbai is the undisputed Film Capital of the country.
Given that Bollywood is the most prolific industry in the world, it is only befitting that a Film Festival
that celebrates world cinema in its various genres is hosted in Mumbai.

The 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, organised by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI),
from the 29th October to 5th November is truly worth looking forward to.

Cinema, when teamed with a strong social message, is always inspirational. A filmmaker’s creativity is put
to the test when he has to innovate to simply communicate an otherwise difficult message – in fact, to
me it is nothing short of genius. With the selection of World cinema being laid out to the audience over
the course of the Festival, I am certain it will it will be an exhilarating experience for Mumbaikars as also
delegates from across the world.

MAMI has been a torchbearer in putting together the best of world cinema for almost 2 decades. With
their legacy and creative acumen, they have over the years managed to keep audiences engaged and
excited about the Festival’s showcase movies. This year should be no different.

I once again congratulate MAMI for their efforts in bringing world cinema to Mumbai, and India, through
this Festival. A weeklong visual treat awaits and my wishes for the grand success of the 17th Jio MAMI
Mumbai Film Festival.

(Devendra Fadnavis)

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 M E S SAG E
It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you to Jio MAMI – the 17th Mumbai Film Festival.
Mumbai prides itself as being the cultural mosaic of the nation – embracing a diverse mix of artistic
traditions and identities from around the world. A city that is the cradle of Indian cinema, Mumbai has
always been in the vanguard of exploring new realms of creative excellence through the wonderful
medium of celluloid.

This prestigious film festival was conceived 18 years ago by some of India’s most eminent film personalities.
Over the years, The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image has built upon its rich legacy and is today
entering a new vibrant phase with the enthusiastic participation of a galaxy of contemporary icons from
the film industry and the support of many well-wishers.

We have always celebrated the unique power of cinema to evoke and experience emotions and see the
worlds within, around and beyond us in ecstatic and entertaining ways.The emergence of a digital life and
the seamless opportunities for creative expression are redefining the craft of film-making, extending its
reach to audiences all over the world.

Today, Jio MAMI endeavours to showcase the best of world cinema and Indian cinema. We are sure film
lovers will embrace this momentous event on the cultural calendar of Mumbai, with open arms. I am
confident that the festival is well poised to nurture talent and project our vision on the world screen.

NITA M. AMBANI
Co-Chairperson
Jio MAMI

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 M E S SAG E
At Star India, we believe in the transformational power of content and its potential to influence positive
change and move the nation forward.We call it ‘Inspiring a Billion Imaginations’ and through our platforms
and our stories, we constantly strive to deliver on this promise. Our association with the Mumbai Film
Festival is also borne out of this belief.

From the beginning, cinema has held a very special place in our society. Tightly woven in its fabric, the
silver screen has served as the canvas on which the aspirations of a changing India have been projected.
It is in this milieu that Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) plays a very important role, that
of holding high the light of cinematic excellence and keeping the fires of imagination alive. Since its
establishment in 1997, one of the key aims of MAMI has been to nurture and ignite a passion for cinema
and to celebrate the sheer joy that it brings. Organising the Mumbai Film Festival is one of the means
to realising this goal.

Mumbai is synonymous with the Indian film industry. A metropolis that has been the definitive home
to Indian cinema, it is only fitting that Mumbai hosts the country’s largest and grandest film festival.
We believe that the Mumbai Film Festival is special, and a fitting tribute to this city of dreams, and it is
without hesitation, therefore, that Star India has chosen to support MAMI for the second year in a row.

We wish the organisers the very best in their endeavour and look forward to a very successful Mumbai
Film Festival 2015!

UDAY SHANKAR
CEO, Star India

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 Welcome to Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India!

It has been 116 years since H.S. Bhatavdekar made India’s first documentary film The Wrestlers, which,
incidentally, he shot at the Hanging Gardens of Mumbai in November 1899. He could scarcely have
imagined that more than a century later we would be a movie-mad nation, making the largest number
of films in more languages than any other country in the world. So here, in the city of Bhatavdekar and
Phalke, is an opportunity to dive into a week-long feast of the world’s best cinema.And, more importantly,
at Jio MAMI you will now also get to discover and celebrate the finest Indian films, from classic and cult
to cutting-edge contemporary. Our vision is to make this festival a springboard and breeding ground
for talent, a space for a free exchange of ideas about where image-making is headed, and what we hope
the cinema landscape will be in the future. Collectively, perhaps, we could make this vision come true.

This festival is a tribute to Mumbai’s long association with celluloid, and we aspire to infuse its film-loving
denizens with renewed energy! So we invite you into a world of images and conversations that could
inspire and provoke. And we hope that you join our long-term endeavour to make this festival a gateway
to exploring new voices and directions in Indian cinema.

KIRAN RAO

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Why do we need a film festival? Because, as the American Pulitzer-prize winning film critic Roger Ebert put
it: of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us into better people.

A good film is a travel-less journey. It takes you into other hearts, minds and geographies. It allows
you to find new horizons and ways of seeing. A really good film shifts your sensibilities so that you
leave the darkened theatre with an altered understanding of the human experience. Both literally and
metaphorically, you step into the light.

At the Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India, our endeavour is to bring you good films.
From October 29th to November 5th, over 200 films will play in six locations across the city. From this
year’s Palme d’Or winner Dheepan to Deewar, written by our Excellence in Cinema award winners, Salim
Khan and Javed Akhtar – it’s all there. Whatever be your taste, we will have a film for you. Our aim is
to reveal, engage, enlighten and provoke. And of course, be an ‘aid to empathy.’

Mumbai is a maniacal, magical city. To live here, you need courage, resilience, ambition and above
all, empathy. Each day, approximately 18 million of us negotiate our way around each other across
this narrow peninsula. According to the last Census of India, there are more than 20,000 people in
every square kilometre of the city. The brutal logistics don’t allow for luxuries of division. Even the
most intolerant and narrow-minded among us are eventually forced to engage with people of other
communities, ethnic groups, languages, political beliefs, sexual orientations, dietary preferences.

Empathy is a pre-requisite for living in Mumbai. And yet, it seems to be slowly fading from the social
fabric of our city. Each day, we wake up to new horrors. Each day, the sun sets on a slightly more
hardened world. A film festival cannot fix this. But perhaps, the vision of great film artists from India
and around the globe will teach us to have a little more grace.

We need it now, more than ever.

ANUPAMA CHOPRA

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 If someone asked me right now what it is that I most desire, my answer would be to sleep for six
straight hours, to lose the 13 kilos I have gained over the last few months, and smash my phone to
fragmented hell. This festival is the hardest thing I have done. I am a television journalist and creative
director. I have always been on the other side of the red carpet, ‘covering’ film festivals, not organising
them. My partners in crime Anupama Chopra and Kiran Rao are not festival veterans either, but by
some twist of fate, here we were, with the mammoth job of bringing the Mumbai Film Festival to life
in our hands. And just like that we were constructing an alien narrative, building a broken ship, asking
everyone who would care to listen – and especially the ones who wouldn’t care to listen – to have
faith in us while we struggled to keep our own intact. This last year has been a journey of dogged
pursuit and hard lessons. But for every stumbling block, a pathway opened; for every difficult person,
three reached out to help, and for every demand made, there was a wish granted.

It is a rare opportunity in life to be inspired. To wake up every morning not because you have to but
because you can get started on another enthralling day of building, planning, and infusing life into a
vision which, till then, had existed only in our minds and hearts. Our programmers and the incredible
team have been by our side helping us do this all the way. It has been an honour and a privilege to
work with them and witness the dedication and meticulousness with which they have conducted
themselves throughout this process.

We have worked tirelessly to bring the best that cinema has to offer that we could lay our hands
on to you, knowing that the Festival will have a most discerning film audience, which cannot be sold
short in any way. Staying up for nights on end, sleeping in the office when one can just not function
any more without shut-eye time, but making sure that the work gets done, and impeccably – this
has been the sole mode of operation. At the end of this process, which is the beginning of your own
as you converge at these venues to watch some terrific cinema, all I have in my heart and mind is
gratitude for the unbelievable generosity I have witnessed as this wonderful event came together. I
hope we have created magic because magic is all that matters.

SMRITI KIRAN

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CONTENTS

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 17

JURY 21

INTRODUCTION BY KIRAN NAGARKAR 27

EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA AWARDS 31

AMOS GITAI 33

SALIM–JAVED 36

OPENING AND CLOSING FILMS 39

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION 43

INDIA GOLD 65

DIMENSIONS MUMBAI 83

WORLD CINEMA 91

THE INDIA STORY 127

DISCOVERING INDIA 147

RENDEZVOUS 157

RESTORED CLASSICS 165

AFTER DARK 173

HOT DOCS PRESENTS 183

HALF TICKET 187

SPOTLIGHT 211

TRIBUTES 215

AGNES VARDA 217

CHETAN ANAND 220

CENTRESTAGE 225

MUMBAI FILM MART 226

MOVIE MELA 235

YOUNG CRITICS LAB 237

PLAY 239

EXPERIMENTS IN FILM FORM 240

FILM ARCHIVES: NOW AND IN THE FUTURE 244

NEW AWARDS 247

FILM FOR SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD BY YES FOUNDATION 248

DRISHYAM PRESENTS 249

BOOK AWARD 250

SPECIAL THANKS 252

FRIENDS OF THE FESTIVAL 253

TEAM 254
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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

KIRAN RAO: Chairperson

Kiran Rao is an acclaimed director and producer (Peepli Live, Delhi Belly). Her directorial
debut, Dhobi Ghat, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was later screened
at the London Film Festival and the Shanghai International Film Festival.

NITA M. AMBANI: Co-Chairperson

Nita M. Ambani is an educationist, businesswoman and a philanthropist. She is the
Chairperson of Reliance Foundation and is on the Board of Reliance Industries Ltd. As
a catalyst for social change, she is committed to building an inclusive India. A practitioner
of Bharatanatyam and a proponent of varied art forms, she sees cinema as a medium of
social transformation. Through her association with Jio MAMI, she aspires for the festival to
become one of the most feted film festivals globally, giving Mumbai its pride of place.

ANUPAMA CHOPRA: Festival Director

Anupama Chopra is a film critic, television anchor and author. She has been writing about
Bollywood since 1993. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times,
Hindustan Times, The Los Angeles Times and Vogue (India).

DEEPIKA PADUKONE: Actor

Deepika is one of Bollywood’s most successful and popular actors. Her films such as
Cocktail, Goliyon Ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela and Finding Fanny have been critical and commercial
successes.

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 ZOYA AKHTAR: Filmmaker
Zoya Akhtar is a director and screenwriter who made her directorial debut in 2009 with
the critically acclaimed Luck By Chance. She followed it up with films like Zindagi Na Milegi
Dobara and, most recently, Dil Dhadakne Do. In 2013, she also directed a short film, ‘Sheila
Ki Jawani’ as part of an anthology celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema, Bombay Talkies.

Isha M Ambani: Director, Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail

is a director at Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail. She is currently involved in launching
Jio, Reliance industries’ latest venture into technology in India. Previously, she served as a
business analyst at McKinsey and Company’s New York office. She graduated from Yale
University (2013) with a double major in Psychology and South Asian Studies. At Yale she
served as president of the South Asian Society. Ms. Ambani remains actively interested in
South Asian issues and is particularly interested in the field of education.

VISHAL BHARDWAJ: Filmmaker

Vishal Bhardwaj is a multiple National Award winning writer, producer, music composer and
director. After providing memorable music for films like Maachis, Godmother and Satya,Vishal
made his directorial debut with the delightful children’s film Makdee in 2002. Since then,
he has made critically and commercially acclaimed films like Maqbool, Omkara, Kaminey and
Haider, for which he won the National Award for Best Director.

DIBAKAR BANERJEE: Filmmaker

Dibakar Banerjee is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer. He started his
career in advertising but quickly established his mark in films when his first two features,
Khosla ka Ghosla (2006) and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008), won National Film Awards. Since
then, he has made the political thriller Shanghai (2012), a short film called ‘Star’ in Bombay
Talkies (2013), an anthology celebrating 100 years of Indian Cinema, and most recently,
Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015), based on the fictional detective character. He has also
co-produced Kanu Behl’s debut feature, Titli (2015), which was selected in the Un Certain
Regard section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

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KARAN JOHAR: Filmmaker
Producer, director and talk show host, Karan Johar is one of the most prolific Indian
filmmakers who brought a fresh and modern outlook to Indian commercial cinema through
films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

FARHAN AKHTAR: Actor and Filmmaker

Donning multiple hats of actor, producer, director, singer and songwriter, Akhtar gathered
a lot of acclaim for his directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai and his performance as the athlete
Milkha Singh in the biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

VIKRAMADITYA MOTWANE: Filmmaker

Vikramaditya’s debut film Udaan was part of the official selection at Cannes in 2010. His
second film, Lootera, was highly acclaimed as well. He is the co-founder of Phantom Films.

RITEISH DESHMUKH: Actor and Filmmaker

Riteish debuted as an actor in Bollywood in 2003 and has been part of many blockbusters.
In 2013, Riteish gave Marathi cinema a fresh impetus by producing the acclaimed film Balak
Palak and acting in the popular film, Lai Bhaari.

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 ANAND MAHINDRA: Chairman and MD, Mahindra Group
Under Anand Mahindra’s leadership, the Mahindra Group has grown into a US$16.5 billion
organisation and is one of India’s top 10 industrial houses with presence in sectors ranging
from agribusiness to aerospace and automotive.

AJAY BIJLI: Chairman and MD, PVR Ltd.

Ajay Bijli pioneered the concept of multiplex cinemas in India. He has transformed the way
the country watches movies with PVR Cinemas, India’s largest multiplex chain with 474
screens in 106 properties across 43 cities.

SIDDHARTH ROY KAPUR: MD, Disney India

In his role as Managing Director, Siddharth Roy Kapur has led Disney India to great heights.
Under his leadership the studio has produced and released universally appreciated films
like Rang De Basanti, A Wednesday!, Paan Singh Tomar, Barfi!, The Lunchbox, Shahid, Haider and
Ship of Theseus.

MANISH MUNDRA: Producer

Manish Mundra forayed into the world of Indian Independent cinema in 2014 as the
producer of Ankhon Dekhi. His production house Drishyam Films has produced international
award winning films like Masaan, Dhanak and Umrika.

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 JURY

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

AVA DUVERNAY:
Head of Jury
Ava DuVernay is a groundbreaking writer, producer, director and distributor of
independent cinema. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, her
most recent film SELMA chronicles the historic 1965 voting rights campaign led
by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She wrote, produced and directed the dramatic
feature, Middle of Nowhere, which earned her the 2012 Sundance Film Festival
Best Director Award. Prior to filmmaking, DuVernay worked as a marketer and
publicist for 14 years. Her award-winning firm provided strategy and execution
for more than 120 film and television campaigns for acclaimed directors such as
Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann and Bill Condon. DuVernay is
also the founder of ARRAY, a community-based distribution collective dedicated
to the amplification of films by people of colour and women filmmakers.

CAMERON BAILEY
Cameron Bailey is the Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Since 2008 he has been responsible for the overall vision and execution of the
Festival’s selection. Bailey began programming for the organisation in 1990, and
worked both as film programmer and film critic for 20 years before taking on his
current role. As a programmer and curator, he has organised film series for local
and international festivals and galleries including the National Gallery of Canada
and Australia’s Sydney International Film Festival.

VIDYA BALAN
Since making her film debut in Parineeta in 2005, Vidya Balan has gone on to
garner commercial and critical acclaim for her performances in popular films
like Lago Raho Munnabhai, Paa, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica and Kahaani. In The
Dirty Picture, a biopic based on the life of Indian actress Silk Smitha, her bold and
sensitive portrayal of Silk won the hearts of many and also got her the National
Award for Best Actress. She was a Member of the Jury at the 66th Cannes Film
Festival in 2013.

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INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

CHRISTINA VOROS
Christina Alexandra Voros is a Brooklyn-based director and cinematographer,
recognised by IFP’s Filmmaker Magazine as one of the ’25 New Faces in
Independent Film’. Her first documentary film, The Ladies, received Grand Jury
Prizes at Slamdance, Chicago International, GenArt, San Francisco International,
Seattle Internationa and Edmonton International Film Festivals in 2008, and
was selected by Spike Lee as the Grand Prize Winner of the international
Babelgum Film Festival in 2009. Her most recent documentary, KINK, premiered
at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. Ms. Voros’ recent narrative work as
cinematographer includes As I Lay Dying, Child of God, The Broken Tower and Sal, for
director James Franco.

SALEH BAKRI
Saleh Bakri is a Palestinian theatre and film actor from Israel. He is a graduate of
the Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts in Tel Aviv. In 2007, he appeared in
his first two films: The Band’s Visit and Salt of the Sea by Annemarie Jacir, which
premiered at Cannes in 2008. Salt of the Sea was Saleh Bakri’s debut performance
in an Arab film and the film was chosen as Palestine’s official submission for the
Academy Awards. The Band’s Visit also won numerous prizes and awards.

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 JURY

INDIA GOLD

KATI OUTINEN:
Head of Jury
Born in Helsinki, Finland, as Anna Katriina, Outinen is an award-winning actress
who has often played leading roles in the films of Aki Kaurismaki. She is also a
writer, known for The Match Factory Girl (1990), The Man Without a Past (2002)
and Le Havre (2011). Besides this, she has also worked as a Professor in the
Theatre Academy of Finland.

ANTHONY CHEN
Born in Singapore, Anthony Chen’s debut feature Ilo Ilo debuted in Directors’
Fortnight at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and was unanimously awarded the
Camera d’Or, making history as the first Singapore feature to be awarded at
Cannes. Ilo Ilo is also one of the most successful art-house films in the history of
Singapore cinema, both commercially and critically. Anthony was named as one of
Variety Magazine’s ‘10 Directors to Watch’ in 2014. In the same year he was also
awarded the prestigious Singapore Youth Award.

CLARE STEWART
Clare Stewart’s 16-year programming career has encompassed leadership roles
as Festival Director, Sydney Film Festival (2006–2011) and the inaugural Head
of Film Programs at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne
(2002–2006), as well as various roles at the Australian Film Institute (1996–2001),
including Exhibition Manager, and programmer and Committee Member of the
Melbourne Cinémathèque (1995–2002).

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INDIA GOLD

SABIHA SUMAR
Born in Karachi and having studied in New York and Cambridge, Sabiha Sumar
has always conceived her work as a means of social criticism, particularly to make
audiences aware about the issues of women. Her first documentary, Who Will
Cast the First Stone (1988), focused on the working class women’s protest against
Islamic laws introduced in Pakistan in 1979. Suicide Warriors (1996) is a documen-
tary about women guerrilla fighters and their struggle for a separate homeland
for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. Her first feature, Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters)
(2003), was presented and awarded at numerous film festivals around the world.

ATUL DODIYA
Atul Dodiya is one of India’s most celebrated artists who, while very much rooted
in his hometown of Bombay and Indian tradition, insightfully references and
makes accessible international art historical and political imagery in his complex
painting and installation practice. After his graduation from Sir J.J. School of Art in
Mumbai, he furthered his academic training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris,
subsequent to a scholarship awarded by the French Government. Atul has had
several exhibitions in prestigious galleries locally and internationally. He lives and
works in Mumbai and is married to fellow painter Anju Dodiya.

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DIMENSIONS MUMBAI

DIBAKAR BANERJEE:
Head of Jury
Dibakar Banerjee is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer and ad-
filmmaker known for his work on Hindi films such as Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye
Lucky! Lucky Oye!, both of which won National Film awards. His most recent film
was Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015). Banerjee started his career in advertising
and later started making films, forming his own film production company, Dibakar
Banerjee Productions. He co-producedKanu Behl’sdirectorial debut, TitliYash Raj
Films. Co-written by Banerjee and Behl, the film was selected to take part in
the Un Certain Regard2014 Cannes Film Festival. It is scheduled to release in
India on 16 October 2015.

JUHI CHATURVEDI
Juhi Chaturvedi began her career as a freelance illustrator with The Times of
India,Lucknow edition. In 1996 she moved to Delhi, joining Ogilvy & Mather.
She drew on her experience of staying in Lajpat Nagar while writing her first
film, Vicky Donor, which won her the IRDS Film Award for Social Concern. Since
Vicky Donor’s critical and commercial success she has continued to write, and her
recent script for the hit film Piku brought her even more praise as a screenwriter
and as a keen observer of human nature.

PARINEETI CHOPRA
Parineeti Chopra initially planned to pursue a career in investment banking,
but after obtaining a triple honours degreeManchester Business School, and
joined Yash Raj Filmspublic relations consultant. Chopra made her acting debut
with a supporting role in the 2011 romantic comedy Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, which
earned her the Filmfare Award for Best Female DebutBest Supporting Actress.
The following year she played the lead female role in Ishaqzaade, which won
her the National Film Award – Special Mention. Since then, she has appeared in
Shuddh Desi RomanceHasee Toh Phasee.

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DIMENSIONS MUMBAI

SURAJ SHARMA
Suraj Sharma made his debut acting performance with the title role in the 2012
film Life of Pi. After filming forLife of Pi, Sharma returned to studying philosophy
at St. Stephen’s College, DelhiAayan Ibrahim, nephew of a terrorist, in season
4ShowtimeHomeland.That same year, he portrayed Rinku SinghMillion Dollar Arm.
red in Umrika, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. In 2016, he
will appear in the Mongolian–American adventure drama film Burn Your Maps.

NEERAJ GHAYWAN
Neeraj Ghaywan started his film career with stints in UTV New Media, Hindustan
TimesTech Mahindra. He started writing for the now defunct Passionforcinema.
com, and in 2010, he made his first short film, Independence. In 2010 he assisted
Anurag Kashyap in directing Gangs of Wasseypur. In January 2014, ‘Fly Away Solo’,
a screenplay he co-wrote, was awarded the Sundance Institute/Mahindra Global
Filmmaking Award. His directorial debut, Masaan, was based on this original
screenplay, and went on to win the International Federation of Film Critics
(FIPRESCI) and Promising Future awards in the Un Certain RegardCannes Film
Festival 2015.

RADHIKA APTE
Radhika Apte is an adaptive performer who began her acting career in theatre,
working with the theatre troupe Aasakta in her home town, Pune, before
venturing into films. She made her feature film debut in the BollywoodVaah! Life
Ho Toh Aisi! (2005) had her first starring role in the BengaliAntaheen (2009). She
made her Marathi filmAmol Palekar’sSamaantar. Her Bollywood breakthrough
occurred in 2015, with her acclaimed performances in BadlapurHunterrr. Apte
has appeared in feature and short films in Bengali,Telugu,Tamil, Malayalam, English,
HindiMarathi.

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AN INCOMPLETE LIFE ON A CINEMA TIMELINE
If you looked at normal families from the pre-and post independence years, I suspect mine would rank as a rather odd one.We were Hindus
who didn’t go to temples or perform any rituals. As members of the Brahmo Samaj, or Prathana Samaj as it was known in Maharashtra,
we were monotheists. As over-the-top understatements go, let me just say we were not well off. So we couldn’t afford to watch too many
movies but whatever we saw was never Hindi or Marathi films. They were mostly from Hollywood and the occasional neo-realistic Bicycle
Thief, or avant garde films like Rashomon, Wages of Fear, or Yuki Warisu. And yet one of my earliest memories of films is of a Hindi movie.

I must have been nine when I was packed off to Secunderabad after my eldest aunt’s husband passed away. He was the manager of two
theatres, Rivoli and Dreamland, and that’s what must have turned my aunt into a hard-core addict of both Hindi and Hollywood films. One
evening she took me to see Dillagi – obviously the old Dillagi – with Suraiyya and the male heartthrob of the times, Shyam, who later died
from a fall while riding a horse. If I recollect correctly, it was a super-weepy film with an endless number of teary songs, though in truth you
should discount what I say because I made my aunt get up nine times before the interval, on the pretext that I wanted to pee. She finally got
the message and took me home in a dudgeon. I am sure she wanted to box my ears and make me take my pants down to be caned. But
she exercised super-human restraint and did not raise her hand. I have to confess, though, that I still can’t quite figure out why she refused
to take me to any more films after that.

Let me now leap-frog ten years on my movie timeline. I was doing my first year arts at Xavier’s college in 1961 when I set a world
record and got into the Guinness Book of Records for an extraordinary academic feat. But first a word about my encounter with this
august institution. Now you must remember, Xavier’s didn’t admit any women in those days but only houris and apsaras. They were all so
breathtakingly and heartbreakingly beautiful and perhaps even more daunting, they were supremely confident and had unshakable poise.
On the other hand, what I had was hand-me-down velvet corduroy trousers from my older brother who had got a scholarship to study
at the Sorbonne University in Paris. I was about four inches taller than him and however much I pulled down his/my trousers, they always
came up short and revealed my toothpick-thin legs and knobbly ankles. I don’t think they did much for my self-confidence and I was always
trying desperately but unsuccessfully to disappear while yearning for the impossible: to look good or, better still, irresistible and charming
enough to sweep the divine creatures off into the sunset.

The day before the results of the six-monthly terminals were to be out, I went to see A Summer Place with Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee.
It was a dreadfully mushy film but he got the girl while I never would. Q.E.D. The next day I got my exam results. I had failed in every single
subject except Moral Science. Of the fifteen questions posed by none other than Vice-Principal Alphonso-Correa, I had answered only
one. He wanted to know where I stood on the issue of strikes. Didn’t he know that I was an Indian and played it both ways? I was for the
workers but what could I say, at times, employers too had a point of view. It has always been a mystery to me how morality can be a science,
especially when questions like ‘Who made man?’ get a profoundly metaphysical but puzzling answer like ‘God made man’. Surely the good
Lord couldn’t possibly have any truck with a girl-gawking, depraved Hindu like me, let alone take the credit for making me.

My next movie stop is a tragic one. Oh I could weep for me. We are in 1961 but in the same academic year sometime around April. I had
just recovered from a bad case of typhoid and had once again started attending a beginner’s course in French at the Alliance Française.
Barring me and a young Parsi girl-woman, the rest of the students were business executives in their forties with ties around their necks
and jackets flung over their shoulders. For some unfathomable reason most of them were from the South and they were deadly earnest
about their studies.

Ah, the Parsi girl-woman. She was lovely and had a face full of inner quiet that could bring peace and goodwill to all mankind and God
himself, but left me with nothing but inner turmoil and longing. There was no question of talking to her. She had a serene demeanour and
was serious about her studies. Besides, she only talked to those business executive types with Shaivite or Vaishnavite ash stripes on their
foreheads. Why would she look at me? She didn’t.

Then, close to exam time, I did the impossible; I managed to say a few words to her. She had studied in a boarding school in Simla. Imagine,
just imagine she didn’t seem to think that I was brain-damaged and had an inferiority complex the size of the universe. But things got worse.
After light years of wavering, I asked her if she would see Stanley Kramer’s film of Katherin Ann Porter’s novel, Ship of Fools, which was going
to be released the next Friday. What a stupid question. I knew the answer before she knew it. She was bound to say no. She said yes, she
was free on Saturday.

Talk of cloud nine. Are you kidding? I was on cloud nineteen. Make it ninety-nine. Come Friday night I was running a temperature of 104
degrees Fahrenheit. All night long I prayed to a god who could only be deaf, if not dead. The fever hadn’t moved an iota by 11 am that
morning. I asked my father whether I could just step out for an hour and a half. It was ridiculous, I was half delirious, but my father could
come up aces on some days. He didn’t ask why, wherefore, he said yes but you take care wherever you are going.

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 We were to meet at Berry’s at 12:15 for the 1 o’clock show at the Rex theatre. I said Sorry to her and explained why I couldn’t make it to
the movie. Did she have the vaguest idea how sorry I was. Oh, that whore called fate.You could always depend on her to pull out a dirty little
number from her bag of tricks. I tried to hand over the tickets to my new Parsi friend. She didn’t take them. Three days later the doctor said I
had got small pox despite the vaccination given in childhood.

After I recovered I was sent to Fergusson College in Pune in 1962. I never saw her again. I don’t even remember her name. Puppy love?
Infatuation? First love? Take your pick.

My first year in Pune was momentous for various reasons. One of them was that the Panshet Dam, which supplied water to Pune and the
neighbouring areas, burst open and flooded the city. My college and all other educational institutions were closed down and I was back in
Mumbai. A month and a half later when I returned to Pune, houses had been destroyed, there was acute water shortage the entire year and
vast hillocks of wheat and other grains were rotting everywhere. In December that year India fought a short war with the Portuguese forces
in the country and annexed Goa, Diu and Daman.

I had just finished my second year final year exams in April and was hoping to relax before heading for home in Bombay when I got a message
telling me to leave immediately as my mother was unwell.There was no one at home by the time I got to Mumbai. My mother was in hospital
with a stroke. The doctor said that if she made it past forty-eight hours, she would recover. My mother, whom we called Mai, always had a
sly sense of humour. She lasted fifty-four hours and was gone. The funeral was over by that night. The next morning at 7 my cousin, Nandan,
suddenly turned up from Gwalior. He was surprised to find my brother, Jyotee, who worked in Delhi, opening the door. After the hugs and how
good to see you’s, his first question was ‘Where’s Mai?’ I had no idea how to handle the question or my mother’s absence when my brother
piped up, ‘She’s been a little under the weather and we thought it a good idea to let her rest in the hospi….’ Just then my father opened the
door and walked in with my mother’s ashes in a clay pot.

Throughout the morning and noon there was an endless line of visitors offering condolences. Around 1 pm I got fed up of making tea and
washing cups and saucers. I told my father I wanted a break and went to see To Kill a Mocking Bird at the Metro with two friends. I had read
the book and, for some reason I could not fathom, every time I walked past the ladies’ hostel of my college in Pune, someone hidden behind
a curtain would call out ‘Hey, Boo Radley, where are you off to?’ I had inherited not only Hollywood movies from my parents but also Gary
Cooper and Gregory Peck. My mother would have loved Peck as the upright Atticus Finch. But did I really see the film and feel its impact? I
don’t know. I hadn’t slept the whole night, I don’t think it had yet registered in my head that my mother was no more and all I remember is that
Peck wore big glasses in a black-and-white movie. Now that I think of it, it’s time I read the book and saw the film again. On the other hand,
maybe it’s not such a good idea. Second visits, and that too after decades, often prove to be damp squibs.

Five years later my father and I had our first encounter with the Shiv Sena. We were returning from seeing In Cold Blood at the Excelsior theatre
when near Lalbaug our bus was attacked with a flurry of stones. My father took a hit on the head while I got away with a gash above my right
eye. Bombay, as it was known then, had entered a new age, an age of politics of the mafia variety, humongous piles of protection money and
mob rule.

My years in Pune had ensured that I developed a love-hate relationship with Hindi cinema. Film critics over the decades have assured me
through their writings that we, too, now produced thought-provoking and heart-tugging masterpieces like Raj Kapoor’s Awara, or Shri 420,
which, according to them, were essentially about socialism; that Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa was a trenchant critique of the hypocrisy of our society. It
was routine for these experts to compare Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane with Pyaasa, especially in terms of the cinematography. ‘Ahem’ has been
my only response to such hyperbole. I knew then that there was no hope for me. Try as I might I found these films hopelessly romantic and
sentimental. Besides, while the finest camerawork, lighting, sound and other features are by themselves important, the only thing that matters
is whether they contribute to the total impact of the film and what it is trying to tell us.

Every couple of months I vowed never to see a Hindi film and yet found myself sleep-walking into a theatre showing one. Fortunately, the very
rare Garm Hava, Ankur or Chashme Buddoor, which did a balancing act by locating the golden mean, gave me heart. My schizophrenia, however,
taught me one quintessential truth about myself: if it moves I watch. Around the late 1960s and 1970s, a new species of films arrived on the
scene. It was called parallel or art cinema. It was so far out and took itself so seriously, I suspect it could have cured the whole country of its
film addiction if it had taken root. As luck would have it, it died an early death.

As if to pay for my sins, I myself became a film critic for both Hollywood and Hindi films. Every three months I suffered such severe symptoms
of nausea, I had to step down from my lofty heights and forsake film criticism. In the meantime, I wrote screenplays, but had the good sense
not to show them to anybody until 2015, when I published Black Tulip, a caper with two endings

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I finally made my peace with Bollywood when I wrote my novel, Ravan and Eddie. Ravan watches Dil Deke Dekho and Eddie goes to see Rock
Around the Clock just as I had done while in school. The novel has asides, meditations and harangues like the one on Afghan Snow, or The
Water Wars.There was also one on the romantic comedies of the 1960s and ’70s. I was all set to knock down Shammi Kapoor and his bizarre
antics on the screen when something inexplicable happened. I mellowed and, for the first time, understood how Shammi Sahab had carved
out a niche for himself at a time when Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand monopolised the Hindi screen.

Bollywood is the same today: untouched by logic, plot-less, star-driven and hugely popular. It is also trying to change, (the operative word is
‘trying’) changing for the better, thanks to new directors and the multiplex phenomenon which can create a niche audience.

How did my life get so interwoven with films? Or even more relevant, why did the cinematic imagination play such a critical role in my own
novels? I think an oblique answer here might be apposite. My friend Adrian and I were at a MAMI festival some years ago. Like most film
addicts, I am alive only inside a theatre while the projector’s running and my eyes are glued to the screen. It does not come as a surprise
then that one dies when the word finis appears on the screen. Both Adrian and I must have been on the ventilator as we rushed to another
location where the next movie was supposed to show. But alas, that film was cancelled and we were running out of oxygen when Adrian
mentioned that Bicycle Thieves was being shown at the experimental theatre at the NCPA. He was already on his way but I hung back. I had
seen the film when I was maybe ten years old. It must have affected me intensely and even then I had known that it was special. I wanted
to preserve that memory. Maybe I’m not being altogether honest here, maybe I was worried it would prove disappointing, or maybe I
remembered it as being too real to take.

Yes/no, yes/no, yes/no. Adrian turned around and saw me stranded. ‘What’s up?’ he yelled. I was up and running. The experimental theatre in
those days was often used, not for plays, but was rented out for bizarre workshops in carpet-making or pottery or some such life-and-death
matter. Perhaps that’s why the screen was askew and the titles seemed to be fluctuating as we walked in. But that was it, I was gone and I
suspect so was Adrian.

Bicycle Thieves leaves you gutted and shorn of speech. It brings home to you that every work of art has a value and a unique character and a
price stamped on it and only if you are damned fortunate will you come across a work of art that you cannot put a price on. Well, once you
have seen Bicycle Thieves you can never ever use a word like ‘genius’ or ‘immortal’ loosely. You are in the presence of a masterpiece and, take
my word for it, that kind of thing happens only once in a bloody blue moon.

Now go and enjoy the MAMI show. And hope to God that you will come across your own Bicycle Thieves.

KIRAN NAGARKAR

Kiran Nagarkar (born 1942) is an Indian novelist, playwright, film and drama critic and screenwriter both in Marathi and English. Amongst
his works are Saat Sakkam Trechalis (tr. Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) (1974), the Ravan and Eddie trilogy (1994, 2012, 2015), and the epic
novel, Cuckold (1997), for which he was awarded the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award in English.

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CINEMA AWARDS

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 EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA AWARDS

AMOS GITAI: Beauty, Power and the Right to Question

It all began in 1973. An Israeli army helicopter flying over Golan Heights was shot down by a Syrian missile. One of
the people who survived was a young man named Amos Gitai. It was his 23rd birthday and he’d eluded death. That
day became a landmark in Gitai’s life. This was the moment that turned him towards filmmaking and in that mangled
helicopter lay the beginning of a film legend.

Over the last 40 years, with feature films, documentaries, video installations, stage shows as well as books, Gitai has
earned himself the tag of being Israeli cinema’s one-man new wave. From his very first film it was evident that he was
a man on a mission. Stylistically sound, beautifully shot, carefully structured, Gitai’s films are truly artistic but, at the same
time, deeply-rooted in a documentarian’s rigour. He’s worked with legendary choreographer Pina Bausch, nurtured
talent in Israel, and the likes of Juliette Binoche and Natalie Portman.

Gitai’s first full-length film was a documentary titled House, made in 1980. It was about the Palestinians’ attachment
to their land. The documentary had been commissioned by Israeli television, but they hadn’t expected the young
filmmaker would go against the state grain and submit a film that empathised with the Palestinians. The documentary
was not shown, ultimately. Six years later, Gitai made his first non-documentary film, Esther. It was a retelling of a Biblical
tale in which Jews face extermination, but ultimately survive and are given leave to massacre their enemies. Gitai’s
retelling emphasised the story’s continued relevance, directing our attention subtly to the brutal and futile cycle of
violence that characterises so much of Arab–Israel animosity even today.

The determination to resist indoctrination, to see humanity and showcase multiplicity has been the umbilical cord
running between Gitai and his 50-odd films. ‘I cannot make a film without a point of view,’ Gitai once said in an
interview. It is his distinctive point of view that makes Gitai such a controversial and respected figure. His criticisms are
scathing and undisguised, just as his sense of belonging to Israel is strong. ‘I was born in Israel and I have affectionate
relations with that place, and sometimes disagreements,’ Gitai had once said. ‘I maintain my right to have both emotions.’

His films are testimonies to that right and his intense, ambivalent relationship with Israel. The country’s internal and
external conflicts power much of Gitai’s filmography. However, despite their tight, local focus, Gitai’s films also resonate
powerfully across cultures. His Exile trilogy (Esther, Berlin-Jerusalem, Golem–The Spirit of Exile) explores themes of myth,

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 memory and identity through Jewish characters. Kadosh, about two women confined by orthodox Judaism, is about
a Jewish sect but cuts across religious and cultural boundaries. Seeing a woman as a child-bearing vessel is not the
exclusive prerogative of the rigidly conservative Hasidim.The film has been a favourite with feminists all over the world,
particularly South Asia. Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen listed it as one of her favourites because of its portrayal of
how conservatism smothers women in a society.

In a lot of Gitai’s films, women occupy critically important roles. It’s a reflection of the filmmaker’s belief that men and
patriarchy have made a monumental mess of politics and society that only women can resolve. The Natalie Portman-
starrer Free Zone, which was shot in Jordan and is the first example of an Israeli director filming in an Arab country,
was a challenge to the male-centric way in which conflict has been (mis)handled in the Middle East. ‘I’m making a
proposition to the Middle East,’ Gitai said of Free Zone. ‘I’m saying, we have seen what man has done to this area – wars
and more wars – let’s see what happens when women [take charge].’

Gitai’s anti-military and pro-moderate stance has made him a controversial figure in Israel. The chaos of war throbs
through the hyper-real Kippur, which drew upon Gitai’s own experiences of the Yom Kippur War between Syria and
Israel.Yet, what unfolds in the film is war without context, with an invisible enemy. ‘Heroism and hatred are not present
in my memory – just chaos and great fatigue,’ said Gitai, talking of the Yom Kippur War and how he depicted it in Kippur.
This is a war that has been fought in the past and will be fought in the future. Its despair and bleakness is timeless.

Gitai’s latest film is a docu-drama about the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In Rabin, the Last Day
Gitai blurs the divide between archival footage and re-enactments. It’s a fearless political thriller that doesn’t shy away
from saying the current Prime Minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu is morally culpable for Rabin’s death. To some,
this may smack of a lack of patriotism, but Gitai is perhaps staying true to the heritage of critical thought that is such
an integral part of Jewish heritage.

Last year, Gitai made a short film titled The Book of Amos for the anthology, Words with Gods. The Book of Amos is an
actual Jewish text and Gitai is named after the prophet in its title. Apparently, Gitai’s parents named him after the
messianic Amos because he had preached social justice.There is a passage in The Book of Amos that rings strikingly true
to the concerns and questions that have informed so many of Gitai’s films.

‘Can two walk together, except when they be agreed?

Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?
...Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?
Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?
Surely the Lord God will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants, the prophets.’

Looking back at his brilliant career spanning more than four decades, it seems fair to say Gitai’s own Book of Amos is
no less powerful, in both its beauty and the questions it raises.

DEEPANJANA PAL

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 EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA AWARDS

PROMISED LAND
Director: Amos Gitai | Israel, France / 2004 / Col. / Arabic, Hebrew, German,
English / 90 mins

In the vast expanse of the Sinai desert, a group of men and young girls keep warm around a camp
fire under the moonlight. The next morning, the young, unwitting Estonian girls are smuggled
across the Egyptian border to be auctioned off as prostitutes in Israel. Tackling the brutal issue of
the international network of flesh trade, Promised Land tells the story of these women’s initiation
into the trade of flesh, the horrors that they undergo, and one woman’s desperate attempt to
fight for freedom.

Producers: Amos Gitai, Michel Propper, Michael Tapuah Story and Script/Screenplay: Amos
Gitai, Marie-Jose Sanselme Director of Photography: Caroline Champetier Editors: Isabelle Ingold
Music: Simon Stockhausen Cast: Rosamund Pike, Diana Bespechni, Hanna Schygulla, Anne Parillaud
Production Company: Agav Hafakot, Agav Productions, MP Productions
International Sales: HanWay Films
Festivals and Awards: Venice Film Festival 2004 (‘CinemAvvenire’ Award)

DISENGAGEMENT
Director: Amos Gitai | Israel, France / 2007 / Col. / Hebrew, French, English / 115 mins
Following the death of her father, Ana is reunited with her long-lost adopted brother, Uli, at the
funeral in France. According to her father’s will, Ana can’t receive her inheritance until she has
found the daughter she had abandoned as a teenager. On discovering that the child now lives in
an Israeli settlement in Gaza, she and Uli set off to find her. Crossing frontiers by car, train and
boat, Ana and Uli are caught up in the political and emotional turmoil of the military-enforced
disengagement of Israeli settlers from Gaza in 2005, a time fraught with danger and uncertainty.

Producers: Amos Gitai, Laurent Truchot, Michael Tapuach Story and Script/Screenplay: Amos Gitai,
Marie-Jose Sanselme Director of Photography: Christian Berger Editors: Isabelle Ingold
Music: Simon Stockhausen Cast: Juliette Binoche, Jeanne Moreau, Dana Ivgy, Liron Levo
Production Company: Agav Films
International Sales: Studiocanal
Festivals and Awards: Venice Film Festival 2007; Toronto International Film Festival 2007

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 EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA AWARDS

SALIM–JAVED: Writing a New Kind of Cinema

I have never seen a biography of a screenplay writer in my life. Many playwrights have won the Nobel Prize, but in a
hundred years of cinema, not one screenwriter has been granted that honour. Not even Casare Zavattini, the father
of Neorealist cinema.

Ask any self-respecting cinema buff what is common between two of India’s greatest films, Mother India and Mughal-
e-Azam, and each will confidently answer: Naushad, the music composer. Not one is likely to know it is also the
screenwriter: Wajahat Mirza.

The fate of screenwriters is like that of roots of gigantic trees. They beget the tree, bestow support and nourishment
upon it without which it cannot live. But the taller it grows, the deeper they seem to get buried under the ground.
They seldom get noticed.

Unless they happen to be Salim–Javed.

In one of the most memorable screen moments the duo have created, the film’s hero is seen driving an ambulance
to his meeting with the bad guys, to facilitate easy transportation to the hospital after he’s done bashing them up.
Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar arrived at the scene with the same impudence. Their writing had an intensity not seen
before on the screen. And they stuck to it without the slightest doubt (even when the great Dilip Kumar rejected
Zanjeer because he found it relentlessly intense). Raju Hirani and I had the privilege to join Salim Sahab for a few
morning walks, and I will never forget one thing he said about the attitude of his films: ‘When we started writing, the
theme of most films was: virtue is finally rewarded’. We asked him, ‘Why finally? Why not now?’

Interestingly, in their formative years both were friends with two of the most sensitive souls known to cinema: Guru
Dutt liked the company of young Salim, and Sahir Ludhianvi was mentor to Javed. But while in life they had immense
empathy and respect for the brooding lyricism of those legends, in their cinema they rejected the tortured, defeated
hero. When the world kicked their hero in the guts, their hero kicked back with all his might – till his victory or his last
angry breath.

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This was a new kind of cinema. Not for any new ‘ism’ it ushered in, but for its sheer velocity and power. The audience
could relate with their hero, not because he was a common man, but because his angst and intensity were utterly
familiar. And in telling his story, the young authors used elements of entertainment and drama learnt from an astonishing
range of material: from Sanskrit epics to Sergio Leone.

For a decade India watched, mouth agape, the jaw-dropping set pieces: a man, when accused of cowardice for not
picking up a gun, answers the accusation by telling a story that involves the massacre of his entire family and culminates
in the cutting off of both his hands! A kid gets the words my father is a thief carved on his hand, and puts the blame on
God and fights with Him all his life! A man gets out of a car and buys a building where 20 years ago his mother had
worked as a construction worker! To avenge his girlfriend’s murder, a man walks through the lobby of a five-star hotel
with a naked gun in his hand, without the slightest worry about the consequences!

In lesser hands, these scenes would be laughable disasters. Salim–Javed had not only the audacity to dream up
these scenes, but also the finesse to carry them off convincingly and gracefully. They embraced melodrama as
fiercely and fearlessly as Shakespeare and Sophocles. And they instinctively knew that it can be pulled off only if
the audience is guilelessly engaged in the destiny of the characters. For this engagement they used diverse elements
of entertainment: wedding their flair for the salty small-town anecdote with their understanding of John Ford and
Kurosawa; striding effortlessly between humour and action. They were always disdainful of the sentimental, and
always questing for the epic.

For a decade after they formed their alliance, their success was spectacular and uninterrupted, their style unmistakable.
And with their masterpieces Sholay and Deewaar, the names Salim–Javed became impossible to ignore. Before and
after them, the screenwriter was and is resigned to get noticed mostly when a film flops. (Practically every review
of the film Kareeb carried my name, while I distinctly remember that the first eight reviews that I read of Lage Raho
Munnabhai did not mention it. The ninth misspelt it.)

Salim–Javed are the one and only example in world cinema where audiences have lined up for tickets because of
the names of the authors on the marquee. They made the trees fly, and the world had no choice but to marvel at
the roots.

ABHIJAT JOSHI

Abhijat Joshi is an Indian academic, playwright and a National Award winning screenwriter. His partnership with director
Rajkumar Hirani has led to memorable films and commercial blockbusters like Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006), for which he
won the National Award for Best Screenplay, and 3 Idiots (2009).

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 EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA AWARDS

DEEWAR | WALL
Director:Yash Chopra | India / 1975 / Col. / Hindi / 174 mins
Vijay and Ravi are sons of trade unionist Anand Verma, who is defeated and disgraced by the man-
agement of his firm, using his family as bait, eventually leading him to desert his wife and sons. The
film follows the trajectory of these two brothers after their mother brings them to Bombay and
raises them while facing tremendous hardship. The older Vijay grows up with an acute awareness
of his father’s humiliation. Brooding and cynical, he eventually becomes a smuggler and a leading
figure of the underworld, while Ravi receives an education and becomes an upright policeman.
While both try, in their own ways, try to restore their mother’s honour, things take an interesting
turn when Ravi is asked to hunt Vijay down.

Producer: Gulshan Rai Story and Script/Screenplay: Salim-Javed Director of

Photography: Kay Gee Editor: T.R. Mangeshkar, Pran Mehra Music: Rahul Dev Burman
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy, Satyendra Kapoor, Iftekhar,
Madan Puri
Production Company: Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd.
Indian Distributor: Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: Filmfare Awards 1976 (Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best
Story, Best Dialogue, Best Screenplay, Best Sound)

SHOLAY | EMBERS
Director: Ramesh Sippy | India / 1975 / Col. / Hindi / 204 mins
Two small-time convicts, Jai and Veeru, are recruited by retired policeman,Thakur Baldev Singh, to
help him capture the notorious dacoit Gabbar Singh.The duo make their way to the small village
of Ramgarh, where they indulge in flirtations and skirmishes, until one day Gabbar attacks the
village and they learn the reason Thakur wants him dead. Enraged by what they hear and eager
to exact revenge, the two promise to deliver Gabbar to Thakur alive, and a final stand-off ensues.

Producer: G.P. Sippy Story and Script/Screenplay: Salim-Javed Director of Photography:

Dwarka Divecha Editor: M.S. Shinde Music: Rahul Dev Burman Cast: Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema
Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Amjad Khan
Production Company: United Producers, Sippy Films
Indian Distributor: Sippy Films
Festivals and Awards: Filmfare Awards (Best Editing)

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OPENING FILM
CLOSING FILM

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 OPENING FILM

ALIGARH
Director: Hansal Mehta | India / 2015 / DCP/7.1 Mix / Col. / Hindi / 114 mins

An ageing professor, Dr Siras, is suspended from Aligarh University after being ‘caught’ in a sting operation
while having sex with a male partner. A young journalist, Deepu, unravels the story and investigates the
murky suspension through a series of interviews, in the course of which an unlikely friendship develops
between the professor and the journalist. In the professor Deepu discovers a friend, a father figure
who will leave an indelible impression on him. With Deepu’s support the reluctant professor fights a
court case against invasion of his privacy and violation of his fundamental rights. Through Dr. Siras’
valiant efforts to live with dignity in an intolerant, homophobic society, Aligarh gently explores the inner
world of a man who just wanted to be left alone and an outside world that would just not let him be.

Producer: Sunil Lulla Story and Script/Screenplay: Apurva Asrani, Ishani Bannerjee Director of
Photography: Satya Rai Nagpaul Editor: Apurva Asrani Music: Karan Kulkarni Cast: Manoj Bajpayee,
Rajkummar Rao
Production Company: EROS International; Karma Pictures
Indian Distributor: EROS International
Festivals and Awards: Busan International Film Festival 2015; BFI London Film Festival 2015

HANSAL MEHTA
made his debut with Jayate (Victory, 1998), a languid tale on the Indian judiciary and medical malpractice
in Bombay (now Mumbai), followed by the dark, tragic and funny Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar (Don’t Take it to
Heart, 2000), about Mumbai’s marginalised immigrants, which ran into trouble with intolerant political
parties. His early films, which explored various subcultures of Mumbai, were followed by somewhat
unsuccessful attempts at making mainstream films while continuing to work with newer talents. Mehta
then went on an extended sabbatical to explore social work, rural life and new stories. The result of this
soul-searching mission was Shahid (2012), which won him the 61st National Award for Best Direction.
Aligarh is his latest film.
Director’s Filmography: Jayate, 1997; Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, 2000; Chhal, 2002; Yeh Kya Ho Raha
Hai, 2002; Raakh, 2004; Anjaan, 2005; Dus Kahaniyaan, 2007; Woodstock Villa, 2008; Shahid, 2012; City
Lights, 2014

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 CLOSING FILM

UN + UNE | ONE PLUS ONE

Director: Claude Lelouch | France / 2015 / DCP Scope 4K / Col. / French / 113 mins

Antoine resembles the heroes of the films for which he composes music. He is charming, successful and
walks through life with as much humour as nonchalance. When he travels to India to work on a very
original version of Romeo and Juliet, he crosses paths with Anna, a woman he’s irresistibly drawn to in
spite of their many differences. Together they live an incredible adventure....

Producers: Samuel Hadida, Victor Hadida, Marc Dujardin, Claude Lelouch Story and Script/Screenplay:
Claude Lelouch, Valérie Perrin Editor: Stéphane Mazalaigue Music: Francis Lai Cast: Jean Dujardin, Elsa Zylber-
stein, Christophe Lambert, Alice Pol, Rahul Vohra, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Abhishek Krishnan
Production Company: Les Films 13 International Sales: Mister Smith
Festivals and Awards: Toronto Film Festival; Angoulême Francophone Film Festival

CLAUDE LELOUCH
went to Moscow to covertly capture daily life in the USSR in 1957. During this assignment, he ended up
at Mosfilms Studios where his love for directing began. In 1966, six years after a series of failures, earned
him the Palme d’Or at Cannes, two Oscars and 40 international awards. In 50 years, Claude Lelouch has
directed over 40 films.
Director’s Filmography: Life For Life, 1967; Love is a Funny Thing, 1969; A Man and a Woman, 1966;
Money, Money, Money, 1972; Les Uns Et Les Autres, 1981; Itinerary of a Spoiled Child, 1988; Les Miserables,
1994; Best Seller, 2007; We Love You, Bastard, 2014

41
42
INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
Competition section for debut features from
filmmakers across the world

43
 ANU RANGACHAR RASHID IRANI
Head Consultant
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME

Anu Rangachar is passionate about cinema. Originally an A Mumbai-based freelance film critic, Rashid Irani
engineer, she has been with the Mumbai Film Festival for currently contributes English film reviews to the
the past six years and has facilitated many international Hindustan Times. He has served on the jury of
collaborations for the festival. Before the Mumbai Film International film festivals at Pune and Bengaluru, and
Festival, she went to a film school in NYC, worked with has been on the selection committee of the Mumbai
Rituparno Ghosh on two of his films and with Ashim Film Festival (MAMI) for the past six years.
Ahluwalia on Miss Lovely. She is now working with Dev
Benegal and Sooni Taraporevala, helping them with
international co-productions, and is the India Advisor
to Cinelicious Pics, LA. At the festival, she has been
responsible for international collaborations and for
instituting the Restored Classics section.

44
DEEPANJANA PAL IAN BIRNIE
Consultant Programmer
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME

Deepanjana Pal is a journalist and an author. She writes Ian Birnie is the former Curator of Film and Director
about cinema, literature, contemporary art and gender. of the Film Department at the Los Angeles County
Her misspent youth includes studying post colonialism and Museum of Art. Prior positions include Director of
writing a biography of Raja Ravi Varma. Distribution for Janus Films (NYC) and Project Director
for European Film Promotion (Hamburg). He has been a
programmer for the Toronto, Bangkok, Palm Springs, and
Perugia Film Festivals and has served on film juries at the
Berlin, Hamptons, Abu Dhabi and Geneva Film Festivals.
He is currently the US Representative for the Mumbai
Film Festival and Program Director for the Louisiana
International Film Festival.

45
 PAOLO BERTOLIN
Programmer
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME

Paolo Bertolin is a festival programmer, film critic and producer.

He joined the Venice International Film Festival as a member of
the selection committee in 2008. Since 2010, he has worked as
a regional correspondent, covering South and Southeast Asia,
Oceania, Korea and Turkey. He also worked or still works for Beijing
International Film Festival, Doha Film Institute, Udine Far East Film
Festival, Nyon Visions du Réel, International Film Festival Rotterdam,
Cannes Critics’ Week and International Film Festival Bratislava.
Bertolin has producer credits on the Berlinale 2015 competition
entries Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories and Chitrashala.

46
ILLUMINATING THE DARK ROOMS OF OUR SOULS
I can’t remember which year it happened, but it was soon after 2009, when the International Competition was first
introduced. I was part of the trickle coming out of a theatre at the end of a screening of one of those early competition
films. It hadn’t made much of an impression.

‘What the hell was that director thinking?’ complained a friend who’d watched the film with me.

‘It’s not easy making a film,’ I told her, and decided it was as good a moment as any to quote Billy Wilder. ‘A director
must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.’

‘Or he could just be a Mumbaikar.’ The young man who’d piped in with that addendum was a stranger and (evidently)
an eavesdropper. But this is how conversations and friendships begin at Mumbai Film Festival. Over the chai we had to
recharge our batteries before diving into the next film screening, I asked him what he did.

‘I’m dreaming of a film,’ he replied.

‘Of course you are,’ I said with a grin.

‘Of course I am,’ he said in agreement. ‘Why else would I be here?’

By ‘here’, he could have meant the festival or he could have meant Mumbai. Both would make sense.

There are many film festivals that have awards for debut films, but there’s something particularly perfect about
Mumbai’s film festival celebrating first-time filmmakers. Cinema isn’t just entertainment in this city and neither is it only
a means of putting food on the table. In Mumbai, dreams are spun at 24 frames a second. Whether you’re at a tinkling
party of socialites or in a rattling auto-rickshaw, chances are you’ll meet someone who nurses the dream of making a
film. Artistic, experimental, commercial, good, bad, indecipherable – every kind of cinema is being imagined in this city.
Which is why if there was ever a film festival that had to celebrate first features, it is the one in Mumbai.

This year’s International Competition is special. It is a luminous set. These films travel deep into emotional, poetic and
physical terrains. They’re heartbreaking, triumphant and don’t betray their directors’ lack of filmmaking experience in
the slightest. Instead, they showcase the sharpness of the imagination that can envision such tales.

When we started watching the submitted debut features early this year, we were given a simple brief: pick only good
films. We set ourselves a tougher challenge. We would pick only brilliant films, films with as much dazzle and as many
aspects as a radiant diamond. We wanted cinema at its unforgettable best, with stories that you’d cherish and images so
beautiful that you would replay them in your dreams. With these lofty ideas in mind, we thought we’d set our standards
so high that we’d struggle to find 14 entries.

We did end up struggling mightily, but that was to contain our selection to 14 titles. Ultimately, we failed. This year, there
are 15 films in the running and they’re all amazing.

The International Competition takes you to places fantastical, familiar and strange. To a mysterious little Chinese
town in Kaili Blues, all over Violator’s doom-laden Filipino metropolis, and inside the exquisite, Athenian theatre of
Interruption – the real and the surreal perform a hypnotic dance in these films. The imagery is breathtaking and within
minutes, these tales take you hostage, much like the Chorus does to the audience within Interruption.

47
 Humour and its child, laughter, are dark, bitter things in Parabellum and Thithi. In Two Friends, on the other hand, laughter
is light of step and sweetly soulful. Loneliness that yearns to be breached and friendships that cannot blossom become
all the more poignant and beautiful for their melancholy in Risk of Acid Rain and In Your Arms. Hovering between man
and woman, the protagonist of Sworn Virgin discovers both her self and the meaning of freedom when she faces up to
the gender that is truly hers.

Volcano takes us deep into the verdant heart of Guatemala and shows us a mother’s love and a daughter’s heartbreak.
Another mother, in the dusty belly of Colombia, fights an unwinnable battle for her son and her soil in Land and Shade.
These landscapes aren’t gentle or idyllic. They’re wild, even as they’re being encroached upon by snaking concrete and
the dust of capitalism.

The simple term ‘coming of age’ reveals its many facets as we travel around the world, following in the footsteps of
beautiful, complicated, remarkable children. We go from a crumbling, padlock-less door in Kabul in Mina Walking; to a
Lakota reservation in America, in Songs My Brothers Taught Me; to the majestic countryside of Kyrgyzstan in Heavenly
Nomadic; to a summer-struck Canada in Sleeping Giant. In each place, stories are spun of courage, despair and resolve.
In each place, a heart breaks and a child grows up.

Watching first feature after first feature after first feature after first feature for the better part of eight months has been
a privilege. We watched them as cinephiles, rather than selectors or adjudicators. We chose these 15 because they took
us on journeys that were enchanting. Ingmar Bergman had famously said, ‘No art passes our conscience in the way film
does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.’

The films in this year’s International Competition do just that.They will speak to you.They’ll give you hope even as they
break your heart. For all the despair and toil that may make up our worlds, these films were conceived, crafted and
brought to life.

How can that not inspire you?

DEEPANJANA PAL

48
 INTERNATIONAL
SUTAK | HEAVENLY NOMADIC COMPETITION

Director: Mirlan Abdykalykov | Czech Republic / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Kyrgyz / 81 mins

A family of nomads lives in the high, remote mountains of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia – elderly herdsman
Tabyldy, his wife Karachach, their daughter-in-law Shaiyr and their seven-year-old granddaughter Umsunai.
Shaiyr’s son studies in the city and visits them only during the summer holidays. Her husband died many
years ago when he was drowned in a mountain river, trying to save a foal. Shaiyr decided to stay with the
family due to her strong attachment to the wonderful land and its people.The family breeds horses and life
goes on as normal amidst the beautiful scenery of the mountain gorge, until another resident of the area
appears in Shaiyr’s life, metereologist Ermek, whose weather station is located near the family’s home...

Producer: Sadyk Sher-Niyaz Story and Script/Screenplay: Aktan Arym Kubat, Ernest Abdyjaparov
Director of Photography: Talant Akynbekov Editor: Eldiar Madakim Music: Murzali Jenbaev Cast: Jibek
Baktybekova, Talaikan Abazova, Anara Nazarkulova, Tabyldy Aktanov, Jenishbek Kangheldiev, Myrza Subanbekov
Production Company: Aitysh Film
Festivals and Awards: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (East of the West Competition)

MIRLAN ABDYKALYKOV
born in 1982, has been working in the film industry since he was eight years old. He has played the lead
role in three films directed by his father Aktan Arym Kubat (The Swing, The Adopted Son, and The Chimp).
In 2010 he debuted as a director with the short film ‘Pencil Against Ants’, which was premiered at the
Rotterdam International Film Festival. Sutak is his feature debut.

49
INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
I DINE HAENDER | IN YOUR ARMS
Director: Samanou A. Sahlstrøm | Denmark, Germany / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Danish, English,
Swedish, German / 88 mins

Maria is a young and caring nurse who lives an isolated life in Copenhagen, and longs for freedom and
emotional redemption. She shares a special connection with Niels, a young man who is terminally ill and
in her care in the nursing home where she works. As the disease eats away at him Niels wants to regain
control one last time by choosing to die. He decides to travel to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide.
Together they embark on an intense journey that will bring them closer to each other as well as to their
dreams. A character-driven road movie, I Dine Haender is about the human being’s endless need for control
over his own destiny.

Producer: Sara Namer Story and Script/Screenplay: Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm

Director of Photography: Brian Curt Pedersen Editor: Theis Schmidt Music: August Rosenbarum
Cast: Lisa Carlehed, Peter Plaugborg, Kirsten Olesen, Gustav Giese, Johanna Wokalek, Jakob Linding
Production company: Meta Film, Lille Strandstræde 20c, 2, 1254 København K
International sales: ANT!PODE Sales & Distribution, Russia, 127055, Moscow, Novolesnoy lane 5-38, +7 499 978
73 14, Elena Podolskaya, Head of Sales, +7 916 604 58 84 elena@antipode-sales.biz http://antipode-sales.biz/
Festivals and Awards: Göteborg IFF 2015 (Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film);
Beijing IFF 2015 (FIPRESCI Award); Cracow OFF Camera Film Festival 2015; Brussels International Film Festival, 2015
(White Iris Award for Best Frist Film); Biografilm Festival 2015; Cabourg Film Festival 2015; Valetta International Film
Festival 2015; Festival Internacional de Cine de Valencia - Cinema Jove 2015; Transatlantyk Festival 2015; Vancouver
International Film Festival 2015; Hamburg Film Festival 2015; San Paulo International Film Festival 2015

SAMANOU A. SAHLSTRØM
is a French director and screenwriter living in Denmark. He graduated from the National Film School
of Denmark in 2011. His graduation film was Les Amours Perdues. In Your Arms is his first feature.
Filmography: Les amours perdues, Short, 2014; Papa, Short, 2007

50
 INTERNATIONAL
INTERRUPTION COMPETITION

Director: Yorgos Zois | Greece, France, Croatia / 2015 / DCP / Col. / LANGUAGE? / 110 mins

A postmodern theatrical adaptation of a classic Greek tragedy takes place in a central theatre of Athens. Like
every night, the audience take their seats and the play begins. Suddenly, the lights on stage go out. A group of
young people, dressed in black and carrying guns, come up on stage. They apologise for the interruption and
invite people from the audience to participate on stage. The play resumes with a key difference: life imitates
art and not the opposite.The film is inspired by a true incident which occurred on 3 October 2002 when 50
armed Chechens took hostage 850 spectators in the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow.

Producers: Maria Drandaki, Elie Meirovitz, Siniša Juričić Story and Script/Screenplay: Yorgos Zois, Vasilis
Kyriakopoulos Director of Photography: Yannis Kanakis Editor: Yannis Chalkiadakis Music: Sylvain Chauveau
Cast: Alexandros Vardaxoglou, Sofia Kokkali, Pavlos Iordanopoulos, Hristos Karteris, Romanna Lobats, Angeliki
Margeti, Natassa Brouzioti, Aineias Tsamatis, Constantinos Voudouris, Maria Kallimani, Areti Seidaridou, Spyros Sidiras,
Christos Sougaris, Alexandros Sotiriou, Elena Topalidou, Maria Filini, Vasilis Andreou, Daphne Ioakimidou-Patakia, Alexia
Kaltsiki, Effi Rabsilber, Christos Stergioglou, Labros Filippou, Nikos Flessas
Production Company: Pan Entertainment / Homemade Films, Maria Drandaki maria@homemadefilms.gr /
info@homemadefilms.gr +30 213 0415200 / +30 6944846012 www.pan.com.gr / www.homemadefilms.gr EZ Films
Elie Meirovitz elie@ez-films.com +33 953 698 094 / +33 671 792 026 www.ez-films.com JDP in association with
Nukleus Film Siniša Juričić sinisa@nukleus-film.hr +385 1 4848 868 / +385 91 502 1871 www.nukleus-film.hr
Festivals and Awards: 72nd Venice International Film Festival – Orizzonti Competition

YORGOS ZOIS
Born in Athens in 1982, Yorgos Zois studied film in his city of birth and in Berlin. His debut short film,
Casus Belli, premiered at the 67th Venice Film Festival in 2010 and was selected to the official competitions
of most important international film festivals, winning several awards and distinctions. His second short
film, Out of Frame, premiered at the 69th Venice Film Festival in 2012 and won the EFA award for the Best
European short film and several distinctions for its visual form and concept of narration. Interruption is his
first feature film.
Filmography: Titloi Telous (Out of Frame), Short, 2012 Casus Belli, Short, 2010

51
INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
IXCANUL | VOLCANO
Director: Jayro Bustamante | Guatemala, France / 2015 / Col. / Kaqchikel / 91 mins

María, a young 17-year-old Mayan girl, lives and works with her parents on a coffee plantation on the
foothills of an active volcano in Guatemala. An arranged marriage awaits her. Although Maria dreams of
going to the ‘big city’, her condition as an indigenous woman does not permit her to alter her destiny.
Identifying Pepe, a young coffee cutter who wants to migrate to USA as her way out, she seduces him only
to be abandoned by him, pregnant, alone and isolated. However, a snakebite ultimately forces her to go out
into the modern world where her life is saved, but at what price?

Producers: Marina Peralta, Pilar Peredo, Edgard Tenembaum, Jayro Bustamante Story and Script/Screenplay:
Jayro Bustamante Director of Photography: Luis Armando Arteaga Editor: César Díaz Cast: María
Merecedes Croy, María Telón, Manuel Antún, Justo Lorenzo, Marvin Coroy
Production Company: La Casa de Producción (Guatemala) Tu Vas Voir Productions (France)
International sales: Film Factory Entertainment, Calle Lincoln 11, 2º 4ª, Barcelona 08006, Spain
Festivals and Awards: Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize; Cartagena Film Festival (Best Picture); Guadalajara
International Film Festival (Best Latin American Picture and Director Awards); Toulouse’s Cinelatino Film Festival
(Audience and Critics Awards); Valletta Film Festival (Best Cinematography Award); 23rd Art Film Fest (Blue Angel
Award for the Best Film, Blue Angel Award for the Best Female Performance); Golden Apricot, Armenia (Jury special
mention); Cine de Lima (EPIC award and Jury prize for best actress); San Sebastian Film Festival; Toronto International
Film Festival; Panama International Film Festival; Hong Kong International Film Festival; Emden Film Festival; Taipei
International Film Festival; Karlovy Vary Film Festival; Bergen International Film Festival; Busan International Film Festival;
BFI London Film Festival

JAYRO BUSTAMANTE
Born in Guatemala in 1977 and trained as a film director in Guatemala, Paris and Rome, Jayro Bustamante’s
short films have been awarded prizes at several film festivals. Cuando Sea Grande debuted at the Clermont
Ferrand Festival where it won the CNC quality award. His script El Escuadron de la Muerte was selected at
the San Sebastian, Guadalajara, Cartagena, Biarritz, Amiens and NALIP film festivals.

52
 INTERNATIONAL
LU BIAN YE CAN | KAILI BLUES COMPETITION

Director: Bi Gan | China / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Chinese / 110 mins

In Kaili, Guizhou Province, China, two preoccupied doctors live in a small clinic like ghosts until one day, one
of them, Chen Sheng, decides to fulfil his dead mother’s wish and sets off on a long train journey to look for
his brother’s abandoned child. His partner at the clinic, a lonely old lady, asks him to take an old photograph,
a shirt and a cassette for her old sweetheart who has fallen ill. On the way to Zhenyuan County, Chen
passes a strange little town named Dangmai where time is not linear and people’s lives complement each
other. He stops there and experiences his past, present and future, and begins to reflect on his life. Will he
complete his journey?

Producers: Wang Zijian, Shan Zuolong, Li Zhaoyu Story and Script/Screenplay: Bi Gan Director of
Photography: Wang Tianxing Editor: Qin Yanan Music: Lim Giong Cast: Chen Yongzhong, Zhao Daqing, Luo
Feiyang, Xie Lixun, Zeng Shuai
Production Company: Heaven Pictures (Beijing) The Movie Co. Ltd., Shan Zuolong, zuolong@haff.asia, Blackfin-
Beijing Culture & Media Co., Ltd., Wang Zijian, jean@blackfin.cc, China Film (Shanghai) International Media Co., Ltd., Jack
LEE, jack.lee@cfi-sh.com
International Sales: China Film (Shanghai) International Media Co., Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: Locarno International Film Festival: Best Emerging Director in Concorso Cineasti del
presente Competition and Special Mention in First Feature Competition

BI GAN
Born in Kaili in China in 1989, Bi Gan directed his first short, Diamond Sutra, in 2012, which earned him the
Special Mention award in the Asian New Force Category at the 19th IFVA Festival in Hong Kong.
Kaili Blues (2015) is his first narrative feature film.
Filmography: Tiger, Student Feature, 2011; Diamond Sutra, Short Film, 2012

53
INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
LA TIERRA Y LA SOMBRA |
LAND AND SHADE
Director: César Augusto Acevedo | Colombia / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Spanish / 97 mins

Alfonso, an old farmer returns home to tend to his son who is gravely ill. He rediscovers his old house,
where the woman who was once his wife still lives with his daughter-in-law and grandson. The landscape
that awaits him resembles a wasteland. Vast sugarcane plantations surround the house producing perpetual
clouds of ash. Seventeen years after abandoning them, Alfonso tries to fit back in and save his family.

Producers: Diana Bustamante Escobar, Paola Andrea, Perez Nieto, Jorge Forero Story and Script/Screenplay:
César Acevedo Director of Photography: Mateo Guzman Editor: Miguel Schwendfinger Music: Juan Felipe
Rayo Cast: Haimer Leal, Hilda Ruiz, Edison Raigosa, Marleyda Soto, José Felipe Cardenas
Production company: Burning Blue, Cr 16 # 82-24 Of. 301, Bogotá, Colombia, contacto@burningblue.com.co
International sales: Pyramide International
Festivals and Awards: Caméra D’or, Cannes Films Festival, Critics’ Week 2015

CÉSAR AUGUSTO ACEVEDO

director and screenwriter, was born in Colombia in 1987. He graduated from the Universidad del Valle’s
School of Social Communications (Cali, Colombia) and the screenplay for La tierra y la sombra was his
graduate thesis.
Filmography: La Campana, Short, 2013; Los Pasos Del Agua, Short, 2012

54
 INTERNATIONAL
MINA WALKING COMPETITION

Director: Yosef Baraki | Canada, Afghanistan / DCP / Col. / Dari / 110 mins

It is hard to imagine just how much 12-year-old Mina from Kabul manages to achieve in a country where
men call all the shots and life is full of challenges. Her father is a junkie, her grandfather senile and helpless,
and her mother was killed by the Taliban. She does all the housework, takes care of her old grandfather,
and also manages to sell knick-knacks on the street for a pittance. All she gets from her father though is
criticism. It is a wonder that Mina does not give up. Only when her grandfather dies does it all become too
much for her. Shot on Kabul’s turbulent streets in a quasi-documentary style, the film portrays the severity
of life in this war-torn country.

Producers: Andrew Korogyi, Asef Baraki Story and Script/Screenplay: Yosef Baraki Director of
Photography: Yosef Baraki Editors: Yosef Baraki, Andrew Korogyi Music: Homayoun Arify, Said Shahabudin
Cast: Farzana Nawabi, Qadir, Aryaie, Safi Fanaie, Massoud Fanaie, Hashmatullah Fanaie, Marina Golbahari
International sales: Minerva Pictures, Via del Circo Massimo, 9, 00153, Rome, Italy, Tel: +39 06 84242430,
Fax: +39 06 8558105, info@minervapictures.com, www. Minawalking.com
Festivals and Awards: 65th Berlin Film Festival; Zlin International Film Festival

YOSEF BARAKI
completed his studies in film and philosophy at Toronto’s York University and Humber College. His fifth
short film Der Kandidat received the prestigious Norman McLaren Award at the Montreal World Film
Festival in 2013 and the Best International Short Film Award at the Afghanistan Human Rights Festival.

55
INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
PARABELLUM
Director: Lukas Valenta Rinner | Argentina,Austria, Uruguay / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Spanish / 75 mins

Hernán, a middle-aged geologist working at a public investigation centre, arrives with a group of strangers
at an isolated hotel resort in the Delta area of Tigre, a labyrinth of small islands surrounded by streams
and rivers. Among housewives and professionals, Hernán is part of a middle-class community made up of
people who have left their comfortable lives of suburban Buenos Aires. Together, they train, following strict
guidelines for what seems to be the impending arrival of the end of the world.

Producers: Lukas Valenta Rinner, Alex Piperno, Juan Pablo Martínez Story and Script/Screenplay: Esteban
Prado, Ana Godoy, Lukas Valenta Rinner Director of Photography: Roman Kasseroller Editor: Ana Godoy, Javier
Favot Music: Dino Spiluttini Cast: Pablo Seijo, Eva Bianco, Martin Shanly
Production Company: Nabis Film Group, Lukas Valenta Rinner
International Sales: Patra Spanou Film Marketing & Consulting
Festivals and Awards: International Film Festival Rotterdam (Hivos Tiger Awards Competition); Göteborg
International Film Festival Rotterdam (competition); Vilnius International Film Festival Rotterdam, Diagonale (Jugendjury
Award); CPH PIX Crossing Europe Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival Rotterdam (Special Jury Prize);
Transilvania International Film Festival Rotterdam; Art Film Fest; FID Marseille; Montreal World International Film Festival
BFI London Film Festival

LUKAS VALENTA RINNER

(b. 1985, Salzburg) studied film direction at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. He directed the
short film, A Letter to Fukuyama, which premiered in competition at Bafici 2010 and Diagonale 2011.
Director’s Filmography: Carta a Fukuyama (Letter to Fukuyama), Short Film, 2010

56
 INTERNATIONAL
EHTEMAL-S BARAN-E ASIDI | COMPETITION

RISK OF ACID RAIN

Director: Behtash Sanaeeha | Iran / 2015 / Dolby 5.1 / Farsi / 105 mins

Sixty-year-old Manouchehr has retired from the Iranian Tobacco Company. However, he still insists on going
back to his office. Unmarried, he lives with his mother. When his mother passes away, he sets out to find
his old friend, Khosrow, in Tehran.

Producers: Rouhollah Baradari, Samira Baradari Story and Script/Screenplay: Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam
Moghadam Director of Photography: Mohammad-Reza Jahanpanah Editor: Behtash Sanaeeha Music: Henric
Negi Cast: Langeroudi, Maryam Moghadam, Pouria Rahimi Sam, Arsalan Abdollahi, Issa Hosseini
Festivals and Awards: Teheran’s Fajr Film Festival 2015 (Best Script Award, First Films Section); Zurich Film Festival,
2015; Festival of Iranian Films, Australia, 2015; International Film Festival of Colombo, 2015; Stockholm Film Festival, 2015

BEHTASH SANAEEHA
Born in 1978 in Shiraz, and a Civil Engineer by training Behtash Sanaeeha started his career as a stage
director, writer and actor in 1995. He began directing short films, documentaries and animations from
2003 onwards. Risk of Acid Rain is his debut feature film.

57
INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
SLEEPING GIANT
Director: Andrew Cividino | Canada / DCP / Col. / English / 90 mins

A teenage boy, Adam is spending his summer vacation with his parents at the rugged Lake Superior. His dull
routine comes to an end when he befriends Riley and Nate, who pass their ample free time in debauchery
and reckless cliff jumping. The revelation of a hurtful secret sets into motion a series of irreversible events
that test the bonds of their friendship and changes the boys forever

Producer: Karen Harnisch Story and Script/Screenplay: Andrew Cividino, Aaron Yeger, Blain Watters
Director of Photography: James Klopko Editor: James Vandewater Cast: Jackson Martin, Reece Moffett, Nick
Serino, David Disher, Erika Brodzky, Katelyn McKerracher, Rita Serino, Lorraine Philp, Kyle Bertrand
Production Company: Film Forge Productions, Hawkeye Pictures
International Sales: Seville International
Festivals and Awards: Critics’ Week, France, 2015, Porto Vecchio, Cinémathèque of Corse, 2015, La
CinémathèqueFrançaise, 2015, Filmfest Munich, 2015 (Winner, Cinevision Award), Beirut at Metropolis Cinema, 2015,
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 2015, Lima at Encuentro Latino-americano de Cine, 2015, Toronto International
Film Festival, 2015 (Winner, City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film), Athens International Film
Festival, 2015, Zurich Film Festival, 2015, Reykjavik International Film Festival, 2015, Festival do Rio, 2015, Warsaw Film
Festival, 2015

ANDREW CIVIDINO
was raised in Dundas, Ontario, the middle child of three boys. He spent summers on the north shore of
Lake Superior where his mother grew up. His childhood ‘camp’ (northern Ontario speak for ‘cottage’),
and his grandparents’ year-round home are on the beach where Sleeping Giant is set. Andrew went to film
school at Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts.
Director’s Filmography: We Ate the Children Last, Short Film; Yellow Fish, Short Film

58
 INTERNATIONAL
SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME COMPETITION

Director: Chloé Zhao | US / HD / Col. / English / 94 mins

Johnny, a restless Lakota teen, and his spirited little sister Jashaun, live with their troubled mother on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The unexpected death of their estranged cowboy father
complicates Johnny’s plans to escape to LA with his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Jashaun wanders away from her
ruptured home life, exploring the rodeo world of her late father and forming an unlikely friendship with an
ex-con. The film explores the bond between a brother and sister who find themselves on separate paths
to rediscover the meaning of home.

Producers: Chloé Zhao, Angela C. Lee, Mollye Asher, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker Story and Script/
Screenplay: Chloé Zhao Director of Photography: Joshua James Richards Editor: Alan Canant
Music: Peter Golub Cast: John Reddy, Jashaun St. John, Irene Bedard, Taysha Fuller, Eléonore Hendricks, Travis Lone
Hill, Cat Clifford
Production Company: Significant Productions
International Sales: Fortissimo Films www.fortissimofilms.com
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection)

CHLOÉ ZHAO
is a Beijing-born, US-based filmmaker. She was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by
Filmmaker Magazine in 2013. Chloé received her BA in Politics from Mt Holyoke College and MFA in Film
Production from NYU. She is currently developing her second feature titled The Last Prairie. When she
is not making films, Chloé is working on a mobile cinema/film workshop project called “Tiny Film House”.
Songs My Brothers Taught Me is her feature debut.
Director’s Filmography: Daughters, Short Film, 2010; The Atlas Mountains, Short Film, 2009; Post,
Short Film, 2008

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INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
VERGINE GIURATA | SWORN VIRGIN
Director: Laura Bispuri | Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Albania in partnership with Kosovo /
Cinemascope / Albanian, Italian / 90 mins

Young Hana Doda seeks an escape from her destiny of being a wife and a servant, the only two possible
futures for a woman in the remote village in Albania where she lives. With her uncle’s guidance, Hana
appeals to the old Kanun traditional law and takes an oath of eternal virginity for the chance to bear a rifle
and live free as men. For the villagers, Hana becomes Mark, a ‘sworn virgin’. Several years later, as Mark
sets out on a journey, he crosses borders into many different worlds: Albania and Italy, past and present,
masculine and feminine. Somewhere along the way, Mark rediscovers Hana, and finally tries to reconcile the
two souls that for years have lived inside her body.

Producers: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Paonessa Story and Script/Screenplay: Francesca Manieri, Laura Bispuri,
inspired by the novel Vergine Giurata by Elvira Dones Director of Photography: Vladan Radovic
Editors: Carlotta Cristiani, Jacopo Quadri Music: Nando Di Cosimo Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Flonja Kodheli, Lars
Eidinger, Luan Jaha, Bruno Shllaku, Ilire Celaj, Drenica Selimaj, Dajana Selimaj, Emily Ferratello
Production Company: Vivo Film
International Sales: The Match Factory GmbH, Balthasarstr. 79–81, 50670 Cologne/Germany, info@matchfactory.
de, www.the-match-factory.com

LAURA BISPURI
was selected to attend the direction and production school ‘Fandango Lab Workshop’. With her short
film Passing Time she won the David Donatello Award (Italian Oscars) for Best Short Film in 2010. Passing
Time was also selected as one of the eight best short films in the world at the ‘Short Film Golden Night’,
organised by Académie des César in Paris. With her other short film, Biondina, she was awarded in 2011
with the Nastro d‘Argento (Top Italian Film Critics Award) as ‘Rising Talent of the Year’. Sworn Virgin is her
first feature film.

60
 INTERNATIONAL
THITHI COMPETITION

Director: Raam Reddy | India, USA / DCP / Col. / Kannada / 120 mins

Thithi is a dramatic comedy about how three generations of sons react to the death of the oldest in their
clan, a man named Century Gowda: a locally renowned, highly cantankerous 101-year-old man. Century
Gowda’s eldest son, Gadappa (literally translating as ‘Beard Man’), is himself a little old man who spends his
time nonchalantly wandering the village fields, puffing cheap cigarettes and swigging brandy. Gadappa’s far
more materialistic son, Thamanna, plots to illegally sell Century Gowda’s five-acre property, even though
the land officially belongs to his father. At the same time, Thamanna’s confident pubescent son, Abhi, shrugs
his responsibilities to relentlessly pursue an attractive shepherd girl. Set in a small village in Karnataka, the
three storylines intertwine before converging at Century Gowda’s ‘thithi’ – the final funeral celebration, 11
days after his death.

Producers: Pratap Reddy, Sunmin Park Story and Script/Screenplay: Eregowda, Raam Reddy
Director of Photography: Doron Tempert Editors: John Zimmerman, Raam Reddy Sound: Nithin Lukose
Cast: Thammegowda S., Channegowda, Abhishek H.N., Pooja S.M. Production Company: Prspctvs Productions,
prspctvsproductions@gmail.com
Festivals and Awards: Golden Leopard (Best Film), Filmmakers of the Present Competition, Locarno Film Festival
2015, Swatch First Feature Award (Best Debut Film), Locarno Film Festival 2015, Winner, Work-in-Progress Lab, NFDC
Film Bazaar 2014

RAAM REDDY
26, is an Indian writer-director from Bangalore. In 2012, Raam made a Telugu short film called Ika (Feather)
that won national and international awards and was screened at close to 20 international festivals. In 2013,
Raam graduated with a specialisation in Direction from Prague Film School, where he made a Czech short
film titled Jaro (Spring).

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INTERNATIONAL
COMPETITION
LES DEUX AMIS | TWO FRIENDS
Director: Louis Garrel | France / 2015 / DCP / Col. / French / 100 mins

Vincent has known Mona barely a week but he’s already completely in love with her. He plays an extra in
films; she sells sandwiches at a train station in Paris. But Mona has a secret – she goes home to prison every
night. When Vincent doesn’t understand her intentions, he asks his only friend, Abel, for help...

Producers: Anne-Dominique Toussaint Story and Script/Screenplay: Louis Garrel, Christophe Honoré
Director of Photography: Claire Mathon Editor: Joelle Hache Music: Philippe Sarde Cast: Louis Garrel,
Golshifteh Farahani, Vincent Macaigne
Production Company: Les Films des Tournelles
International sales: Indie Sales Company
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival

LOUIS GARREL
graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art dramatique in 2004. After that, he joined the
theatre, and has worked with Christian Benedetti, Caroline Marcadé, Luc Bondy and Sylvain Creuzevault,
among others. He also worked in feature films, under the direction of Bernardo Bertolucci, François Ozon,
Jacques Doillon, Philippe Garrel, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, and Christophe Honoré. Les Deux Amis is his debut
feature film.
Director’s Filmography: La règle de trios, Short Film, 2011; Petit tailleur, Short Film, 2010; My Friends,
Short Film, 2008

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 INTERNATIONAL
VIOLATOR COMPETITION

Director: Eduardo ‘Dodo’ Dayao | 2014 / Philippines / D-Cinema / Col. / Filipino,Tagalog / 101 mins

As the first stage of the typhoon is just beginning to hit Manila, a series of mysterious events occur
throughout the city. The ominous, gloomy atmosphere fills people with fear and dread, almost as if it is the
prelude to the end of the world. As the chaos worsens, a boy is arrested and taken into police custody. At
some point, suspicions begin to rise within the police station – could the boy be at the root of the whole
disaster? Might he even be the devil himself?

Producer: Tonee Acejo Story and Script/Screenplay: Eduardo ‘Dodo’ Dayao Directors of
Photography: Albert Banzon, Gym Lumbera Editor: Lawrence S. Ang Music: Marchushiro Nada, Ace Cada
Cast: Joel Lamangan, Timothy Mabalot, Andy Bais, Victor Neri
Production Company: Cinema One Originals, ronald_arguelles@abs-cbn.com; Quiapost Productions, quiapost.
productions@gmail.com
International Sales: Cinema One, Manila
Festivals and Awards: Cinema One Originals (The Philippines), Osaka Asian Film Festival (Japan), Karlovy Vary
(Czech Republic), BiFan (South Korea)

DODO DAYAO
paints, programmes, and writes about films. He is currently writing what he hopes will be his next feature
and finishing his first collection of essays. Violator is his first feature.

63
64
INDIA GOLD
Competition section for Indian feature films

65
 BINA PAUL
Head
INDIAN PROGRAMME

Bina Paul graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India
(FTII) with a specialisation in editing. She has edited over 35 feature
films and has worked with illustrious directors like G. Aravindan,
John Abraham and P.N. Menon. She is the recipient of two National
Awards and numerous State Awards for editing. She has been the
Artistic Director of the International Film Festival of Kerala for the
last ten years and has been responsible for the programming and
instrumental in shaping the festival into an important international
event. She has served on the juries of various international film
festivals including those held in Locarno, Durban, Morocco and
Berlin. Currently, she is the Regional Director of L.V Prasad Film &
TV Academy.

DEEPTI DCUNHA
Programmer
INDIAN PROGRAMME

Deepti DCunha is a Film Programmer specialising in Contemporary

Indian Cinema. She has been working on Indian and International
film festivals for the past seven years. She has been the India
Consultant to Marco Mueller since 2011 for Venice Film Festival,
Rome Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival and Silk Road
International film festival (SRIFF) in China. She has also programmed
for two editions of International Children's Film Festival of India
(ICFFI) and Osian's Cinefan film festival. Currently, Deepti programs
for the Chicago South Asian Film Festival (CSAFF). She sources and
curates films for the Viewing Room section and Work-in-progress
lab for the prestigious NFDC Film Bazaar. She is deeply committed
towards independent Indian cinema, a passion that keeps her driven
to scout for new films and fresh talent from all across the country.

66
India, in the Centre
Traditionally, Indian films do not tend to be centre-stage in film festivals in India. This year at Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai
Film Festival with Star India we decided to change this. The films in the India Gold section this year are a powerful
representation of the Indian reality in these times. Alienation, repression, violence, sexual violence, fear and despair
share space with creative imagination, compassion, memory, myth and the immutability of the Indian countryside and
its landscape. Indeed, it is these dualities, which often befuddle us in our contemporary Indian experience, that find their
way into the selection in the India Gold section as well. Dualities that are at once Indian and universal – contradictions
that perhaps every citizen of the world can empathise with.

Violence and the fearful stench of its aftermath leave its imprint in Visaaranai and Chauthi Koot even as the woman’s
body becomes another location of violence and transgression in Dau Huduni Methai and G–A Wanton Heart. While
Island City brings to the fore the sometimes idiosyncratic realities of living in a modern metropolis, idyllic Munroe Island
might not after all offer the refuge that it promises to a city-dweller. Motherhood – desired, undesired, ideal, and deeply
flawed – is the subject of Kothanodi, while in Umrika, a brother writes letters on behalf of his missing sibling so that their
mother can be spared heartbreak. In Mor Mann ke Bharam and Kaul, the viewer confronts the tricks that the mind can
play if left unfettered, while in The Violin Player, creativity struggles to shrug off the dust of mundane everydayness. Is the
loss of identity and home the greatest tragedy of all as shown in the The Head Hunter, or the wretchedness that one
experiences when identified as a lover, which holds us spellbound in Haraamkhor?

At the end, all one can add is that each film in this section here will compel you to keep thinking about it, and the
questions it raises, much after you have walked out of the theatre.

BINA PAUL
DEEPTI DCUNHA

67
68
 INDIA GOLD
VISAARANAI | INTERROGATION
Director: Vetri Maaran | India / 2015 / DCP / Col., B&W / Tamil, Telugu / 106 mins

Four immigrant boys – Pandi, Murugan, Kumar and Afsal – are detained under suspicion and forced to
confess a crime they know nothing of. Unable to withstand the atrocities of the police, three of the
boys succumb and are taken to the courts. Pandi, in a moment of feeble hope, shouts in despair for the
magistrate to hear the truth. When all hope seems to be lost, a policeman from their hometown speaks
on their behalf, setting them free. The policeman asks for a return favour and the boys oblige, oblivious to
the ill fate that awaits them. As they unwittingly bear witness to an act of political treason, they are caught
in a web of lies, deceit, betrayal and death. Pandi wants the world to know what happened, but the system
is determined to silence these boys.

Producer: Dhanush Kasthoori Raja Story and Script/Screenplay: M. Chandra Kumar / Vetri Maaran
Director of Photography: S. Ramalingam Editor: Kishore T. E. Music: G. V. Prakash Kumar Cast: Dinesh Ravi,
Samuthirakani
Production Company: Wunder Bar Films Pvt Ltd, S. Vinod
Indian Distributor: Lyca Productions Pvt Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: Venice International - Orizzonti

VETRI MAARAN
was mentored by Balu Mahendra, one of the best Indian filmmakers of his time. During Balu Mahendra’s
film shoot, Vetri Maaran met Dhanush, who later introduced him to the producer of his debut film,
Polladhavan. His second feature, Aadukalam (Arena) won several national awards. Visaaranai is Maaran’s
third feature.
Director’s Filmography: Polladhavan, 2007; Aadukalam, 2011

69
 INDIA GOLD
ISLAND CITY
Director: Ruchika Oberoi | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 110 mins

The film follows three comic­dramatic stories set in Mumbai. ‘Fun Committee’ is about a middle­aged man
stuck in a boring job, and recent reluctant recipient of the office ‘Fun Committee Award’, which entitles him
to a whole day full of fun. Armed with a special module that has been designed for maximum fun in the
shortest possible time, he sets off. Fun is now compulsory and non-compliance is not an option.
‘The Ghost in the Machine’ is about a family’s guilty indulgence – a television, banned by the man of the house,
Anil, who is now on life support. As Anil’s condition begins to improve, relief and happiness are accompanied by
some niggling questions: What will happen to their TV and their freedom once Anil is home?
‘Contact’ is the story of Aarti, who leads a mechanical, repetitive life of quiet desperation. One day, there
arrives a letter from someone who knows her most intimate thoughts – someone has been noticing her
and believes that she is special. Who could this secret admirer be?

Producer: National Film Development Corporation Limited Story and Script/Screenplay: Ruchika Oberoi
Director of Photography: Sylvester Fonseca Editor: Hemanti Sarkar Music: Sagar Desai Cast: Vinay
Pathak, Amruta Subhash, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Samir Kochhar, Uttara Baokar, Ashwin Mushran,
Sana Amin Sheikh.
Production company National Film Development Corporation Limited, 6th Floor, Discovery of India Building,
Nehru Centre, Dr. Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai 400018
International sales: Stray Dogs – Nathan Fischer. Phone: +33 6 5994 1284;
Email: nathan@stray-dogs.com
Indian distributor: National Film Development Corporation Limited
Festivals and Awards: 72nd Venice Film Festival 2015 (Venice Days); 31st Warsaw Film Festival (Winner, Best
Director of a Debut Film)

RUCHIKA OBEROI
is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Island City is her debut feature film.

70
 INDIA GOLD
MUNDROTHURUTH | MUNROE ISLAND
Director: Manu | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Malayalam / 92 mins

Keshu, a spaced out teenager, and his father go to their ancestral home in Munroe Island, where his
grandfather lives with Kathu, the maid. Keshu’s father wants to take Keshu for proper psychological
treatment, but his grandfather strongly wants him to stay back on the island. As Keshu pushes his definition
of liberty to extreme, unbearable limits, his grandfather and Kathu’s lives reach a crucial turning point.

Producer: Manu Story and Script/Screenplay: Manu Director of Photography: Pratap P. Nair
Editor: Manoj Kannoth Music: Subbu, Dawn, Ponnappan Cast: Indrans, Jason Chacko, Abhija, Alencier
Production Company: Cinema Lopamudra

MANU
Born in Kottarakkara, Kerala, in 1965, Manu worked as an editor, columnist and film critic in different
publications before becoming a script writer and associate for documentaries and television shorts. His
independent short film Goli (The Marbles Game, 2006), a tale of a ‘honeymoon divorce’, won state awards
and Jeevan-Atlas awards for direction, story and script. It was screened at several festivals in India and
featured in the competition section in Barcelona. His film French Revolution (2009) was screened in the
Short Film Corner at Cannes in 2010.
Director’s Filmography: Exit, 2004 Goli (The Marbles Game), 2006; Bridge Me Baby, 2007; French
Revolution, 2009

71
 INDIA GOLD
KOTHANODI
Director: Bhaskar Hazarika | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Assamese / 115 mins

Adapted from Assamese folk tales, the four stories that make up Kothanadi explore various shades of
motherhood. One woman puts her daughter’s life at stake for her pride; another struggles to become a
mother to her newborn child; one takes a stand for her child; and then there is a mother who had never
wanted to be one in the first place.

Producer/s: Anurupa Hazarika, Utpala Mukherjee Story and Script/Screenplay: Bhaskar Hazarika
Director of Photography: Vijay Kutty Editor: Suresh Pai Music: Amarnath Hazarika Cast: Adil Hussain,
Seema Biswas, Zerifa Wahid, Urmila Mahanta
Production company Metanormal Motion Pictures
Festivals and awards: ACF Post Production Fund Award 2015. Official Selection, Busan International Film Festival
2015. Official Selection, BFI London Film Festival 2015

BHASKAR HAZARIKA
Born in Dergaon, Assam, Bhaskar Hazarika graduated in History from St. Stephen’s College, University
of Delhi, and completed his Masters in Film & Drama from the University of Reading, England. He has
written extensively for Indian television shows as well as films, including co-writing the screenplay for
Players (2012). Bhaskar co-directed the documentary Live From Peepli (2010). He has produced and
directed documentaries for the Film and Television Institute of India, the United Nations Development
Programme, and the Government of India. His 2007 documentary, Nobody’s Perfect, was awarded at
the 2nd National Film Festival on Disability Issues, 2008.

72
 INDIA GOLD
DAU HUDUNI METHAI |
SONG OF THE HORNED OWL
Director: Manju Borah | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Bodo / 78 mins

As the insurgency and counterinsurgency in Northeast India continue to claim an alarming number of lives,
the very people in whose names these battles are fought are left feeling alienated. Dau Huduni Methai
recounts the effects of this ceaseless violence through the perspective of Raimali, a young woman who has
survived rape. As she lies in an abandoned house, Raimali reflects upon how violence has marred her life,
that of her lover and their families, contrasting its intrusive nature with the immutability of the Assamese
landscape and its indigenous folklore.

Producer: Shankar Lall Goenka Story and Script/Screenplay: Dr. Rashmirekha Bora / Manju Borah
Director of Photography: Sudheer Palsane Editor: A. Sreekar Prasad. Music: Aniruddha Borah
Cast: Reshma Mushahary, Jasmine Hazowary, Ahalya Daimary, Tony Basumatary, Nita Basumatary
Production company Shiven Arts. Goenka Enterprises, Kelvin Complex, SRCB Road, Tokobari, Guwahati-781001
Festivals and Awards: Montreal World Film Festival 2015

MANJU BORAH
Born in Assam, Manju Borah’s films explore the region’s culture and its impact on the person and society
as a whole. She is a recipient of several national as well as international awards, including the Women of
Excellence Award by FICCI for her outstanding contribution to the field of Film and Entrepreneurship
in 2009, and the Satyajit Ray Memorial Award by the Asian Film Foundation in 2012. She holds various
positions at different cine organisations.
Director’s Filmography: Baibhab (A Scam in Verse), 1999; Anya Ek Yatra, 2001; Aakashitorar Kothare…
(A Tale Told Thousand Times), 2003; Laaz (Shame), 2004; Joymati (The Saviour), 2006; Aai Kot Nai (MA), 2008; KO:YAD
(A Silent Way), 2012

73
 INDIA GOLD
G–A WANTON HEART
Director: Rahul Dahiya | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Haryanvi, Hindi / 103 mins

In a small village near Delhi, three lives are entangled in an intricate web of taboos associated with matters
of love and lust. Virender, a young man cruising the streets, indulges in all the acts society forbids women,
protecting or destroying their ‘honour’ at will. He knows that in his world, men are in charge of women’s
lives, their bodies and their honour. Kiran explores her own sexuality dangerously, as she romances Dheer,
her caste-brother. When Virendar’s sister, Diksha, is caught unguarded on an intruding camera, threatening
the family’s ‘honour’, it sets off a chain of violence and retribution.
Set in the lawless terrain of Haryana, a state in northern India known for its low sex ratio, where courtyards
and colleges are as firmly policed as bodies, G dwells on the daily humiliations and acts of violence around
love, lust and honour faced by women in this part of India.

Producer: Vinod Sharma Co-Producer: Sharib Raza Story and Script/Screenplay: Rahul Dahiya
Director of Photography: Sachin Kabir Editors: Pranay Nillay, Sandeep Singh Bajeli
Music: Anjo John Cast: Rajveer Singh, Neha Chauhan, Nitin Pandit, Rashmi Singh Somvanshi, Sandeep Goyat,
Vibha Dikshit
Production Company: SFE International. Mobile: +91-8879984199, +91-9811444804
Phone: 0124 4074167. Email: vs@sfeindia.com. Email: rahul.raj.dahiya@gmail.com
Festivals and Awards: Chicago South Asian Film Festival (Official Selection)

RAHUL DAHIYA
grew up between the metropolitan capital of Delhi, and his family’s village in Haryana. After graduating
from the prestigious St. Stephens College in New Delhi, he briefly studied at a film institute before
dropping out to pursue work with a television production house. He moved to Mumbai in 2005 and
after a stint in TV, assisted the award-winning director Sudhir Mishra on his films Khoya Khoya Chand
and Tera Kya Hoga Johnny. G is his first film.

74
 INDIA GOLD
MOR MANN KE BHARAM |
AN ILLUSION OF MY MIND
Directors: Karma Takapa, Heer Ganjwala, Abhishek Varma | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. /
Chhatisgarhi / 77 mins

In a small town in Chhattisgarh, secluded in a dingy room in an even dingier lodge, a writer toils away on
a novel. But the story continues to elude him. At times, he peeks out into the world through the single
window in the room, seeking inspiration. As he watches, the people, sights and sounds before him begin
transforming into the very stories he wants to write, and the plot of his novel twists and turns as he loses
himself in a world of his own imagination. As the line between illusion and reality begins to blur, the writer
struggles to distinguish one from the other. Will he succeed or will he lose himself in this illusion, becoming
just another protagonist in his own novel?

Producer: Humantrail Pictures and Viren Jain (BEC) Story and Script/Screenplay: Karma Takapa, Heer
Ganjwala, Abhishek Varma Director of Photography: Sonu Editor: Anadi Athaley
Music: Chandradeep Kuldeep Cast: Aparnaa, Ramesh Pani, Yuvraj Singh Azad, Tinku Devangan
Production company: Humantrail Pictures. 33, Vaibhav, Veer Savarkar Marg, Mahim, Mumbai 400016

KARMA TAKAPA, HEER GANJWALA AND ABHISHEK VARMA

have all trained in film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Takapa belongs to Gangtok,
Sikkim, and seeks to engage with the stories he tells in a way so that they may transcend their meaning and
scope. Ganjwala was born and brought up in Mumbai and loves to experiment with different media. She
likes to question visibly mundane things and delve deeper into their essence and nuances. Verma hails from
Lucknow and is interested in exploring the nuances of human relationships in the contemporary sphere.
Directors’ Filmography: Karma Takapa: Yahin Kahin Nahin, Short Fiction, 2014; Pangtoed Chaam,
Short Documentary, 2013; Thutse Kyuma, Short Fiction, 2012 Heer Ganjwala: Nikhil and the Magic Market,
Short Fiction, 2015; Reeti, Short Fiction, 2012; The Pilgrim, Short Documentary, 2013 Abhishek Varma: Zero,
Short Fiction, 2014; W:/M:, Short Fiction, 2012; Deritus, Short Documentary, 2013

75
 INDIA GOLD
KAUL | A CALLING
Director: Aadish Keluskar | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Marathi, Malvani / 118 mins

A village schoolteacher embarks on a mind-altering journey whose implications even he cannot fully
comprehend. Ultimately, he is left with only two options: complete the mysterious task assigned to him or
get himself admitted in an asylum.

Producer: Chin2 Singh, Uma Mahes Keluskar Story and Script/Screenplay: Aadish Keluskar
Director of Photography: Amey V Chavan Editor: Samira Kidman Music: Mannan Munjal Cast: Rohit
Kokate, Deepak Parab
Production Company: Chin Up Films, A/301, Anjali apt, Vaswanimarg. Seven Bungalows, Andheri west. Mumbai,
Maharashtra-400061. India
Festivals and Awards: World Premier Status in MAMI

AADISH KELUSKAR
is a writer/director based in Mumbai. A short film he made at the Film and Television Institute of India
was selected at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival, 2012. It won a Special Jury Mention in 2013 at the
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. His independent short film, Zero by Zero, was selected under the
Namaste India Section at Clermont-Ferrand Festival in 2013. Kaul is his debut feature film.

76
 INDIA GOLD
CHAUTHI KOOT |
THE FOURTH DIRECTION
Director: Gurvinder Singh | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Punjabi / 115 mins

The film evokes the atmosphere of suspicion, fear and paranoia of the Punjab of the 1980s. The film
presents two incidents: a farmer is asked to kill his family dog, and, a few months later, two Hindu friends
try to reach Amritsar. As one story flows into the other and back, what binds the two is the condition of
the common man in 1980s Punjab—trapped between the excesses of the military on one side, and the
militant movement for a separate Sikh nation, on the other.

Producer: Kartikeya Singh Story and Script/Screenplay: Gurvinder Singh, Waryam Singh Sandhu, Jasdeep
Singh Director of Photography: Satya Rai Nagpaul Editor: Bhupesh Micky Sharma Music: Marc Marder
Cast: Suvinder Vikky, Rajbir Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur Bhangu, Taranjeet Singh
Production Company: The Film Café Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, +919820899166, thefilmcafe@gmail.com
International sales: The Film Café Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Indian distributor: The Film Café Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: Official selection, Un certain Regard, Festival De Cannes 2015
Paris Project Award, Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF), 2012

GURVINDER SINGH
After living with folk itinerants in Punjab between 2002 and 2006, documenting folk ballads and oral
narratives, Gurvinder Singh made multiple short experimental works. He directed his first fiction feature,
Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (Alms for the Blind Horse) in 2011. It won three National Awards in India,
including Best Direction and Best Cinematography.
Filmography: Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (Alms for the Blind Horse), 2011

77
 INDIA GOLD
THE HEAD HUNTER
Director: Nilanjan Datta | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Wancho / 109 mins

The film is about a warrior-like old man who belongs to the forgotten Wancho tribe, in an ancient forest of
Northeast India, and is known for its practice of headhunting. He is the lone caretaker of one of the most
dangerous forests of India. When the government decides to build a road through the old man’s forest, he
resists and becomes a nuisance for the administration. Eventually, a city-bred young official, who belongs
to the same tribe, tricks him into spending a few days in the city. For the first time in his life, the old man
encounters the concept of money, concrete buildings, crowds of people and complex living. But when he
returns to his forest, everything has changed. This is a story of loss of identity and shelter, which echoes the
tragedy of many others over the world.

Producer: Dr. Rajiv Nag, Dhiraj Singh, Tejas Shah, Nilanjan Datta Story and Script/Screenplay: Nilanjan Datta,
Rupak Das, Navnita Sen Datta Director of Photography: Maulshri Singh Editor: Navnita Sen Datta
Music: Anmol Bhave Cast: Nokshaa Saham, Mrigendra Konwar, Pramod
Production company Splash Films Private Limited, +91 9820729212, nilanjandatta@splashfilms.com

NILANJAN DATTA
Having grown up in Arunachal Pradesh, Nilanjan’s advent to cinema is to tell stories from the
North East. The Head Hunter is his first feature film. His earlier work includes documentary films and
short fiction films. He won the National Award as Director in the 55th National Film Awards, 2009.
Presently, he is Associate Professor of Film Editing at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune,
from where he also graduated
Director’s Filmography:
The Toppers, 2011; Bhanga-Gara (To Break...To Create), 2006; Secular Architecture, 2005

78
 INDIA GOLD
THE VIOLIN PLAYER
Director: Bauddhayan Mukherji | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 72 mins

Many musicians and their talents are lost in a crowd of unknown faces in the industry. The Violin Player is the
story of one such unknown face, a day in the life of a failed Bollywood session violinist who finds expression
in an unlikely place. A complete stranger’s request changes his entire life, making everything else pale in
comparison. In this unusual encounter, human survival will be put to test and so will human tolerance. But
who will win in the end? Can art wash away the dust of everyday life from our souls? The film ventures
inside the human mind to find answers to these questions.

Producer: Monalisa Mukherji Story and Script/Screenplay: Bauddhayan Mukherji Director of

Photography: Avik Mukhopadhyay Editor: Arghyakamal Mitra Music: Bhaskar Dutta, Arnab Chakraborty
Cast: Ritwick Chakraborty, Adil Hussain, Nayni Dixit, Sonam Stobgais
Production Company: Little Lamb Films Pvt. Ltd., Monalisa Mukherji. 9821582444

BAUDDHAYAN MUKHERJI
Bauddhayan Mukherji is considered a path breaker in Indian advertising filmmaking. He runs his own
production house, Little Lamb Films. He has directed more than 300 television commercials and won
numerous international awards. His debut film was the critically acclaimed Bengali feature Teenkahon
(Three Obsessions). The Violin Player is his second feature.
Director’s Filmography: Teenkahon, 2014

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 INDIA GOLD
HARAAMKHOR
Director: Shlok Sharma | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. Hindi / 92 mins

Shyam, a school teacher in a small town in Gujarat, is in an extramarital relationship with his teenage
student, Sandhya. The sole spectators of this secret love affair are Kamal and Mintu, her classmates. As
Kamal’s love for Sandhya surfaces, matters begin to get complicated. With a criss-cross of stirring emotions
that cut across gender and age, Haraamkhor follows the journey of three wretched souls in pursuit of love.

Producers: Guneet Monga, Feroze Alameer, Anurag Kashyap Story and Script/Screenplay: Shlok Sharma
Director of Photography: Siddharth Diwan Editor: Kratika Adhikari Music: Vishal Khurana.
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shweta Tripathi
Production Company: Sikhya Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Khussro Films, guneet@sikhya.in
Festivals and Awards: Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (Best Actress); New York Indian Film Festival
(Best Actor); London Indian Film Festival; Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart; Indian Film Festival of Melbourne; Indian
International Film Festival, Tampa; Chicago South Asian Film Festival

SHLOK SHARMA
This child prodigy made his entry into feature films at a young age of 14, when he wrote his first
feature film script. Starting off as a production assistant, he soon found himself assisting Vishal
Bharadwaj on Blue Umbrella and Omkara. He has also worked on Blood Brothers, Dev D, No Smoking,
and Gangs of Wasseypur, among numerous others. He has directed various ad films and several award-
winning short films, including Sujata, which earned him several accolades in the film festival circuit.
Director’s Filmography: Sujata, Short Film; The Joy of Giving, Short Film; Bombay Mirror, Short
Film; Tubelight ka Chand, Short Film

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 INDIA GOLD
UMRIKA
Director: Prashant Nair | India / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 102 mins

A young man leaves his village in India to pursue the American dream. He regularly writes back to his
family, describing his experiences. As his letters suddenly stop coming in, his younger brother realises that
his brother, who they long believed to be in ‘Umrika’, has actually gone missing. He decides to trace his
brother’s steps in an attempt to find him, in the meanwhile inventing letters on his behalf to spare their
mother from heartbreak. Umrika is a heartwarming film about the lure of the American dream and the
plight of those who seek it illegally.

Producers: Swati Shetty, Manish Mundra Story and Script/Screenplay: Prashant Nair Director of
Photography: Petra Korner Editor: Patricia Rommel, Xavier Box Music: Dustin O’Halloran Cast: Suraj Sharma,
Tony Revolori, Smita Tambe, Prateik Babbar, Adil Hussain, Pramod Pathak, Amit Sial, Rajesh Tailang, Sauraseni Maitra
Production company: Samosa Stories, 401, Fabian 2, St.Martins Road, Bandra West, Mumbai 400050
International Sales: ICM Partners (North America); Beta Cinema (International)
Indian Distributor: Drishyam Films
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival (Audience Award); Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Mosaic
South Asian Film Festival; Indian Film Festival Stuttgart; London Indian Film Festival; Oldenburg International Film Festival;
Silk Road International Film Festival; Vancouver International Film Festival; Hamptons International Film Festival; Chicago
International Film Festival

PRASHANT NAIR
is an Indian-born French writer-director who spent his childhood in Switzerland, Sudan, Syria, Zambia
and Austria. Prior to filmmaking, he was a social media entrepreneur for 12 years, living in New York,
Prague and Paris. His first film, the micro-budget Delhi In A Day, released theatrically in India in 2012 and
was voted one of the top ten independent films of 2012 by the Times of India. Umrika, his third feature-
length film, has played at numerous festivals and been acquired for theatrical release in over 20 countries.
Director’s Filmography: Delhi in a Day, 2012

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DIMENSIONS MUMBAI
Short films by Mumbai filmmakers

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 SANTOSH PATHARE AMIT CHAVAN
Curator Curator
DIMENSIONS MUMBAI DIMENSIONS MUMBAI

Santosh Pathare is Associate Professor at the Amit Chavan is an ardent film lover. Having
Department of Chemistry at the Guru Nanak started his career as an animator and corporate
College of Arts, Mumbai, and is currently filmmaker, he is now actively working as a
pursuing a PhD. Besides having served as NSS significant member of the film society circuit in
District Coordinator of Mumbai City, Mr. Pathare Mumbai. He is Assistant Regional Secretary at the
nurtures a keen interest in social service and film Federation of Film Societies of India. He has also
appreciation. He has written several articles on dedicated his efforts in spreading film literacy
regional and world cinema for major publications, through several workshops, seminars and lectures
and regularly conducts workshops for students for college students.
and film lovers. He is on the board of some
of the most prominent film societies in India,
including the Prabhat Chitra Mandal (as General
Secretary) and Federation of Film Societies of
India, Western Region (as Treasurer). He has
been invited to serve as jury member at several
prestigious film festivals around the world.

JEROO MULLA UDITA JHUNJHUNWALA

Selection Committee Selection Committee
DIMENSIONS MUMBAI DIMENSIONS MUMBAI

Jeroo Mulla was formerly the Head of the Udita Jhunjhunwala is a writer, critic and author
Social Communications Media Department, with more than 20 years’ experience in media
Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai where she taught and entertainment. Her contributions appear
film appreciation and supervised student in the Hindustan Times, Mint, Vogue India, New
documentaries for over 30 years. Currently she Indian Express and scroll.in, among others. She
teaches at Sophia Polytechnic, Xavier’s Institute is also a regular voice on BBC Network Asia,
of Communications, Mumbai, and Symbiosis UK. She’s currently learning Spanish in the hope
Institute of Mass Communications, Pune. She was of watching a Pedro Almodóvar film without
the first recipient of the Professor Satish Bahadur subtitles.
Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding
Contribution to Film Studies in South Asia at the
Alpaviram Film Festival at the National Institute
of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. She is also an
accomplished Bharatnatyam exponent, a disciple
of the renowned guru Acharya Parvatikumar,

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A WISE CRAB
Director:Yashasvi Juyal | India / 2015 / B&W / Hindi, English / 4:14 mins
A spot boy, lovingly called Kekda, dreams of becoming a filmmaker some day. Born in the very heart of cinema, Filmcity, this
keeper of other people’s lives smiles through his struggles as he tries to attain his own dream.

BOMBAY VISION
Director: Amol Aglave | India / 2015 / DVD / Col. / Hindi / 4:12 mins
A passenger travelling on the last Mumbai local train sees a man enter his compartment with a huge bag. The man gets off
at the next station, but leaves the bag behind. Struck with fear and suspicion, the passenger runs after him, but the man is
nowhere to be seen. Who was he and what could be in the bag? In light of the recent terror attacks in Mumbai, this film
delves into the minds of the people of Mumbai – the city that famously doesn’t sleep, but whose citizens now live in the
shadow of doubt and fear.

BUOYANCY ‘FLOATING IDEAS’

Directors:Yohan Fernandes, Keith D’souza, Triambak Kala | India / 2015 / Col. / Hindi, English / 4:59 mins
Movies are often remembered and recognised by certain stand-out scenes and shots that wowed the audiences. Buoyancy is
the story of two young roommates in Mumbai who are obsessed with the idea of creating a film around an ‘award-winning
shot’. Their misinterpretation of a film festival’s rules sets them off on an absurd journey of making a bizarre film with that
one unforgettable moment.

DARBADAR
Director: Aayushi Sharma| India / 2015 / B&W / Sanskrit / 5 mins
Shot in the form of a music video, this film tells the day-to-day story of the inner conflicts of Mumbai. Using music inspired by
Lord Shiva’s angry energy that brought the entire universe into being, Darbadar offers a look at the agony, aggression, longing
and hope that are the constant companions of this city of dreams.

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FEW MINUTES TO INFINITY

Director:Vaibhav Dhandha | India / 2015 / DVD / Col. / Marathi / 4:59 mins
A young man is stuck in a time loop after he loses his parents to the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai. His loved
ones face a dilemma: should they tell him the truth? Or is it better if he remains in his never-ending loop of happiness?

G.H.A.R
Director: Bhanu Babbal | India / 2015 / 1080P / Col. / English / 4:59 mins
G.H.A.R is a short documentary film based on the life of Sachin Jain, founder of the Gay Housing Assistance Resource, which
helps LGBT people find safe housing in Mumbai. What started out in 1998 as a Yahoo group with one member, has now
grown to a Facebook group with over 2,200 members.

GHALIN LOTANGAN | I SHALL BOW

Director:Vedanti Chandrakant Dani | India / 2015 / DVD / Col. / 2:48 mins
A middle class housewife living in a small flat in Mumbai finds her traditional upbringing and conditioning interrupted by the
compulsions of a metropolitan lifestyle. Her attempts to strike a balance between her religious obligations and material needs
throw up interesting questions about our lives, often forcing us to question futile practices.

HEART OF A LION
Director: Siddharth Sathyajit | India / 2015 / Col. / English, Hindi, Marathi / 4:59 mins
Rupesh Pawar quits his MNC job to work for the police department, in the hope that he can bring about some change – in
his life as well as in the lives of people around him. In offering a glimpse into the life of a much-stereotyped figure, the Indian
policeman – the ordinary life he leads, his hopes, dreams, aspirations and pressures – Heart of a Lion Shows us the human
being behind the uniform, a side we too often overlook, or choose to ignore.

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KAALI PEELI | BLACK AND YELLOW

Director: Harsh Sethia | India / 2015 / Col. / Hindi / 4:45 mins
After the recent regulation by the government, Mumbai’s iconic Premier Padmini (Fiat) taxies will soon vanish from the
Mumbai roads. The film traces Padmini’s history, its rise in the Indian markets, why it was chosen as a taxi in Mumbai, and the
dilemma the new regulation poses for Mumbai taxi drivers. As the city loses a part of its heritage, this film looks at our ideas
of growth, change and our own place in the world.

KUNAL
Director: Dhruv Sehgal | India / 2015 / HD / Col. / Hindi / 5 mins
Kunal is a regular, hard-working Mumbaikar who has a nine-to-five job and lives with his wife in suburban Mumbai. Every day,
he comes back home from work, watches TV, talks to his wife over dinner, and after she goes to sleep, he operates his own
radio channel. On it, Kunal shares memories and anecdotes, or regales his fellow Mumbaikars with folk tales.This film is about
one day when Kunal describes to his listeners an incident that took place on a local train.

MAFIA RAJ
Director: Aman Khan | India / 2015 / MOV / Col. / Hindi / 4:51 mins
23-year-old Raj Mistry, from a well-respected Parsi family, dreams of becoming the ultimate druglord, but things don’t seem
to be going too well for him. In a desperate bid to impress his boss – the most feared and respected man in Mumbai, Salman
Mirza – he decides to get Mirza’s only daughter kidnapped, in the hopes of ‘saving’ her and becoming a hero. But soon things
spiral out of control.

MANNAT | WISH
Director: Ensia Mirza | India / 2015 / Digital / Col. / 5 mins
What could possibly be common between Jumbo, a street entertainer, and Arjun, a Bandra boy? Apparently, a lot – their
passion for films for one. Mannat is the story of an unlikely friendship and the bonds that form between people in the city
based on their common struggles, regardless of who they are and where they come from.

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MEET THE VOICE

Director: Disha Noyonika Rindani | India / 2015 / HD DVD / Col. / English, Hindi / 5 mins
Their unwavering voices are the chorus to the soundtrack of this city and yet we know so little about them. This short
documentary unravels the faces behind the voices that have been intrinsically present in the lives of most Mumbaikars since
the late 1980s – a journey into the lives of railway announcers Sarla Chaudhary and Ganesh Srinivas.

MIMOS
Director: Srishti Jain | 2015 / Col. / Marathi / 5 mins
Tarak Dutta, a prolific mime artist, arrives in Mumbai with big dreams, only to find that the city of dreams is disillusioned with
his art form. Hard-pressed to make a living, he works in tea stalls, does construction labour, sleeps on roads, as the artist in
him falls apart each day. Many years have passed and he now lives with his wife in a small apartment in Malvani. A paralytic
attack has compromised his movement, but he still dreams of the stage, for that is where he belongs.

MINIMUM CITY
Director: Harshit Agrawal | India / 2015 / B&W / English / 5 mins
On her return to Mumbai after a long vacation, Unaiza finds that her city no longer feels like home. To make matters worse,
her house lease has expired and she now feels completely out of place in this now alien city. At the end of her farewell party,
her bags packed, she wonders where the future will take her.

NAWAZ
Director: Nitish Budhkar | 2015 / India / Col. / Hindi / 5 mins
Mumbai, the land of cinema, attracts hundreds of people every day, who come to seek their dreams with passion, enthusiasm
and a determination to make their aspirations come true. But what happens when the reality is far away from the dream?
What happens when these dreams die? Is the human spirit killed along with it? The film explores this gap between struggles
and success – a line that often runs very thin.

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SASTA BACHCHAN
Director: Tabu Kaariya | India / 2015 / HD / Col. / Hindi / 4.59 mins
Mumbai gives everybody a chance to become somebody. Meet Shashikant Pedwal, whose uncanny resemblance to no less
than India’s biggest filmstar, Amitabh Bachchan, has made him an overnight celebrity.

SHUKRAVAR
Director: Prathamesh Patil | India / 2015 / Col. / Marathi / 5 mins
Janardhan, a 50-something-year-old man stays in a chawl in Mumbai, and makes idols for a living. Every morning, he leaves for
work and in the evening, deposits some money in his three piggy banks, labelled ‘Roti’, ‘Makan’, and ‘Shukravar’. Every Friday,
for the past 22 years, he has been going to the same place – no one knows where. What is this mysterious place? Who does
he meet? The film tracks Janardhan’s steps leading to that one day that unveils the mystery behind these Friday visits.

SILLY SHEEP
Director: Pranav Bhasin | India / 2015 / HD / Col. / English, Hindi / 4:58 mins
Have you ever walked into an elevator with somebody you don’t know? What do you do in such a situation? Do you lead
them into a conversation? Or do you act as if they don’t exist? This film centres around one such encounter where a jaded
office-going man decides to let his otherwise suppressed inner nihilist loose.

TALES FROM MERWAN’S

Director: Suyash Kamat | India / 2015 / Col. / English / 5 mins
In 2014, when the 100-year-old Irani café B. Merwan & Co was supposed to shut down, two photographers Raj Lalwani &
Kashish Parpiani decided to document the last days of the café, as a tribute to an establishment that had seen generations
share invaluable conversations, chais and most importantly, the delicious and piping mava cakes. Exploring the changing
relationship between the city and its people, this film is about memory and identity and the often haphazard ways in which
the old replaces the new.

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TOOT-TA JUDTA ADMI

Director: Yashowardhan Mishra / India / 2015 / HD / B&W, Col. / Hindi / 5 mins
A man falls prey to a hooch tragedy, which has killed hundreds in a large ghetto of Mumbai. After his death, the man’s family
is on the verge of breakdown. What follows is a vicious cycle of greed, grief and struggle for survival in the big city.

UNTRACEABLE
Director: Mayank Shah | India / 2015 / DVD / Col. / Hindi / 5 mins
A man stumbles upon a wallet and decides to locate its owner to return it. An honest man on a mission, he sets off with
limited clues and some help, and ends up in the city’s most densely populated area – Dharavi. During his search, he meets
many helpful people but despite his best efforts, the chances seem dim. Will he be able to complete the search that he
has begun?

VADA PAV INC.

Director: Siddharth Aalambayan | India / 2015 / HD / Col. / 5 mins
This is the story of how the ‘Vada’ met the ‘Pav’, found ‘Teekha-Meetha’ on its way, only to end up becoming a multi-crore
grossing snack that is pretty much synonymous with Mumbai. The highest vada-pav selling company in the city grosses Rs 40
crore annually, but the person who started it might have to shut shop. Meet Ashok Vaidya, the man who invented the vada-
pav – the iconic street food of Mumbai – and who now faces an uncertain future.

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WORLD CINEMA
India premieres of the best films across the world

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92
Over the last eight to ten months, all of us members of the selection committee have fought, cried and laughed as
we sifted through the several hundred entries and made some tough choices. There were many sleepless nights and
frantic moments. I remember watching films on my iPhone during airport-transits, in order not to miss a deadline. But
at the end of the day, we were always left stunned by the magic of cinema and the sheer beauty of life in all its glory
portrayed in these films with such passion. I can say with all sincerity that the toughest moments were those when
we had to reject a film as we understood the pain, determination and ordeals of the filmmaker while making his/her
film. This feeling was heightened by the fact that most of the submissions came from truly gifted indie filmmakers who
had made their films without much financial support. We could see the potential, but since there is a limit to the total
number of films we could select, it was hard to accommodate them all.

Although the main criterion in the World Cinema section, as before, was to showcase good cinema from all over the
world, this year, we made sure it was an eclectic mix of award winners, art-house, auteur and avant-garde.

We also wanted to bring diversity to the selection, not only geographically, but also in terms of screening films
reflecting different styles of filmmaking within the same country. For example, from China, it was really interesting to
see an auteur-based film, Mountains May Depart by Jia Zhang-Ke, and a mainstream animation film such as Monster
Hunt. Out earlier this year, the latter is the highest grossing film from China to date.This also gelled well with Jio MAMI’s
mantra for this year, i.e., aiming to be an inclusive festival.

Similarly from the United States, it was fascinating to see indie gems such as Tangerine (which has been shot on an
iPhone), Mistress America and Krisha, making evident that there is much more to American cinema than just mainstream
Hollywood films.

This year, documentaries play an important part in our World Cinema section. Amina Profile, Missing People, and The Visit
may be singled out as they never tend towards sensationalism and subtly yet successfully manage to connect the dots
and draw oblique references. Again, Cartel Land is a brilliant documentary that looks at the drug trade in Mexico told
from an insider’s perspective. It was also a special year for documentaries made on screen legends and we seized the
opportunity by including these films on Fassbinder, Sidney Lumet, Ingrid Bergman and Jia Zhang-Ke.

There are other filmmakers such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Guy Madden, Miguel Gomes, Terrence Davis and Ben Rivers,
whom we wanted to acknowledge and honour for their incredible vision by screening their films: The Assassin,
Forbidden Room, Arabian Nights, Sunset Song, Sky Trembles, respectively. These films clearly belong completely to these
extraordinarily gifted directors. Each is challenging in its own way, but also stylistically unique, making optimum use of
Cinema’s potential as a medium.

Unsurprisingly, a number of films in our selection this year, like Dog Lady, Agnieszka, Second Mother, have women
protagonists from all walks of life and all over the world facing the same problems based on centuries-old prejudices
and being subjected to repression and man-made rules. However, they left us speechless by refusing to play the victim
and fighting back on their own terms, and with enormous dignity.

Women directors have done a splendid job again this year, covering varied themes. For example, Laura Citerella’s Dog
Lady, which tells the story of a marginalised set of people, barely eking out an existence on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.
While Body from Polish auteur Malgorzata Szumowska is a black comedy about a family dealing with grief and loss and
attempting to make a spiritual connection with the beloved family member who is no more.

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 Landscape is an integral part of many of the movies we have selected, which portray the delicate and often inescapable
equation between human beings and their surroundings. Films such as Sunset Song, Sky Trembles, and Atlantic eloquently
establish the permanence and importance of land throughout history and the passing of humans across generations.

Never did we forget, while selecting these gems, that the MAMI audience is seriously special in terms of their levels of
discernment and nuance. If our sources said, ‘Mumbai may not be ready for this film…,’ we would fight back saying, ‘No,
our audience is made up of cinephiles.’

Now, over to you, cinephiles!

ANU RANGACHAR

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THE 33
Director: Patricia Riggen | US / 2013 / 2D Digital / Col. / English / 128 mins
The 33 is the behind-the-scenes story of 33 survivors who lived through the incredible Chilean mine
collapse in 2010 – the longest underground survival story in history. Over 69 days, an international
team worked night and day to rescue the trapped men as their families and friends, as well as
millions of people around the world, waited and watched anxiously for any sign of hope. But 200
stories beneath the surface, in the suffocating heat and with tensions rising, provisions – and time –
were quickly running out. A story of resilience, personal transformation and triumph of the human
spirit, the film takes us to the Earth’s darkest depths, revealing the psyches of those who were
trapped, and the courage of the miners and their families who refused to give up.
Producers: Mike Medavoy, Robert Katz, Edward McGurn Story and Script/Screenplay: Jose
Rivera, Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten, Michael Thomas Director of Photography: Checco Varese
Editor: Michael Tronick Music: James Horner Cast: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette
Binoche, James Brolin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bob Gunton, Gabriel Byrne
Production Company: Alcon Entertainment; Phoenix Pictures Indian Distributor: Warner Bros.
Pictures India Pvt. Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: Busan International Film Festival 2015; Cameraimage Film Festival

PATRICIA RIGGEN
is a Mexican film director. After gaining experience in journalism and writing for documentaries, she moved
to New York City, where she received her Master’s degree in Directing and Screenwriting at Columbia
University. Her first major film, La Misma Luna, released in 2007.
Director’s Filmography: The Cornfield, Short, 2002; Family Portrait, Documentary Short, 2004; Under
the Same Moon, 2007; Revolucion, 2010; Lemonade Mouth, TV Movie, 2011; Girl in Progress, 2012

45 YEARS
Director: Andrew Haigh | UK / 2015 / Col. / English / 95 mins
Kate Mercer and Geoff, an easy-going provincial couple, are eagerly preparing for their forty-fifth
anniversary when Geoff receives a shattering piece of news from the Swiss authorities – the
perfectly-preserved body of his ex-girlfriend, Katya, has been found, 50 years after she slipped into
an Alpine crevasse. Geoff is visibly affected by this, and Kate is apprehensive and uncomfortable. As
tensions rise, the atmosphere turns silent and uneasy, and 45 years of marriage are pushed into a
different perspective.

Producer: Tristan Goligher Story and Script/Screenplay: David Constantine, Andrew Haigh
Editor: Jonathan Alberts Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine James, Dolly Wells, Max
Rudd, David Sibley
Production Company: The Bureau International Sales: Artificial Eye
Festivals and Awards: 65th Berlin International Film Festival 2015 (nominated for Golden Bear);
Edinburgh International Film Festival (Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film)

ANDREW HAIGH
is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. Haigh worked as an assistant editor on films such as
Gladiator and Black Hawk Down before debuting as a writer/director with the short film Oil.
Director’s Filmography: Oil, Short Film, 2003; Cahuenga Blvd, Short Film, 2003; Markings, Short Film,
2005; Five Miles Out, Short Film, 2009; Greek Pete, 2009; Weekend, 2011

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99 HOMES
Director: Ramin Bahrani | US / 2014 / Col. / English / 112 mins
Rick Carver, a charismatic and ruthless businessman, is making a fortune by repossessing homes and
scamming the real estate market, Wall Street banks and the US government. But Dennis Nash, a single
father trying to take care of his mother and young son, is desperate and will do anything to keep his
home – even if it means making a deal with the devil himself. Nash can keep his home on one condition
– on Carver’s orders he must evict other families from their homes. As Nash finds himself increasingly
trapped in Carver’s web of wealth and glamour, his situation grows more brutal and dangerous than
had he ever imagined.

Producers: Ramin Bahrani, Ashok Amritraj, Justin Nappi Story and Script/Screenplay: Bahareh
Azimi, Ramin Bahrani, Amir Naderi Director of Photography: Bobby Bukowski Editor: Ramin
Bahrani Music: Antony Partos Cast: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern
Production Company: Broad Green Pictures; Hype Park Entertainment; Image Nation
Festivals and Awards: Venice International Film Festival (Official Selection); Sundance Film Festival
(Official Selection); Toronto International Film Festival (Official Selection); Deauville American Film Festival
2015 (Best Picture)

RAMIN BAHRANI
is an American-Iranian director and screenwriter. In 2010 legendary film critic Roger Ebert proclaimed
Bahrani as ‘the director of the decade’. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship,
and was the subject of several international retrospectives including at MoMA in New York City. Bahrani has
won numerous awards, including the ‘Someone to Watch’ Spirit Award (Chop Shop, 2008) and the critic’s
prize for best film in Venice (Goodbye Solo, 2009).
Director’s Filmography: Man Push Cart, 2005; Chop Shop, 2006; Goodbye Solo, 2009; Plastic Bag, Short
Film, 2009; At Any Price, 2012; Lift You Up, Short Film, 2014; Lemonade War, Short, 2014

AFERIM
Director: Radu Jude | Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Romanian /
108 mins
In 19th century Romania, a policeman called Costandin and his son, Ionita, travel through the south
of the country in search of a fugitive Gypsy slave. While Costandin is a cross between an amusing
Stalin and a pragmatic Don Quixote, Ionita seems to be quite the opposite – more like Dostoevsky’s
‘Idiot’, finding himself in the unfortunate situation of having to settle his inner turmoil while riding,
holding a sword or a gun. As their road winds through exotic landscapes, they meet a diverse variety
of people, with a surprise at every turn. Pictured with infectious humour and stirring cynicism, the
film offers an astute illustration of late-feudal Europe, while keeping the authenticity of the age.

Producer: Ada Solomon Story and Script/Screenplay: Radu Jude, Florin Lăzărescu Director of
Photography: Marius Panduru RSC Editor: Cătălin Cristuțiu Cast: Teodor Corban, Mihai Comănoiu,
Toma Cuzin Production Company: Hi Film Productions
Festivals and Awards: Berlinale 2015 (In Competition)

RADU JUDE
was born in Bucharest and graduated from the filmmaking department of Media University. After working
as an assistant director, he directed a series of short films including the award-winning The Tube with a Hat
(2006) and Alexandra (2007). His debut feature film, The Happiest Girl in the World (2009) was awarded the
CICAE prize at the Berlinale Forum in 2009. His forthcoming film, Scarred Hearts, is an adaptation of a Max
Blecher novel.

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AGNIESZKA
Director: Tomasz E. Rudzik | Germany / 2014 / DCP / Col. / German, Polish / 98 mins
Without a penny in her pocket and on the run from her own dark past, the driven and hard-boiled
Agnieszka, leaves her native Poland and flees to Germany. In Munich she meets Madame, a former
ballet diva, who provides her with refuge and a job. Agnieszka starts to work as a dominatrix for
Madame, and becomes like a daughter to her. All seems well until 16-year-old Manuel falls in love
with Agnieszka and she begins to reciprocate. But Madame is not one to sit quiet.

Producers: Alexandra Kordes, Meike Kordes Story and Script/Screenplay: Tomasz E. Rudzik
Director of Photography: Dorian Dragoi (RSC) Editor: Alina Teodorescu Music: Florian Riedl,
Martin Kolb Cast: Karolina Gorczyca, Hildegard Schmahl, Lorenzo Nedis Walcher
Production Company: Kordes & Kordes Film Süd GmbH
International Sales: ARRI Worldsales

TOMASZ EMIL RUDZIK

was born in 1979 at the Polish-Czech border in Cieszyn, Poland, and immigrated with his parents to Co-
logne, Germany. He studied Film Direction at the University of Television and Film in Munich. After a number
of award-winning short films, he shot his feature-length graduation film Desperados on the Block.

AL TARIK | THE ROAD

Director: Rana Salem | Lebanon / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Lebanese / 98 mins
Rana and Guy, a young married couple live in contemporary Beirut, a city forced into modernity and
constantly transforming to the rhythm of an unstable environment.Rana suddenly quits her job and
falls slowly into a state of limbo. Guy decides they need to leave their home and go on a road-trip.
They head for the mountains. As they travel they remember moments they had almost forgotten.
Will the road bring them closer to themselves and ultimately to each other? The film was awarded
the FIPRESCI prize at the 37th Moscow International Film Festival in 2015.

Producer: Crystal Salem and Rana Salem Story and Script/Screenplay: Rana Salem Director
of Photography: Nadim Saoma Editor: Maria Malek Music: Alan Vega, Charbel Haber, Scrambled
Eggs, Kid Fourteen, The Incompetents Cast: Rana Salem and Guy Chartouni
Production Company: Artrip Productions
Festivals and Awards: Moscow International Film Festival 2015 (FIPRESCI Award); Montreal World Film
Festival 2015; Colombo International Film Festival 2015; 60th Cork Film Festival; Gijon Film Festival 2015

RANA SALEM
graduated in 2004 from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. Her graduation film won awards for
the Best Lebanese Student Short Film and prizes for best director and best sound at Lebanese
festivals, and was screened at various festivals abroad including the European film festival and the
Med-film festival in Rome. Al Tarik is her first feature film.
Director’s Filmography: Where To?, 2003; The Red Balloon, Animation, 2005; First Floor Right,
Short Fiction, 2005; Window, Short Fiction, 2007; Essay From a Room, Documentary, 2011

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ANOMALISA
Director: Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman | US / 2015 / Col. / English / 90 mins
Michael Stone, an inspirational speaker, is on a one-night business trip to Cincinnati from Los Angeles.
Despite having authored a bestseller on customer service, he finds himself struggling to connect with
people. His encounter with a charming telesales agent called Lisa could potentially help him change his
outlook towards life, and help him transcend his tedious existence.

Producers: Rosa Tran, Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson, Dino Stamatopoulos Story and Script/
Screenplay: Charlie Kauffman Director of Photography: Joe Passarelli Editor: Garret Elkins
Music: Carter Burwell Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Thewlis, Tom Noonan
Production Company: Starburns Productions
Festivals and Awards: Telluride Film Festival; Venice International Film Festival 2015 (Grand Jury Prize)

CHARLIE KAUFMAN
is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and lyricist. He wrote the critically acclaimed films Being
John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and made his directorial debut with
Synecdoche, New York. Often regarded as one of the finest screenwriters of the 21st century, Kaufman has
been nominated for three Academy Awards.
DUKE JOHNSON
is a director and producer, known for Anomalisa, 2015; Marrying God, 2006; Beforel Orel: Trust, 2012

AS MIL E UMA NOITES |

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS vol. I
Director: Miguel Gomes | Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland / 2015 / DCP / Col. /
125 mins, 131 mins, 125 mins
These three films are modern adaptations of the epic One Thousand and One Nights, set in
Portugal – a country in crisis. Against the background of the financial crash, a film director proposes
to build fictional stories from the miserable reality he is immersed in. However, overwhelmed by
circumstances, he runs away and leaves the beautiful Scheherazade to stand in his shoes. As the
nights go by, Scheherzade tells stories about the country – enchanting stories that combine austere
reality with the fantastic.
Vol. I: O INQUIETO | THE RESTLESS ONE: In which Scheherazade tells of the
restlessness that befell the country…

Producers: O Som e a Fúria; Shellac Sud;Komplizen Film; Box Productions Story and Script/
Screenplay: Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo, Telmo Churro Editors: Telmo Churro, Pedro Filipe
Marques, Miguel Gomes Music: Mariana Ricardo Cast: (Vol. I) Crista Alfaiate, Adriano Luz, Américo
Silva, Rogério Samora, Carloto Cotta, Fernanda Loureiro; (Vol. II) Crista Alfaiate, Adriano Luz, Américo Silva,
Rogério Samora, Carloto Cotta, Fernanda Loureiro; (Vol. III) Crista Alfaiate, Américo Silva, Carloto Cotta,
Jing JingGuo, Chico Chapas, Quitério, Bernardo Alves
Production Company: O Som e a Fúria; Shellac Sud; Komplizen Film; Box Productions
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Directors’ Fortnight)

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AS MIL E UMA NOITES |

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS vol. II
131 mins
Vol. II: O DESOLADO | THE DESOLATE ONE: In which Scheherazade tells of how
desolation invaded men…

AS MIL E UMA NOITES |

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS vol. III
125 mins
Vol. III: O ENCANTADO | THE ENCHANTED ONE: In which Scheherazade
doubts that she will still be able to tell stories to please the King, given that what she has to tell
weighs three thousand tons…

MIGUEL GOMES
was born in Lisbon in 1972. He studied cinema and worked as film critic for the Portuguese press until the
year 2000. Miguel has directed several short films and made his first feature, The Face You Deserve, in 2000. Our
Beloved Month of August (2008) and Tabu (2012) came to confirm his success and international recognition.
Retrospectives of Miguel’s work have been programmed at the Viennale, BAFICI,Torino Film Festival, in Germany
and in the US. Redemption, his most recent short film, premiered in 2013 at Venice Film Festival.

ZHUO YAO JI |
MONSTER HUNT
Director: Raman Hui | China / 2015 / 3D / Col. / Mandarin / 111 mins
In a land ruled by monsters, a civil war erupts and the pregnant monster queen flees into
the land of the humans. Before dying, she impregnates a man, Tianyin, with her son, and a
cute baby monster, Huba, is born. As both monster-hating humans and monsters attempt to
capture the new-born, a riotous and delightful adventure unfolds across an ancient fantasy
world based on medieval China.

Producers: Bill Kong, Yee Chung Man, Doris Tse, Alan Yuen Story and Script/Screenplay: Alan Yuen
Director of Photography: Anthony Pun (HKSC) Editor: Cheung Ka Fai (HKSE) Music: Leon Ko
Cast: Bai Baihe, Jing Boran, Jiang Wo, Elaine Jin
Production Company: Edko Films Limited; Wanda Media Co.; Dream Sky Pictures; BDI Films Inc.; Edko
(Beijing) Films Limited
Indian Distributor: Multivision Multimedia (I) Pvt. Ltd.

RAMAN HUI
is widely recognised as the creator of the Shrek. After training in graphic design at Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, he moved to Canada in 1989 and was subsequently hired by Pacific Data Images where he
participated in high profile films such as Batman Forever (1995) and Arrival (1996). Zhuo Yao Ji is his
Chinese-language and live action feature directorial debut.

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ATLANTIC
Director: Jan-Willem van Ewijk| The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Morocco / 2014 /
DCP / Col. / 1:2.35 / Arabic, French / 94 minutes
On the Moroccan Atlantic coast, a young fisherman called Fettah befriends many European windsurfers
who visit his tiny village every summer. Fascinated by their way of life, Fettah teaches himself how to surf
using old equipment that they leave behind, and finds himself dreaming of a life far away. One summer,
Fettah falls in love with Alexandra, a Dutch tourist. He knows she is out of reach, yet when she leaves,
something is broken beyond repair, and his beautiful village begins to feel like an inescapable prison.
Desperate to break free, he packs his backpack, takes his windsurf board and sets off on an epic journey
along the Atlantic coast towards Europe. As the wind carries him north, past Casablanca and out into
the wild and merciless open ocean, he finds that the pursuit of dreams does not come without sacrifice.

Producer: Bero Beyer Story and Script/Screenplay:: Jan-Willem van Ewijk Director of
Photography: Jasper Wolf n.s.c. Editor: Mona Bräuer Music: Piet Swerts, Mourad Belouadi
Cast: Fettah Lamara, Thekla Reuten, Mohamed Majd
Production Company: Augustus Film Productions; Man’s Film Production; Endorphine Production
International Sales: Fortissimo Films
Festivals and Awards: Binger Filmlab; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Les Arcs Works in Progress;
NPP Kodak Development Award; Filmmore Works in Progress Award; Toronto International Film Festival

JAN-WILLEM VAN EWIJK

was born in Delft in the Netherlands in 1970, and raised partly in California. After studying aerospace
engineering and working as an investment banker, he decided to quit his job and pursue his passion for
filmmaking. His first film, Nu, was made on a shoestring budget of $20,000 and won the award for Best Film
at the European Independent Film Festival in Paris in March 2007.

A BIGGER SPLASH
Director: Luca Guadagnino | Italy, France / 2015 / Col. / English, Italian / 120 mins
The lives of high-profile couple, Marianne Lane, a famous rock star, and Paul, a filmmaker, vacationing
on the idyllic sun-drenched and remote Italian island of Pantelleria, are disrupted by the visit of
Marianne’s record producer and ex-lover, the exuberant Harry, and his seductive daughter,
Penny. What follows is a whirlwind of jealousy, passion and, ultimately, danger let lose under the
Mediterranean sun.

Producers: Michal Costigan, Luca Guadagnino Story and Script/Screenplay: David Kajganich,
Alain Page Editor: Walter Fasano Music: Robin Urdang Cast: Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts,
Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson
Production Company: Frenesy Film Company; Cota Film
Festivals and Awards: Venice International Film Festival 2015 (Best Innovative Budget Award,
Soundtrack Stars Award)

LUCA GUADAGNINO
was born in Palermo and raised in Ethiopia. He made his directorial debut with the feature film The
Protagonists (1999), presented at the Venice Film Festival. With Melissa P. (2005), he rose to interna-
tional fame. Experimenting with a new genre, he made his debut as an opera director with Falstaff by
Giuseppe Verdi at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Italy. In 2012, he founded his own production
company, Frenesy Film.
Director’s Filmography: The Protagonists, 1999; Melissa P., 2005; I am Love, 2009

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BY SIDNEY LUMET
Director: Nancy Buirski | USA / 2015 / Col. / English / 110 mins
In a never-before-seen interview filmed a few years before his death, Sidney Lumet guides us
through his life and work. With his typical candour, humour and grace, he reveals what mattered
to him as an artist and a human being. The film makes it evident that powerfully dramatic and
wildly entertaining films such as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men, and Network are just
part of the canon of one of the most socially conscious directors in the history of cinema.

Producers: Nancy Buirski, Christopher Donnelly Editor: Anthony Ripoli

Production Company: Augusta Films
International Sales: Cinephil
Festivals and Awards: Festival de Cannes, Jerusalem IFF

NANCY BUIRSKI
is the Director, Producer and Writer of Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq, which had its World
Premiere at the 51st New York Film Festival and International Premiere at the 64th Berlinale. She is the
director, producer and writer of the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning The Loving Story (2011). Buirski
founded and was the Director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival for 10 years.

CARTEL LAND
Director: Matthew Heineman | USA / 2015 / HD / Col. / English, Spanish / 98 mins
Cartel Land is a harrowing look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their
shared enemy – the deadly Mexican drug cartels. In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose
Mireles, a small-town physician known as ‘El Doctor’, leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising
against the violent drug cartel, Knights Templar. Meanwhile, in Arizona’s Altar, Tim ‘Nailer’ Foley,
an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group whose goal is to stop Mexico’s drug
wars from seeping across the border. As Nailer, El Doctor and the cartel each vie to bring
their own brand of justice to a society where institutions have failed, what results is a chilling
meditation on the breakdown of order and the blurry line between good and evil.

Producer: Tom Yellin Director of Photography: Matthew Heineman, Matt Porwoll

Editors: Matthew Hamachek, Bradley J. Ross, Pax Wasserman Music: H. Scott Salinas, Jackson Greenberg
Production Company: Our Time Projects and Documentary Group
International Sales: Dogwoof
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival 2015 (Best Director, U.S. Documentary; U.S.
Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography)

MATTHEW HEINEMAN
is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in New York. He has directed and produced Escape Fire: The Fight
to Rescue American Healthcare, which premiered at Sundance 2012. Heineman has also collaborated with a
team at HBO on the groundbreaking, Emmy-nominated HBO series, The Alzheimer’s Project, which aired in
May 2009. He also directed and produced Our Time, a feature-length documentary about what it’s like to be
young in today’s America.

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CHRONIC
Director: Michel Franco | Mexico, France / 2015 / Col. / English / 92 mins
David is a nurse who works with terminally ill patients. Efficient and dedicated to his
profession, he develops strong and even intimate relationships with each person he cares
for. But outside of his work David is ineffectual, awkward, and reserved. It is clear that he
needs each patient as much as they need him.

Producers: Gabriel Ripstein, Michel Franco, Moisés Zonana, Gina Kwon Story and Script/
Screenplay: Michel Franco Director of Photography: Yves Cape, AFC, SBC Editors: Michel
Franco, Julio C. Perez IV Cast: Tim Roth, Sarah Sutherland, Robin Bartlett, Michael Cristofer, Nailea Norvind
Production Company: Lucía Films; Videocine; Vamonos Films; Stromboli Films
International Sales: Wild Bunch
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Best Screenplay)

MICHEL FRANCO
is a Mexican film director and producer. His film After Lucia won the Prize Un Certain Regard at the 2012
Cannes Film Festival.

CIALO | BODY
Director: Matgorzata Szumowska | Poland / 2015 / Col. / Polish / 90 mins
The intertwined stories of a criminal prosecutor, his anorexic daughter and her therapist who claims
she can communicate with the dead loved ones. Three radically different approaches to the body
and soul.

Producers: Jacek Drosio, Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert Story and Script/Screenplay:
Matgorzata Szumowska, Michat Englert Editor: Jacek Drosio Cast: Janusz Gajos, Maja Ostaszewska,
Justyna Suwała
Production Company: Nowhere
International Sales: Memento Films International
Festivals and Awards: 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Silver Bear for Best Director)

MATGORZATA SZUMOWSKA
is a Polish director of documentary and feature films, a screenwriter and a producer. She has been
honoured with several international awards, including the Teddy Award for In The Name Of at the Berlin Film
Festival, and the Silver Leopard Award at the Locarno Film festival for 33 Scenes From Life.
Director’s Filmography: My Father, Maciek, Documentary, 2005; Nothing to Be Scared of, Documentary,
2006; 33 Scenes from Life, Feature, 2008; Elles, Feature, 2011; In the Name of..., Feature, 2013

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DESDE ALLÁ | FROM AFAR

Director: Lorenzo Vigas | Venezuela, Mexico / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Spanish / 93 mins
Armando, a 50-year-old man, seeks young men and pays them just for company – he never
touches them. One day he meets Elder, a 17-year-old boy who is the leader of a criminal gang,
and that meeting changes their lives forever. Set in the chaotic streets of Caracas, Venezuela, this
film is at once an exploration of frustrated desire and issues of social stratification.

Producers: Rodolfo Cova, Guillermo Arriaga, Michel Franco, Lorenzo Vigas Story and Script/
Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, Lorenzo Vigas Director of Photography: Sergio Armstrong G.
ADFCH Editor: Isabela Monteiro de Castro Cast: Alfredo Castro, Luis Silva, Jericó Montilla, Catherina
Cardozo, Marcos Moreno, Jorge Luis Bosque, Jeralt Jiménez, Felipe Massiani, Auffer Camacho, Ivan Peña,
Greymer Acosta, Joretsis Ibarra
Production Company: Factor RH & Malandro Films; Lucia Films
Festivals and Awards: San Sebastian International Film Festival; Venice International Film Festival;
Toronto International Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection)

LORENZO VIGAS
was born in 1967 in Merida, Venezuela. He studied molecular biology before moving to New York in 1995,
where he attended several film workshops at New York University. In 1998, he returned to Venezuela
to direct the TV documentary series Expedición. Vigas’ narrative short Los Elefantes Nunca Olvidan was
presented in Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand and New Directors-New Films (New York). Desde Allá is Vigas’s
feature debut.
Director’s Filmography: Los elefantes nunca olvidan, Short Film, 2003

DESERT DANCER
Director: Richard Raymond | UK / 2014 / Col. / English / 98 mins
In the politically volatile climate of Iran in 2009, Afshin Ghaffarian and some friends risk
everything to form an underground dance company in defiance of the nationwide ban on
dancing. They teach themselves how to dance by watching clips of Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly
and Rudolf Nureyev, even though online videos are banned. Based on a powerful and inspiring
true story, Desert Dancer celebrates these young people’s pursuit of their passion for
dance – and for one another – in a state that seeks to curtail cultural freedom.

Producer: Izabela Miko Story and Script/Screenplay: Jon Croker Editors: Chris Gill, Celia
Haining Music: Benjamin Wallfisch Cast: Nazanin Boniadi, Marama Corlett, Tom Cullen, Reece Ritchie
Production Company: CrossDay Productions Ltd., Head Gear Films: Lipsync Productions
International Sales: Relativity Media
Festivals and Awards: Ischia Global Film and Music Fest

RICHARD RAYMOND
began his career in film by sneaking past the guards at Pinewood Film Studios when he was 15 years old.
He established himself as a regular face there, obtaining work experience on movies such as Neil Jordan’s
Interview With the Vampire and Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. In 2009, Raymond produced the multi-award-
winning feature, Heartless. Desert Dancer marks his directorial debut.
Director’s Filmography: The First Day, Short Film, 1998; The Bridge, Short Film, 2005

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EL BOTON DE NACAR |
THE PEARL BUTTON
Director: Patricio Guzmán| Chile, France, Spain / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Spanish / 82 mins
The ocean contains the history of all humanity. Water, the longest border in Chile, also holds
the secret of two mysterious buttons which were found on its ocean floor. Chile, with its
2,670 miles of coastline and the largest archipelago in the world, presents a supernatural
landscape. In it are volcanoes, mountains and glaciers. In it are the voices of the indigenous
Patagonian people, the first English sailors and also those of its political prisoners. Some
say that water has memory. This unusual documentary revives these forgotten histories of
recurring brutalities in the country’s past and present – the result is a powerful exploration
of the impor tance of memory in forgetful times.
Producer: Renate Sachse Story and Script/Screenplay: Patricio Guzmán Director of
Photography: Katell Djian Editor: Emmanuelle Joly Music: Miranda & Tobar, Hughes Maréchal
Cast: Gabriella Paterito, Cristina Calderon, Martin G. Calderon, Gabriel Salazar, Claudio Mercado, Raúl Zurita
Production Company: Atacama Production International Sales: Pyramide International
Festivals and Awards: Berlinale 2015 (Silver Bear for Best Script, Ecumenical Award)

PATRICIO GUZMÁN
was born in Santiago, Chile, and attended film school in Madrid, specialising in documentary cinema. His
work is regularly selected for and awarded prizes by international festivals. The Battle of Chile (1973), his five-
hour documentary about Allende’s period of government and its fall has been described as ‘one of the 10
best political films in the world’. He currently chairs the International Documentary Film Festival in Santiago
(FIDOCS), which he founded in 1997.
Director’s Filmography: Salvador Allende, 2004; Nostalgia for the Light, Documentary, 2011

EL CLUB | THE CLUB

Director: Pablo Larraín | Chile / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Spanish / 97 mins
Four men live together in a secluded house in a small, seaside town. Each of them has been sent to
this place to purge sins from the past. They live according to a strict regime under the watchful eye
of a female caretaker, when the fragile stability of their routine is disrupted by the arrival of a fifth
man, a newly-disgraced companion, bringing with him the past they thought they had left behind.

Producer: Juan de Dios Larraín Story and Script/Screenplay: Guillermo Calderón, Daniel
Villalobos, Pablo Larraín Director of Photography: Sergio Armstrong Editor: Sebastián Sepúlveda
Music: Carlos Cabezas Cast: Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Antonia Zegers, Jaime Vadell, Alejandro
Goic, Alejandro Sieveking, Marcelo Alonso, José Soza, Francisco Reyes
Production Company: Fabula
International Sales: Funny Balloons
Festivals and Awards: 65th Berlin International Film Festival 2015 (Jury Grand Prix)

PABLO LARRAÍN
was born in Santiago, Chile. In 2005, he directed his first feature-length film, Fuga. In 2010, he directed
Profugos, HBO’s first ever series produced in Chile. The following year, his film No was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Director’s Filmography: Fuga, 2006; Tony Manero, 2008; Post Mortem, 2010/11; Prófugos, TV Series,
2011; No, 2012; Venice 70: Future Reloaded, Documentary, 2013

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THE ENDLESS RIVER

Director: Oliver Hermanus | South Africa, France / 2015 / 1:2:39 / Col. / English / 110 mins
A young waitress welcomes her husband home to the small South African town of
Riviersonderend (Endless River) after his four-year jail sentence, and they begin a new life
together. But when the family of a French expatriate living on a nearby farm is brutally
murdered, the young woman and the grieving widower begin gravitating towards each other.
Trapped in a cycle of violence and bloodshed, the two form an unlikely bond, seeking to
transcend their mutual anger, pain and loneliness.

Producers: Swift Productions, Moonlight STU Productions Story and Script/Screenplay: Oliver
Hermanus Director of Photography: Chris Lotz Editor: Georges Hanmer Music: Braam du Toit
Cast: Nicolas Duvauchelle, Crystal-Donna Roberts, Clayton Everston, Denise Newman, Darren Kelkens,
Katia Lekarski
Production Company: Swift Productions; Didier Costet International Sales: UDI
Festivals and Awards: Venice International Film Festival 2015; Toronto International Film Festival 2015;
Haifa International Film Festival 2015; Busan International Film Festival 2015; BFI London 2015

OLIVER HERMANUS
was born in Cape Town in 1983, where he studied Film, Media and Visual Studies. Thereafter he attended the
University of California on an exchange program scholarship. His second feature film, Beauty, made history
as it was the first Afrikaans film to screen at Cannes. It was acclaimed in many festivals around the world and
announced as South Africa’s official entry into the Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category in 2012.
Director’s Filmography: Shirley Adams, 2009; Beauty, 2011

FASSBINDER – LIEBEN OHNE

ZU FORDERN | FASSBINDER –
TO LOVE WITHOUT DEMANDS
Director: Christian Braad Thomsen | Denmark / 2015 / German / 100 mins
In 14 years, the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder directed and wrote 60 films for
cinema and television, directed 30 theatrical plays, and acted in a number of his own films and
those of his friends. He is considered, above all, the visual interpreter of German history in the
20th century from the collapse of the Weimar republic to terrorism in West Germany. Here was
a filmmaker who started as an avant-garde director and remained so, reaching a world audience
by the end of his life without ever compromising. This film is based on conversations between
Danish filmmaker Christian Braad Thomsen and Fassbinder during the 1970s as well as more
recent interactions with Fassbinder’s main collaborators, Irm Hermann and Harry Baer.
Producer: Christian Braad Thomsen Story and Script/Screenplay: Christian Braad Thomsen
Directors of Photography: Bente Petersen, Dirk Brüel, Gregers Nielsen Editor: Grete Moeldrup
Music: Peer Raben Cast: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Irm Hermann, Harry Baer, Lilo Pempeit, Andrea
Schober, Margit Carstensen Production Company: Kollektiv Film International Sales: Kollektiv
Film Festivals and Awards: Berlin Film Festival 2015; Istanbul Film Festival 2015; Oslo Film Festival
2015; Festival of Nations 2015 (Grand Prix)
CHRISTIAN BRAAD THOMSEN
is a renowned and award-winning Danish director, author, producer and distributor, who graduated from the
Danish Film School in 1969. He was the Director of the Odense International Film Festival between 1997 and
2005, and has also received the Lifetime Award from the State Artistic Council of Denmark.
Director’s Filmography: Dear Irene, Feature, 1971; Dreams Don’t Make Noise When They Die, Feature,
1979; Ladies on the Rocks, Feature, 1983; Flowers of Memory, Documentary, 1991; Karen Blixen – Storyteller,
Documentary, 1995; Blue Monk, Feature, 1998; Blues for Montmartre, Documentary, 2011

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THE FORBIDDEN ROOM

Director: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson | Canada / 2015 / Col. / English / 130 mins
A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that’s been
trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make
their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage
into the origins of their darkest fears.
Producer: David Christensen Story and Script/Screenplay: Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk, Guy
Maddin, John Ashbery, Kim Morgan Directors of Photography: Stephanie Weber-Biron, Ben Kasulke
Editor: John Gurdebeke Music: Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin, Jason Staczek Cast: Roy Dupuis, Clara
Furey, Louis Negin, Udo Kier, Gregory Hlady, Mathieu Amalric, Noel Burton, Géraldine Chaplin
Production Company: Phi Films; Buffalo Gals Pictures International Sales: Mongrel International
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection); Berlinale 2015 (Opening
Night); Las Palmas 2015 (Special Prize Of The Jury); Bildrauch Filmbasel 2015 (Bildrausch Ring of Film Art);
Toronto International Film Festival; New York Film Festival; London Film Festival BFI

GUY MADDIN
is an installation & internet artist, writer, filmmaker, and the director of eleven feature-length movies, including The Forbidden Room
(2015), My Winnipeg (2007) and The Saddest Music in the World (2003).
Director’s Filmography: Careful, 1992; Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity, Short Film, 1995; Twilight
of the Ice Nymphs, 1997; The Heart of the World, Short Film, 2000; Dracula, Pages From a Virgin’s Diary, 2002; Cowards Bend the Knee; 2003;
The Saddest Music in the World, 2003; Brand Upon the Brain!, 2006; My Winnipeg, 2007; Keyhole, 2011
EVAN JOHNSON
Director’s Filmography: Puberty, Short Film, 2014; Elms, Short Film, 2014; Colours, Short Film, 2014; Cold, Short Film, 2014; Bring
Me the Head of Tim Horton, Documentary Short Film, 2015

FRANCOFONIA
Director: Alexander Sokurov | France, Germany, Netherlands / 2015 / DCP / Col. /
French, German, English / 87 mins
Francofonia is a portrait of the iconic Louvre, and how the growing friendship between two
adversaries became key to its survival during the Second World War.Two remarkable men – Jacques
Jaujard, the director of the Louvre, and Nazi Occupation officer Count Franziskus Wolff-Metternich
– proved to be the driving force behind the preservation of the museum’s treasures. The film
explores the relationship between art and power and examines what art tells us about ourselves,
even in the midst of one of the bloodiest conflicts the world has ever seen.

Producers: Pierre-Olivier Bardet, Thomas Kufus, Els Vandevorst Story and Script/Screenplay:
Alexander Sokurov Director of Photography: Bruno Delbonnel Editors: Alexei Jankowski,
Hansjorg Weissbrich Music: Murat Kabardokov Cast: Louis-Do De Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath,
Vincent Nemeth, Johanna Korthals Altes
Production Company: Ideale Audience; Zero One Film; Le Musee Du Louvre
International Sales: Films Boutique
Festivals and Awards: Venice Film Festival 2015; Toronto Film Festival 2015

ALEXANDER SOKUROV
was born in 1951 in Podorvikha, Russia. He has a Master’s degree in history from the University of Gorky
and a Master’s degree in filmmaking from VGIK State Cinema School. His 2011 film Faust won the Golden
Lion at Venice Film Festival.
Director’s Filmography: Faust, 2011; Reading Book of the Blockade, Documentary, 2009; Alexandra,
2007; Elegy of Life, 2006; Mozart: Requiem, Documentary, 2005; The Sun, 2004; Father and Son, 2003; Russian
Ark, 2002; Elegy of a Voyage, Medium-Length, 2001; Taurus, 2000

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FÚSI | VIRGIN MOUNTAIN

Director: Dagur Kári | Iceland / Denmark / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Icelandic / 94 mins
Fúsi, an overweight man in his mid-forties, lives with his mother and finds comfort in his dull
daily routine. He is shy and inhibited, and finds it difficult to socialise. But when his family
pushes him into taking dance lessons, Fúsi is grudgingly forced to encounter the real world.
His encounter with an eccentric woman called Sjöfn, who is as exuberant as he is introverted,
results in a truly idiosyncratic friendship, with the promise of changing both their lives.

Producers: Baltasar Kormakur, Agnes Johansen Story and Script/Screenplay: Dagur Kári
Director of Photography: Rasmus Videbæk Editors: Guðjónsson, Oliver Bugge Coutté, Dagur Kári
Cast: Gunnar Jónsson, Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir, Sigurjón Kjartansson
Production Company: RVK Studios; Sögn ehf
International Sales: Bac Films Distribution
Festivals and Awards: Berlinale (Gala); Copenhagen’s 2015 CPH PIX (Politiken Audience Award);
Tribeca Film Festival 2015 (Best Narrative Feature, Best Actor in a Narrative Feature Film, Best Screenplay)

DAGUR KÁRI
is a director, writer and musician. He was born in France, raised in Iceland, and studied filmmaking in
Denmark. He made his feature debut in 2003 with Noi Albinoi. Kári is currently employed at The National
Film School of Denmark as Head of the Director’s Program. He also works as a musician with the band
Slowblow.
Director’s Filmography: Old Spice, Short Film, 1998; Lost Weekend, Short Film, 1999; Noi Albino, 2003;
Dark Horse, 2005; The Good Heart, 2009

GIA PANTA | FOREVER

Director: Margarita Manda | Greece / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Greek / 87 mins
This is the story of two lonely people in Athens, a desolate city in decline because of the lack
of love. Costas is an engine driver on the train that Anna takes to travel to work every day. He
is secretly in love with Anna, but can’t bring himself to tell her. One day, Costas decides to take
that decisive step – to approach Anna and to reach out to life and love.
Producers: Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Kostas Kefalas, Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Costas
Lambropoulos, Margarita Manda Story and Script/Screenplay: Margarita Manda Director of
Photography: Kostis Ghikas, GSC Editor: Angela Despotidou Music: Christos Deligiannis
Cast: Anna Mascha, Kostas Filippoglou
Production Company: Faliro House
International Sales: Heretic Outreach
Festivals and Awards: Hellenic Academy of Film Awards 2015 (Best Cinematography); Cairo
International Film Festival 2014 (Silver Pyramid for Best Director); Rotterdam International Film Festival;
Istanbul Film Festival; Fajr International Film Festival; Jeonju International Film Festival

MARGARITA MANDA
was born in Athens, where she studied Political Science and French Literature, and Film Direction. She has
worked as Assistant Director for many Greek filmmakers. Her novel, Mnimi akatikiti (Uninhabited Memory),
was published in October 2002.
Director’s Filmography: Winter ’84, Short Film, 1985; Meeting, Short Film, 1987; Recollections, Short
Film, 1990; Guardians Of Time, Documentary, 2002; New Odessa – The Village Of The Lake, Documentary,
2004; Zerelia, the First Step, Documentary, 2005; Gold Dust, Feature Film, 2009; Theo Angelopoulos – Journey To
Reconstruction, TV Documentary, 2009–2010

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HE NAMED ME MALALA
Director: Davis Guggenheim| UK, East Coast, Kenya, Abu Dhabi, Pakistan, Amsterdam,
Nigeria, Jordan, Oslo / 2015 / 2K DCP / Col. / English / 87:29 mins
The film is an intimate por trait of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was
targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her
school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, sparking an outcry from suppor ters all around the
world. After her miraculous survival, she is now a leading campaigner for girls’ education
globally. The film gives us an inside glimpse into this extraordinary young girl’s life – from her
close relationship with her father who inspired her love for education, to her impassioned
speech at the UN, to her everyday life with her parents and brothers.
Producers: Walter Parkes, Laurie Macdonald Story and Script/Screenplay: Inspired by the book I
Am Malala Director of Photography: Erich Roland Editors: Greg Finton, A.C.E., Brian Johnson, Brad
Fuller Music: Thomas Newman Cast: Malala Yousafzai, Ziauddin Yousafzai, Toor Pekai Yousafzai, Khushal
Khan Yousafzai, Atal Khan Yousafzai
Production Company: A Parkes-Macdonald; A Little Room
Indian Distributor: Fox Star India Pvt. Ltd.

DAVIS GUGGENHEIM
is a director and producer known for An Inconvenient Truth (2006), Waiting for ‘Superman’ (2010) and It Might Get
Loud (2008). He has been married to Elisabeth Shue since 1994. They have three children.
Director’s Filmography: Waiting for ‘Superman’, Documentary, 2010; From the Sky Down, Documentary, 2011;
Obama 2012 Convention Film, Short, 2012; The Road We’ve Travelled, Documentary Short, 2012; Teach, TV Movie
Documentary, 2013; The Dream is Now, Documentary Short, 2013

HECTOR
Director: Jake Gavin | UK / 2015 / Col. / English / 88 mins
Hector McAdam is homeless, and has been living on the motorway for decades, shuffling between
service-stations for food and shelter. Once every year, he travels from Scotland to a warm refuge in
London, where comrades, Christmas cheer and a turkey dinner await him. But aware that this might
be his last journey, Hector decides to take a different path to reconnect with his long estranged
past. His cross-country odyssey brings chance encounters, companions old and new who need his
support as much as he needs theirs, and stirs up memories, resentments, regrets and fresh hope
for the future.
Producer: Stephen Malit Story and Script/Screenplay: Jake Gavin Director of
Photography: David Raedecker Editor: Guy Bensley Music: Emily Baker Cast: Peter Mullan, Gina
McKee, Stephen Tompkinson, Keith Allen, Sarah Solemani, Ewan Stewart
Production Company: Victor Productions Ltd.
International Sales: UDI
Festivals and Awards: Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015 (Competition); Film by the Sea Film
Festival 2015; Athens International Film Festival 2015; Dunoon Film Festival 2015; Haifa International Film
Festival 2015

JAKE GAVIN
is better known as a photographer. Hector is his first feature as a writer/director. He has appeared as an
actor in Jake Scott’s Plunkett & Macleane (1999) and Lotus Eaters (2011).

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HOENG GONG SAAM BOU

KUK | HONG KONG TRILOGY:
PRESCHOOLED, PREOCCUPIED,
PREPOSTEROUS
Director: Christopher Doyle | Hong Kong / 2015 / Col. / Cantonese / 85 mins
A portrait of Hong Kong here and now, this film follows a quasi-fictional narrative based on
interviews with three generations as they wonder about universal questions such as how to
live, who they are, how they fit in, and what their city wants to become together. ‘Preschooled’
children try to resolve the question, ‘Why are there so many gods in this world? Is it because
so many people need to be saved?’ ‘Preoccupied’ young people occupy the streets of Central,
Hong Kong – trying to stop the city to imagine a new future. And two ‘Preposterous’ senior
citizens go on a speed-dating tour of the city, trying to reconcile their new energies with
conventional obligations.
Producers: Ken Hui, Jenny Suen Editors: AQ Lee, Jinpo Yip Music: Kevin Cheuk Chung Lau
Production Company: Pica Pica Media
Festivals and Awards: Toronto International Film Festival 2015
CHRISTOPHER DOYLE
is a multiple award winning cinematographer who has collaborated with some of the best filmmakers in
the world including Zhang Yimou, Jim Jarmusch and Merchant–Ivory. Recipient of numerous awards, Doyle
has shot cult classics including Wong Kar-Wai’s Chungking Express (1994) and In the Mood for Love (2000),
1; among others.
Director’s Filmography: Izolator, Feature, 2008; Paris, je t’aime, Short Films, 2006; Away With Words,
Feature, 1999

JAG ÄR INGRID | INGRID

BERGMAN—IN HER OWN
WORDS
Director: Stig Björkman | Sweden / 2015 / Col. / English, Italian, French, Swedish /
114 mins
Seven-time Academy Award nominee and three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman
was one of the most talented actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age with great performances
in films such as Casablanca (1942), Gaslight (1944) and Autumn Sonata (1978). Through
never-before-seen private footage, notes, letters, diaries and interviews with her children,
this documentary presents a personal portrait and captivating look behind the scenes of the
remarkable life of a young Swedish girl who became one of the most celebrated actresses of
American and World cinema.
Producer: Stina Gardell Story and Script/Screenplay: Stig Björkman, Stina Gardell, Dominika
Daubenbüchel Director of Photography: Malin Korkeasalo Editor: Dominika Daubenbüchel
Cast: Isabella Rossellini, Ingrid Rossellini, Roberto Rossellini, Pia Lindström, Fiorella Mariani, Liv Ullmann,
Sigourney Weaver, Jeanine Basinger
Production Company: Mantaray Film
International Sales: TrustNordisk
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection)

STIG BJÖRKMAN
is a Swedish writer, director and film critic. He has made several films about cinema including But Film is
My Mistress (2010) and Tranceformer – A Portrait of Lars Von Trier (1997). He has also published a number of
interview books with Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen and Joyce Carol Oates among others.
Director’s Filmography: The White Wall, 2015; Georgia, Georgia, 1972

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JIA ZHANG-KE | JIA ZHANG-KE: A

GUY FROM FENYANG
Director: Walter Salles | Brazil / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Mandarin / 105 mins
Jia Zhang-ke is an intimate por trait of a young Chinese director who became one of
the most impor tant filmmakers of our time. The documentary dwells on the question of
memory and cinema, as it returns to his bir thplace, the Shanxi province in Nor thern China,
and the locations of his films. With the help of his actors and collaborators, Jia Zhang-ke
retraces the inspirational sources behind his films, gradually revealing a culture in convulsion,
and the profound and complex relationship between the director and his environment.
Producer: Maria Carlota Story and Script/Screenplay: Walter Salles, Jean-Michel
Frodon Director of Photography: Inti Briones Editor: Joana Collier Cast: Jia Zhang-ke
Production Company: Video Filmes International Sales: MK2
Festivals and Awards: Rome Film Festival 2015 (Special Events); Sao Paulo Film Festival 2015

WALTER SALLES
is a renowned director and producer known for films like The Motorcycle Diaries, Paris, je t’aime, and Central Station.
He wrote and co-directed Linha de Passe, which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2008. His
adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (2012) was also nominated for the Palme d’Or.
Director’s Filmography: On the Road, 2012; Linha de Passe, 2008; Dark Water, 2005; Diarios de Motocicleta,
2004; Abril Despedaçado, 2001; O Premeiro Dia, 1998; Central do Brasil, 1998; Terra Estrangeira, 1995; Socorro Nobre,
1995; A Grande Arte, 1991

JIGEUMEUN MATGO
GEUTTAENEUN TEULLIDA |
RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN
Director: Hong Sangsoo | South Korea / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Korean / 121 mins
Film director Ham Chunsu arrives in Suwon a day early, and finds himself with time to kill. He stops
by a restored, old palace and meets an artist named Yoon Heejung. Together, they go to Heejung’s
workshop to look at her paintings, have dinner and drink Soju. As the conversation and drinks
flow, the two become closer. But after certain events that transpire at a drunken get-together, the
relationship between the two faces an uneasy fate.

Producer: Kim Kyounghee Story and Script/Screenplay: Hong Sangsoo Director of

Photography: Park Hongyeol Editor: Hahm Sungwon Music: Jeong Yongjin Cast: Jung Jaeyoung,
Kim Minhee Production Company: JEONWONSA Film Co. International Sales: Finecut
Festivals and Awards: Locarno International Film Festival 2015 (Golden Leopard, Best Actor,
Ecumenical Prize); Toronto International Film Festival 2015 (Masters); Xi’an Silk Road International Film
Festival 2015

HONG SANGSOO
was born in 1961 in South Korea, and is considered as one of the most established auteurs in
contemporary Korean cinema. He made an astounding debut with his first feature film The Day A Pig Fell
Into The Well in 1996. Since then, he has made 16 films, and is renowned for his unique cinematographic
language and unprecedented aesthetics in filmmaking.
Director’s Filmography: Night and Day, 2008; Like You Know It All, 2009; Oki’s Movie, 2010; Hahaha,
2010; The Day He Arrives, 2011; In Another Country, 2012; Nobody’s Daughter, 2013; Our Sunhi, 2013;
Hill of Freedom, 2014

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A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND
MILES: PEACEKEEPERS
Director: Geeta Gandbhir, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy | USA, Pakistan / 2015 / DCP / Col. /
Bengali, Haitian Creole, English / 95 mins
A Journey of A Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers follows a unit of 140 women who travel to join
the United Nations Stabilizing Mission in Haiti. They form one of the world’s first all-woman,
predominantly Muslim, peacekeeping units, shattering every stereotype the world holds about
the capabilities of Muslim women. The film focuses on three women in this unit as they grapple
with the harsh realities of becoming foot soldiers in a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission.

Producers: Geeta Gandbhir, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Director of Photography: Asad Faruqi

Editor: Maya Mumma Music: Kishon Khan Cast: Naima Sultana, Farida Parveen, Karuna Bibi, Abul
Kalam Azad Production Company: G2P2 Films; SOC Films
International Sales: Submarine Entertainment
Festivals and Awards: Toronto Film Festival 2015; DOC NYC 2015

GEETA GANDBHIR
is an Emmy and Academy Award-winning director who made her directorial debut with the documentary
short Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr. (2014) and co-directed A Conversation With My Black Son
(2015).
SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY
is an Academy and Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. Her work centres on human rights and
women’s issues. Her credits include the Academy Award-winning short Saving Face (2012) and the features
Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret (2011), Song of Lahore (2015), and A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peace-
keepers (2015).

JUNUN
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | US / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English, Hindi, Hebrew,
Urdu / 54 mins
In the spring of 2015, the Maharaja of Jodhpur, India, hosted the Israeli musician and poet Shye
Ben Tzur, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, music producer Nigel Godrich, filmmaker Paul
Thomas Anderson and a dozen Indian musicians. The team assembled a makeshift studio at
the Maharaja’s Fort, and over the following three weeks created the joyous collaboration that
became the music and film of Junun (the madness of love) – a cross-cultural, cross religious
meeting of the mystical Islam of Sufi, Qawwali, and Rajasthani Gypsy musicians interwoven with
devotional poetries in Urdu, Hebrew, and Hindi. The close camaraderie of artistic collaboration
and a sonic, visual and sensory experience will intrigue and capture your imagination.
Editor: Andy Jurgensen Music: Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, The Rajasthan Express Cast: Jonny
Greenwood
Production Company: Ghoulardi Film Company
Festivals and Awards: New York Film Festival 2015 (Premier)

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

is an American film director, screenwriter and producer, who dropped out of college to pursue his passion
for filmmaking. He wrote and directed the short film, Coffee and Cigarettes, which won much acclaim in the
short film festival circuit. He has directed several critically acclaimed films and has been nominated for six
Academy Awards.
Director’s Filmography: Inherent Vice, 2014; The Master, 2012; There Will Be Blood, 2007; Punch-Drunk
Love, 2002; Magnolia, 1999; Boogie Nights, 1998; Hard Eight, 1996

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KRISHA
Director: Trey Edward Shults | US / 2015 / Col. / English / 83 mins
Following a prolonged battle with addiction and self-destruction, Krisha returns to the family
she had once abandoned. As the holiday celebrations begin, she tries to make amends
and reconnect. But what begins as a moving testament to a family’s capacity to forgive
soon spirals into a deluge of emotional bloodletting, as old wounds are torn open, and
resentments are laid bare.

Producers: Justin R. Chan, Trey Edward Shults, Wilson Smith, Chase Joliet Story and Script/
Screenplay: Trey Edward Shults Editor: Trey Edward Shults Music: Brian McOmber
Cast: Krisha Fairchild, Robyn Fairchild, Bill Wise
Production Company: Hoody Boy Productions
International Sales: Visit Films
Festivals and Awards: South By Southwest 2014 (Special Jury Recognition); Semaine de la Critique
Cannes 2015

TREY EDWARD SHULTS

was born in Houston, Texas, in 1988. His first foray into the film industry was on Terrence Malick’s Voyage of
Time, where he worked in the camera department as a film loader. From there, he interned on Malick’s The Tree
of Life, and then worked as a camera department production assistant. Krisha is Shults’ first feature film.
Director’s Filmography: Mother and Son, Short Film, 2010; Two to One, Short Film, 2011

LA MUJER DE LOS PERROS | DOG

LADY
Director: Laura Citarella,Verónica Llinás | Argentina / 2015 / HD / Col. / Spanish / 97 mins
A woman walks through the field.
Surrounding her, the dogs run, and whirl, and roll, and spread all over the frame, undoing
fiction like the legendary Penelope’s weaving.
Further, the world, and the outskirts.
Seasons, day and night
and the different versions of the sky.
Producers: Laura Citarella, Mariano Llinas Story and Script/Screenplay: Veronica Llinas, Mariano
Llinas Director of Photography: Soledad Rodriguez Editor: Ignacio Masllorens Music: Juana
Canosa Cast: Juliana Muras, Germánde Silva, Juana Zalazar
Production Company: El Pampero Cine
International Sales: Pampero, Buenos Aires
Festivals and Awards: Rotterdam Tiger Award Competition2015; New York New Directors
New Films 2015; Copenhagen CPHPIX 2015; Buenos Aires BAFICI 2015 (Best Actress, International
Competition); Riviera Maya 2015; MOOOV 2015; Cluj Transilvania 2015; Moscow Zerkalo 2015

LAURA CITARELLA
is trained as a film director. In 2005 she joined the production company, El Pampero, and has made her
name as a major producer of Argentine independent films. Her first feature film Ostende (2011) received a
special mention from the Association of Argentine Film Writers, and screened at various festivals.
VERÓNICA LLINÁS
is trained in theatre, mime, acrobatics and singing, and is a multi-award-winning actress for film, television
and theatre. In 1986, she co-founded the iconic humour group, Gambas al Ajillo, producing various shows
combining dance, song, acrobatics and theatre, until the group split in 1991.

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LE PROFIL AMINA | THE AMINA

PROFILE
Director: Sophie Deraspe | Canada / 2015 / Col. / French, English, Arabic / 84 mins
Amina Arraf, a pretty Syrian-American revolutionary, launches the provocatively named blog
A Gay Girl in Damascus. As the Syrian uprising gains momentum, the blog attracts a huge following.
Amina’s subsequent abduction sparks an international outcry to free her. Telling a detective story
that involves various intelligence agencies and top-tier global media, the film travels from San
Francisco and Washington to Istanbul, Tel Aviv and Beirut to meet the key players in this quest
to reveal the real Amina. Part love story, part international thriller, Le Profil Amina is a gripping
chronicle of an unprecedented media and sociological hoax.

Producers: Isabelle Couture, Nathalie Cloutier Story and Script/Screenplay: Sophie Deraspe,
Sandra Bagaria Editors: Geoffrey Boulangé Music: Sam Shalabi Cast: Nilay Olçay, Sandra Bagaria
Production Company: Esperamos, National Film Board of Canada
International Sales: National Film Board of Canada
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection)

SOPHIE DERASPE
fell into cinema through visual arts and literature. She has worked both as director and cinematographer,
mostly for documentaries, before directing her realism-bending first feature-length film Missing Victor Pellerin.
Her second feature film, Vital Signs (2009) premiered in Rotterdam and won 15 prizes around the world,
and she has recently completed her third, The Wolves.
Director’s Filmography: Rechercher Victor Pellerin, 2006; Les Signes Vitaux, 2009; Les Loups, 2015

THE LOBSTER
Director:Yorgos Lanthimos | Canada / 2014 / DCP / Col. / English / 104 mins
The Lobster is an unconventional love story set in the near future where single people,
according to the rules of The City, are arrested and transferred to The Hotel. There they must
find a mate in 45 days, failing which they will be transformed into an animal of their choosing
and released into The Woods. A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods –
home to The Loners – and falls in love, although it is against their rules.

Producers: Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Ceci Dempsey Story and Script/Screenplay: Yorgos
Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou Director of Photography: Thimios Bakatakis Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Cast: Collin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki
Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw, Roger Ashton-Griffiths
Production Company: Element Pictures; Scarlet Films; Faliro House Productions SA; Haut et Court;
Lemming Film
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Jury Prize); Toronto International Film Festival 2015
(Special Presentation)

YORGOS LANTHIMOS
was born in Athens, Greece. He has directed a number of dance videos in collaboration with Greek
choreographers, in addition to TV commercials, music videos, short films and theatre plays. His second
feature, Dogtooth, was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2011. The Lobster is
his first English language film.
Director’s Filmography: Alps, 2011; Dog Tooth, 2009; Kinetta, 2005

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MANTO
Director: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat | Pakistan / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Urdu / 124 mins

Presented by Zee Studios worldwide

A biographical drama, Manto presents the last few years in the life and career of Saadat
Hasan Manto, the iconic writer, playwright and author renowned for his scathing insight into
human behaviour and the often macabre and animalistic nature of people. Capturing his
life after Par tition and the stories that followed, the film revisits the legacy of one of the
most celebrated writers of South Asia, whose work continues to haunt with its star tling
relevance.

Producer: Babar Javed Story and Script/Screenplay: Shahid Mehmood Nadeem

Director of Photography: Khizer Idrees Editors: Hassan Nawzish, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, Kashif
Ahmed Music: Jamal Rahman (True Brew Records) Cast: Sarmad Sulta Khoosat, Sania Saeed, Nimra
Bucha, Saba Qamar
Production Company: Geo A&B Productions
International Sales: Independent Motion Pictures (Pvt) Ltd. (Geo Films)

SARMAD SULTAN KHOOSAT

is a gifted Pakistani actor, director and script-writer, born into a family of artists. He rose to prominence in 1999
through the highly successful sitcom Shashlick, which he wrote, directed, produced, as well as played the lead in.
His television shows Tamasha Ghar and Piya Naam Ka Diya won him widespread critical acclaim and cemented
his status as one of the leading lights of television in Pakistan.

MIA MADRE | MY MOTHER

Director: Giovanni ‘Nanni’ Moretti | Italy, France / 2015 / Col. / Italian, English / 107 mins
Mia Madre revolves around the life of young film director Margherita as she struggles to strike a
balance between her domestic life and her work. On the sets of her film, she has to deal with a
troublesome and temperamental American actor. Back at home, she must try and hold her life
together despite her mother’s illness and her daughter’s adolescence.

Producers: Nanni Moretti, Domenico Procacci Story and Script/Screenplay: Nanni Moretti,
Francesco Piccolo, Valia Santella Editor: Clelio Benevento Music: Alessandro Zanon Cast: Margherita Buy,
John Turturro, Giulia Lazzarini, Nanni Moretti
Production Company: Rai Cinema
International Sales: Films Distribution
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Palmes d’Or); Toronto International Film Festival
2015 (Special Screening)

GIOVANNI ‘NANNI’ MORETTI

is an Italian director, producer, screenwriter and actor. After beginning his career as a producer, he directed
his first two short films: Pâté de Bourgeois and La Sconfitta in 1973. He is probably best known for his films
Caro Diario (1993) and La Stanza del Figlio, the latter of which won the Palme d’Or at the 2001 Cannes Film
Festival. He lives in Rome, where he co-owns a small movie theatre ‘Nuovo Sacher’.
Director’s Filmography: We Have a Pope, 2011; Film Quiz, 2008; The Last Championship, 2007;
Il Caimano, 2006; Anguished Cry of a Predator Bird, 2003; The Last Customer, 2002; The Son’s Room, 2001; April,
1998; Opening Day of Close-Up, 1996

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MISSING PEOPLE
Director: David Shapiro | US / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English / 81 mins
Missing People is a nonfiction mystery about Martina Batan, the director of a prominent New
York gallery, who investigates her brother’s long unsolved murder while obsessively collecting and
researching the violent work and life of Roy Ferdinand – a controversial artist whose colourful,
violent and sexually graphic art chronicles African-American cultural identity of pre-Katrina New
Orleans. As Martina struggles to process the information she has dug up, the inevitable collision
of these parallel narratives leads to a chain of dramatic events.

Producers: David Shapiro, Alan Oxman, Michael Tubbs Story and Script/Screenplay: David
Shapiro Director of Photography: Lisa Rinzler Editors: Becky Laks, Adam Kurnitz Music: Michael
Tubbs, Christopher North, Tom Filardo, Stephen Russell, Nick Cregor, Ashley Eriksson, Eli Moore, Evan Hashi,
Stephen Steinbrink, Justin Vollmer Cast: Martina Batan, Michele Ferdinand, Faye Powell, Conor McCourt,
Andy Antippas, Sean Ellwood, Bill Sasser, Regina Perry, David Carrino, Ronald Feldman, Frayda Feldman
Production Company: DoubleParked Pictures International Sales: DoubleParked Pictures
Festivals and Awards: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2015; Los Angeles Film
Festival 2015; Guanajuato International Film Festival 2015; Hamptons International Film Festival 2015

DAVID SHAPIRO
has been a prolific filmmaker for over 20 years. Shapiro wrote and produced Finishing Heaven (2009), for
which he was nominated for an Emmy as producer. His film, Keep The River On Your Right (2001), based on
Tobias Schneebaum’s book, screened in over 37 international film festivals. It won several major awards and
was nominated for an Academy Award.
Director’s Filmography: Missing People, 2015; Finishing Heaven, 2009; American Crit, 2004; Keep the
River on Your Right, 2001; Slice, 1999; Scar, 1992

MISTRESS AMERICA
Director: Noah Baumbach | US / 2015 / 2K DCP / Col. / English / 84 mins
Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is rescued from her solitude by her soon-to-be
stepsister, Brooke, an adventurous gal about town who takes her under her wing and entangles
her in alluringly mad schemes. Mistress America is a comedy about chasing dreams, settling
scores and stealing cats.
Producers: Noah Baumbach, Scott Rudin, Lila Yacoub, Rodrigo Teixeira, Greta Gerwig Story and
Script/Screenplay: Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig Director of Photography: Sam Levy
Editor: Jennifer Lame Music: Dean Wareham, Britta Phillips Cast: Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke, Matthew
Shear, Jasmine Cephas-Jones, Heather Lind, Michael Chernus, Cindy Cheung, Kathryn Erbe, Dean Wareham
Production Company: Rt Features, A Noah Baumbach Picture
Indian Distributor: Fox Star India Pvt. Ltd.

NOAH BAUMBACH
was born in Brooklyn in 1969. His studies at Vassar College were the subject of his first film, Kicking and
Screaming (1995). His second major picture The Squid and the Whale (2005) earned Noah a selection at
the Sundance Film Festival, three Golden Globe nominations and a best screenplay Oscar nomination.
Besides directing films, he co-writes scripts with his close friend Wes Anderson, and is the author of humour
columns in The New Yorker.
Director’s Filmography: Conrad & Butler Take a Vacation, Short Film, 2000; The Squid and the Whale, 2005;
Margot at the Wedding, 2007; Greenberg, 2010; Frances Ha, 2012; While We’re Young, 2014; De Palma, 2015

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NIE YIN NIANG | THE ASSASSIN

Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien | Taiwan / 2015 / 1.85 / 5.1 / B&W, Col. / Mandarin / 105 mins
Ninth century, China. ten-year-old Nie Yinniang is abducted by a nun who initiates her into
the mar tial ar ts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel
and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress
to the land of her bir th, with orders to kill the man to whom she was promised – a cousin
who now leads the largest military region in Nor th China. After 13 years of exile, the young
woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings. A slave
to the orders of her mistress, Nie Yinniang must make a choice: sacrifice the man she loves
or break forever with the sacred way of the assassins.
Production Company: SpotFilms; Sil-Metropole; Media Asia Films; CMPC
International Sales: Wild Bunch
Festivals and Awards: 68th Cannes Film Festival (Best Director, nominated for Palme d’Or)

HOU HSIAO-HSIEN
is a prominent figure in world cinema and in Taiwan’s New Wave cinema movement. After training in filmmaking
at the Taiwan National University of Arts, he worked as an assistant director, notably for Li Hsing. His powerful
and unique filmmaking has been lauded globally, and he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1989
for his film A City of Sadness (1989).
Director’s Filmography: Flowers of Shanghai, 1998; Millennium Mambo, 2001; Cafe Lumiere, 2003; Three
Times, 2005; To Each His Own Cinema, 2007; Flight of the Red Balloon, 2007; 10+10, 2011

OI ENTYPOSEIS ENOS
PNIGMENOU | IMPRESSIONS OF
A DROWNED MAN
Director: Kyros Papavassiliou | Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Greek / 82 mins
Totally disconnected from his past and memory, the Passenger tries to define himself, confronted by
his pre-determined fate, a fate that he has to re-live at every anniversary of his death. This film is a
meditative drama about an artist, his life and death as well as his search for memories.

Producer: Kyros Papavassiliou Story and Script/Screenplay: Kyros Papavassiliou Director of

Photography: Konstantinos Othonos Editor: Yiannis Chalkiadakis Music: Nikos Veliotis
Cast: Thodoris Pentidis, Christodoulos Martas, Marisha Triantafyllidou
Production Company: DryTree Films International Sales: Kyros Papavassiliou
Festivals and Awards: Rotterdam International Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection)

KYROS PAPAVASSILIOU
is a self-taught director who has worked in various positions on the production line during his 15-year
career in Athens. He has written and directed three short films. His most recent short film, In the Name of
the Sparrow, was presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Impressions of a Drowned
Man is his first feature film.
Director’s Filmography: Lament, Short Film, 2002; At Kafka’s Trial Room, Short Film, 2005;
In the Name of the Sparrow, Short Film, 2007

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ORIGINAL COPY
Director: Florian Heinzen-Ziob, Georg Heinzen | Germany / 2015 / 2K DCP / Col. /
Hindi, English / 95 mins
In the heart of Mumbai lives Sheikh Rehman, the city‘s last painter of film posters. His studio is
run in the old masters’ style – behind the screen of an old, crumbling cinema. With sound from
the cinema in the background, Rehman presides over his realm like a king from a bygone age,
chivvying his staff when they get their colours wrong. But modernity is taking over and the old
cinema audiences are dwindling as the theatre faces potential demolition and film posters are
now printed on plastic. But Rehman refuses to give up; he paints a new banner every week, only
to paint over it and start all over again.
Producers: Florian Heinzen-Ziob, Georg Heinzen Story and Script/Screenplay: Florian Heinzen-
Ziob, Georg Heinzen Director of Photography: Enno Endlicher Editor: Florian Heinzen-Ziob
Cast: Sheikh Rehman, Najma Loynmoon, Huzefa Bootwalla, Sunil Dange
Production Company: Polyphem Productions International Sales: Magnetfilm GmbH
Festivals and Awards: Hot Docs Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection); Vancouver International
Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection); YAMAGATA International Documentary Film Festival 2015 (Official
Selection); Leeds International Film Festival 2015

FLORIAN HEINZEN-ZIOB
was born in 1984 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied media arts and film direction at the Academy of Media
Arts Cologne, where he wrote and directed a range of feature and animated films and documentaries. He
lives and works in Cologne.
Director’s Filmography: Tomo, Short Fiction, 2013; Wachstum, Documentary Animation, 2011;
Konserwacja, Documentary, 2008; Praktikant, Short Film, 2008; Mr Cube, Animation, 2007; SMS, Short Film, 2006
GEORG HEINZEN
is a German writer based in Düsseldorf. Trained in history, German literature and scriptwriting, he writes
novels, plays and, above all, screenplays for television and cinema.

PIKADERO
Director: Ben Sharrock | Spain, UK / 2015 / DCP 2K, HDCAM / Col. / Basque,
Spanish / 97 mins
Pikadero is a quirky take on a young couple’s attempts to nurture their relationship in the context
of the current economic crisis in Europe. A penniless young couple, Gorka and Ane, have trouble
consummating their fledgling relationship in their parents’ homes. As they become increasingly
desperate to make love, and with no money to rent a hotel room, they are compelled to look
to public hotspots used for sex, known popularly as ‘pikaderos’. Soon their relationship is tested
even as they try to break free of the shackles of the crumbling economy.

Producer: Irune Gurtubai Story and Script/Screenplay: Ben Sharrock Director of Pho-
tography: Nick Cooke Editor: Karel Dolak Music: Atzi Muramatsu Cast: Joseba Usabiaga, Barbara
Goenaga , Lander Otaola, Zorion Eguileor, Itziar Lazkano, Peio Arnaez
Production Company: Caravan Cinema
Festivals and Awards: San Sebastian International Film Festival 2015 (New Directors); Zurich Film
Festival 2015 (Best New Film)

BEN SHARROCK
graduated from The University of Edinburgh with a degree in Arabic and Politics before attending film
school at Screen Academy Scotland. After working in the advertising industry in Dubai, Ben completed an
MFA. His short film Patata Tortilla received many accolades such as four BAFTA New Talents, including, Best
Drama and Best Writer in 2015. Pikadero is his first feature film.
Director’s Filmography: Patata Tortilla, Short Film, 2015; The Zealot, Short Film, 2012; Closure, Short
Film, 2011

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QUE HORAS ELA VOLTA? |

THE SECOND MOTHER
Director:Anna Muylaert | Brazil / 2015 / Col. / Portuguese / 110 mins
After leaving her daughter, Jessica, in a small town in to be raised by relatives, Val spends
the next 13 years working as a loving nanny in São Paulo. Financial stability comes with the
guilt of having not raised her daughter herself. When Jessica expresses her wish to visit São
Paulo to take her college entrance exams, Val gets ready for the long-awaited moment of
being near her daughter again. But when she arrives, the tension is palpable and everyone
in the household is affected.
Producers: Caio Gullane, Fabiano Gullane, Debora Ivanov, Anna Muylaert Story and Script/
Screenplay: Anna Muylaert Director of Photography: Barbara Alvarez Editor: Karen Harley
Music: Fabio Trummer, Vitor Araújo Cast: Regina Casé, Michel Joelsas, Camila Márdila, Karine Teles,
Lourenço Mutarelli, Helena Albergaria Production Company: Gullane Filmes; Africa Filmes; Globo Filmes
International Sales: The Match Factory
Festivals and Awards: Berlin International Film Festival 2015; Sundance Film Festival 2015 (Official
Selection)

ANNA MUYLAERT
began her career directing short films, and has worked as film critic for important Brazilian newspapers and
magazines. She has worked on series and shows for children, and has also co-written scripts for several feature
films. Her first feature film, Durval Discos, won seven awards at Gramado Film Festival, and her second, É Proibido
Fumar, won 30 national awards.
Director’s Filmography: Collect Call, Feature, 2012; É Proibido Fumar, Feature, 2009; Durval Discos,
Feature, 2002

REMEMBER
Director: Atom Egoyan | Canada, Germany / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English / 95 mins
Zev Guttman, an elderly resident of a nursing home, has done his best to suppress his memories of
Auschwitz, from more than 70 years ago. But when he discovers that the Nazi guard who murdered
his family is living in North America under an assumed identity, he sets out on a mission to avenge
the wrong with his own trembling hands. On the way, however, he must battle his fading memory
and the challenges of old age.

Producers: Robert Lantos, Ari Lantos Story and Script/Screenplay: Benjamin August
Director of Photography: Paul Sarossy Editor: Christopher Donaldson Music: Mychael Danna
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Dean Norris, Bruno Ganz, Jurgen Prochnow, Heinz Lieven
Production Company: Serendipity Point Films; Distant Horizon; Detalle; Egoli Tossell Film GmbH
International Sales: IM Global
Festivals and Awards: 72nd Venice International Film Festival 2015

ATOM EGOYAN
was born in Cairo to Armenian parents, and raised in Western Canada. His body of work – which
includes theatre, music, and art installations – delves into issues of memory, displacement, and the impact
of technology and media on modern life. Egoyan has won numerous prizes at international film festivals
including the Grand Prix and International Critics Awards from the Cannes Film Festival, two Academy
Award nominations, and numerous other honours.
Director’s Filmography: Exotica, 1994; The Sweet Hereafter, 1997; Felicia’s Journey, 1999; Ararat, 2002;
Where the Truth Lies, 2005; Citadel, Documentary, 2006; Adoration, 2008; Chloe, 2009; Devil’s Knot, 2013; The
Captive, 2014

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ROOM
Director: Lenny Abrahamson | Canada, Ireland / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English / 118 mins
Joy Newsome has been held captive in a garden shed for seven years, along with her five-year-
old son. Confined to a windowless, 10-by-10-foot space, she creates an entire universe for Jack,
in an attempt to provide him with a fulfilling life and a normal childhood. But as Jack grows older
and becomes increasingly curious, Joy realises that this cannot go on. They hatch a plan to escape,
but on the other side of the four walls, they might face their biggest challenge yet: acclimatising
to the real world.

Producers: Ed Guiney, David Gross Story and Script/Screenplay: Emma Donoghue Director
of Photography: Danny Cohen Editor: Nathan Nugent Music: Stephen Rennicks Cast: Brie
Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, William H. Macy
Production Company: Element Pictures; No Trace Camping International Sales: FilmNation
Festivals and Awards: Toronto International Film Festival 2015 (People’s Choice Award)

LENNY ABRAHAMSON
is an Irish film and television director. He directed numerous commercials for television in Ireland, the UK
and worldwide before taking the helm on his first feature film, Adam & Paul, which won the Grand Prix at
the 2005 Sofia International Film Festival. What Richard Did, his third feature, was released in 2012 to critical
acclaim. He is currently developing The Little Stranger and Neverhome.
Director’s Filmography: Adam & Paul, 2004; Garage, 2007; What Richard Did, 2012; Frank, 2014

SANGUE DEL MIO SANGUE |

BLOOD OF MY BLOOD
Director: Marco Bellocchio | Italy, France, Switzerland / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Italian /
107 mins
Blood of my Blood is a combination of two interlocking tales from different centuries, set in the
small Italian town of Bobio. In the first, Federico, a young priest, is summoned by the 17th century
Inquisition to a convent prison. His mission is to coerce Sister Benedetta to confess that she has
seduced, and driven to death, her previous confessor – Federico’s brother. But Federico, too,
begins to fall under the spell of the hypnotic Benedetta. In the second tale, set in present-day
Bobbio, the prison is run-down and abandoned. Federico, a tax investigator, is helping a Russian
millionaire buy the old ruin. But for that he must deal with the mysterious old man – known only
as ‘The Count’ – who has been living there for years.
Producers: Simone Gattoni, Kavac Film; Beppe Caschetto; IBC Movie Story and Script/Screenplay:
Marco Bellocchio Director of Photography: Daniele Ciprì Editors: Francesca Calvelli, Claudio
Misantoni Music: Carlo Crivelli Cast: Roberto Herlitzka, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Lidiya Liberman, Fausto
Russo Alesi, Alba Rohrwacher, Federica Fracassi
Production Company: Kavac Film; IBC Movie; Rai Cinema International Sales: The Match Factory
Festivals and Awards: Toronto International Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection, Masters Section);
Venice International Film Festival (In Competition)
MARCO BELLOCCHIO
has a prolific 50-year career and his works are known for being politically-engaged and often attacking
symbols of Italian conformism. His darkly funny debut feature, Fists in the Pocket (1965), is often credited
with having anticipated the youth rebellion. Bellocchio was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime
Achievement at the Venice International Film Festival in 2011.
Director’s Filmography: ...Addio del passato..., Documentary, 2002; Good Morning, Night, 2003;
The Wedding Director, 2006; Sorelle, 2006; Vincere, 2009; Sorelle Mai, 2010; Dormant Beauty, 2012

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SCHNEIDER VS. BAX

Director:Alex van Warmerdam | The Netherlands, Belgium / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Dutch /
96 mins
When Schneider, a hitman, gets an assignment on the morning of his bir thday, he isn’t
happy – he has promised to help his wife Lucy with preparations for the dinner par ty. But
his caller, Mer tens, is adamant. ‘It’s an easy job,’ he says. ‘With a little luck, you’re back home
before noon.’ The target – Ramon Bax, a reclusive writer. Reluctantly, Schneider accepts the
assignment, but what was promised to be a simple hit turns out to be more than expected.

Producer: Marc van Warmerdam Story and Script/Screenplay: Alex van Warmerdam Director
of Photography: Tom Erisman N.S.C. Editor: Job ter Burg N.C.E. Music: Alex van Warmerdam
Cast: Tom Dewispelaere, Alex van Warmerdam, Maria Kraakman, Annet Malherbe, Gene Bervoets, Eva van
de Wijdeven, Pierre Bokma, Loes Haverkort, Henri Garcin
Production Company: Graniet Film; Czar Film; VARA; Mollywood
International Sales: Fortissimofilms
Festivals and Awards: Festival del Film Locarno; Toronto International Film Festival 2015

ALEX VAN WARMERDAM

is a Dutch screenwriter, film director, actor and painter. He studied Graphic Design and Painting at Amsterdam’s
Gerrit Rietveld Academy before he co-founded the music theatre group, Hauser Orkater, and later, De
Mexicaanse Hond, with his brother Marc. His recent thriller, Borgman, was nominated for Palme d’Or at Cannes.
Director’s Filmography: Abel, 1986; The Northerners, 1992; The Dress, 1996; Little Tony, 1998; Grimm, 2003;
Waiter, 2006; The Last Days of Emma Blank, 2009; Borgman, 2013

SHAN HE GUREN |
MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART
Director: Jia Zhangke | China, Japan, France / 2015 / Col. / Cantonese, Mandarin, English /
131 mins
In Fenyang, China, childhood friends Liangzi, a coal miner, and Zhang, the owner of a gas station, are
both in love with Tao, the town beauty. Tao eventually marries the wealthier Zhang and they have
a son they name Dollar. Five years later, Tao is divorced and her son emigrates to Australia with
his business magnate father. By the time he is 19, Dollar no longer speaks Chinese and can barely
communicate with his now bankrupt father. And all he remembers of his mother is her name....
Producers: Ren Zhonglun, Jia Zhangke, Nathanaël Karmitz, Liu Shiyu, Shozo Ichiyama Story and
Script/Screenplay: Jia Zhangke Director of Photography: Yu Lik-Wai Editor: Matthieu Laclau
Cast: Zhao Tao, Zhang Yi, Liang Jin Dong, Dong Zijian, Sylvia Chang, Han Sanming
Production Company: Shanghai Film Group Corporation; XStream Pictures (Beijing); MK Productions;
Runjin Investment; Office Kitano International Sales: MK2
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection); Toronto International Film
Festival 2015 (Special Selection)

JIA ZHANGKE
has trained at Beijing Film Academy. His films have routinely premiered in the major European festivals. Xiao
Wu won prizes in Berlin, Vancouver and elsewhere. Still Life won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2006, and A
Touch of Sin won the Best Screenplay prize in Cannes in 2013. Several of his films blur the line between
fiction and documentary. In 2015, Zhangke received the Carrosse d’Or Prize at Cannes.
Director’s Filmography: Smog Journeys, Short Film, 2015; A Touch of Sin, Feature, 2013; I Wish I Knew,
Documentary, 2010; Cry Me a River, Short Film, 2008; 24 City, Feature, 2008; Our Ten Years, Short Film, 2007;
Useless, Documentary, 2007; Still Life, Feature, 2006; The World, Feature, 2004; Unknown Pleasures, Feature, 2002

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SHERPA
Director: Jennifer Peedom | Australia / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English, Nepali, Sherpa / 96 mins
In 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reached the Everest summit
in a spirit of co-operation and brave optimism. But in 2013, news channels around the world
reported an ugly brawl between European climbers and a mob of angry Sherpas. Determined to
explore the roots of their discontent, the filmmakers set out to capture on film the 2014 Everest
climbing season, from the Sherpas’ point of view. Instead, they captured a tragedy that would
change Everest forever. At 6.45 am, on 18 April 2014, a 14 million ton block of ice crashed down
onto the climbing route, killing 16 Sherpas. Sherpa tells the story of how, in the face of fierce
opposition, the Sherpas united in grief and anger to reclaim the mountain they call Chomolungma.

Producer: Bridget Ikin Story and Script/Screenplay: Jennifer Peedom Directors of

Photography: Renan Ozturk, Hugh Miller, Ken Sauls Editor: Christian Gazal Music: Antony Partos
Cast: Phurba Tashi Sherpa, Ed Douglas, Russell Brice
Production Company: John Smithson Indian Distributor: Discovery
Festivals and Awards: Sydney Film Festival 2015; New Zealand International Film Festival 2015;
Melbourne International Film Festival 2015; Stronger than Fiction Documentary Film Festival 2015; Border
Mail International Film Festival 2015; Telluride Film Festival 2015; Toronto International Film Festival 2015

JENNIFER PEEDOM
is known for her intimate and compassionate portraits, documenting stories from the epic to the everyday,
often in extreme situations. Her credits include the internationally renowned documentaries Miracle on Everest
and Solo. Jen is an experienced climber, and has worked as a high altitude director on several expeditions
including Discovery Channel’s six-part series Everest: Beyond the Limit.
Director’s Filmography: The Sherpas’ Burden, 2004; Everest: Beyond the Limit, 2006; Miracle on Everest,
2007; Solo, 2008; Miracle in the Desert, 2009; Living the End, 2010; Life at 7, 2012; Life at 9, 2014;

THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE

EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE
TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS
Director: Ben Rivers | UK / 2015 / Col. / English, Arabic, Spanish, French / 100 mins
While shooting against the staggering beauty of the Moroccan landscape – from the rugged
terrain of the Atlas Mountains to the stark and surreal emptiness of the Moroccan Sahara – an
enigmatic director abandons his film set and descends into a hallucinatory, perilous adventure of
cruelty, madness and malevolence. This labyrinthine and epic film moves between documentary,
fantasy and fable as it combines a story by Paul Bowles with observational footage to perform a
multi-layered excavation into the illusion of cinema itself.

Producer: Jacqui Davies Story and Script/Screenplay: Ben Rivers Director of Photography:
Ben Rivers Editors: Benjamin Mirguet, Ben Rivers Cast: Oliver Laxe
Production Company: Artangel International Sales: Artscope
Festivals and Awards: Festival del Film Locarno; New York Film Festival 2015; BFI London Film Festival
2015

BEN RIVERS
is an experimental artist and filmmaker based in London. He swears by the antiquated technique of hand-
processing 16mm film, and his brand of filmmaking treads the fine line between documentary and fiction.
Rivers’ first feature-length film, Two Years at Sea, was presented at the 68th Venice International Film Festival
and won the FIPRESCI International Critics prize.
Director’s Filmography: Slow Action, Short Film, 2011; Two Years at Sea, Documentary, 2011; A Spell to
Ward Off the Darkness, Documentary, 2013

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SUNSET SONG
Director:Terence Davies | UK, Luxembourg / 2015 / 65mm / Col. / English / 135 mins
Set in the coastal landscape of Scotland just before the First World War, Sunset Song is
driven by the young heroine Chris’ passion for life, as she struggles with the conflicts and
choices between tradition and change. After the death of her mother, Chris’s family is
broken, and she is left to run the family farm along with her brother, Will, and their father.
After their father dies of a stroke, Chris decides to marry the young farmer Ewan, but the
marriage is ravaged when the War breaks out. Adapted from Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel,
this intimate yet epic tale illustrates the classic tale of complex yet flawed characters as they
attempt to come to terms with the hardships of Scottish life and the onset of war.
Producers: Roy Boulter, Sol Papadopoulos, Nicolas Steil Story and Script/Screenplay: Lewis Grassic
Gibon, Terence Davies Director of Photography: Michael McDonough A.S.C. Editor: David Charap
Cast: Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie
Production Company: A Hurricane Films; Iris Productions; SellOutPictures Production
International Sales: Fortissimofilms
Festivals and Awards: San Sebastian International Film Festival; Toronto International Film Festival 2015
(Special Presentation)

TERENCE DAVIES
is a distinguished English screenwriter and director, known for his use of recurring themes of emotional endurance,
the influence of memory on everyday life, and the potentially crippling effects of dogmatic religiosity on the
emotional life of individuals and societies. In 2009, he was named ‘Britain’s Greatest Living Director’.
Director’s Filmography: House of Mirth, 2002; Of Time and the City, 2008; Deep Blue Sea, 2011

TAKLUB | TRAP
Director: Brillante Mendoza | Philippines / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Filipino / 97 mins
After the city of Tacloban, in Philippines, is destroyed by supertyphoon Haiyan – one of the strongest
tropical cyclones ever recorded – Bebeth, Larry and Erwin find their lives intertwined as each
embarks on a journey of mourning and rebuilding. Bebeth searches for the remains of three of
her children; Erwin and his elder brother try to hide the truth about their parents’ death from their
little sister; and Larry, who has lost his wife, consoles himself by joining a group of devout Catholics
carrying a life sized cross around the city. Following their lives as a series of events continue to
test their endurance, this documentary-style film studies the significance of spiritual and emotional
strength in the face of material devastation.

Producer: Loreto F. Castillo Story and Script/Screenplay: Mary Honeylyn Joy Alipio Director
of Photography: Odyssey Flores Editor: Kats Serraon Cast: Nora Aunor, Julio Diaz, Lou Veloso,
Aaron Rivera
Production Company: Centerstage Productions International Sales: Films Distribution
Festivals and Awards: 68th Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Un Certain Regard section); Sarajevo Film
Festival; 9th Film and Arts Festival Two Riverside; 15th T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival;
28th Helsinki International Film Festival; 20th Busan International Film.

BRILLANTE MA. MENDOZA

is a Philippines-based producer and director of locally and internationally acclaimed films. His debut film,
Masahista won the Golden Leopard Award at the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival, and paved the
way for the rise of alternative cinema in the Philippines – a niche that he continues to cultivate with his films
and documentaries depicting the lives of Filipinos and the marginalised sectors of society.
Director’s Filmography: Masahista, 2005; Kaledo, 2006; Manoro, 2006; Foster Child, 2007; Tirador, 2007;
Serbis, 2008; Kinatay, 2009; Lola, 2009; Captive, 2012; Thy Womb, 2012; Sapi, 2013

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TANGERINE
Director: Sean Baker | US / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English / 88 mins
It’s Christmas Eve in Hollywood, and Sin-Dee gets back to work after a 28-day prison sentence.
On hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn’t been faithful to her, Sin-Dee and her best friend,
Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumour. Shot entirely
on camera phones, the film follows the duo as they set out on their rip-roaring odyssey
through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own
repercussions of infidelity.

Producers: Sean Baker, Karrie Cox, Marcus Cox, Darren Dean, Shih-Ching Tsou Story and Script/
Screenplay: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch Directors of Photography: Radium Cheung, Sean Baker
Editor: Sean Baker Music: Matthew Smith Cast: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian,
Mickey O’Hagan, James Ransone
Production Company: Tangerine Film, LLC
International Sales: Magnolia Pictures
Indian Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection)

SEAN BAKER
is a New York-based director, writer, producer known for the Spirit Award nominated films Take Out and
Prince of Broadway. He is also one of the co-creators of the puppet comedy series Greg the Bunny and its
subsequent spin-off, MTV’s Warren the Ape.
Director’s Filmography: Four Letter Words, 2000; Take Out, 2004; Prince of Broadway, 2008; Starlet, 2012

TAXI | TAXI TEHRAN

Director: Jafar Panahi | Iran / 2015 / DCP, 2K / Col. / Persian / 82 mins
A yellow taxi, with a camera placed on its dashboard, is turned into a mobile film studio capturing
diverse portraits of Iranian society as it makes its way along the vibrant and colourful streets of
Tehran. A whole range of passengers ride in the back, each of them candidly expressing their
views to the driver – director Jafar Panahi himself, as he faces a 20-year ban on making films by
the Iranian government.

Producer: Jafar Panahi Story and Script/Screenplay: Jafar Panahi Cast: Jafar Panahi,
Hana Saeidi
Production Company: Jafar Panahi Film Productions
International Sales: Celluloid Dreams
Festivals and Awards: 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Golden Bear); FIPRESCI Prize

JAFAR PANAHI
is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor. His feature film debut, The
White Balloon (1995) won the Caméra d’Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award won by
an Iranian film at Cannes. After several years of conflict with the Iranian government over the content of his
films, in December 2010 Panahi was sentenced to a six-year jail sentence.
Director’s Filmography: Kish, Documentary Film, 1991; The Friend, Short, 1992; The Last Exam, Short
Film, 1992; The White Balloon, 1995; Ardekoul, Documentary Short, 1997; The Mirror, 1997; The Circle, 2000;
Crimson Gold, 2003; Offside, 2006; This Is Not A Film, Documentary, 2011; Closed Curtain, 2013

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UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME |

A MAN AND A WOMAN
Director: Lelouch Claude | France / 1966 / B&W, Col. / French / 102 mins
A chance encounter between a young widow and widower at their respective children’s
boarding school leads to a journey of gradual discovery and friendship. Each is slow to
reveal anything personal, and it soon becomes clear that any possibility of romance would
be complicated by the weight of their past.

Producer: Les Films 13 Story and Script/Screenplay: Lelouch Claude, Pierre Uytterhoeven
Editor: Barrois Claude Music: Lai Francis Cast: Anouk Aimee, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh
Production Company: Les Films 13
International Sales: Les Films 13
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 1966 (Palme d’or); Academy Awards 1967 (Best Writing,
Story and Screenplay, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Director)

CLAUDE LELOUCH
was born in Paris in 1937, with a film camera in his hands. The cinema has always been a love affair for him,
indissociable from life itself. This unquenchable thirst has been translated into more than 30 full-length features,
television films, 150 commercials and scopitones – the ancestor of the video clip. His films have met with big
successes and international recognition, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes and an Oscar for the Best Foreign
Movie for Un homme et Une femme in 1966.

THE VISIT
Director: Michael Madsen | Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Norway / 2015 / Col. /
English / 83 mins
The Visit is a documentary-style film that explores the scenario of mankind’s first contact with
intelligent extraterrestrial life. With unprecedented access to the UN Office for Outer Space
Affairs, the military, and experts from leading space agencies, director Michael Madsen takes
viewers on a journey beyond their terrestrial perspective and into the unknown, revealing fears,
anxieties, hope and rituals of humanity, as it is forced to confront not only alien life, but also its
own self image.

Producer: Lise Lense-Møller Story and Script/Screenplay: Michael Madsen Director of

Photography: Heikki Färm F.S.C. Editors: Nathan Nugent, Stephan Sudölf Music: Karsten Fundal
Cast: Jacques Arnould, Paul Beaver, Dr. Sheryl Bishop, Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Boyce, Dr. Ernst Fasan,
Niklas Hedman, Christopher McKay, Mazlan Othman, John Rummel, Vickie Sheriff, Janos Tisovsky, Doug
Vakoch, Chris Welch
Production Company: Magic Hour Films International Sales: Autlook
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival 2015; Moscow International Film Festival 2015; Hamptons
International Film Festival 2015; DocAviv Film Festival 2015

MICHAEL MADSEN
is a Danish director and writer known for his films Into Eternity: A Film for the Future (2010) and The Average
of the Average (2011). He has been guest lecturer at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, the Danish Film
School, and the Danish School of Design. He is also the founder and artistic leader of Sound/Gallery, a 900-
sq-m sound diffusion system underneath the Town Hall Square in Copenhagen.

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YA TAYR EL TAYER | THE IDOL

Director: Hany Abu-Assad | Palestine / 2015 / Col. / Arabic / 100 mins
The Idol tells the true story of Mohammed Assaf, whose meteoric rise from a refugee camp
in Gaza to winning 2013’s Arab Idol singing competition captivated millions and became a
worldwide sensation. The film introduces us to ten-year-old Assaf and his elder sister, Nour,
whose unwavering support and persistence enables him to discover his passion for music. Cut
to 2012, Palestine – Assaf, now a teenager, is trying to make extra money as a cab driver while
still pursuing his dream of a singing career. When he learns that auditions for the next season
of ‘Arab Idol’ are being held in Cairo, the drama kicks into high gear as Assaf must obtain a fake
visa to enter Egypt.

Producers: Hans de Wolf, Amira Diab, Ali Jaafar, Hanneke Niens Story and Script/Screenplay:
Hany Abu-Assad, Sameh Zoabi Editor: Eyas Salman Cast: Qais Atallah, Hiba Atallah, Ahmad Qassim,
Abdelkarim Abu Baraka, Tawfeek Barhom, Saber Shreim, Ahmed Al Rokh, Nadine Labaki
Production Company: Idol Film Production LTD, 03 FZ LLC, Cactus World Film
International Sales: Séville International
Festivals and Awards: Toronto International Film Festival 2015

HANY ABU-ASSAD
is an Israeli-born Palestinian film director. He immigrated to the Netherlands in 1981, where he studied
aerodynamics in Haarlem and worked as an airplane engineer for several years. He has received two Academy
Award nominations: in 2006 for his film Paradise Now, and again in 2013 for his film Omar. In 2014, Abu-Assad
was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Director’s Filmography: Paper House, Short Film, 1992; The 13th, Short Film, 1997; The Fourteenth Chick,
1998; Rana’s Wedding, 2002; Paradise Now, 2005; The Courier, 2012; Omar, 2013

YOUTH
Director: Paolo Sorrentino | Italy / 2015 / English / 118 mins
Fred and Mick, two old friends approaching their eighties, are enjoying a vacation at a beautiful
hotel in the foothills of the Alps. Fred, a retired composer and conductor with no intention
of returning to his music career, receives an intriguing message from an emissary of Queen
Elizabeth II. Mick, a film director, struggles to finish the screenplay of his latest film. As they look
upon their children and other guests of the hotel with curiosity, both friends know that their days
are numbered and decide to face their future together. Unlike them, however, no one else seems
worried about the passing of time.

Producers: Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima, Carlotta Calori Story and Script/Screenplay:
Paolo Sorrentino Director of Photography: Luca Bigazzi Editor: Cristiano Travaglioli
Music: David Lang Cast: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Paul Dano, Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda, Mark Kozelek
Production Company: Indigo Film International Sales: Pathé Distribution
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (nominated for Palme d’Or); Toronto International Film
Festival 2015 (Special Presentation Section)

PAOLO SORRENTINO
was born in 1970, and is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Naples, and achieved
international recognition in 2004 for his thriller, Le conseguenze dell’amore. The film won many awards and
was nominated for the Palme D’Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. His 2013 film The Great Beauty won
the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Youth is his second English-language film.
Director’s Filmography: L’uomo in Più (One Man Up), 2001; Le Conseguenze Dell’amore (The
Consequences of Love), 2004; Sabato, Domenica e Lunedì, 2004; L’amico di Famiglia (The Family Friend), 2006;
Il Divo, 2008; This Must Be the Place, 2011; La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), 2013; Le Voci di Dentro, 2014

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Celebrating India’s diversity through its languages, narratives
and forms of storytelling

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 Framing the Indian Experience
In the India Story section, you will find every kind of film from India – from the blockbuster to the indie, from the
eclectic to the narrative extravaganza. The selection is contemporary and reflective of the diverse forms in Indian
filmmaking which include mainstream, regional, experimental fiction and non-fiction cinema.
Indeed, with the Documentary finding its voice as a genre in India, and blurring the lines between fiction and reality, we
thought it fit that documentaries should also be a part of the selection in the India Story section.

One of the most empowering things while programming this section was that these films did not have to be Indian
premieres; they could very well be regional premieres. That allowed us to select with a more free hand. Eventually,
though, most of the films programmed here are being shown for the first time in India and the world. But during the
selection process, we felt we could dig deeper in the content because we had greater choice and fewer restrictions.

Unlike India Gold, where the films are in competition and being watched by a jury and judged for awards, the India
Story films are solely for audiences. This, too, allowed us to include a wider range of cinema. In this section, you will
find films for lay audiences as well as those that would appeal to committed cinephiles.The selection is an eclectic one,
with diverse themes mirroring what, to us, looks like a mini-archive of the best cinema from across the country in this
calendar year. From a musical in Nachom-ia Kumpasar (Let’s Dance to the Rhythm) by Bardroy Barretto to an epic-
scale mainstream film like Rajkahini (No Woman’s Land) by Srijit Mukherji, to the pains of young love in Kaash (If Only)
by Ishaan Nair, to the National Award winning film Ottaal (The Trap) by Jayaraj, you will find them all equally at home in
this section. While some of the films focus our attention on important social issues through their wonderful filmmaking,
others are introspective and try to understand the psychology of individuals. While some of them try to understand
the mentality that gives rise to the deep prejudices in our society, others celebrate art and artists. It can safely be said
that the India Story section this year would give a committed viewer a wonderful insight into where India stands today
in terms of cinematic talent, as well as a glimpse of what it is that interests the Indian filmmaker today. Ultimately, this is
a section put together with film audiences in mind, and our festival audiences have always been discerning and canny
about what it is they are looking for in a film they pick to watch. Above all else, it is this that our India Story selection
respects and hopes to satisfy.

BINA PAUL
DEEPTI DCUNHA

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BOKUL
Director: Reema Borah | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Assamese / 100 mins

Raktim returns to his town after five years. This film is about his encounters with three people – all
coincidentally named ‘Bokul’ – as he observes the silent turmoil that pulls their lives apart. He first meets
an elderly fisherman called Bokul, who seems content despite the protracted disappearance of his only son.
The second Bokul is a woman, who, despite society’s contempt, manages two professions and raises her
daughter. He then sets out in search for his childhood music teacher’s son, Bokul. Roaming his hometown,
Raktim is lost in a collage of old memories, deep­rooted friendships, adolescent love and a lost fragrance.
But time and again, his nostalgic reverie is broken by the crude realisation of the violence and intolerance
embedded in the community.

Producer: Sandeep Patil Story and Script/Screenplay: Reema Borah Director of Photography:
Sandeep Patil Editor: Rantu Chetia, Jasir Imtiaz Cast: Urmila Mahanta, Udayan Dowerah, Nirab Das, Dwijen Mahanta,
Anupam Borah, Ankita Borah
Production Company All Mitra Talkies, 1102, Vaastulabh, Jija Mata Road, Pump House, Andheri East, Mumbai 93.
+91 9821300037

REEMA BORAH
is a writer/director and a former performing artist from India, with training in theatre and, subsequently,
film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India. Her films have won the Kodak Film School
Competition in 2005 and the National Film Awards in 2009. She wrote and directed Chaatak in 2010,
which received a special mention at IDPA in 2011. Bokul is her debut feature film.
Filmography: Song of Sorrow, 2012; I am… Tale of an uneven land, 2010; Kaamdhenu, 2010

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OZHIVU DIVASATHE KALI |
AN OFF-DAY GAME
Director: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan | India / 2015 / 2KDCP / Col. / Malayalam / 105 mins

Election day being a holiday, five friends meet in a resort deep inside a jungle to drink and make merry,
and get away from their daily grind. As the day progresses, however, they get into heated discussions about
politics, caste, and male attitudes towards women. The presence of a female cook in the resort aggravates
the situation. To resolve the crisis and also end their boredom, they decide to play a game – a game they
had last played as children. But before they know it, the game has gone too far.
Based on a short story by renowned writer Unni R., this film has been made entirely without a screenplay.

Producers: Shaji Mathew, Aruna Mathew Story and Script/Screenplay: Unni R., Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Director of Photography: Indrajith Editor: Appu N. Bhattathiri Music: Basil Joseph Cast: Nisthar Sait, Baiju
Netto, Girish Nair, Pradeep Kumar, Reju Pillai, Abhija Sivakala
Production company NIV ART Movies, NIV ART Centre, Near IGNOU, Nebsarai, New Delhi
International sales: NIV ART Movies
Indian distributor: NIV ART Movies

SANAL KUMAR SASIDHARAN

is a Kerala-based lawyer. Together with his colleagues, he formed a film society called Kazhcha Film
Forum to make independent movies through crowd funding. He has directed three short films and
one feature film in this manner. Sasidharan won the award for Best Director at the Kerala State Film
Awards, 2014, for his debut film Oraalppokkam. He believes that Art always stays out of Industry.
Director’s Filmography: Wonder World, Short Film, 2001; Parole, Short Film, 2008; Frog, Short
Film, 2012; Oraalppokkam, Feature Film, 2014

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KAASH | IF ONLY
Director: Ishaan Nair | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi, English / 106 mins

Aadil, a young, dreamy photographer is stuck in a dwindling relationship. Frustrated with his current
situation, he impulsively sets up a meeting with a girl he connects with over the internet. Far from the urban
madness of Bombay, he stumbles into Khushali’s simple world of earthly delights. In her he finds strains of
Samira, his former love. Oscillating between past and present, Kaash is about the endless possibilities of
love, heartbreak and exploration in urban India.

Producers: Shailesh Singh, Irrfan Khan, Shimit Amin, Mira Nair Story and Script/Screenplay: Ishaan Nair,
Karuna Ezara Parikh Director of Photography: Tanay Satam Editor: Shreyas Beltangdy Music: Savera Mehta
Cast: Nidhi Sunil, Kavya Trehan, Varun Mitra, Kalki Koechlin, Shikha Talsania
Production Company: Paramhans Productions Pvt. Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: Tokyo International Film Festival

ISHAAN NAIR
filmmaker and photographer, moved back to India after a degree in direction and cinematography in New
York. His thesis film Guroor won him the Best Director award at the Dusty Film Festival, a nomination at
the IAAC New York Indian Film Festival, and was selected at River to River, Florence, and Tel Aviv. Kaash is
Nair’s directorial debut.

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KUTRAME THANDANAI |
CRIME IS PUNISHMENT
Director: M. Manikandan | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Tamil / 98:54 mins

Ravi, a mild-mannered, hard-working bachelor, with a life-long tunnel vision problem and little in the bank,
is on the brink of blindness, unless he can raise money for an immediate eye transplant. After exhausting all
honest avenues with no success, a financial opportunity presents itself along with an ethical dilemma when
he discovers the dead body of his young female neighbour, and at the gory crime scene, is her wealthy boss,
who is desperate for Ravi’s silence. Finding himself hopelessly trapped in a quagmire of medical, judicial and
moral corruption, Ravi struggles with the choice before him –saving his vision or his soul.

Producer/s: S. Hariharanaganathan, S. Muthu, S. Kaleeswaran, M. Manikandan Story and Script/Screenplay:

M. Manikandan Director of Photography: M. Manikandan Editor: Anucharan. Music: Illaiyaraaja.
Cast: Vidharth, Rehman, Nassar, Aishwarya Rajesh
Production Company: DON Productions, No. 155 A2 Latha Flats Lakshmi, 6th Cross Street, Mangala Nagar,
Porur, Chennai 600116, Tamil Nadu, India. +91 9444 048090. donproductions14@gmail.com

M. MANIKANDAN
began his film career as a photographer and cinematographer. He wrote and directed the
experimental short film, Wind in 2010, which caught the attention of National Award winners Vetri
Maaran and Dhanush, who decided to co­produce his feature debut. What resulted was Kakka Muttai,
the winner of two National Awards. The film had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International
Film Festival and travelled to numerous other festivals.
Director’s filmography: Wind, Short Film, 2010; Kakka Muttai, Feature, 2014; Kutrame Thandanai,
Feature, 2015

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RAJKAHINI | NO WOMAN’S LAND
Director: Srijit Mukherji | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Bengali / 160 mins

In July 1947 Sir Cyril Radcliffe was assigned the unenviable task of drawing up a boundary across 5,000
years of history. Based on almost zero topographical and demographical research and an outdated census,
the Radcliffe line between India and Pakistan went through villages, and sometimes even homes. Rajkahini is
the story of a whorehouse that falls on the border dividing Bengal. And how Begum Jaan, the owner of the
whorehouse, along with its inhabitants, resists the efforts of both the newly formed Governments of India
and Pakistan to raze down their house to build a border of barbed wires. It is the story of common people
who are most often marginalised by the grand narratives of politics and history, but who must inevitably
bear the brunt of their tragedy.

Producers: Shrikant Mohta, Mahendra Soni Story and Script/Screenplay: Srijit Mukherji Director of
Photography: Avik Mukhopadhay Editors: Pronoy Dasgupta, Srijit Mukherji Music: Indraadip Dasgupta
Cast: Rituparna Sengupta, Parno Mitra, Abir Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Kanchan Mallick, Sudipta Chakraborty, Jaya
Ahsaan, Priyanka Sarkar, Riddhima Ghosh, Saswata Chatterjee, Kaushik Sen
Production Company: Shree Venkatesh Films Pvt Ltd. International sales: Shree Venkatesh Films Pvt Ltd
Indian distributor: Shree Venkatesh Films Pvt Ltd.

SRIJIT MUKHERJI
is an erstwhile economist, actor, director, lyricist, and the atrician from the Indian movie industry of West
Bengal, Kolkata. He has been actively involved with the English Professional Theatre Circuit in Delhi and
Bangalore. He is one of the few directors in the history of Bengali cinema to achieve success both critically
and commercially in his very first films.
Filmography: Autograph, 2010; Baishey Srabon, 2011; Hemlock Society, 2012; Mishwar Rawhoshyo, 2013;
Jaatishwar, 2014; Chotuskone, 2014; Nirbaak, 2015

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OTTAAL | THE TRAP
Director: Jayaraj | India / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Malayalam / 81 mins

Kuttappayi is a young boy, miserable and desperate after the death of his parents. From this dark place,
he starts writing letters to his grandfather and their recollections take us to the picturesque locations of
Kuttanad, where Kuttappayi and his grandfather, Valiyappachayi, arrive with their ducks, all set to start their
lives afresh. Giving them company are the village’s letterless postman, the nameless dog, the rich lad, Tintu,
and many more. A contemporary adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s story, ‘Vanka’, Ottaal tells the story of a
young boy and the inseparable bond he shares with his grandfather and with nature.

Producers: Vinod Vijayan, Seven Arts Mohan Story and Script/Screenplay: Joshy Mangalath (Screenplay),
Jayaraj (Dialogues) and Anton Chekov (Story ‘Vanka’) Director of Photography: M. J. Radhakrishnan
Editor: B. Ajithkumar Music: Kavalam Narayana Panicker, Sreevalsan J. Menon Cast: Kumarakom Vasudevan, Shine
Tom Chacko, Master Ashanth K. Sha, Sabitha Jayaraj
Production Company: Director Cutz Film Company Pvt. Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: 62nd National Film Awards (Best Film on Environmental Conservation/Preservation, Best
Screenplay Adapted); Kerala Film Critics Award 2015 (Best Film, Best Director, Special Mention, Best Child Artist)

JAYARAJ RAJASEKHARAN NAIR

is an Indian filmmaker who has marked his presence in art house films as well as mainstream films.
Having directed over 35 films in four languages – Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi – Jayaraj’s work
has been critically acclaimed and has won multiple awards.
Select Filmography: Desadanam, 1997; Kaliyattam, 1997; Shantham, 2001; Karunam, 2000;
Daivanamathil, 2005; Vellapokkathil, 2008; Pakarnnattam, 2012

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NACHOM­-IA KUMPASAR |
LET’S DANCE TO THE RHYTHM
Director: Bardroy Barretto | India / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Romi Konkani / 156 mins

Nachom-­ia Kumpasar is a tribute to Goan musicians and their music, narrated through the emotional roller
coaster of a love story that is destined to a tragic fate. Lawry, a musician in Goa, is looking for a singer for
his band. His search ends when he meets Dona and while training her as a singer, they fall in love. The film
weaves its lilting narrative through 20 timeless Konkani songs that convey the timbre and texture of a pitch
and rhythm Goan musicians made their own. It celebrates Goan music through the eyes of its eclectic
generations of musicians in the 1960s and ‘70s. The film is a nostalgic musical tale set in the times these
musicians lived and died – unrecognised, unappreciated and unsung.

Producers: Angelo Braganza, Bardroy Barretto Story and Script/Screenplay: Bardroy Barretto, Mridul
Toolsidas, Angelo Braganza Director of Photography: Suhas Gujarathi Editors: Bardroy Barretto, Lionel
Fernandes, Shweta Venkat Music: Ronnie Monsorate, Jackson Pereira Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob
Production Company: Goa Folklore Productions, +91 9664815065
Festivals and Awards: London Indian Film Festival (Lebara Audience Choice Award); Brasov Film Festival (Best
Film, Out of competition)

BARDROY BARRETTO
started out as an assistant cameraman in 1987, and rose to become one of India’s finest editors. In 2002,
he ventured into film direction and set up his own production house, Brown Skins, in 2004. In spite of his
commercial success, he ensures that he contributes time and effort to keep the flame of Goan
culture burning.

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PEACE HAVEN
Director: Suman Ghosh | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Bengali / 78 mins

Peace Haven is the story of three septuagenarian friends who decide to build their very own mortuary.
After attending their friend’s cremation in his son’s absence, they discover that the dearth of proper
mortuaries may compromise their own last rites. There is only one morgue, called ‘Peace Haven’, which
preserves bodies for three days, but is typically reserved for VIPs. The task of building a ‘Peace Haven’ of
their own takes them on a spiritual journey as they look back at their lives, leading to joyous celebrations in
which the past, the present, and the future coalesce to provide them a holistic experience of life, ironically
through death.

Producers: Areendam Chanda, Arindam Ghosh, Suman Ghosh, Tapas Ray, Pallavi Rastogi Story and Script/
Screenplay: Suman Ghosh / Arindam Ghosh, Suman Ghosh Director of Photography: Sandip Ghoshal
Editor: Sujay Datta Ray Music: Mayookh Bhaumik Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Poran Bandopadhyay, Arun
Mukhopadhyay
Production Company: Random Walk Films. Arindam Ghosh, aghosh1972@gmail.com
International sales: Random Walk Films. Indian distributor: Tripod Films
Festivals and Awards: Busan International Film Festival

SUMAN GHOSH
is a National Award-winning Indian filmmaker. His first feature film Footsteps won two National
Awards in 2008 and was screened at numerous international film festivals. His next feature film, Nobel
Thief, starring Mithun Chakraborty, had its world premiere at Busan IFF and travelled to BFI, London
Film festival, among others. Shyamal Uncle Turns off the Lights had its world premiere at Busan Film
Festival and North American Premiere at the MoMA, NY.
Filmography: Podokkhep (Footsteps), 2006; Dwando (The Conflict), 2009; Nobel Chor (Nobel Thief),
2011; Shyamal Uncle Turns off the Lights, 2012; Kadambari, 2015

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RINGAN | THE QUEST
Director: Makarand Mane | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Marathi / 106 mins

Ringan is a story about the boundless love between a father and son, set against the grim backdrop of
farmer suicides in India. With his land rendered useless by drought, combined with mounting debts, Arjun
is pushed to the brink of suicide. The only thing holding him back is his love for his son, Abhimanyu, who
motivates him to search for work to buy back his ancestral land. As father and son set off to the nearby
holy town of Pandharpur, the father looks for work, and the son begins a search of his own.

Producers: Vitthal Patil, Ganesh Phuke, Mahesh Yewale, Yogesh Nikam, Makarand Mane Story and Script/
Screenplay: Makarand Mane Director of Photography: Abhijit D. Abde Editor: Suchitra Sathe
Music: Rohit Nagbhide Cast: Shashank Shende, Sahil Joshi, Kalyanee Mulay, Suhas Sirsat, Umesh Jagtap, Abhay Mahajan,
Shantanu Gangane, Shyam Savaji, Vitthal Patil, Ketan Pawar
Production company My Role Motion Pictures. H-307, Sarang, Nanded City, Sinhgad Road, Pune-411041.
+91 9822915566
Festivals and Awards: 12th Stuttgart Film Festival 2015 (Director’s Vision’ Special Jury Mention Award)

MAKARAND MANE
belongs to the town of Akluj, in Solapur district, Maharashtra. He assisted National Award-winning director
Rajeev Patil in 72 Miles and Vanshavel, and has worked as associate director for films like Lagna Pahave
Karun, Mangalashtak, Once More, and Bavare Prem He. Ringan is his first feature film as a director.

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SIVAPURANAM |
THE STRANGE CASE OF SHIVA
Director: Arun Karthick | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Tamil / 75 mins

Shiva, a lonely designer, has a chance encounter with a woman. He becomes obsessed with her image.
Caught in a web of voyeuristic delusions, he awaits release by an arrival from somewhere.

Producer: Suresh Kumar Story and Script/Screenplay: Arun Karthick Director of Photography:
Saumyananda Sahi Editor: Arghya Basu Music: Ananda Gupta Cast: Rajesh, Chinnu, Kani, Sridhar
Production company S.K. Cinemas. International sales: S.K. Cinemas
Indian distributor: S.K. Cinemas

ARUN KARTHICK
is an independent filmmaker based in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He began his filmmaking career at an
early age of 17, directing self­produced short films. His debut feature, Sivapuranam, was given a gap
financing award at Film Bazaar 2014. He is currently developing his second feature.
Filmography: The Backwaters, Short Film, 2010; Transcendence, Short Film, 2011

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THE THRESHOLD
Director: Pushan Kripalani | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi, English / 87 mins

The film traces one day in the life of a couple who have been married for over two decades. Their son
has just got married, and the last of the wedding guests have left, when the woman informs her husband
that she is leaving him for good. Even as they are forced to confront the truth of their marriage, without
the masks, and try to get to the heart of the matter, they find the themes and big questions of their lives
beyond their grasp. The Threshold is a poignant film about the loneliness, inertia, habits and choices of people
in their 60s, who are expected to live out the rest of their lives at the periphery of family photographs.

Producers: Akshat Shah, Vishal Dhandhia Story and Script/Screenplay: Nihaarika Negi, Neena Gupta, Rajit
Kapur, Pushan Kripalani Director of Photography: Pushan Kripalani Editor: Pradip Patil Music: Tapas Relia
Cast: Neena Gupta, Rajit Kapur
Production company: BlackBoxers Productions, info@blackboxers.in, thethreshold@blackboxers.in
Akshat Shah: akshat@blackboxers.in, +91 98 33 44 2016; Vishal Dhandhia: vishal@blackboxers.in, +91 98 19 65 9015

PUSHAN KRIPALANI
is a cinematographer and theatre director. He has worked on over thirty productions for the stage and
for radio, in capacities ranging from director to actor to designer, musician and producer, and is a founder
member of the Industrial Theatre Company. As cinematographer, he has filmed several features, as well as
ads, documentaries and shorts. This is his first feature film as director.
Filmography: Where I Was, Documentary Short; Talking Writing Four Conversations with Mahashweta
Devi, Documentary Short

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GAALIBEEJA | WIND SEED
Director: Babu Eshwar Prasad | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Kannada / 96 mins

Prakash, a road engineer, is on his way to an unnamed village. He offers a ride to Jaffer, a former pirated
DVD seller, who gifts him some road movies in gratitude. The sequences in the films and the people that
Prakash meets in life begin to resonate with each other, and Jaffer’s pronouncement that Prakash’s life could
be a film begins to hit home, as he witnesses each person starring in their own road movie. The road is a
metaphor for life, for the journeys people undertake, and the transient relationships formed in the process.
The road connects people but equally, it marks disjunctures. The film explores this ambivalence and the
different temporalities people inhabit.

Producer: Babu Eshwar Prasad Story and Script/Screenplay: Babu Eshwar Prasad Director of
Photography: B.R. Viswanath Editor: M.N. Swamy Music: Marcus Maeder Cast: Venkatesh Prasad, Bhanu
Prakash Chandra, Amaresh U. Bijjal, Mohammed Rizwan, Divya Murthy, Badal Nanjundaswamy
Production company: Moving Focus Pictures
Festivals and Awards: NFDC Film Bazaar Recommendation, Feature Film Section, 2014

BABU ESHWAR PRASAD

is an award-winning artist based between Delhi and Bangalore. His works have been exhibited widely
in India and abroad. He has also experimented with other media like sculpture, video and photography.
His short films have found multiple prestigious screening platforms. Gaalibeeja is his debut feature film.
Filmography: Looped, Short Film, 2012; Fast Forward to Zero, Short Film, 2011; Vortex, Short Film,
2008; Dus ka Bees, Short Film, 2005; Splice, Short Film, 2003; Notes from my Diary, Short Film, 1997

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TRAIN CHAAR BAJE KI HAI | (DOCUMENTARY)

THE TRAIN LEAVES AT FOUR

Director: Antariksh | India / 2015 / Col. / Baiga-boli, Hindi / 57:15 mins

The film narrates the story of a family living on a hilltop in central India’s Gondwana forest, whose way of
life is on the verge of changing forever. The camera follows the three brothers, Gopichand, Santosh and
Lamu, as each sets out on his own journey, leaving behind their mother, and the eldest brother’s wife and
son. Gopichand tries to latch on to the last threads of his tribal upbringing; Santosh, with his eager and
explorative mind, seeks to secure his future through a government job in the city; Lamu spends his last day
in the village before catching the 4 o’ clock train to a faraway city.

Producer: Anurag Singh Story and Script/Screenplay: Antariksh Director of Photography: Vatsala
Goel Editor: Sanyukta Kaza Music: Akshay Murthy Cast: Santoh Kumar Baiga, Lamu Baiga
Production Company: Rough Cut Productions, New Delhi, Tel: +91 0 7042201374; aroughcut@gmail.com

ANTARIKSH
has a background in visual design. The Train Leaves at Four is his second documentary with an
anthropological perspective on the life of a family. He is now working on a feature-length documentary
titled For Our Collective Conscience (recipient of AND Documentary Fund, 2015), which deals with the
theme of capital punishment in India.
Director’s Filmography: 1370 sq. ft. of the Universe, Documentary, 2012

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(DOCUMENTARY)
CITIES OF SLEEP
Director: Shaunak Sen | India / 2015 / DCP / B&W, Col. / Hindi / 77 mins

Cities of Sleep takes us into a heady world of insurgent sleepers’ communities as well as the infamous ‘sleep
mafia’ in Delhi, where just securing a safe sleeping spot is often a matter of life and death for a large number
of people. The film trails the lives of two individuals – Shakeel, a renegade homeless sleeper who has been
sleeping in a diverse range of improvised places like subways, park benches, parking lots, and lately, areas
controlled by ‘sleep sellers’. Ranjeet runs the ‘sleep-cinema’ community in Loha Pul in Delhi, a huge double-
storey iron bridge straddling the banks of the river Yamuna. While looking at the tremendous social and
political pressure that sleep exerts on the homeless in the city, this film is also a philosophical exploration
of sleep at large.

Producer: V.S. Kundu, Films Division Directors of Photography: Salim Khan, Shaunak Sen Editors: Sreya
Chatterjee, Shaunak Sen Music: Ritwik De
Production Company: Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, 24,
Dr. G. Deshmukh Marg, Mumbai 400026
Festivals and Awards: Film Southasia 2015; VI International Ethnographic Film Festival of Recife 2015

SHAUNAK SEN
is a filmmaker, video artist and scholar based in Delhi. Cities of Sleep, funded by the Films Division
of India, is his first feature-length documentary. He has edited various other documentary and
experimental non-fiction films.

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 THE INDIA STORY
LAL BHI UDHAAS HO SAKTA HAI | (DOCUMENTARY)

EVEN RED CAN BE SAD

Director: Amit Dutta | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi, English / 58:13 mins

Lal Bhi Udhaas Ho Sakta Hai is a portrait of acclaimed writer and painter Ram Kumar, painted through a
synthesis of word and image. Travelling between fragments of his past, present, fiction and imagery, the film
explores various aspects of his personality through his own creations.

Director of Photography: Rangarajan Rambadran Editor: Kratika Adhikari Music: Catherine Lamb
Production Company: Films Division, 24-Dr. G. Deshmukh Marg, Mumbai 400026, +91-022-23512670,
publicity@filmsdivision.org, www.filmsdivision.org
International Sales: Films Division
Indian Distributor: Films Division

AMIT DUTTA
is an experimental filmmaker and screenwriter, known for his distinctive style of filmmaking that is
rooted in Indian aesthetic theories and personal symbolism, resulting in images that are visually rich and
acoustically stimulating. His works mostly deal with subjects of art history, ethno-anthropology and cultural
inheritance through cinema, often merging research and documentation with an open imagination.
Director’s Filmography: Nainsukh; The Seventh Walk; Sonchidi; Kramasha; Museum of Imagination;
Chitrashala; Kshy Tra Ghya

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THE INDIA STORY
(DOCUMENTARY)
FOR THE LOVE OF A MAN
Director: Rinku Kalsy | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Tamil / 85 mins

For fans of South Indian actor Rajnikanth, the line between cinema and reality is as blurred as the distinction
between star and God. For the Love of a Man explores how this fandom has deep social, political, and
devotional foundations. For the fans – largely men, ranging in age from teenagers to grandfathers – fandom
is about more than cinema; it is about brotherhood, identity, or even social aspiration.The film follows some
such men who alter their lives, sell their belongings, and place fandom above their families in their devotion
to this iconic superstar Rajnikanth. In a new media landscape, older fans struggle to remain relevant. And
yet, one thing remains constant – a star who never ages on screen, providing an object of unchanging desire
across generations of men reassured by his permanence.

Producer: Joyojeet Pal Story and Script/Screenplay: Joyojeet Pal Directors of Photography:
Sandeep P. S., Udit Khurana Editor: Rinku Kalsy Music: Anuraag Dhoundeyal Cast: N. Ravi, N. Murugan, G. Mani,
Kamal Anand
Production Company: Anecdote Films, Rinku Kalsy, +918860143312
Festivals and Awards: Venice Film Festival

RINKU KALSY
studied digital filmmaking in Amsterdam, along with doing various workshops at the Binger Institute,
Amsterdam. She works as a freelance director, camerawoman and editor under her production
company, Anecdote Films, which she started in 2006. Rinku has worked on numerous television
documentaries and programmes for Dutch national TV Channel NED2. She spends her time between
Amsterdam and Mumbai.
Director’s Filmography: Mila’s Journey (Co-directed), 2012; SOLD: A Child Trafficked
(Co-directed), 2011; The Women of Mahabharata, TV Documentary, 2011; Web of Life (Co-directed),
2013

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 THE INDIA STORY
PLACEBO (DOCUMENTARY)

Director: Abhay Kumar | India, Finland / 2015 / DCP / B&W, Col. / English, Hindi / 96 mins

After witnessing a mindless moment of self-inflicted violence on the campus of India’s toughest grad school,
a filmmaker decides to go undercover to take a closer look at patterns of student violence. Four students
agree to be followed for a year as part of this observational experiment. However, as the filmmaker starts
infiltrating this complex mindscape of restless youth and soaring ambition, a startling new reality begins
to emerge. Memory, time and space become increasingly distorted around the camera as the characters,
with their dreams and aspirations falling apart, are pulled into a vortex of events through which no one
will escape unhurt. Placebo is a journey in time through the corridors of excellence, where the ‘great Indian
dream’ is imploding.

Producers: Abhay Kumar; Archana Phadke Story and Script/Screenplay: Abhay Kumar; Archana Phadke
Director of Photography: Abhay Kumar Editor: Abhay Kumar Music: Shane Mendonsa
Production Company: Storyteller Ink International Sales: Cat & Docs
Festivals and Awards: EBS International Documentary Film Festival 2015 (Winner, Special Jury Award);
International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam 2014 (Winner, Jury Nomination Award for Best Debut); Hotdocs
2015; Toronto Film Festival (In competition); Docpoint Helsinki 2015; Cleveland International Film Festival 2015 (In
competition); Brooklyn Film Festival 2015 (In competition); New York Indian Film Festival 2015 (In competition); Turkish
Radio & Television Awards 2015 (In competition); Carnegie Melon University International Film Festival 2015; Austin
Asian American Film Festival 2015; Dharamsala International Film Festival 2015

ABHAY KUMAR
is the director of the hybrid animation short Just That Sort of a Day that became the first Indian film
to compete in the animation category at Tribeca Film Festival. He has won top awards including the a
National Award in India. Placebo is his first feature documentary. He aims to blend genres and make
science fiction and horror films building upon his experience with hybrid mediums.
Director’s Filmography: Life is a Beach, Narrative Short, 2011; Just That Sort of a Day, Narrative
Short, 2011; Mera Ghar, Narrative Short, 2010; Udaan, Narrative Short, 2009

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THE INDIA STORY
(DOCUMENTARY)
THE IMMORTALS
Director: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur | India, South Korea / 2015 / Col. / English,
Hindi, Tamil, Bengali / 52 mins

The Immortals is a personal journey through time and space to unravel hidden stories and rediscover objects
and images associated with Indian cinema, through a visual exploration of physical artifacts, personal spaces
and living memories – Dadasaheb Phalke’s car abandoned by the side of a road; K.L. Saigal’s harmonium
fallen silent like his voice; the homes of Satyajit Ray and Baburao Painter where films like Pather Panchali
and Savkari Pash took shape; a hundred-year-old cinematographer sifting through letters from Jean Renoir
speaking of a deep and abiding friendship; the whirring of the only surviving black and white lab at AVM
Studios; the quest for Anthony Gonsalves…. Each image is a reminder of how much we have lost, while
evoking memories that live on in spaces, objects and reminiscences of people.The film depicts the paradox
of India’s relationship with cinema: the romance and the power, the neglect and the worship.

Producers: KBS Busan, BIFF, Dungarpur Films Story and Script/Screenplay: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur
Directors of Photography: Avik Mukhopadhyay, H. M. Ramachandra, Avitjit Mukul Kishore Editor: Irene Dhar
Malik Music: Mohandas V. P.
Production Company: Dungarpur Films, 727/728, Arun Chambers, Tardeo Road, Mumbai 400034,
Tel: 022-67367777, Email: dungarpurfilms@gmail.Com
International Sales: KBS Busan
Festivals and Awards: Busan International Film Festival

SHIVENDRA SINGH DUNGARPUR

is a filmmaker, archivist and restorer, and the founder of the Film Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit
organisation dedicated to the preservation and restoration of India’s cinematic heritage. He made
an award-winning documentary, Celluloid Man (2012), and has also directed and produced over 500
commercials, short films and documentaries under the banner of Dungarpur Films.
Director’s Filmography: Celluloid Man, 2012

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DISCOVERING INDIA
Celebrating the Indian diaspora

147
 UMA DA CUNHA
Curator
DISCOVERING INDIA

Uma da Cunha’s work in cinema spans programming, writing and

casting. Her career started in 1974 with the Directorate of Film
Festivals, Government of India. In 1978 she set out on her own,
organising film festivals and related events in India and abroad.
She works with the Toronto and Busan film festivals and is the Founding
Advisor of Indian film festivals held in Los Angeles, London, Florence,
The Hague, Montreal and Houston. As casting director, her credits
cover films such as Deepa Mehta’s Water, Mira Nair’s Kamasutra,
Jane Campion’s Holy Smoke, Dev Benegal’s English August and Ashutosh
Gowariker’s Lagaan. She is the editor of the quarterly journal, Film India
Worldwide. She has served on many juries, including the International
Jury for Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard in 2009.

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Discovering India is a personal journey as well as a filmic one. It charts the story, now half a century old, of a certain
kind of Indian cinema. It was once termed ‘unconventional’ and ‘parallel.’ It is today’s Independent Cinema.

I have been watching this story unfold for some 40 years – at world festivals, or as a programmer, or carrying collections
of films everywhere, or as a journalist. My interest, soon to be a passion, was triggered by my four years in the Ministry
of Information of Broadcasting, in the Directorate of Film Festivals, with the formation of which I was involved.

While enjoying big-name, big-studio films, I found myself edging, and then being propelled, towards cinema that new
filmmakers were creating, tackling unfamiliar problems in an evolving genre. The hurdles of content, script, funding,
production and publicity were fascinating, especially in cases where the filmmakers were eyeing world screens.

The challenge was all the greater for filmmakers with good ideas and great talent but working in regions, languages and
with film content that was removed from the popular fare that rings the country’s cash registers.

​ he late sixties to the late eighties was when India’s regional language film talent was filling world screens with growing
T
frequency, filmmaker after filmmaker, film after film. We had a man of vision, the veteran journalist B.K. Karanjia, at the
head of the Film Finance Corporation, then the main source of funding for the far removed ‘unconventional’ or ‘parallel’
cinema. Earlier, Jean Bhownagary, who headed the Films Division, had injected a burning creativity in the documentary
filmmakers there, converting many of them to the feature genre.

Satyajit Ray was at the time a towering figure in world cinema. But other greats like Mrinal Sen were contemporaries. It
was Sen who pioneered festival entry with Bhuvan Shome (1969), in which he ventured into using Hindi as his language.

1974 saw Shyam Benegal’s debut feature Ankur featuring in competition at the Berlin Festival. Nishant was in
competition at Cannes two years later. Even Ray was tempted to move out of his comfort with Bengali, with Shatranj
ke Khilari, a film in Urdu, set mostly in Lucknow, on the misplaced zeal of two feudal lords of Awadh. A stream of such
film surprises from the seventies to the mid-eighties, from all pockets of the country, hit international film festivals with
a heady persistence.

Indian cinema, today, is also linked to the Indian diaspora of recent decades in North America, Europe, even parts of
Africa and the Arab countries. But the names mentioned above represent a curious, internal diaspora in India – in
content, local tradition and location, their films, most often, are distant from their point of origin.
Working with these extraordinary people at the start of their careers nursed my own obsessions with the cinematic
medium. It has been fascinating to see creativity in cinema stem from outside a comfort zone and familiar surrounds.

This less-charted kind of ‘diaspora’ was shared not only by people of Indian origin living abroad, but also by international
directors who are drawn to India for content and locations. Increasingly, within India, directors now look to the
‘diaspora’ existing in region to region, religion to religion, culture to culture for ideas and content.

Hence, Discovering India.

Mumbai’s film festival, now Jio MAMI, is the only one that has regularly screened this section, thus drawing emerging
and even known directors to India’s film capital. The importance they place on their films playing in Mumbai is
evident in the joy with which they come here with their cast and crew. For directors living abroad, India is where
their stories spring from and, like their Indian fellows, Mumbai is where they want to be seen and heard. Their trust
has most often been rewarded and their films distributed after their Mumbai festival screenings.

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 Fortunately, films on Indian diaspora have evolved far beyond the slapstick stereotyping propagated early on, such as
with the roles played by British comedian, Peter Sellars. Today it has evolved into a genre which has subtleties that
go deep into the human psyche. Increasingly, diaspora has extended even within a city, with immigrant communities
finding new identities, jobs and a home.

Jio MAMI’s programme this year highlights two prized international films with a counter-perspective on the India
of today. One is French director Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, winner of the 2015 Palme d’Or, which looks at Tamil-
speaking people finding refuge in the outskirts of Paris. The other is Jio MAMI’s closing film, Claude Lelouch’s Un
plus Une, about a set of French sophisticates finding that spirituality in India has honed their aspirations and needs.

This year, Discovering India has five select films, which include three features and two documentaries. Three are from
Canada – examples of that country’s open policy on its multicultural ethnicity. It includes the world premiere of Khoya
by debutante director Sami Khan, on an adopted Indian youth returning from Canada to search for his biological
parents. Another feature talks of Indians confronting the immigrant crisis during America’s 2008 recession. The two
documentaries entice with one exploring the joy and fury of our monsoon season, and the other, a filmmaker’s zealous
account of an abused girl child in Karnataka being nurtured into controlling the wheels of her existence.

Enjoy the films in Discovering India as you see the land in different ways presented by directors from different
regions.

UMA DA CUNHA

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 DISCOVERING
DRIVING WITH SELVI INDIA

Director: Elisa Paloschi | Canada / 2015 / HD / Col. / Kannada, English / 74 mins

After being forced to marry at 14, Selvi finds herself in a violent and abusive marriage. Desperate to escape,
she goes to a highway with the intention of committing suicide, but changes her mind at the last moment.
Instead, Selvi goes on to become the first female taxi driver in South India. Over a ten-year journey,
the soft-spoken runaway undergoes a remarkable transformation as she finds her voice and defies all
expectations – learning to drive, starting her own taxi company, leading seminars to educate and empower
women in rural areas, obtaining her license to drive a passenger bus, and much more. In a society where
women are often considered expendable or worthless, Driving with Selvi is the story of an exceptionally
strong and utterly courageous young woman who moves beyond her pain and decides to create a new life.

Producer: Elisa Paloschi Story and Script/Screenplay: Elisa Paloschi Director of Photography: Elisa
Paloschi Editors: Dave Kazala, Mahi Rahgozar Music: Ken Myhr
Production Company: Eyesfull, production@eyesfull.com
International Sales: Eyesfull Indian Distributor: Eyesfull
Festivals and Awards: Raindance Film Festival; Edmonton International Film Festival; Hot Springs Film Festival;
AMNH Margaret Mead Film Festival; United Nations Association Film Festival; Charleston International Film Festival;
Reel Asian International Film Festival; International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam

ELISA PALOSCHI
has more than 25 years of experience in documentary production as a director, producer and
cinematographer, and is the president of Eyesfull, a Toronto-based independent production company dedicated
to making non-fiction documentaries. Her short experimental and documentary work has been screened at
festivals worldwide. She is currently working on a multi-phase social impact campaign that will include screening
Driving with Selvi for a million viewers across India, in support of gender equality and economic empowerment
for women and girls.
Director’s Filmography: Cuore Nero, Fiction, 1991; Il Bacio, Fiction, 1992; Barabba De Monbdello, 1992;
Hands, Fiction, 1993; Gocce, Fiction/Doc Hybrid, 1994; Embracing Voices: The Woman Behind the Music of Jane
Bunnett, Feature Documentary, 2012

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 DISCOVERING
INDIA
FOR HERE OR TO GO?
Director: Rucha Humnabadkar | USA, India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English, Hindi / 105 mins

Young Silicon Valley software engineer Vivek Pandit is poised to become a key hire at a promising healthcare
start-up, but when it is discovered that his work visa is valid for less than a year, the offer disappears. As he
battles through daunting paperwork to get his visa extended, he is awakened to an entire community of
immigrants and their struggles as temporary workers in the United States. Just as the prospect of returning
home starts to look tempting, Vivek meets a girl who is worth the fight to stay back. A comedy drama
about aspirations, ambitions and an ambivalent immigration status, For Here or To Go? is a playful exploration
of the dilemmas of modern cultural displacement.

Producers: Rishi S. Bhilawadikar, C.C. Chainey, Rucha Humnabadkar, Vineet Sinha Story and Script/Screenplay:
Rishi S. Bhilawadikar Director of Photography: Tristan Nyby Editor: Abhijeet Deshpande Music: Peter
Scartabello, Manesh Judge, Ajit Singh, Mike Nathaniel Cast: Ali Fazal, Melanie Kannokada, Omi Vaidya, Amitosh Nagpal,
Rajit Kapur, Samrat Chakrabarti, Keith Stevenson
Production Company: Many Cups of Chai Films, 501 Delancey St. #618, San Francisco, CA 94107 USA,
650-485-3207, manycupsofchai@gmail.com
Festivals and Awards: Cinequest Film Festival 2015 (World Premiere); Indian Film Festival of Houston 2015
(Opening Night Film); IFFSA Toronto 2015; Asian American International Film Festival; Indian Film Festival Melbourne 2015;
Festival of the Globe 2015; Washington DC South Asian Film Festival 2015; Indian Film Festival Sydney 2015; Seattle South
Asian Film Festival 2015 (Opening Night Film); Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival 2015

RUCHA HUMNABADKAR
is known for her work as Assistant Director and Art Director with acclaimed Indian filmmaker Nagesh
Kukunoor. Her directorial debut, her short film Arranged Marriage, was screened at multiple film festivals. Her
debut novel, Dance of the Fireflies, 2006, received critical acclaim. She has also written and directed three English
language plays that won her the Young Achiever’s Award for contribution to theatre in Pune, in 1999. For Here
or To Go? is her first feature film.

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 DISCOVERING
KHOYA INDIA

Director: Sami Khan | Canada, India / 2014 / DCP / Col. / English / 85 mins

After the unexpected death of his adopted mother, a man travels ten thousand miles from Canada to
rural India to desperately search for the birth family he has never known, and to discover the truth about
the mysterious circumstances surrounding his adoption. Eager to be reunited with his family, he is also
confronted with his own foreignness in a strange, new land that is supposed to be home. Journeying
through dark alleys, dusty roads and cramped train-cars, he is pushed to his physical and emotional breaking
point as he tries to connect the threads of his own story.

Producers: Karen Shaw Story and Script/Screenplay: Sami Khan Director of Photography: Kevin
C. W. Wong Editor: Sami Khan Music: Daniel Ledwell Cast: Rupak Ginn, Stephen McHattie, Ravi Khanwilkar,
Uday Chandra, Vipin Sharma
Production Company: Khoya Films Inc.; Quarterlife Crisis Productions, kshaw@quarterlifeproductions.com
International Sales: Marina Cordoni Entertainment, mcordoni@rogers.com
Indian Distributor: Sikhya Entertainment
Festivals and Awards: Tribeca All Access; TransAtlantic Partners

SAMI KHAN
has made short films that have screened at various international film festivals including the Toronto
International Film Festival. After graduating from Columbia University with an MFA in film, he was selected
to participate in Berlinale’s Talent Campus and the Tribeca Film Institute’s All Access Fellowship, and recently
selected for NBC Universal’s 2015 Director’s Fellowship. His latest project, Exiles in the Outfield, is a
documentary about the dangerous journeys of Cuban baseball defectors.

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 DISCOVERING
INDIA
MARRY ME!
Director: Neelesha Barthel | Germany / 2015 / DCP / Col. / German, Hindi, English / 94 mins

Kissy, a German-Indian woman in her late twenties, lives happily with her seven-year-old daughter Meena
in Berlin, and runs a cosy café in the same building. Everything is going well until the arrival of her very
traditional grandmother from India, who wants her to marry Meena’s father to secure her future. What
granny doesn’t – and mustn’t – know is that Kissy and Robert have long gone their separate ways. In a bout
of desperation, Kissy convinces her ex-boyfriend to help her stage a wedding, as granny wants nothing short
of an elaborate, Bollywood-style ceremony. Meanwhile, fate has its own plans for Kissy….

Producers: Yildiz Özcan, Stefan Schubert Story and Script/Screenplay: Neelesha Barthel, Daniela Baumgärtl,
Nina Pourlak, Sintje Rosema Director of Photography: Florian Foest Editor: Thomas Krause Music: Vincent
von Schlippenbach, Matyas Wolter Cast: Maryam Zaree, Bharati Jaffrey, Steffen Groth, Fahri Yardim, Mira Kandathil,
Wolfgang Stumph, Renate Krößner, Rebecca Rudolph, Lila Marschall
Production Company: Wüste Film Ost
International Sales: ARRI Media World Sales

NEELESHA BARTHEL
has been working as a director, writer, editor, and director of photography for film, TV and advertising since
1999. She has also worked as an actress in films like Samsara (2001) and Alltag (2002). Before taking up studies
at HFF Konrad Wolf in 2002, she produced the documentary films Bling Bling (2001) and Fifty Fifty (2002).
Marry Me! is her feature debut.

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 DISCOVERING
MONSOON INDIA

Director: Sturla Gunnarsson | Canada / 2014 / DCP / Col. / English / 104 mins

Following the monsoon as it surges across the Indian subcontinent and gradually engulfs every region of
the country, this film introduces us to a remarkable array of individuals whose lives are, in different ways,
entwined with the phenomenon – meteorologists, who seek to contain it within an explanatory net of
scientific analysis and rational forecast; the neighborhood bookie, who takes bets on the arrival of the
rains; farmers and fishermen, who depend on and contend with its godlike, life-and-death caprices; and the
citizens of Mumbai, where the monsoon’s arrival is felt everywhere, from the dreamscapes of Bollywood to
the ordinary Indian family, for whom the annual deluge is part of a rhythmic cycle, at moments unfathomably
cruel and at others, joyously affirming.

Producer: Ina Fichman Story and Script/Screenplay: Sturla Gunnarsson Director of Photography:
Van Royko Editor: Nick Hector CCE Music: Andrew T. Mackay Cast: Akhila Prasad, Mr. Santosh, Dr. Ranjan
Kelkar, Mushumi Chatterjee, Bishnu Shastri
Production Company: Intuitive Pictures Inc. International Sales: Kino Smith
Indian Distributor: Kino Smith
Festivals and Awards: Toronto International Film Festival 2014 (People’s Choice Award)

STURLA GUNNARSSON
is one of Canada’s most prolific and eclectic filmmakers, whose work spans a range of genres, platforms and
subject matters. His most recent documentary, Force of Nature, won the 2010 TIFF Documentary Audience
Award. His other non-fiction features include International Emmy Award-winning Gerrie & Louise and Academy
Award nominated After the Axe. Gunnarsson has directed dramatic series for nearly every major North
American broadcaster.
Director’s Filmography: Ice Soldiers, Feature, 2013; Gros Morne, Documentary, 2011; Force of Nature,
Documentary, 2010; Air India182, Documentary, 2008; Beowulf & Grendel, Feature, 2006; Rare Birds, Feature,
2001; Such a Long Journey, Feature, 1998; Gerrie & Louise, Documentary, 1997; Diplomatic Immunity, Feature, 1990;
Final Offer, Documentary, 1984; After the Axe, Documentary, 1982

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156
RENDEZVOUS
The best of contemporary French Filmmaking

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158
CINEMA RECOVERING STRANGENESS
Real life may be boring, but as the young hero of Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Days reminds us several times in the
film, ‘La vie est étrange’ (Life is strange).

If it is strange for us viewers who participate in life, it is far more odd and unfamiliar to cinema, which, by virtue of its
medium, has the luxury of only mimicking or exaggerating life. And that, perhaps, is what makes cinema special: that
by virtue of its very medium and being, films are keenly aware that what they depict will always be strange. Life, made
just that much less familiar once framed to film, becomes a truer object of study, as with a still life work of art, except
mimicking life’s son et lumière flow.

Families, for instance, can be strange to us. But we stand too close to the very notion of family to find it strange, the
collective unit that lies in the first circle of concentric ones that radiate into neighbourhoods, cities, countries.... Jacques
Audiard’s searing film, Dheepan, addresses this question of the phenomenon of the family directly. The film situates
itself in the tensions of post-civil war Sri Lanka, where three individuals, a woman, a man and a child – necessary atoms
to the molecule – literally join forces to pretend that they are a family unit so that they can move out of the refugee
camp and migrate into the safety of Europe.

Yes, the story is about immigrants seeking political asylum moving to France. Yes, it is about taking cover from the
violence of war to the violence of everyday immigrant life. But right at the core, Audiard stirs the real strangeness this
film investigates: the family, investigated in the best way possible – via the chains and pulleys that hold up this façade of
a ‘real’ family. Within the artificial construct of Dheepan, relationships grow and are threatened and survive and perish
as if on a petri dish holding a strain of bacteria.

The cliché of the family is explored and then overturned in Zoltan Mayer’s Journey through China. The strangeness
of human grief is wonderfully reflected in the dream-like pace of the film itself in which an elderly Parisian woman
suddenly, and unbearably, decides to leave her husband and home to go to China where her son has recently died and
whose body is still kept in a morgue.

It is a startlingly different culture for her – both China and death. We get to know that when alive, her son was distant
from his parents, thereby setting down the observation that being a family does not guarantee closeness. So this
journey is also the woman’s desperate attempt to recreate – since recovery is impossible – the semblance of a prime
characteristic of family that was not available to her before: belonging. Journey through China is not a closure, but an
opening gambit.

It was the early film critic Siegfried Kracauer who first underlined, for all its un-natural roamings, cinema’s dependence
on reality. But he rightly ascertained that life, itself unappreciated for its strangeness until it is ‘dealt with’ by art, does
not necessarily constrain the cinema – ‘[the] hunting ground of the motion picture camera is principally unlimited; it
is the external world expanding in all directions’. With two notable exceptions: special effects, which can push cinema
into the world of fantastical art that cannot exist in the real world. And cinema’s depiction of dreams and memories.

Flashbacks and dream sequences are potent devices that only cinema can provide physicality to. In this sense, films
make dreams ‘real’ in a way that the vapours of reality is incapable of. Desplechin not only plumbs these depths, nooks
and crannies, but he also puts them at the centre of his bildungskino, My Golden Years.

The memories are of Paul Dedalus, familiar to those who have seen the director’s 1996 Woody Allenist film My Sex Life,
or… How I Got Into an Argument. Except here, the older anthropologist, played by Mathieu Amalric, takes the backseat
and drives forth a gloriously edited – and one means this both literally and figuratively – glimpse into his childhood
leading up to his young adulthood. Warm and intelligent, with streaks of bleakness shooting through, this film à la
recherche du temps perdu – flitting back at various points to ‘real time’ – is a model for all memory hunter-gatherers.

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 Collective memories, unlike those of individuals, are political by nature. Direct Robert Guédiguian is not simply re-
presenting any individual’s past in Don’t Tell Me the Boy Was Mad as he unfurls the story of Armenian armed resistance.
It is the memory of a people.

The film itself is a sun-baked look back at a diasporic Armenian group in Marseilles in the 1970s who become guerrilla
fighters against the brutality of the Turkish regime. But the opening black-and-white sequence that shows a character
in Weimar Germany assassinating a Turkish diplomat and then being acquitted for the murder – which the accused
states in the trial came to him as an order from his dead mother in a dream – gives out an immediate calling card. The
original French title, Une Histoire de Fou, only sanctifies the common ontological space shared by story and history –
both ‘histoire’, in French.

Bearing similar trajectories of individual lives within the collective as Dheepan, Guédiguian establishes how persons and
people, families and nations, share basic characteristics: of love, of hate, of loyalty, of guilt, of strangeness.

Youth becomes the leitmotif of life in Michel Gondry’s Microbe and Gasoline. That cinemas also have their own
daydreaming and vat of memories to dip into becomes clear in this lyrical movie that tips the hat to François Truffaut’s
beautiful debut 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups). Here, this is no flashback-and-forth like in Desplechin’s My Golden
Years. It is the portrait of a friendship forged – along with a wooden car-house that the car-tinkering Gasoline and the
diminutive Microbe make – that becomes a lust for life drama in all its lust for strangeness glory.

Gondry’s expedition is not into the overt strangeness of life-depicted-in-film as his movie best known to international
audiences, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is. Teenage life is depicted in its messy, cereal-in-a-cereal box (there is
no other word for it) beauty.

But the mess of chaos can be tidied up with disturbing consequences in Alice Winocour’s Disorder. The thriller genre,
by definition, deals with finding order within chaos, answers to questions. And this story of an Afghanistan-returned
soldier hired as a personal security officer to protect the beautiful wife of a Lebanese businessman is a study of
regimental grace going to pieces.

The atmospherics are closer to Claude Chabrol then the smashed car windows and open-knuckled violence would
suggest. But we notice something swirling through the movie, which ultimately overruns it.The paranoia and symptoms
of battle trauma become enmeshed in this world of the rich and the beautiful, which is crystallised in an astounding
dinner party scene that is reminiscent of the disturbing enigma of Alain Resnais’ crafty classic Last Year in Marienbad.

The protagonist, played superbly with Sergio Leone-friendly monosyllables by Matthias Schoenaerts, grows closer to
the woman he is meant to protect, until the roles seem to start reversing. Self-absorption and self-abandonment are
brought out of their dens and displayed as the strange circus freaks they can be.

Cinema’s power to recover strangeness is on full display in the Rendezvous section featuring the best of contemporary
French filmmaking. Life is strange, yes. But we need to be reminded of it by such unashamedly unreal trompe l’oeils.

INDRAJIT HAZRA

Indrajit Hazra is a writer and journalist. He is the author of the novels The Burnt Forehead of Max Saul, The Garden of
Earthly Delights and The Bioscope Man, which have been published in French as Max le Maudit, Le Jardin des Délices
Terrestres, and Le Roi du Cinéma Muet, respectively. He has also written the non-fiction work Grand Delusions: A Short
Biography of Kolkata. He writes the fortnightly column Red Herring for The Economic Times and lives in New Delhi.

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 RENDEZVOUS

DHEEPAN
Director: Jacques Audiard | France / 2015 / Digital / Col. / Tamil, French, English / 110 mins
To escape the civil war in Sri Lanka, a former soldier, a young woman and a little girl pose as a family
and settle in a housing project outside Paris. Despite barely knowing each other, they now have to
build a life together.

Producer: Pascal Caucheteux Story and Script/Screenplay: Noé Debré, Thomas Bidegain,
Jacques Audiard Director of Photography: Eponine Momenceau Editor: Juliette Welfling Music:
Nicolas Jaar Cast: Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithambi, Vincent Rottiers,
Marc Zinga
Production Company: Why Not Productions; Page 114; France 2 Cinéma
International Sales: UGC
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Palme d’Or); Toronto International Film Festival 2015

JACQUES AUDIARD
is a French director and screenwriter. His first film as a director, Regarde Les Hommes Tomber (See How
They Fall), won the César Award for the best first film. His feature films, De Battre Mon Cœur s’est Arête
(That Beat That My Heart Skipped), Un Prophète (A Prophet), and De Rouille et D’os (Rust and Bone)
have won several accolades.
Director’s Filmography: Rust and Bone, Feature, 2012; A Prophet, Feature, 2009; The Beat That My
Heart Skipped, Feature, 2005; Read My Lips, Feature, 2001; Norme française, Short Film, 1998; A Self Made
Hero, Feature, 1996; See How They Fall, 1994

MARYLAND | DISORDER
Director: Alice Winocour | France / 2015 / DCP / Col. / French / 98 mins
Vincent, a French Special Forces soldier just back from Afghanistan, is suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder. He has been hired to ensure the security of Jessie, the wife of a rich Lebanese
businessman at their luxurious villa, ‘Maryland’. As he starts experiencing a strange fascination for
the woman he has to protect,Vincent increasingly seems to fall into paranoia. Unless he is right, and
the danger is indeed very real….

Producer: Dharamshala Films – Darius Films Story and Script/Screenplay: Alice Winocour
Director of Photography: George Lechaptois Editor: Julien Lacheray Music: Gesaffelstein
Cast: Diane Kruger, Matthias Schoenaerts
Production Company: Dharamsala Films – Darius Films
International Sales: Indie Sales Company
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival (Official Selection, Un Certain Regard); Toronto
International Film Festival

ALICE WINOCOUR
is a graduate of the screenwriting department at the FEMIS film school. She has directed three award-
winning shorts. In 2011, she directed Augustine, which premiered at the 2012 Cannes Critics’ Week. Disorder
is her second feature film.
Director’s Filmography: Augustine, Feature, 2012; Pina Colada, Short Film, 2009; Magic Paris, Short
Film, 2007; Kitchen, Short Film, 2005

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UNE HISTOIRE DE FOU | DON’T

TELL ME THAT THE BOY WAS MAD
Director: Robert Guédiguian | France / 2015 / DCP / N&B, Col. / French, German,
Armenian / 134 mins
It is Paris, 1981, and Aram, a young man of Armenian origin, blows up the Turkish Ambassador’s car,
seriously injuring a passerby called Gilles.While Aram escapes to Beirut to join the Armenian Liberation
Army, his mother, Anouch, visits Gilles in the hospital to ask for forgiveness for her son, but Gilles wants
to meet his executioner face-to-face. With revenge in mind he heads to Marseille to confront Aram’s
family and finds himself welcomed into their home. Meanwhile in Beirut, Aram gets into a clash with his
comrades, and decides to meet his victim in order to make him his spokesman.
Producers: Robert Guediguian, Marc Bordure, Sabine Sidawi Story and Script/Screenplay:
Robert Guédiguian, Gilles Taurand Director of Photography: Pierre Milon Editor: Bernard Sasia
Music: Alexandre Desplat Cast: Simon Abkarian, Ariane Ascaride, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet
Production Company: An Agat Films & Cie Production International Sales: MK2
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Special Screening); Golden Apricot Yerevan
International Film Festival; Athens International Film Festival; Melbourne International Film Festival

ROBERT GUÉDIGUIAN
is a French director, actor, producer and screenwriter. He has directed and is known for movies like La Ville
est Tranquille (The Town is Quiet), Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro (The Snows of Kilimanjaro), and Marius et
Jeannette (Maurius and Jeannette).
Director’s Filmography: Ariane’s Thread, 2014; The Snows of Kilimanjaro, 2011; Army of Crime, 2009;
Lady Jane, 2008; Armenia, 2006; The Last Mitterrand, 2005; My Father is an Engineer, 2004; Marie-Jo and Her
Two Lovers, 2002

HUMAN
Director:Yann Arthus-Bertrand | France / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English, French / 180 mins
After his helicopter breaks down, Yann Arthus-Bertrand spends the day conversing with a farmer
while he waits for his pilot. He is struck by the dignity with which the farmer talks about his daily
life, his hopes, his fears and his sole ambition – to feed his children – and is deeply marked by
the encounter. Human is the result of an intention to gather initiatives and resources from the
community, and from the humanitarian, ecological and social sectors. At its core is the idea that all
of us share the will to live together.

Producers: Jean-Yves Robin, Pierre Robert, Marc Stanimirovic, Eric Salemi Director of
Photography: Bruno Cusa Editors: Françoise Bernard, Anne-Marie Sangla Music: Armand Amar
Production Company: Good Planet
International Sales: HumanKind Production
Festivals and Awards: Venice 2015 (ONU premiere)

YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND
a photographer and a renowned specialist in aerial imagery, has authored a number of books. His struggle
against climate change and its consequences earned him an appointment as the ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ for
the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 2009. The same year, he directed his first film, Home.
In 2011, together with Michaël Pitiot, he made the film Planet Ocean. Human is his third film.

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 RENDEZVOUS

IN THE SHADOW OF WOMEN

Director: Philippe Garrel | France, Switzerland / 2014 / B&W / 73 mins
Pierre and Manon make low-budget documentaries and live off odd jobs. When Pierre meets a
young trainee, Elisabeth, she becomes his mistress. But Pierre doesn’t want to leave Manon – he
wants to be with both. When Elisabeth discovers that Manon has a lover, she tells Pierre. Pierre
returns to Manon, the woman he truly loves, leaving Elisabeth. In the Shadow of Women is a powerful
film about love, betrayal and the ever-tenuous balance of power between lovers.

Producers: Saïd Ben Saïd, Michel Merkt Story and Script/Screenplay: Jean-Claude Carrière,
Caroline Deruas, Arlette Langmann, Philippe Garrel Director of Photography: Renato Berta
Editor: François Gédigier Music: Jean-Louis Aubert Cast: Clotilde Courau, Stanislas Merhar, Lena Paugam
Production Company: SBS Productions; Arte France Cinéma; Close Up Films; RTS
International Sales: Wild Bunch
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Directors’ Fortnight)

PHILIPPE GARREL
is a director, cinematographer, film editor, screenwriter and producer. He has twice won the Silver Lion at
the Venice Film Festival for his films J’entends Plus la Guitare and Les Amants Réguliers. He also received the
Perspectives du Cinéma Award in 1984 for his film Liberté, la Nuit.
Director’s Filmography: Wild Innocence, 2001; Regular Lovers, 2004; Frontier of the Dawn, 2005; That
Summer, 2011; Jealousy, 2013

VOYAGE EN CHINE |
JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA
Director: Zoltan Mayer | France / 2014 / DCP / Col. / French, Chinese / 96 mins
Liliane is a provincial French nurse in her sixties. On hearing the news of her son’s sudden death in
China, she decides to travel all the way there to give him a proper burial. Her journey to an unknown
place to bring back her son’s body soon becomes one of discovery – of the life of a son whom she
had not seen in years, and her rediscovery of her own self, through a different culture.

Producer: Haut et Cour Story and Script/Screenplay: Zoltan Mayer Director of

Photography: George Lechaptois Editor: Camille Toubkis Cast: Yolande Moreau
Production Company: Haut et cour
International Sales: Indie Sales Company

ZOLTAN MAYER
is a cinematographer, actor and director. He is known for films like Dobogó Kövek (2010)
and Álomépítök (2010). Voyage en Chine is his directorial debut.

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 RENDEZVOUS

MICROBE ET GASOLINE |
MICROBE AND GASOLINE
Director: Michel Gondry | France / 2015 / DCP / Col. / French / 103 mins
Microbe is a shy boy, often lost in his drawings. Gasoline is a smart, inventive kid, who arrives at school
in the middle of the year. The two instantly become great friends, and as the summer vacations draw
closer, they both know that neither wants to spend two months with their respective families. Thanks
to a lawnmower engine and a few planks, they build their own 'car' and set off on an adventure on the
roads of France.
Producer: Georges Bermann Story and Script/Screenplay: Michel Gondry Director of
Photography: Laurent Brunet Editor: Elise Fievet Music: Jean-Claude Vannier Cast: Théophile Baquet,
Ange Dargent, Audrey Tautou Production Company: Partizan International Sales: Studiocanal

MICHEL GONDRY
is a French film director, producer and screenwriter. He won the Academy Award for the Best Original
Screenplay for co-writing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He has directed films like The Science
of Sleep (2006), Be Kind Rewind (2008), The Green Hornet (2011), The We and the I (2012), and Mood
Indigo (2013). He has also collaborated with renowned artists to direct music videos.

MY GOLDEN DAYS
Director: Arnaud Desplechin | France / 2015 / Scope / Col. / French / 120 mins
As Paul Dédalus prepares to leave Tajikistan, his memory is flooded with images from his past – his
childhood in Roubaix, his mother’s attacks of madness, his close bond with his brother Ivan. He
remembers turning sixteen, his grieving father, his clandestine mission in the USSR; he remembers
himself at nineteen, his sister Delphine, his cousin Bob, the parties with Pénélope, Mehdi and Kovalki,
friendships and betrayals; he remembers his years as a student in Paris, his meeting with Doctor
Behanzin, his growing vocation for anthropology. Above all, Paul remembers Esther – the heart of
his life, his ‘fanatic heart’.

Producer: Pascal Caucheteux Story and Script/Screenplay: Arnaud Desplechin, Julie Peyr
Director of Photography: Irina Lubtchansky Editor: Laurence Briaud Music: Grégoire Hetzel
Cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Mathieu Amalric Production Company: Why Not
Productions International Sales: Wild Bunch Awards and Festivals: Cannes Film Festival 2015
(Directors’ Fortnight)

ARNAUD DESPLECHIN
is a director and screenwriter. Over the years, his films have garnered much critical acclaim at the Cannes Film
Festival. Five of his films, the most recent being Jimmy Picard, have been selected in the main competition at Cannes.
Director’s Filmography: Esther Kahn, 2000; Playing ‘In The Company Of Men’, 2003; Kings And
Queen, 2004; The Beloved, 2007; A Christmas Tale, 2008; Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian), 2012;
The Forest, 2014

LE TOUT NOUVEAU TESTAMENT |

THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT
Director: Jaco Van Dormael | Belgium, France, Luxembourg / 2015 / DCP / Col. / French / 108 mins
God exists. He lives in Brussels. He is odious with his wife and daughter. We know a lot about his son,
but very little about his daughter. Her name is Ea and she’s 10 years old. One day, she revolts against her
father – she hacks his computer and leaks to the entire world, by SMS, their inevitable date of death.
Producers: Olivier Rausin, Daniel Marquet Story and Script/Screenplay: Thomas Gunzin, Jaco
Van Dormael Director of Photography: Christophe Beaucarne Editor: Hervé de Luze Music: An
Pierlé Cast: Pili Groyne, Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Poelvoorde, François Damiens, Yolande Moreau
Production Company: Climax Films / Après le déluge International Sales: Le Pacte
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2015 (Directors’ Fortnight)

JACO VAN DORMAEL

studied filmmaking at INSAS, Brussels, and the Louis Lumiere Institute, Paris, after which he started his career
as a director of children’s theatre plays. He moved on to directing short films in the early 1980s, which won
several awards in festivals. His first feature film, Toto the Hero (1991), was awarded the Camera d’Or at
Cannes. Van Dormael is also a theatre and opera director.
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RESTORED CLASSICS
The cinephile’s delight – showcasing classic restored classic
films from India and around the world.

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166
RE-PRESENTING JEWELS FROM THE FILM ARCHIVE
In 2012, we introduced a new section for restored classics at the Mumbai Film Festival. My interest in this section and its
potential was ignited during a number of long discussions about restoring and preserving films with serious cinephiles
like Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Ashim Ahluwalia, Rashid Irani, and our consultant Ian Birnie.

While we were having these discussions I learnt that English August, Dev Benegal’s first film, had simply disappeared!
That’s when we started unravelling stories about ‘lost & found and restored’ cinema.

In the same year, for the first time, I attended the Bologna Film Festival in Italy, and was astonished to witness how much
pride the festival took in bringing back to life films that were once thought to have disappeared or were believed to
be lost and/or in bad condition. In recent years, one of the most famous of such cases was that of Fritz Lang’s iconic
film Metropolis, made in 1927, and believed to have been lost for many years, when it turned up, unexpectedly after
80 years, as part of an archive of a museum in Argentina. Indeed, the Bologna Film Festival comes out with such ‘re-
discoveries’ every single year, many of which are ‘silent films’ dating back to the early 1900s.

My very first year at Bologna, I was overwhelmed to watch the preserved version of an American silent film called
Where Are My Children, about women’s contraception rights by a woman filmmaker, Lois Weber. Imagine – the film was
made in 1916, before women even had the right to vote in America!

In the past few years as I met these passionate ‘restorers’ of films I realised that they were, more than anything, great
adventurers.They chased films that were believed to have been lost from different corners of the world, and what was
fascinating was that many of these discoveries happened by accident, often in the craziest of places and in unbelievable
situations.

What also filled me with deep admiration while watching these restored films was the uncompromising way these
dedicated restorers had adhered to the history, integrity and the true spirit of the film and the filmmaker.

Ironically, it was in Bologna again, during the presentation of Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s exquisite documentary, The
Celluloid Man – which traces the history of Indian Cinema – that a stunned audience made up of the world’s leading
film historians, archivers, restorers and curators, learnt that in India, we have lost the majority of films that have been
made, and whatever is left is in a very poor condition.

The problems that restorers anywhere in the world face are many, but in India, the situation is far more complex due
to several factors, including the complicated copyright laws and, often, the sheer unwillingness of the rights holders
to cooperate in the process of preserving these films. Indeed, until recently, it was mainly foreign organisations and
individuals who were interested in restoring Indian films.

In 2012, when we introduced the ‘Restored Classics’ section, we organised a panel on Film Restoration and Preservation
and invited some of the leading organisations such as the Academy Film Archive, Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation
and Fox’s Archive along with our own experts, P.K. Nair and Shivi Dungarpur, to be part of it. I remember one of the
distinguished panellists, Mike Pogo, who heads the Academy Film Archive, discussing how they had been unsuccessfully
chasing one of Ray’s films Kanchenjunga for the last 10 years. Suddenly from the audience, Dev Benegal declared that
on a visit to Kolkata a few years ago, he had stumbled upon cans of Kanchenjunga negatives under his bed, at his friend’s
home, leaving Mr Pogo entirely nonplussed.

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 I have been fortunate enough to visit some of the best kept archival units and ‘restoration labs’ abroad and have been
fascinated by the meticulousness with which these labs are run and the storage facilities are maintained. We have the
National Film Archive of India to thank for the same in India and sometime soon, we too will have a restoration facility
that is run by experts. It is also heartening to know that Shivendra Singh Dungarpur has recently set up a foundation
for film preservation and restoration.

This year, we are very proud to present some classic Indian films that are once again available for everyone’s viewing
pleasure after having been carefully restored, such as Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, M.S. Sathyu’s Garam Hava, Ritwik Ghatak’s
E-Flat, and Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa.

The expert team at the ‘Criterion Collection’ worked for many thousands of hours to successfully bring back to life the
unparalleled Apu Trilogy, a spectacular feat given that the negatives had been completely destroyed in a fire.

I must mention that along with these Indian films, very early on, we had decided to screen the restored version of a lost
and long-forgotten erotic Anime film from 1970s Japan, Belladonna of Sadness, which was produced by the company
founded by Osamu Tezuka, the grandfather of animation.

We salute these classic films and the people who have worked so hard to bring them back to life for us.The impeccable
results of their painstaking efforts will be there for all to see when we screen these special gems at the festival.

We hope you enjoy watching these works as much as we did!

ANU RANGACHAR

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 RESTORED CLASSICS

PATHER PANCHALI |
SONG OF THE LITTLE ROAD
Director: Satyajit Ray | India / 1955 / B&W / Bengali / 125 mins

A depiction of rural Bengali life, the film introduces us to the little Apu, his independent older
sister, Durga, and his harried mother, Sarbajaya. When his father Harirar, an impoverished priest,
leaves the village in search of better work, the family are left to fend for themselves. As their
mother struggles to scrape by, Apu and Durga enjoy the little joys of childhood, but matters soon
take a turn for the worse when Durga falls ill.

APARAJITO |
THE UNVANQUISHED
Director: Satyajit Ray | India / 1956 / B&W / Bengali / 109 mins

Aparajito picks up where Pather Panchali ends, with Apu and his family having moved away from
the country to live in the bustling holy city of Varanasi (then known as Benares). As Apu progress-
es from wide-eyed childhood to intellectually curious teenage, eventually studying in Kolkata, we
witness his academic and moral education, as well as the growing complexity of his relationship
with his mother.

APUR SANSAR |
THE WORLD OF APU
Director: Satyajit Ray | India / 1959 / B&W / Bengali / 105 mins
This extraordinary final chapter brings our protagonist’s journey full circle. Apu is now in his
early twenties, out of college, and hoping to live as a writer. Alongside his professional ambitions,
the film charts his romantic awakening, which occurs as the result of a most unlikely turn of
events, and his eventual, fraught fatherhood.

SATYAJIT RAY
BORN IN 1921 was an Indian director, fiction writer, illustrator and music composer. He is widely regarded as
one of the greatest filmmakers in world cinema, and has received an array of awards, including 32 Indian Na-
tional Film Awards, several international festivals, and an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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 RESTORED CLASSICS

KANASHIMI NO BERADONNA |
BELLADONNA OF SADNESS
Director: Eiichi Yamamoto| Japan / 1973 / 35mm / Col. / Japanese / 93 mins

A lovely peasant girl, Jeanne is ravished by the local lord on her wedding night, and banished from the
village.Thirsty for revenge, she makes a pact with the devil to gain magical powers.The devil appears in
phallic forms and transforms her into a dark vision of desire that drives the village into sexual insanity.

EIICHI YAMAMOTO
is known for directing the Animerama series, and his animation masterpiece Belladonna of Sadness. Apart
from directing ten films in the course of his career, he has also directed and written TV anime.

KOMAL GANDHAR | E-FLAT

Director: Ritwik Ghatak | India / 1961 / 35mm / BnW / Hindi / 133 mins

Set in the backdrop of the 1947 Partition, the film is about two rival theatre groups that come
together to work on a production of Shakuntala. One of them is led by Bhrigu, and the other, by
Shanta. Much to her dismay, the latter’s niece Ansuya actively participates in this collaboration. As
Shanta plans to sabotage the production, Brighu and Ansuya realize their mutual longing for their
country Bangladesh, and their love for each other.

RITWIK GHATAK
was a prominent Bengali filmmaker and writer, notably known for his depiction of social reality. A recipient of
numerous national and international awards, he directed eight full-length films, the best-known being Meghe
Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal Gandhar (1961), and Subarnarekha (1962), as well as a few short films and
documentaries.

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 RESTORED CLASSICS

GARM HAVA |
SCORCHING WINDS
Director: M. S. Sathyu | India / 1974 / Col / Urdu / 146 mins

Salim Mirza chooses to stay back in India after Partition. But his decision gradually tears his family
apart. His daughter is abandoned by a suitor who migrates to Pakistan, and the family loses the
mansion in which they have lived for generations. Salim is plagued by self-doubt. Should he have
left in 1947 itself? Where is home and what does it mean to be a Muslim in India?

M.S. SATHYU
was an internationally renowned filmmaker, stage designer and theatre director. His very first assignment
won him the Filmfare Award for the Best Art Director. He made several documentaries and TV films before
making his first feature, Garm Hava. Some of his other notable films are The Legendary Outlaw (1997), The
Moving Corpse (1978), The Famine (1980) and Ijjodu (2010).

PYAASA | THE THIRSTY ONE

Director: Guru Dutt | India / 1957 / BnW / Hindi / 145 mins

An unemployed young poet, Vijay’s hopes are crushed after facing repeated rejections. Gulabo,
a prostitute with a heart of gold, seems to be the only pillar of support in his life as his friends
and family abandon him to fulfill their own desires.

GURU DUTT
was an Indian director, producer and actor. He is considered one of the greatest icons of Bollywood’s
Golden Age, and made classics such as Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib, Biwi Aur Ghulam, and Chaudhvin Ka
Chand in the 1950s and 1960s.

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AFTER DARK
For those who love a bit of scare – the best of horror from
India and around the world

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JONGSUK THOMAS NAM
Curator
AFTER DARK

Born in Seoul, Korea in 1968, Nam emigrated to USA in

1980.  Upon graduating from the University of Maryland at
College Park, USA in 1993 with a degree in Communication Arts/
RTVF,  Nam returned to Korea in 1995 and worked as an assistant
director in Kim Hong-jun’s Jungle Story (1996). He joined Busan
International Film Festival (BIFF, called as PIFF then) in 1997 as a
curator for Kim Ki-young Retrospective.  He subsequently served
as the festival coordinator and the senior manager of Pusan
Promotion Plan (PPP) before becoming the General Secretary at
Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) from 2001
to 2004. Nam joined Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
(PiFan) in 2007 as the festival consultant and, since 2009, has been
the managing director of its film industry program, Network of
Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF). He has served as a jury member in
numerous film festivals, including Berlin, Warsaw, Hawaii, Vesoul and
Yubari, as well as being the panelist/mentor at Int’l Film
Expo – Manila, The Philippines; Black Nights Industry Days – Tallinn,
Estonia; and TIFFCOM – CoPro Connection, Tokyo, Japan
among others.
SPLATTERFESTS AND THE QUEST FOR DREAD
One of modern life’s horrors is the fact of increasing numbers of people rolling on the floor and laughing while
onscreen, limbs are severed, blood jets out, and guts are spilled. Even for the horror film enthusiast it is disconcerting.
For the purist, horror has always been defined by that evil twin of narrative tension, dread. For the masses, splatterfests
of blood and gore, as well as the cheap trick of having someone suddenly jump out of the shadows – these define
horror film.

Take for example Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, nowadays routinely voted one of horror’s all-time masterpieces. Yet on
its release in 1980 it was reviled not just by Stephen King, from whose novel it was drawn, but also teenaged horror
fans at large, for whom horror meant slasher movies, the sub-genre that peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It
is a relief that The Shining has stood the test of time, and that even the best horror of the recent past – last year’s The
Babadook, Australian Jennifer Kent’s disturbing meditation on motherhood (disguised as a horror film), and this year’s It
Follows, David Mitchell’s clever riff on horror as a sexually transmitted disease – have relied chiefly on dread.

Following a decade where ‘torture porn’ dominated the horror box office, with films such as Eli Roth’s Hostel, the Saw
series and even the title-says-it-all Human Centipede films, there has been an eruption of ‘comedic horror’ if the six films
in the Mumbai Film Festival’s After Dark section is anything to go by. Not all the six are comedic, but nervous laughter
has always been a part of watching particularly squirm-inducing films – comedic horror just takes nervous laughter to
its logical conclusion.

One recent example was the Canadian Dale and Tucker vs Evil, Eli Craig’s 2010 slapstick about two hillbillies who are
mistaken for serial killers. There have been dark comedies like Alex de La Iglesia’s Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi (2013,
Spain), in which a witches’ convention in a hidden Basque town trap a car of thieves fleeing Madrid. De La Iglesia is an
old pro at this, his El Dia de la Bestia (1995) being a black comedy about the Devil’s arrival in Madrid on Christmas.

Any comedy or parody before that was few and far between: Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy of the 1980s had a funny
undercurrent throughout – not just in its outrageousness but also the way the evil spirit seemed to slap the characters
around as if they were the three stooges. George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), in which flesh-eating zombies
inhabit a mall – slowly walking past shops the way the living consumers do – was a sly bit of chuckle-inducing social
commentary.

The Japanese have, of late, combined comedic horror with splatter in a big way. Traditionally, Japan is famous for
producing films characterised both by dread as well as by female ghosts with long, silky hair, such as the Ring films, the
Ju-On Grudge films, as well as Dark Water, One Missed Call, and the hide-your-eyes-behind-your-fingers-nasty Audition
by Takashi Miike whose gore-galore Ichi the Killer and his upcoming Yakuza Apocalypse make you giggle without actually
meaning to.

Visiting After Dark this year is Sion Sono’s Tag. His credits include 2002’s Suicide Club, a fascinating if gory look at a
rash of copycat mass suicides by schoolkids in and around Tokyo; and last year’s Why Don’t You Play in Hell?, an insane
meta-movie about warring Yakuza who enlist a bunch of amateur film-making kids. Tag is another mind-bender filled
with schoolgirls and young women (men show up in only the last 15 minutes of the film) being sliced in half or
generally dismembered. Buckets of blood were expended for this feminist statement, but it is guaranteed to keep you
mesmerised till the final twist.

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 An After Dark feature that will put a smile on your face is Deathgasm. Remember when religious nuts used to say
that heavy metal was Satan’s music? Well, here, a heavy metal number actually does summon Satan to a small New
Zealand town.The main characters are endearing, and the whole tone is without guile – if you can keep your eyes open
through the axes, swords and other sharp objects lopping off various body parts (there’s a particularly nasty castration
– lengthwise, with a chainsaw).

American Burger is a Swedish film poking fun at young American tourists by subjecting them to a mad butcher and his
meat-grinder. In horror films, for some reason, the audience is always a step ahead of the hapless victim – and the most
squirm-inducing scene in this film involves no gore or violence: just a bus full of students eating, yes, burgers. At the end
of the film, one of the characters escapes because he claims to be Canadian, and the butcher only wants 100 per cent
American in his burgers.

After Dark’s Indian film is the Bengali Ludo, a sort of Ramsay-Brothers-go-to-the-Mall, with cannibalism and strawberry-
flavoured condoms. It proves that Bengali girls can match the Japanese in the seductive-death and supernatural-shampoo
departments.

Hopefully, in editions to come, After Dark will have an even deeper engagement with horror. We can then experience
true dread as exemplified by the best horror from around the world in the recent past: Pascal Laugier’s harrowing
Martyrs (France, 2008), Ben Wheatley’s Kill List (UK, 2011), Kim Jee-Woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters (Korea, 2003), and
Guillermo Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (Spain, 2001), to name just a few. Horror can tell you much about a culture:
its fears, phobias, nightmares – and its idea of redemption.

It goes without saying that India needs a proper horror culture – our biggest hit was the 1979 Jaani Dushman which
featured Sanjeev Kumar doing a demented Thakur Saheb. Historically, Indians have treated the horror genre as rather
low-brow; and we don’t believe in horror without a reincarnation angle (or without hummable melodies). In truth,
horror is the most subversive genre of film there is. And God knows India now more than ever is in need of a bit more
subversion.

ADITYA SINHA

When Aditya Sinha was 11 years old, he saw Psycho (with his mum). A journalist, he spent the past three years watching
horror films, on occasion three a night. He is the co-author of the current bestseller, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years.

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 AFTER DARK
AMERICAN BURGER
Directors: Bonita Drake, Johan Bromander | Sweden / 2014 / D-Cinema / Col. / English / 78 mins

A busload of American students, all jocks, cheerleaders and nerds, are on a culture trip in Europe when
they stumble upon a mysterious Hamburger stand deep in the woods, selling 100% American burgers.
A visit to the Burger Factory behind the stand renders them trapped and the road trip descends into a
battle for survival as the Americans are treated as cows. Who’s going to end up in the slaughterhouse?
Cliques are formed, strategies made, and in the midst of it all they learn a thing or two about friendship,
survival, consumerism, horny teenage urges and perhaps, most importantly, to never visit a fast-food
restaurant ever again.

Producers: Anna G. Magnusdottir, Anders Granstrom Story and Script/Screenplay: Bonita Drake, Johan
Bromander Director of Photography: Aevar Pall Sigurdsson Editor: Frederik Alneng Music: Christian
Engquist, Marcus Frenell Cast: Fredrik Hiller, Hanna Nykvist, Madeleine Borg
Production Company: Little Big Productions, St. Paulsgatan, 13, 118 46 Stockholm, Sweden, anna.g@littlebig.se
International Sales: MovieBoosters
Festivals and Awards: Sitges, Spain; Monsters of Film, Sweden; Night Visions, Finland; l’AbsurdSéance, France;
Horrorant, Greece; BiFan, South Korea

BONITA DRAKE and JOHAN BROMANDER

are a director and writer duo from England and Sweden, respectively. They met and fell in love in the
University of Wales while studying Film and Video made a lot of shorts and have now embarked on their
careers as feature film directors. Both Bonita and Johan focus on comedies in all genres.

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 AFTER DARK
DEATHGASM
Director: Jason Lei Howden | New Zealand, USA / 2015 / D-Cinema / Col. / English / 86 mins

Brodie was an outcast until he met fellow metalhead Zakk. They form a band and find a mysterious piece
of sheet music said to grant Ultimate Power to whoever plays it. But the music also summons an ancient
evil. As their classmates and family become inhabited by demonic forces, tearing out their own eyes and
turning into psychotic murderers, it is up to Brodie and Zakk to stop this force of evil for all of mankind.

Producers: Andrew Beattie, Morgan Leigh Stewart, Sarah Howden Story and Script/Screenplay: Jason Lei
Howden Director of Photography: Simon Raby Editor: Jeff Hurrell Music: Chris van de Geer, Joost Landeveld
Cast: Milo Cawthorne, James Blake, Kimberly Crossman, Stephen Ure
Production Company: Timpson Films, Ant Timpson, PO Box 5653, Wellesley St., Auckland, New Zealand,
anthonytimpson@gmail.com; MPI Media Group, 16101 S. 108th Ave., Orlando Park, IL 60467 USA,
dparadiso@mpimedia.com
International Sales: MPI Media Group
Festivals and Awards: SXSW, USA; BiFan, South Korea; Fantasia, Canada; Neuchatel, Switzerland; FrightFest, UK;
Sitges, Spain; Melbourne, Australia; HARD:LINE, Germany

JASON LEI HOWDEN

is a heavy metal-loving horror fan. He has worked as a digital artist at Weta Digital for many years. His short
film The Light Harvester was screened at the New Zealand International Film Festival in 2014. Deathgasm is
his first feature film and is an autobiographical film. Except the demon parts.
Director’s Filmography: The Light Harvester, 2014

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 AFTER DARK
LUDO
Directors: Nikon, Q | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Bengali / 86 mins

Four adventure-seeking teenagers end up in a shopping mall. But they are not alone. They meet an old
couple and a game begins – simple, but deadly. They call it Ludo. Legend has it that this game was cursed
hundreds of years ago, when a young couple defiled it. It was then that this nightmare of blood began. And
now, it is being played again. Beware of the rattle of the dice.

Producers: Nandini Mansinghka, Celine Loop, Q, Tilak Sarkar Story and Script/Screenplay: Nikon, Q,
Surojit Sen Directors of Photography: Q, Sayak Bhattacharya Editors: Supratim Roy, Nikon Music: Neel
Adhikari, Q Cast: Rii, Joyraj, Ananya Biswas, Subholina Sen, Ronodeep Bose, Soumendra Bhattacharya, Murari
Mukhopadhyay, Kamalika Banerjee, Tilotamma Shome
Production Company: Overdose Art Pvt Ltd, 358, Prince Anwar Shah Road, Kolkata 700045
International Sales: Reel Suspects, 6, Rue Legraverend, Paris 75012, France
Festivals and Awards: Fantasia International Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection, Camera Lucida section);
Fantastic Fest 2015; Sitges 2015

Q
is the founder of Overdose, a progressive art platform making original films, design and music. His experiments
with filmmaking started with small but vivid and potent tales of contemporary Bengali culture.
In 2009, he made his first feature film, the national award winning documentary Love in India. His first feature-
length fiction film Gandu (Asshole) is an international cult phenomenon of sorts, having been to more than 40
film festivals worldwide and winning top honours at SAIFF and Seattle.
Director’s Filmography: Bopping, Documentary, 2001; Tepantorer Maathe, Fiction, 2003;
Le Pocha, Documentary, 2004; 04 Crows on the Antennae, Documentary, 2007; Getting High, Getting Low,
Documentary, 2007; That Boy, Fiction, 2008; Love in India, Documentary, 2009; Bishh, Fiction, 2009; Gandu, Fiction,
2011; Tasher Desh, Fiction, 2012; Nabarun, Documentary, 2015

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 AFTER DARK
RIARU ONIGOKKO | TAG
Director: Sono Sion | Japan / 2015 / D-Cinema / Col. / Japanese / 85 mins

A bus-full of high school girls are on their way to a field trip. While passing through a forest, suddenly there
is a gust of wind and the next moment, the bus is mysteriously split in half. Everyone is dead – everyone,
except Mitsuko, who ducked just in time. In yet another bizarre turn of events, Mitsuko’s appearance and
identity begin to change and she must struggle through a merciless game of survival, as the nightmare
excursion refuses to end. This grisly film combines black comedy, horror and slasher elements in a world
solely populated by women.

Producers: Tanishima Masayuki, Ohno Takahiro Story and Script/Screenplay: Sono Sion, Yamada Yusuke
Director of Photography: Ito Maki Editor: Ito Junichi Music: Kikuchi Tomonobu Cast: Reina Treindl, Shinoda
Mariko, Mano Erina
Production Company: Asmik Ace, he-info@asmik-ace.co.jp; NBC Universal Entertainment Japan, SedicDeux, info@
sedic.co.jp; Shochiku, Sato Kiwamu, kiwamu-sato@shochiku.co.jp
International Sales: Shochiku International
Festivals and Awards: BiFan; Fantasia (Cheval Noir Award for Best Film); Sitges; Adelaide; L’Etrange; LA Eiga Fest

SONO SION
is a director, author and a poet. He gained international fame with Suicide Club (2001), and received the Caligari
Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for Love Exposure in 2009. In 2015, he has and will be releasing
six new films – Shinjuku Swan, Love & Peace, The Virgin Psychics, The Whispering Star, All Esper Dayo! and TAG.
Director’s Filmography: Love & Peace, 2015; Shinjuku Swan, 2015; The Whispering Star, 2015; The Virgin
Psychics, 2015; Tokyo Tribe, 2014; Why Don’t You Play in Hell?, 2013; The Land of Hope, 2012; Guilty of Romance,
2011; Himizu, 2011; Cold Fish, 2010; Love Exposure, 2008; Exte: Hair Extensions, 2007; Hazard, 2005; Noriko’s
Dinner Table, 2005; Strange Circus, 2005; Suicide Club, 2001

180
 AFTER DARK
TURBO KID
Directors: François Simard, Anouk Whissell,Yoann-Karl Whissell | Canada, New Zealand /
2015 / D-Cinema / Col. / English / 89 mins

It is 1997 in a ruined, post-apocalyptic world. A comics- and superhero-obsessed youngster named Kid
befriends a mysterious girl named Apple and they soon find themselves in a fight to the death with the evil
ruler Zeus and his brutal, masked henchman. When Apple is kidnapped by a minion of the evil overlord,
Kid summons the courage of his comic-book hero, and prepares to deliver a turbo-charged justice to the
evil king. In a world of uncertainty and fear of the unknown future, this sci-fi coming-of-age film is a story
about friendship, challenges and chasing one’s dreams.

Producers: Benoit Beaulieu, Anne-Marie Gelinas, Tim Riley, Ant Timpson, François Simard, Anouk Whissell,
Yoann-Karl Whissell Director of Photography: Jean-Philippe Bernier Editor: Luke Haigh Music: Le MATOS
(Jean-Philippe Bernier, Jean-Nicolas Leupi) Cast: Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Edwin
Wright, Aaron Jeffery
Production Company: EMA Films, 3447 St-Antoine West, Montreal, Quebec H3Z 1X1, Canada, info@emafilms.
com; Timpson Films, PO Box 5653, Wellesley St., Auckland 1411, New Zealand, anthonytimpson@gmail.com
International Sales: Epic Pictures Group
Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival; SXSW; BiFan; Fantasia; Edinburgh; Melbourne; Sitges; Neuchatel

FRANÇOIS SIMARD, ANOUK WHISSELL and YOANN-KARL WHISSELL

form a filmmakers’ collective called the RKSS (Road Kill Super Stars). They have co-written and co-directed
over 20 short films in the last ten years.

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 AFTER DARK
STUNG
Director: Benni Diez | Germany, US / 2015 / D-Cinema / Col. / English / 90 mins

In a remote countryside villa, Mrs Perch, a wealthy elderly widow, is throwing her annual garden party.
When her illegally imported plant fertilizer seeps into the ground, a local species of killer wasps mutates
into seven-feet-tall predators. And the celebrating elite upper class company provide just the right kind of
prey. It is up to Paul and Julia, the two catering staffers, to stop the creatures, fight for their lives, and rekindle
their romance in the process.

Producer: Christian Becker, Benjamin Munz Story and Script/Screenplay: Adam Aresty Director of
Photography: Stephan Burchardt Editor: Dominik Kattwinkel Music: Antonio Gambale, David Menke
Cast: Clifton Collins Jr., Jessica Cook, Lance Henriksen, Cecilla Pillado, Matt O’Leary
Production Company: Rat Pack
International Sales: XYZ Films
Festivals and Awards: Tribeca Film Festival; L’Etrange Festival 2015; Brussels Film Festival; Bucheon International
Fantastic Film Festival; Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival; Stanley Film Festival; Sitges Film Festival; Fantaspoa
International Fantastic Film Festival

BENNI DIEZ
was born in Starnberg, Germany in 1979. In 2002, he began to study Visual Effects and Animation at the
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Between 2008 and 2011, Benni led the production and VFX company,
Kingz Entertainment, in Cologne, which produced effects for commercials and feature films, including Lars
von Trier’s Melancholia.

182
HOT DOCS PRESENTS
The best from the world of documentary filmmaking,
specially curated for the Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival
with Star India by the team behind Hot Docs,
North America’s largest documentary film festival.

183
184
 HOT DOCS PRESENTS

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Director: Jerry Rothwell | UK, Canada / 2015 / Digital / Col. / English / 110 mins
In 1971, a group of friends sail into a nuclear test zone and their protest captures the world’s
imagination, giving birth to Greenpeace and defining the modern green movement. However, by the
summer of 1977, Greenpeace Vancouver was suing Greenpeace San Francisco and the organisation
had become a victim of its own anarchic roots – saddled with large debts and frequent in-fighting.
Featuring interviews of key players and hitherto unseen archive footage of these activist adventures,
this film brings to life these extraordinary characters and their intense, sometimes eccentric and
often dangerous world.

Producers: Al Morrow, Bous De Jong, John Murray Story and Script/Screenplay: Jerry Rothwell
Director of Photography: Ben Lichty Editor: James Scott Music: Lesley Barber Cast: Barry
(Pepper Voice Over) Production Company: Met Film Production, Guy Horlock, 02082809127
International Sales: Picturehouse UK and US Festivals and Awards: Sundance Film Festival
2015 (World Doc Special Jury Award: Editing); Sebastopol Documentary Festival 2015 (Best Feature);
Portland EcoFilm Festival 2015 (Best Feature Film); Hot Docs 2015 (Top Ten Audience Favourite)

JERRY ROTHWELL
is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes the award-winning feature documentaries Donor
Unknown, Town of Runners, Heavy Load and Deep Water. Sour Grapes is his next film for Netflix and Arte,
co-directed with Reuben Atlas. At Met Film Production, he has worked as executive produced and editor
on numerous feature documentaries.

MONTY PYTHON:
THE MEANING OF LIVE
Directors: James Rogan, Roger Graef | UK / 2014 / Col. / English / 90 mins
This uniquely intimate documentary about comedy’s original supergroup captures the most
anticipated comeback show in comedy. It follows the stars of Monty Python as they reunite one
final time to stage a marathon ten shows of Monty Python Live. For the first time, the members of
Monty Python open up about their approach to comedy, their worldviews and the tensions within
the group. With unprecedented access, this observational portrait reveals the humour, chaos and
passion that went into bringing the Flying Circus to the stage.

Producers: Holly Gilliam, Jim Beach Editors: Simon Barker, David Atkinson Cast: John Cleese, Brian
Cox, Terry Gilliam Production Company: Phil McIntyre Televsion, Lindsay Jex

JAMES ROGAN
is an award-winning writer, director and producer. He is best known internationally for his feature
documentaries for the Oscar-winning BBC Storyville: Amnesty! When they are All Free, The Trouble with Pirates
and Blog Wars for Sundance. He is also an accomplished director of fiction and commercials. He directed
the feature film Dead Bolt and has written several screenplays.
ROGER GRAEF
is the founder of Films of Record, a high-end London-based documentary company. He is an award-winning
filmmaker, criminologist and writer. He is the only documentary maker to be awarded the Bafta Fellowship
for Lifetime Achievement. Over 50 years, his many films have covered the arts, science, social justice and
criminal justice.

185
 HOT DOCS PRESENTS

THE BARKLEY MARATHONS:

THE RACE THAT EATS ITS
YOUNG
Director: Annika Iltis, Timothy Kane | USA / 2015 / 16x9 / Col. / 90 mins
A famous prison escape sparks the idea for a cult-like race that has seen only ten finishers in its
first 25 years. This award-winning, oddly inspiring, and wildly funny documentary reveals the sports
world’s most guarded secret.

Producers: Annika Iltis, Timothy Kane Editor: Mariana Blanco Music: Tyler Gibbons Cast: Lazarus
Lake, Raw Dog Production Company: Barkley Movie LLC Festivals and Awards: Austin Film
Festival (Audience Award for Documentary); Kansas City FilmFest (Best Feature Documentary); Sheffield
Adventure Film Festival (Audience Award); Hot Docs (Official Selection); Nashville Film Festival (Official
Selection)

ANNIKA ILTIS
has a passion for photography and film, which began in her hometown of Chicago. Before directing her
first feature film, The Barkley Marathons, she has been a crew member at the Sundance Film Institute, a
visual effects plate coordinator, and a camera assistant. For the last 13 years she has worked on a variety of
television shows and films such as Mad Men, Step Brothers, and Enough Said.

TIMOTHY KANE
has dreamt of making movies since he was a child in Philadelphia – an interest triggered by a documentary on
PBS about the making of Star Wars. Focusing on photography, cinematography, and filmmaking, Tim has worked
in the industry for over 15 years on shows and films such as Mad Men, Superbad, and From Dusk Till Dawn.

UNBRANDED
Director: Phillip Baribeau | USA / 2015 / HD / Col. / English / 105 mins
Four friends embark on a sublime, life-changing adventure. They travel on wild mustangs across the
American West, from the Mexican to the Canadian border through the majestic Grand Canyon,
Yellowstone and Glacier National Park.
Producers: Dennis Aig, Phillip Baribeau, Ben Masters Directors of Photography: Phillip Baribeau,
Korey Kaczmarek Editor: Scott Chestnut Music: Noah Sorota
Production Company: Fin & Fur Films
International Sales: Dogwoof
Festivals and Awards: Sundance 2015 (Audience Award); Telluride 2015 (Audience Award)

PHILLIP BARIBEAU
started out by working in television and documentary filmmaking. His most credited broadcast series are
Destination Extreme on National Geographic, Ax Men on the History Channel, MeatEater on the Sportsman
Channel, and Mountain Men on the History Channel. In 2008, Phillip founded Implement Productions, within
which he has worked on a wide range of films, television, web advertisements, events and commercials.
Unbranded is his first director credit for a feature length film.

186
HALF TICKET
Making its debut this year, Half Ticket is a treat for children.
An exciting slate of children’s films from around the world
will compete for the children’s jury awards.

Southasian Children’s Cinema Forum 187

CHILDREN’S JURY: FEATURES

Abhishek Nair
Abhishek is 14 years old and studies at Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya. He loves to tinker around with
computers, draw doodles and pen down his thoughts. He also enjoys reading interesting books, listening to music and
having fun with his friends. In future he would like to be either a mechanical engineer or a freelance author. Abhishek
is excited to be a part of the Children’s Jury because he will get to watch multiple films from a variety of genres, and
he is also looking forward to learning through the jury discussions with children of his age.

Anandi Muley
Anandi is 14 years old and studies at Gokuldham High School and Junior College, Goregaon. She likes swimming,
drawing, acting, dancing, watching good films and reading books. She also enjoys quilling in her spare time. She likes
doing social work and when she grows up she wants to become a doctor to serve people. She feels films play an
important role in influencing young minds. Anandi is looking forward to the Children’s Jury sessions to watch and
analyse movies. She thinks it will be a great experience that will help her become more creative and innovative.

Shaikh Kashif Abbas Dilshad Hussain

Kashif is 12 years old, studies at Elia Sarawat English High School and loves participating in extra-curricular activities.
He likes playing outdoor games, especially cricket. He likes representing his school in debates and quiz competitions.
When he grows up, he wants to become a doctor. Kashif is happy to be chosen for the Children’s Jury because he
will get to watch films which he hasn’t watched earlier and get the chance to judge them along with children from
other schools.

Maanya Somani
Maanya is 14 years old and studies at J.B. Petit High School for Girls. She has many hobbies and interests. She loves
playing tennis, swimming, dancing, singing and reading. When she grows up, she wants to do something in the field of
genetic engineering or psychiatry. Maanya is absolutely thrilled to become a part of the Children’s Jury as she really
enjoys watching, interpreting and analysing different kinds of films.

Misri Kothari
Misri is 15 years old and studies at Udayachal High School, Vikhroli. She doesn’t have specific hobbies but tags herself
as a voracious reader and is fond of painting. She also likes listening to music and watching movies. She hasn’t decided
what she would like to be when she grows up but she dreams of owning a business empire one day. What Misri finds
most exciting about the Children’s Jury is the chance to meet and interact with new people of her age, and also the
chance to watch films that are different and hopefully better and more realistic than Bollywood movies.

Reeba Sayed
Reeba is 15 years old and studies at the Bombay Cambridge School, Andheri West. She likes reading, solving puzzles
and listening to music. She also enjoys painting and doing social work. She feels whether she becomes a doctor or
an engineer, what is most important for her is that she should remain a good person even after she grows up. She
likes watching films, especially those that have a social message and show new cultures. Reeba feels honoured to be
a part of the Children’s Jury.

Samriddha Datta
Samriddha is 9 years old and studies at Bombay Cambridge Gurukul. She is training as a classical Odissi dancer and
also enjoys reading, swimming and playing with her friends. When she grows up she would like to be either an IAS
Officer or a swimmer or a gymnast or a teacher – she hasn’t quite decided as yet. Samriddha is particularly excited
to be chosen for the Children’s Jury as jury members, like teachers, are supposed to give feedback and guidance and
she loves giving free advice. Besides, she likes interacting with different people and making new friends.
 CHILDREN’S JURY: SHORTS

Anushka Vora
Anushka is 15 years old and studies at Udayachal High School Godrej, Vikhroli. She likes reading, listening to music
and enjoys good cuisine. She also loves travelling and doing adventure activities. She wants to pursue higher studies
at a university abroad and plans to become an entrepreneur when she grows up. Anushka is excited to watch films
and learn about different cultures and countries, especially about developing countries and about those who are less
privileged than her.

Bipasha Kapoor
Bipasha is 13 years old and studies at Vibgyor High School, Goregaon. She has participated in many plays and likes
acting, dancing and singing. Theatre is her passion, though when she grows up she wants to become a doctor. She
loves watching all kinds of films and likes discussing them with her family over dinner. She loves the idea of special
movies for children at the film festival, and is super-excited to be part the Children’s Jury.

Daya Maithri Ravi

Daya is 9 years old and studies at J.B. Petit High School for Girls. She has many hobbies. She trains in Bharat Natyam
and Carnatic vocal music, plays the piano and badminton. She also enjoys reading and watching foreign films. She
wants to be a veterinary surgeon and hobby pianist in future. Daya is thrilled to be part of the Children’s Jury since
it’s the first time she’s been asked to be on one. She is a world cinema buff so she is looking forward to watching
some nice movies.

Gazir Sayed
Gazir Sayed is 15 years old and studies at Podar International School. He likes reading and watching films, particularly
those about wildlife. He likes to constantly learn new things, especially about nature and the environment. Gazir wants
to become a wildlife conservationist or a veterinary scientist. He feels proud to represent his school in the Children’s
Jury and thinks it will be a great experience.

Hetansh Visaria
Hetansh is 12 years old and studies at Shishuvan School, Matunga. He loves cycling, reading, watching films and observing
nature, especially birds. He likes experimenting with different angles in photography and creating illusions with it. He
also likes to tinker with and sometimes create things on his own, such as a USB fan that works like a mini laptop fan.
Hetansh’s ambition is to be a great astronaut and discover something that will be both shocking and useful for mankind.
He is really looking forward to meeting filmmakers and watching and reviewing films from around the globe.

Radhika Mehra
Radhika is 14 years old and studies at Bhaktivedanta Swami Mission School. She likes reading, especially autobiographies
as well as philosophical and inspirational books which can motivate her to achieve something greater in life. She also
likes watching historical documentaries and science shows and enjoys classical and trance music. In future, she sees
herself working in the socio-economic field for the betterment of underprivileged people. As a movie lover, it would
be a great experience for her to judge films and to watch them not only for entertainment but to see the films from
the eye of a critic.

Stuti Pevekar
Stuti is 11 years old and studies at Akshara School. Whenever free she likes to draw or paint or read stories or
create her own stories. She also enjoys reading the newspaper, playing games on her mother’s cell phone and playing
outside with her friends. When she grows up she could be a writer or a journalist or maybe an anchor or a singer or
a choreographer. She finds the idea of a Children’s Jury very exciting and inspiring, and is excited to be a part of one.
She feels this will give her an opportunity to prove her talents and reach her dreams.
MONICA WAHI
Curator
HALF TICKET

Monica is a curator and organiser of children’s film festivals

including The Golden Elephant. She has served as the Creative
Head of Children’s Film Society India, Lennep Media and Going to
School, and helmed the development of many award-winning Indian
children’s features and shorts. She is also the Founder Director of
Southasian Children’s Cinema Forum, a cross-border network of film
producing, film education and film festival organisations committed
to nurturing a viable children’s film industry in the region.

ZOYA AKHTAR
Mentor
Zoya Akhtar is an Indian director and screenwriter who made her directorial debut
in 2009 with the critically acclaimed Luck By Chance. She followed it up with films like
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and, most recently, Dil Dhadakne Do. In 2013, she also directed
a short film, Sheila Ki Jawani, as part of an anthology celebrating 100 years of Indian
cinema, Bombay Talkies.

IMTIAZ ALI
Mentor
Imtiaz Ali is an Indian film director and writer. In 2005, he made his directorial debut with
the film Socha Na Tha. His subsequent films, Jab We Met (2007), Love Aaj Kal (2009) and
Rockstar (2011) met with much success and were especially popular among the youth.
He has won several of awards including Filmfare, Stardust, IIFA and the ZEE Cine award.
With his most recent film, Highway (2014), he started his own production company,
Window Seat Films. He is currently working on his next film, Tamasha, with Ranbir
Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, which is scheduled to release on 27 November 2015.

AVINASH ARUN
Mentor
Avinash Arun is a director and cinematographer from Maharashtra, India. Born in the
textile town Solapur in 1985 in a middle class Maharashtrian family, he started assisting
in FTII Diploma films at the age of 16. He eventually graduated in Cinematography from
FTII in 2011. His diploma film, Allah Is Great, was the official entry from India for the
Student Oscars. It also won several awards, including the National award in 2012. Avinash
has worked on Kai Po Che! (Berlinale Panorama section 2012). Killa, his first feature film
as director, won the Crystal Bear for the Best Film awarded by the Children’s Jury in the
Generation Kplus section at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. He is also the
cinematographer on the film. He has recently shot Masaan, which one two awards at
Cannes Film Festival, and Ajay Devgn and Tabu starrer Drishyam.
The 17th Jio MAMI can boast of many firsts, but perhaps the most significant one has been to introduce a dedicated
section for children and young adults.

Although almost half our population is 18 years or younger, children as an audience continue to be neglected by the
mainstream Indian film industry. By identifying this half as an important segment, the festival hopes to create visibility
and value for stories that speak directly to them, and also to encourage imaginative filmmakers and brave new
producers to create more films for them.

Even today, with the proliferation of multiplexes and the increasing acceptance of independent cinema, children’s films
account for a mere 0.02 per cent of films produced annually. Countries that produce far fewer films, and certainly have
far fewer children, account for many more children’s films!

Ironically, India was the first country to create an exclusive body to promote children’s films. Our first Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru, known for his love for children, established the Children’s Film Society India (CFSI) soon after the
country’s independence with the hope that locally produced cinema would stimulate children’s creativity, compassion
and critical thought.

The history of children’s films in India has, since, been intrinsically linked to CFSI, which has produced some
exceptional films but has not been able to release them or find commercial success. While CFSI continues to
produce stories that are relevant and diverse, private studios still shy away from investing in this genre or tend to
serve it with heavy referencing to mainstream cinema. An exception to this has been the work created by Vishal
Bhardwaj and Santosh Sivan, but theatrical releases of such children’s films over the last 100 years of Indian cinema
have been few and far between.

However, in the last five years, we have witnessed a gradual but steady momentum of films starting with I am Kalam,
Vihir, Stanley Ka Dabba, Chillar Party, Gattu, Killa, Kaaka Muttai and now Dhanak. Some of them may not be seen as
‘children’s films’, but have nevertheless travelled successfully to international children’s film festivals and even sold in
territories worldwide. At home, it is the discerning Marathi audiences which patronise this genre the most. Films like
Shwaas, Tingya, Shala, Balak-Palak, Fandry, and Elizabeth Ekadashi place the child or the young adult at the centre of the
film and make compelling comments on contemporary issues, much like films from Iran. These films are also equally
engaging for children and for adults.

It is this potential to open the eyes of children and encourage them to reflect on their world that has inspired the
curation of the children’s film section at MAMI.

For most of our school-going audience, this will be their first encounter with world cinema, their first experience of
viewing films in languages they are not familiar with, and for some, their first attempt at following subtitles on the
moving image! Challenging as this sounds, interacting with film in this manner at a young age helps children develop an
appetite for diverse stories in diverse forms.

Content easily available to children today, on their television or on handheld devices, usually works towards making
their tastes and desires more and more uniform. By exposing children to distinctive films, we hope to cultivate a
discerning taste among young viewers and nurture a future audience for independent cinema.

At the festival, children will get the opportunity to watch and discuss films that treat them not as mere consumers but
as equal participants, who have the ability to laugh and cry but also to think, evaluate and form opinions. Films that will
spark their curiosity and creativity, encourage them to ask questions and perhaps even inspire them to become artists
themselves!

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 With this Half Ticket, children will travel to Russia, Ethiopia, Iran, Brazil, Tunisia and even to the North Pole! They will
experience salt deserts and backwaters, beaches and highlands, forests and bustling cities across six continents, places
that they may never have heard of or imagined existed.

Films lead us to the worlds of those, near and far, who are different from us. They help break stereotypes, sensitise
us and help us become more inclusive. They enable us to understand other cultures and beliefs and can sometimes
even provoke us to challenge our own. As we witness rising inequality, intolerance and violence in our own midst,
which stories children consume becomes critical. A film festival can encourage a culture of reflection and enquiry, can
enable children to value diversity and free expression, and empower them to become independent thinkers and more
tolerant human beings.

We also hope this section initiates a conversation about children’s films among the audience and the industry. What
are children’s films after all? How can children’s films engage with complex ideas and realities and yet remain simple,
delightful and fun? How can children’s cinema lend itself to commercial exploitation without giving up on its originality,
distinctness and imagination?

We have tried to programme a wide variety of films that will open the way children look at film and think about film.
Particularly delectable are the artistic animations. Through their distinct aesthetic and powerful narratives, these largely
handmade features and shorts remind us of the magic of storytelling in both its simplest and most inventive form. A
Special Screening of Ale Abreu’s unusual and exquisite work The Boy and the World will also delight cinema lovers and
animators in the city. By introducing young adults to animations that experiment with form and tell layered stories, we
also want to challenge the notion that this genre is for children only.

Other exciting inclusions are children’s documentary shorts that capture funny and candid bittersweet moments
between tween protagonists as they grapple with their own non-conformist ambitions and the glorious excitement
and confusion that adolescence brings.

We are also eager to see how our young audience will respond to the two Indian features that are stylistically distinct
from each other, but equally fascinating. And we hope that after the festival these films are released commercially so
audiences can enjoy the films in theatres close to them.

Half Ticket will also provide aspiring schoolgoing writers between the ages of 12 to 15 years the chance to present
outlines of the films they want to make to renowned filmmakers.

Besides watching films and participating in workshops, children will decide which films are worthy of their appreciation.
Twelve features and 10 shorts are competing for awards judged by a Children’s Jury! The jurors were selected after
a closely fought contest. Going by the observations, insights and arguments they put forth to each other during the
selection process, I can promise the Children’s Jury discussions will turn out to be just as interesting and rewarding as
the films themselves!

MONICA WAHI

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ADAMA (FEATURE)

Director: Simon Rouby | 2015 / France / Col. / French / 82 mins

It is 1916. Twelve-year-old Adama lives in a remote village in Western Africa. Beyond the forbidden cliffs,
the World of Breaths can be found, where the wicked, war-hungry Nassaras reign. One night, Samba, his
older brother, disappears. Defying the laws of the elders, Adama decides to set out to find him. With the
unwavering determination of a child becoming a man, he launches into a quest that will take him beyond
the seas, to the North, to the front lines of World War One.

Producers: Philippe Aigle, Severine Latthuilliere Story and Script/Screenplay: Julien Lilti Director of
Photography: Dimitri Lucy Editor: Jean Baptiste Alazard Music: Pablo Pico Cast: Azize Diabaté, Jack Mba, Oxmo
Puccino, Pascal Nzonzi
Production Company: NAIA Productions
International Sales: NAIA Productions

SIMON ROUBY
born in 1980 in Lyon, France, started off as a graffiti artist ten years ago, then moved to mediums such as
painting and sculpture, after which he studied film direction in Gobelins, Paris, and CalArts, Los Angeles. His
two graduation films, Blind Spot, and Le Présage have been shown at many international festivals. He is currently
researching the power of moving images and their narrative potential across geographical boundaries.
Director’s Filmography: Orun, Short Film, 2006; The Omen, Short Film, 2007; Blindspot, Short Film, 2007;
La Marche, Short Film, 2010

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(FEATURE)
LES OISEAUX DE PASSAGE |
BIRDS OF PASSAGE
Director: Oliver Ringer | Belgium / 2015 / DCP / Col. / French/ 84 mins

Cathy gets an egg and an incubator from her father for her tenth birthday. He warns her that she must be
the first person the duckling sees, so that it regards her as its mother. But when the time comes, it is actually
Cathy’s disabled friend Margaux who sees the egg hatch. Now the duckling only wants to be with Margaux,
but her parents don’t think their wheelchair-bound daughter is capable of taking care of a pet. They don’t
allow her to keep it. So the girls run away to find a new home for the duckling.

Producer: Yves Ringer Story and Script/Screenplay: Olivier Ringer, Yves Ringer Director of
Photography: Mihnea Popescu Editor: Alanté Kavaïté Music: Bruno Alexiu Cast: Myriem Akkhediou, Jeanne
Dandoy, Clarisse Djuroski, Alain Eloy, Renaud Rutten, Angelo Dello Spedale, Camille Voglaire, Léa Warny, Marc Herman
Production Company: Ring Prod, Yves Ringer, 16 place de l’Université, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium,
+32 2 344 07 85, ringprod@gmail.com
International Sales: Attraction Distribution, Canada
Festivals and Awards: Montreal International Children’s Film Festival (Best Film); The Golden Slipper Award (Best
Feature Film for Children); ECFA award at Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth; Giffoni Film Festival
(Special Award); Tokyo Children’s Film Festival (Best Film); Europees Jeugd Film Festival (Official Selection); Vlaanderen
Antwerp and Brugge, Cine-Jeune St. Quentin 2015

OLIVIER RINGER
born in 1961, is a Belgian director, screenwriter and producer. He has written and directed award-
winning short fiction films like Good and Haute Pression, as well as video clips, corporate films and
several films for les Guignols de l’Info (Canal+ France). In 2012, A Pas de Loup (On the Sly), his second
feature film, won the ECFA Award 2012 for Best European Film for Children. He is now working on
the post-production of his fourth feature film: le Roi de la Vallée (King of the Valley).
Director’s Filmography: Pom, le poulain, Feature Film, 2006 À Pas de Loup, Feature Film, 2011

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NEBESNYJ VERBLJUD | (FEATURE)

CELESTIAL CAMEL
Director:Yury Feting | Russia / 2015 / Col. / Russian, Kalmyk / 90 mins

Bayir is a sheep herder and lives with his family in the dry Kalmyk steppe. He loves the infant white colt
which was born under a camel shaped cloud. He is devastated when his father sells it to a film unit to pay
off a debt. While Bayir’s parents are away, the mother camel flees in search of her calf. So Bayir sets out
to find both camels amidst an ongoing drought. Embarking on his mission with just a few supplies and an
oversized motorcycle across the perilous terrain, he encounters sand storms and other countless natural
obstacles, he is unjustly arrested by the police and causes an explosive situation at an illegal petrol station.
But he also makes a new friend, whose fascinating skills may just help him accomplish his mission.

Producers: Irina Plisko, Mikhail Plisko Story and Script/Screenplay: Elzyata Mandzhieva, Elzyata Mandzhieva
Director of Photography: Anton Zhabin Editor: Leda Semenova Music: Maksim Koshevarov Cast: Mikhail
Gasanov, Petr Novikov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Batr Mandzhiev, Baira Mandzhieva, Irina Hurgunova, Danzan Badrashkiev,
Tzeden Konaev, Vitaly Makhov
Production Company: Vse horosho Ltd., 129075 Argunovskaya str. 3/1, Moscow, Russia
International Sales: Vse horosho Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: 65th Berlinale (Official Selection, competition section ‘Generation Kplus’); TIFF Kids
International Film Festival 2015 (Official selection, competition section ‘International Film Competition’); MOOOV Film
Festival 2015 (Out-of-competition Screening); 55th Zlin Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection, International Competition
of Feature Films for Children); Little Big Films 2015 (Out-of-competition Screening); Okno v Evropu 2015
(Out-of-competition Screening, Films for Children); Kinoshok 2015 (Award for Best Children’s Feature-length Film,
‘Kinomalyshok’ section); Film Festival ‘Pacific Meridian’ 2015 (Out-of-competition Screening)

YURY FETING
is a Russian film director, screenwriter and professor. Having previously worked as a theatre actor and
director, Feting graduated from the Higher School for Screenwriters and Directors in 1990. He has directed
several acclaimed feature films.
Director’s Filmography: Christmas Mystery, Feature Film, 2000; The Legends Of My Childhood, Feature
Film, 2005; Bibinour, Feature Film, 2010

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(FEATURE)
LAMB
Director:Yared Zeleke | France, Ethiopia, Germany Norway / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Amharic / 94 mins

Nine-year-old Ephraim is inseparable from his sheep Chuni. After Ephraim loses his mother to famine, his
father sets out to look for work and leaves him and his sheep with relatives in a greener part of Ethiopia.
To his uncle’s annoyance, Ephraim isn’t good at farming at all, but instead prides himself on his cooking skills!
One day, his uncle tells him that they have to sacrifice his sheep for the next religious feast. The young boy,
however, is ready to do anything to save his only friend and return home.

Producers: Laurent Lavole, Amaampadu, Johannes Rexin Story and Script/Screenplay: Yared Zeleke, Géraldine
Bajard Director of Photography: Josée Deshaies Editor: Véronique Bruque Music: Christophe Chassol
Cast: Rediat Amare, Kidist Siyum, Welela Assefa, Surafel Teka, Rahel Teshome, Indris Mohamed
Production Company: Gloria Films; Slum Kid Films; Heimatfilm
International Sales: Films Distribution, Paris
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival (Official Selection, Un Certain Regard)

YARED ZELEKE
was born in Ethiopia in 1978. He has studied International Development at Clark University and cinema
at New York University, majoring in writing and directing.Yared has written, produced, directed and edited
several short documentaries, including Allula, and fiction shorts, like Housewarming. He has also worked with
director Joshua Atesh Litle on the documentary The Furious Force of Rhymes, which received several awards.
Director’s Filmography: Full, Short Film, 2009; Housewarming, Short Film, 2009; The Quiet Garden,
Short Film, 2009

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RETTET RAFFI! | MY FRIEND RAFFI (FEATURE)

Director: Arend Agthe | Germany / 2015 / DCP / Col. / German / 97 mins

Raffi, the hamster, is Samuel’s best friend and loyal companion. He is also very talented. Not only can he kick
goals with a football but he can also sniff smuggled goods – better than a tracker dog. Samuel is devastated
when Raffi is diagnosed with a heart disease, in need of an immediate operation. On the way back from the
hospital, the recuperating hamster is kidnapped by a scheming criminal who soon finds use for Raffi’s talents.
For Samuel it is clear: he has to rescue the little hamster, no matter what. Ahead of him lies a tremendous
adventure through the big city of Hamburg.

Producers: Bettina Kupfer, Arend Agthe Story and Script/Screenplay: Bettina Kupfer, Arend Agthe Director
of Photography: Thomas Benesch Editor: Andrea Wenzler Music: Matthias Raue Cast: Nicolaus von der
Recke, Sophie Lindenberg, Henriette Heinze, Claes Bang, Albert Kitzl
Production Company: Mimi & Crow Film-Produkion, Karl-Jacob-Strasse, 722609 Hamburg, Germany, +49 40
8806896, info@mimiandcrowfilmproduktion.de
International Sales: East West Film Distribution
Festivals and Awards: Kinderfilmfest 2015 (Audience Award); Little Big Films Nuremberg (Audience Award);
Montreal World Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection, Premiere); Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival;
International Children’s Film Festival Hong Kong; International Children’s Film Festival Mexico; German Film Festival
Singapore; Jerusalem Film Festival; SCREENIES International Children´s Film Festival New Zealand; National Children´s
Film Festival, Brussels; Seoul Guro Kids International Film Festival; Festival of German Films Edinburgh UK; Juniorfest -
International Festival for Children and Youth Czech Republic; Sri Lanka International Film Festival; Zlin International Film
Festival for Children and Youth Czech Republic; Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth USA

AREND AGTHE
has over 30 years of experience as a filmmaker, after having previously worked as a cartoonist, journalist, and
writer and director of programmes for children and adults, for television and cinema. He lives in Hamburg,
Germany, with his wife and children.
Director’s Filmography: Flussfahrt Mit Huhn (Rivertrip with a Hen), Feature, 1984; Kueken Fuer Kairo
(Chicken for Cairo), Feature, 1985; Der Sommer Des Falken (Falcon Summer Sky), Feature, 1987; Die Mine
(The Mine), Historical Short Feature, 1989; Der Heimkehrer (Homecomer), Historical Short Feature Film,
1989; Die Fliegerjacke (Pilot’s Jacket), Historical Short Feature, 1989; Wunderjahre, Feature, 1991; Karakum,
Feature, 1993; Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty), Feature, 2008; Über Das Meer In Die Freiheit (Over the Sea to
Freedom), Documentary Feature, 2011

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(FEATURE)
OPERASJON ARKTIS |
OPERATION ARCTIC
Director: Grethe Bøe-Waal | Norway / 2014 / DCP 2K / Col. / Norwegian/ 89:33 mins

Thirteen-year-old Julia and her eight-year-old twin siblings Sindre and Ida have moved to a small town
with their mother. When Sindre gets into a fight at his new school and ends up hitting the school bully, the
siblings run off in confusion to their father’s army base. Desperate to find their father, they secretly jump
aboard a helicopter flying in his direction. Unfortunately, the helicopter changes its route and the children
find themselves accidentally left behind on the uninhabited frozen Half Moon island in the Arctic North.
With no means on contacting the mainland, the three siblings are forced to face the epic powers of nature,
as bitter cold, winter storms, starvation, and hungry polar bears threaten their very existence.

Producers: Sveinung Golimo, John M. Jacobsen, Marcus B. Brodersen Story and Script/Screenplay: Grethe
Bøe-Waal Directors of Photography: Trond Tønder, Gaute Gunnari Editor: Anders Refn Music: Trond Bjerknes
Cast: Nicolai Cleve Broch, Line Verndal, Kristofer Hivju, Kaisa Gurine Antonsen
Production Company: Filmkameratene
International Sales: Trust Nordisk
Festivals and Awards: TIFF KidsInternational Film Festival; (People’s Choice Award, Best Feature Film); Montreal
International Children’s Film Festival FIFEM (ECFA jury’s Best Feature Film); Amanda Award for the best Norwegian
Children’s Film 2015; Sundance 2015; Cinequest Film Festival (Official Selection); Zlin International Film Festival for
Children Youth; Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival; IFI Family Film Festival; Transilvania International Film
Festival; Tel Aviv International Children Film Festival

GRETHE BØE-WAAL
has broad experience in the film and television business, both before and behind the camera. She has
directed numerous commercials, short fiction films and television dramas, including episodes of Scandinavia’s
longest running soap-opera Hotel Cæsar (1998).
Director’s Filmography Titanics Ti Liv (The Ten Lives of Titanic the Cat), Feature FIlm, 2007

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PAPER PLANES (FEATURE)

Director: Robert Connolly | Australia / 2014 / Digital/ Col. / English / 96:27 mins

Following the death of his mother, 11-year-old Dylan is largely left to look after himself, as his dad is overcome
with grief. One day at school he discovers an odd gift: the ability to craft a paper plane that flies longer and
faster than any of those of his peers. Dylan dives into his new hobby and qualifies for the Australian national
championships in Sydney. Here he meets the Japanese Junior Champion Kimi, who teaches him that a paper
plane should be as beautiful as it is fast and strong. As his friends, neighbours and eccentric grandfather work
to raise funds for his trip to Tokyo for the World Paper Plane Championship, Dylan realises he must commit
to creating the most beautiful plane he can – whether it wins or loses.

Producer: Liz Kearney Story and Script/Screenplay: Robert Connolly, Steve Worland Director of
Photography: Tristan Milani Editor: Nick Meyers Music: Nigel Westlake Cast: Sam Worthington, Ed Oxenbould
Production Company: Arenamedia, International Sales: Arclight Films,
Festivals and Awards: Berlin International Film Festival; TIFF Kids Film Festival; Seattle International Film Festival;
Busan International Film Festival; Melbourne International Film Festival; Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival; Dubai
International Film Festival

ROBERT CONNOLLY
is a film director, producer and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Australia. He is best known as the director
and writer of the feature films Balibo, Three Dollars and The Bank, and the producer of the high-profile
Australian films Romulus and My Father.
Director’s FIlmography: The Bank, 2001; Three Dollars, 2005; Balibo, 2009; Underground: The Julian
Assange Story, 2012

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(FEATURE)
GHOL | THE PROMISE
Director: Mohammad Ali Talebi | Iran / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Farsi / 75 mins

15-year-old Pouria is an obedient boy who helps his parents out on the farm during summer vacation. But
likes to escape on his bike and roam the hills at top speed with his best friend and neighbour Daniel, though
he promises his father not to stray off the main road. One day something happens and Daniel disappears. His
parents frantically search for him. Pouriya pretends to know nothing and won’t look his parents in the face. But
he has Daniel’s wet clothes under his bed, which, like his own, stink of the river water.

Producer: Mohammad Ali Talebi Story and Script/Screenplay: Hassan Bayanloo Director of
Photography: Ali Mohammad Ghasemi Editor: Arash Talebi Music: Siavash Talebi Cast: Mehdi Shiroudi-
Masoumeh, Mirhosseini-Majid Potki
Production Company: Farabi Cinema Foundation
International Sales: Farabi Cinema Foundation
Festivals and Awards: Montreal Film Festival; Cinekid Festival

MOHAMMAD ALI TALEBI

graduated in cinema and TV from the College of Dramatic Arts, after which he began collaborating with
I.R.I.B. television where he made many educational programmes for children and young adults. Talebi’s
international breakthrough came with The Boot, which won the Golden Gate Award at the 37th San
Francisco Film Festival in 1994. His film Tick Tack won a special jury prize at Chicago Children’s Film Festival.
In 2014, BFI chose three of Talebi’s films as part of the touring film season of ‘Cinema of Childhood’.
Director’s Filmography: City of the Mice, Feature, 1984; The Finish Line, Feature, 1985; The Wilderness,
Feature, 1988; The Boot, Feature, 1992; Tick Tack, Feature, 1993; Bag of Rice, Feature, 1996; The Willow and
the Wind, Feature, 1999; You Are Free, Feature, 2001; The Redness of Unripe Apple, Feature, 2006; The Wall,
Feature, 2008; Meadow, Feature, 2010; Wind and Fog, Feature, 2011; The Promise, Feature, 2014

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DHANAK | RAINBOW (FEATURE)

Director: Nagesh Kukunoor| India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 103 mins

Ten-year-old Pari and her blind younger brother Chotu live in a village nestled among sand dunes. Having
lost their parents to an accident at a very early age, they live with their uncle and aunt. Chotu wants nothing
more than to have his vision back. Pari, inspired by a poster of Shah Rukh Khan promoting eye donation,
promises him he’ll get it before his ninth birthday arrives. When the two learn that Shah Rukh Khan is
filming only a few hundred kilometres from their village, they sneak away from home and set out to meet
the superstar. They experience a fairy-tale like odyssey that changes their lives forever.

Producers: Manish Mundra, Nagesh Kukunoor, Elahe Hiptoola Story and Script/Screenplay: Nagesh
Kukunoor Director of Photography: Chirantan Das Editor: Sanjib Datta Music: Tapas Relia Cast: Krrish
Chhabaria, Hetal Gada, Vipin Sharma, Gulfam Khan
Production Company: Drishyam Films Pvt. Ltd.; Kukunoor Movies
International Sales: Drishyam Films
Festivals and Awards: Berlin International Film Festival (Grand Jury Prize, Crystal Bear Special Mention); TIFF Kids
Film Festival; IFFLA; Zlin Children’s Film Festival; Cinema in Sneakers (Main Prize); Telaviv Children’s Film Festival; Indian
Film Festival Stuttgart; London Indian Film Festival; Gioffoni International Film Festival; Little Big Film Festival for Children;
Mosaic Film Festival Canada; Indian Film Festival of Melbourne; Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth;
Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival

NAGESH KUKUNOOR
is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter. A chemical engineer and former environmental
consultant, he used his personal savings and wrote, produced, acted in and directed his immensely successful
debut film, Hyderabad Blues, which went on to become the largest grossing low-budget Indian film in English.
Having managed to create a new genre in Indian cinema – the indie film that breaks the barrier between
commercial and art cinema – Nagesh has since directed celebrated films like Dor and Iqbal.
Director’s Filmography: Hyderbad Blues, 1998; Rockford, 1999; Bollywood Calling, 2001; 3 Deewarein,
2003; Hyderabad Blues-2, 2004; Iqbal, 2005; Dor, 2006; Bombay to Bangkok, 2008; 8x10 Tasveer, 2009;
Aashayein, 2010; Mod, 2011; Lakshmi, 2013

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(FEATURE)
SONG OF THE SEA
Director:Tomm Moore | Ireland / 2014 / DCP / Col. / English / 90 mins

After their mother’s disappearance, Ben and his six-year-old sister Saoirse are sent to live with their Granny
in the city. When they resolve to return to their home by the sea, their journey becomes a race against
time as they are drawn into a fading world of ancient legends they know only from folktales. It turns out
that Saoirse is a selkie and so was their mother – a mythical Irish creature who lives as a seal in the sea
but becomes human on land. Together they must unlock the magical secrets of their ancestry in order to
find their way home.

Producer: Cartoon Saloon Story and Script/Screenplay: Will Collins Director of Photography: Adrien
Merigeau Editor: Darragh Byrne Music: Bruno Coulais Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan
Production Company: Cartoon Saloon, info@cartoonsaloon.ie
International Sales: WestEnd Films
Festivals and Awards: Oscar Nominee (Best Animated Feature Film of the Year 2014); Toronto International Film
Festival; Busan International Film Festival; London Film Festival

TOMM MOORE
was born in Newry, Northern Ireland in 1977, and studied animation at Ballyfermot College in Dublin. He
co-founded the animation studio Cartoon Saloon, and has written, produced, animated and directed short
films and commercials. Both his feature films, The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, have been nominated for
the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He has also directed a short film portion of Kahlil Gibran’s
The Prophet.
Director’s Filmography: The Secret of the Kells, Animated Feature, 2009

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OTTAAL | THE TRAP (FEATURE)

Director: Jayaraj | India / DCP / Col. / Malayalam / 81mins

After losing his parents to debt, Kuttappayi comes to stay with his grandfather. They spend their days
together herding ducks in the backwaters of Kuttanad. Kuttapayi enjoys his life in the village, with the
nameless dog and the letter-less postman and the resort owner’s son Tintu. Kuttapayi may not go to school
like Tintu but he knows everything there is to know about the river and the trees and the birds and the fish.
One day, his ill grandfather decides to fulfill Kuttappayi’s wish and send him to school.

Producers: Vinod Vijayan, Seven Arts Mohan Story and Script/Screenplay: Anton Chekov, Joshy Mangalath,
Jayaraj Director of Photography: M.J. Radhakrishnan Editor: B. Ajithkumar Music: Kavalam Narayana Panicker,
Sreevalsan J. Menon Cast: Kumarakom Vasudevan, Shine Tom Chacko, Master Ashanth K. Sha, Sabitha Jayaraj
Production Company: Director Cutz Film Company Pvt. Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: 62nd National Film Awards (Best Film on Environmental Conservation/Preservation); 62nd
National Film Awards (Best Screenplay (Adapted); Kerala Film Critics Award 2015 (Best Film, Best Director, Special
Mention, Best Child Artist)

JAYARAJ
(Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair), is a seasoned filmmaker with more than 35 films under his belt, in four languages
(Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi). His presence has been noted in both art-house and mainstream cinema,
and several of his films have received critical acclaim. His adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello won him the
National award for Best Director in 1997.
Director’s Filmography: Vidyarambham, 1990; Paithrukam, 1993; Desadanam, 1997; Kaliyattam, 1997,
Shantham, 2000; Karunam, 2000; 4 The People, 2004; Daivanamathil, 2005; Vellapokkathil, 2008; Pakarnnattam, 2012

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(FEATURE)
X+Y
Director: Morgan Matthews | England, China / 2014 / Col. / English, Mandarin / 111 mins

Young mathematics prodigy Nathan struggles to connect with people but finds comfort in numbers. Preferring
to hide in the safety of his own private world, he often pushes away those who want to be closest to him,
including his mother, Julie. His tutor, Mr. Humphreys, encourages him to try for a place in the British team at
the International Mathematics Olympiad. This training trip to Taiwan is the beginning of an incredible journey
as he develops unfamiliar feelings for his Chinese counterpart, the beautiful Zhang Mei. Ultimately this is
Nathan’s journey towards discovering the unfathomable experience of first love as he learns that life may be
more than just prime numbers.

Producers: David M. Thompson, Laura Hastings-Smith Story and Script/Screenplay: James Graham
Director of Photography: Danny Cohen Editor: Peter Lambert Music: Martin Phipps
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Sally Hawkins, Rafe Spall, Eddie Marsen
Production Company: Origin Pictures, Ed Rubin, Hannah Farrell, +44 20 7836 6818
International Sales: Bankside Films
Festivals and Awards: British Independent Film Awards (Nominated for Best Actor, Supporting Actress and
Supporting Actor); Palm Beach International Film Festival (Best Feature Film); Rome Film Festival (Best Emerging
Producer); Seattle International Film Festival; Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Best Film)

MORGAN MATTHEWS
is a BAFTA-winning director who has been making critically acclaimed documentaries for over ten years.
Distinctive in their cutting-edge style, Morgan’s films combine intelligent storytelling with evocative and
powerful portrayals of our society. His recent work includes Scenes from a Teenage Killing for BBC, a
powerful highly acclaimed documentary; the ambitious Britain in a Day project (along with Ridley Scott
and Kevin Macdonald); and Shooting Bigfoot, a feature-length co-production for BBC Storyville and BFI.
Director’s Filmography: Britain in a Day, Documentary Film, 2012; Shooting Bigfoot, Documentary
Film, 2013

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O MENINO E O MUNDO | (SPECIAL)

THE BOY AND THE WORLD

Director: Alê Abreu| Brazil / 2013 / DCP / Col. / Portuguese / 85 mins

A boy lives a life of quiet wonder with his parents in a Brazilian village, exploring all that the countryside
has to offer. But his cozy life is shattered when his father takes the train to the city in search of work.
Bewildered and inconsolable, the boy sets off in search of his missing father. Determined to reunite his
family he embarks on a fantastic journey that takes him through agricultural camps to cotton mills, from
cluttered slums to bubbled cities inhabited by animal-machines.

Producers: Alê Abreu Story and Script/Screenplay: Alê Abreu Editor: Alê Abreu Music: Emicida, Naná
Vasconcelos, Barbatuques and GEM (Grupo Experimental de Música) Cast: Vinicius Garcia, Felipe Garcia, Alê Abreu ,
Lu Horta, Marco Aurélio Campos, Cassius Romero
Production Company: Filme de Papel
International Sales: Elo Company Indian Distributor: Alliance Midia

ALÊ ABREU
was born in São Paulo in 1971. He made his first short film, titled Elephant Memory, at the age of 13, at
an animation workshop organised by the Brazilian Museum of Image and Sound. Alê has made acclaimed
short films, developed several projects for advertising, including the award-winning Nestlé’s Milk Bottles,
and illustrated for magazines, newspapers and books. He is currently illustrating books and developing an
animated series.
Director’s Filmography: Sírius, 1993; Scarecrow,1998; Passo, 2007; Cosmic Boy, 2007; Vivi Viravento, 2009

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PRO MAMU |
ABOUT A MOTHER
Director: Dina Velikovskaya | Russia / 2015 / DCP / B&W / No dialogue / 8 mins
This is the story about a mother who has given so much that it looks like she has nothing left, until life
provides her new opportunities.
Producer: Liubov Gaydukova Story and Script/Screenplay: Dina Velikovskaya Director of
Photography: Dina Velikovskaya Editor: Dina Velikovskaya Music: Artem Fadeev Production
Company: School-Studio ‘SHAR’, Nizhnyaya Syromyatnicheskaya str.10-4, Moscow 105120, Russia; sharstudia@
gmail.com, www.sharstudio.com International Sales: School-Studio ‘SHAR’ Festivals and Awards: All
Russian Animation Film Festival 2015; Festival of the Students and Debut Films ‘Saint Anna’; XXIV International
Film Festival ‘ZOLOTOY VITУAZ’ 2015; Curtas Vila da Conde Film Festival 2015; 45th Giffoni Experience 2015
(Best Short Film in Generator +18; Animation); 3rd open-air Аnimation Festival ‘Insomnia’ 2015; XXIII Russian Film
Festival ‘Window into Europe’ 2015; 14th IFF Nueva Mirada for Children and Youth 2015; Varna World Animation
Film Festival 2015 (Special Mention); Lucas Children’s Film Festival 2015; Animation Film Festival; Bulgaria 2015

DINA VELIKOVSKAYA
was born in Moscow in 1984. After studying Scenic Design at State Art School, and Cinematography at the Russian State
University of Cinematography, she is now training at the High Animation School-Studio ‘SHAR’ in Moscow.
Director’s Filmography: Road To Bethlehem, 2008; Bridge, 2009; Pages Of Fear, 2010; My Strange Grandfather, 2011

ALIENATION
Director: Laura Lehmus | Germany / 2014 / DCP / Col. / German / 06:14 mins
Real life teenagers talk about puberty, growing up and inhabiting the alien world in between being
a child and being an adult.
Producers: Laura Lehmus Story and Script/Screenplay: Laura Lehmus, Dirk Böll Character
Design and Animation: Aike Arndt, Anna Blaszczyk, Jan Goldfuß, Vera Lalyko, Matthias von Lonski,
Christian Schlierkamp, Stefan Schomerus Editor: Dirk Böll Production Company: Larry Cooper,
10437 Berlin International Sales: interfilm Berlin Festivals and Awards: 3rd Monstronale
Festival 2015 (Audience Award, Children’s Competition); 61st International Short Film Oberhausen (Special
Mention; Children and Teen Competition); 21st Kurzfilmtage Thalmässing (Preis Der Av-Medienzentrale,
Competition); 43rd Festival Of Nations (Official Selection, Best Animated Film); 4th International Tour Film
Fest (Winner, Animation Category); Shorts At Moonlight Kurzfilmfestival 2015 (Volksbank-Höchst Award);
Škoda Short Film Award (3rd Prize); 9th Fünf Seen Film Festival (Competition, Goldene Glühwürmchen);
8th Mosaic World Film Festival (Winner, Best Animated Film); Filmfestival Oberursel (2nd Audience Award)

LAURA LEHMUS
was born in 1972 in Finland. She studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, where she directed her graduation film
Not Going Down. After moving to Berlin, she worked as on-air producer and art director for film and television (Arte,
Nickelodeon, Solarfilms Helsinki). During this time, she directed the award-winning short film Versuch das al mit Plastik. Since
2012, she has been living and working in Helsinki.
Director’s Filmography: Shake The Schneekugel, 1998; Army Of Love, 2000; Not Going Down, 2001; Dolls United, 2005;
Versuch Das Mal Mit Plastik, 2009

GIOVANNI EN HET WATER BALLET |

GIOVANNI AND THE WATER BALLET
Director: Astrid Bussink | Netherlands / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Dutch / 17 mins
Ten-year-old Giovanni loves synchronised swimming and is determined to take part in the Dutch
championships – the first boy ever to do so. His schoolmates tease him but this does not bother him
one bit as he has the unwavering support of his ‘girlfriend’ Kim.
Producers: Renko Douze, Hasse van Nunen Directors of Photography: Diderik Evers, Dirk-Jan Kerkkamp,
Sal Kroonenberg Editor: Femke Klein Obbink Music: Tim van Peppen, Bouk Bouwmeester Cast: Giovanni van der zon,
Kim Twigt Production Company: Een van de jongens
Festivals and Awards: Mediafondsprijs Best Children Documentary Award 2014; Berlinale 2015 (Generation Kplus
International Jury Prize for Best Short Film); New York Children’s Film Festival 2015 (Audience Parent Award)

ASTRID BUSSINK
studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts AKI in Enschede, and Film at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. During
her studies she made the award-winning documentary The Angelmakers. She lives and works in Amsterdam.
Director’s Filmography: Mr & Mrs Gunya, 2012; Poem Of Death, 2012; Rückenlage, 2006; The 9 Lives Of My Car, 2006; The
Angelmakers, 2005; My Enschede, 2010; The Hideout, 2012; The Lost Colony, 2008; Wool Fever, 2013
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DAAN DURFT | GO DAAN GO!

Director: Mari Sanders | Netherlands / 16:9 / Col. / Dutch / 15 mins
When Daan discovers his mother’s swimming medals in the attic he is excited to be able to celebrate
his own recent racing success with her, but something is stopping her from sharing in Daan’s enthusiasm
for the sport.
Producer: Marc Bary Story and Script/Screenplay: Lianne Damen Director of
Photography: Sal Kroonenberg Editor: Stanley Kolk Music: Bart Westerlaken Cast: Jorrit de Jong,
Marleen Scholten, Bas Keijzer, Gijs Rodolphe, Kees Boot, Remco Melles, Jaap ten Holt, Jan-Phil Neumann
Production Company: IJswater Films, Kromme Mijdrechtsrtraat 110/4, 1079 LD Amsterdam, +31 20
4421760 International Sales: IJswater Films Indian Distributor: IJswater Films Festivals and
Awards: Cinekid Festival 2014; Nederlands Film Festival 2014; Festival International du Film d’Aubagne
2015; TIFF Kids International Film Festival 2015; Overtime Film Festival de Temática Deportiva 2015;
International Festival of Sport Movies Krasnogorski 2015; Barcelona Sports Film Festival 2015; IndieLisboa,
International Film Festival of Independent Films 2015; Children’s International Film Festival, Dubai 2015

MARI SANDERS
was born in Eindhoven, Netherlands, and graduated in Audiovisual Design in 2012, with his film Rue des Invalides. In 2013, he
made the short film Sync, and his latest production, Go Daan Go! has been screened at festivals all over the world.
Director’s Filmography: Rue Des Invalides, Short Film, 2012; Sync, Short Film, 2013

MALEK MEANS ANGEL

Director: Lea Hjort Mathiesen | Denmark,Tunisia / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Arabic / 27:50 mins
With the smile of an angel and the will of a warrior, eleven-year-old Malek trains intensively along
with her best friend Yassmine, for an upcoming fencing competition. When the day finally arrives,
Malek’s strength and dreams are put to the test.

Producer: Lea Hjort Mathiesen Story and Script/Screenplay: Lea Hjort Mathiesen
Director of Photography: Lea Hjort Mathiesen Editor: Lea Hjort Mathiesen Music: Mikkel Juul
Jensen, Frederik Valentin, KamillaKovacs Cast: Malek Hannachi, Yassmine Ayari, Habib Laabidi
Production Company: The National Film School of Denmark / IMS
International Sales: Lea Hjort Mathiesen
Festivals and Awards: Universal Martial Arts Film Festival France (Best Documentary, Best Script);
IDFA 2014; UMAFF 2015; FIDADOC 2015; BUSTER 2015

LEA HJORT MATHIESEN

is an award-winning independent filmmaker educated at the National Film School of Denmark. She holds a graduate
certificate degree in Documentary Studies from The New School in New York and a BA in Minority Studies from Roskilde
University. She has interned with Academy Award Nominated filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing and is a jury
member of the Danida World Images Grant.
Director’s FIlmography: The Renovation, Short Documentary, 2011; Night Shift, Short Documentary, 2012; Øde Ø (My
Desert Island), Short Documentary, 2015

MOY DEDUSHKA BIL VISHNEI | MY

GRANDFATHER WAS A CHERRY TREE
Directors: Olga Poliektova,Tatiana Poliektova | Russia / 2015 / HD / Col. / Russian / 12:30 mins
A young boy talks about his views on love, life and death as he remembers his unusual grandfather, who
could listen to the trees breathing and believed that no one can die if someone still loves them.
Producer: Pavel Smirnov Story and Script/Screenplay: Tatiana Poliektova, Olga Poliektova, with Konstantin
Fedorov Editors: Tatiana Poliektova, Olga Poliektova Music: Nicola Lerra Cast: Platon Popov, Ksenia Shteyrina,
Sergey Azeev, Nikolay Danilov, Maria Rocheva Production Company: Contart Company Ltd., pavel.smirnov81@
gmail.com, +79626863324 International Sales: Contart Company Ltd. Festivals and Awards: Giffoni Film
festival 2015 (2nd-best Animation Film, +18); Lucania Film Festival 2015 (Best Technique, Best Animation); Insomnia
Animation Festival 2015; Festival de Cine de Elche 2015; Imaginaria International Film Festival 2015

OLGA POLIEKTOVA and TATIANA POLIEKTOVA

twin sisters, were born in St-Petersburg, Russia. Both began drawing from an early age, and graduated in animation and computer graphics from
the University of Cinema and Television.They have, ever since, worked together as directors and animators and have made several short animation
films, which have participated in 150 festivals across the world and earned over 50 awards.
Directors’ Filmography: Tomato Story, Animated Short Film, 2010; Inspiration, Stop Motion Short Film, 2010; Noise, Animated Short Film,
2012; I See You, Stop Motion Short Film, 2012; Quagga, Animated Short Film, 2013; Warm Liguria, Stop Motion Short Film, 2014
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PONTUS OG TRYLLESTAVEN |
PONTUS AND THE MAGIC WAND
Director: Morten Evelid | Norway / 2014 / DCP 2k / Col. / Norwegian / 13:35 mins
Pontus steals a magic wand from a travelling circus. Suddenly he can do anything and his friend Lily thinks
he is so clever. But soon the wand starts disobeying him and develops tricks of its own.

Producers: Linda Bolstad, Marie Fuglestein Story and Script/Screenplay: Morten Evelid
Director of Photography: Sjur Aarthun Editor: Morten Øvreås Music: Morten Evelid Cast: Julian
S. Søreide, Hermine Oen, Hermine Oen, Egil Hegerberg Production Company: DUOfilm AS
Festivals and Awards: Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival 2014; Kristiansand
International Children’s Film Festival 2015; Buster–Copenhagen International Film Festival for Children and
Youth 2015

MORTEN EVELID
is a writer/director educated in film at New York University. He has authored a novel called Den store Varmen and has
written and directed several documentaries and short films. His film Blue Java was nominated short film of the year at the
National Film Awards in Norway. Strong Hold, his short film for children, has won prices in South Korea, Germany, Norway
and the USA. It won the audience award at Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.
Directors’ Filmography: Strong Hold, Short Film, 2003

KALI KARYAMAAYI |
THE GAME TURNS SERIOUS
Director: Mili Eugine | India / 2014 / H264 1920x1080p (16x9) / Col. / Malayalam / 6:04 mins
Ann Mary is sent off to a boarding school in Kerala, but feels alienated in her new environment of
language tests, power outages and traditional clothes.The culture shock is accentuated by a field trip
to a temple that gives her nightmares.

Producer: Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology Story and Script/Screenplay: Mili Eugine
Editor: Mili Eugine Music: Krishna Bala Shenoi Cast: Rohita Mary Raju, Laly Mathew, Joshua Eugine,
Eugine Augustine
Production Company: Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

MILI EUGINE
was born in India in 1990. She has a background in literature, journalism and advertising, and a diploma in animation from
the Srishti School of Art and Design, Bangalore, and has dabbled in screen printing, COB building, clay modeling, ply-split
braiding and wax model making. Her films are focused on children and Indian folklore. Kali Karyamaayi is her final year
diploma project.

LA PETITE POUSSE |
THE LITTLE SEED
Director: Chaitane Conversat | France, Switzerland / 2015 / HD / Col., B&W / No dialogue / 10 mins
A little girl catches floral patterns with a magic cloth and uses them to make her own pretty dresses.
Every night, ants move her house from one field to the next. One day, a seed drops into her mouth and
a young shoot sprouts from her navel.
Producer: Corinne Destombes Story and Script/Screenplay: Chaitane Conversat Director of Photography:
David Toutevoix Editor: Hervé Guichard Music: Patricia Dallio Production Company: Folimage, La Cartoucherie,
Rue de Chony, 26500 Bourg-Les-Valence, France, Jeremy Mourlam, j.mourlam@folimage.fr International Sales: Folimage
Indian Distributor: Folimage Festivals and Awards: Fantoche, Festival International du film d’animation de Baden
2015, Festival du Film d’Animation (Croq Anime) de Paris 2015, International Animated Film Festival KROK 2015, El Meu Primer
Festival 2015, Festival Animatou de Genève 2015, Festival DOK Leipzig 2015, Nature Film Festival of Innsbruck 2015, Cinanima
Espinho 2015, Festival Monstra Lisboa 2016
CHAÏTANE CONVERSAT
was born in 1973 and graduated from the National School of Fine Arts of Lyons. She worked with several theatre
companies and directed animation films. In 2000, she joined La Poudrière filmmaking school in Valence. She has worked
as stop motion and cut-out animator at Folimage Studio on a regular basis since 2002. She has also managed animation
filmmaking workshops with various organisations since 1996. Director’s Filmography: La fuite, 2012
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THE STORY OF PERCIVAL PILTS

Directors: Janette Goodey, John Lewis | Australia / 2015 / 1.1:85 / Col. / English / 8 mins
One day while playing on stilts, Percival Pilts decides that his feet will never touch the ground. He goes
higher and higher and build his stilts so tall that he no longer fits into normal society but earns the
rewards of looking at the world from a different point of view.

Producer: John Lewis Story and Script/Screenplay: Janette Goodey, John Lewis Director of Photography:
Gerald Thompson Editors: John Lewis, Janette Goodey Music: Claire Scholes Cast: Mark Hadlow
Production Company: Finickity Pictures
International Sales: Acme Filmworks Indian Distributor: Acme Filmworks

JANETTE GOODEY
was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. After completing a Diploma in Design, she returned to study for a Graduate Diploma of Design
(Animation) from Unitec in 2006. Her Creative NZ funded film Rip, Drip Tear (2010) won an ATOM award for Best Experimental Short Film in 2011.
Obsessed by a good rhyme, Janette’s singing/song writing career is set to take off any day.
JOHN LEWIS was born in Albury, Australia. John received a BA in Multimedia from CSU Wagga Wagga. John was also an animator on Mary and Max
(2009) for Oscar winner Adam Elliot, in addition to his other, slightly darker stop motion animations.
Director’s Filmography: Janette Goodey Rip, Drip Tear, Short Film, 2010 John Lewis The Birdhouse, Short Film, 2005; The Boy Who Wanted to
Touch the Moon, Short Film, 2006; The Designer, Short Film, 2007

ONE, TWO, TREE (SPECIAL)

Director:Yulia Aronova | France, Switzerland / 2015 / HD / Col. / No dialogue / 7 mins
One day, a curious tree jumps into a pair of boots and goes off for a walk inviting everyone it meets
to follow. Boring everyday life fades as they all skip and dance along happily.

Producer: Corinne Destombes Story and Script/Screenplay: Yulia Aronova Editors: Pauline Coudurier, Hervé
Guichard Music: Lev Splener Production Company: Folimage International Sales: Folimage
Indian Distributor: Folimage
Festivals and Awards: San Francisco International Film Festival 2015 (Honorable Mention); Animation Film Festival
of Paris 2015 (Silver Trophee); International Animation Trickfilmfestival of Stuttgart 2015; Seattle International Film Festival
2015; Festival Anima Mundi, Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo 2015

YULIA ARONOVA
born in 1983, learnt animation and screenwriting at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. She directs films
using traditional animation techniques as well as stop motion, in her highly personal and easily recognisable style. She does
screenwriting for animation films on a regular basis.
Director’s Filmography: Eskimo, Animated Short Film, 2004; Beetle, Boat, an Apricot, Animated Short Film, 2005; Mother
and Music, Animated Short Film, 2006; Camilla, Animated Short Film, 2008; My Mum Is An Airplane, Animated Short Film, 2013

THE TIE (SPECIAL)

Director: An Vrombaut | Belgium / 2014 / DCP / Col. / No dialogue / 9 mins
A small giraffe and a tall giraffe have a chance meeting. Despite their obvious difference in stature, they
discover a kinship. When an accident causes them to part, trapping the tall giraffe in a malicious metal
cloud, it is up to the small one to re-establish contact.

Producers: Annemie Degryse Story and Script/Screenplay: An Vrombaut Music: Frederik Sioen
Production Company: Lunanime International Sales: Lumière
Festivals and Awards: Berlinale (Generation KPlus Competition, Special Mention Generation KPlus Jury); Anima Festival,
Brussels 2015 (National Competition); Cairo International Cinema and Arts Festival for Children 2015; Athens International Film
and Video Festival 2015 (In Competition, Cartoons for Kids); Go Short – Nijmegen (NL) 2015 (Family Shorts),

AN VROMBAUT
was born in Ghent in 1967. She studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent and gained an MA in Animation at the
Royal College of Art in London. Her graduation film, Little Wolf (1992), won numerous international awards. Her second
short, When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Tiger (1996), was selected for the Berlin Film Festival.
Directors’ Filmography: Little Wolf, Short Film,1992; When I Grow Up I Want to Be a Tiger, Short Film, 1996; Florrie’s
Dragons, Short Film, 2010; 64 Zoo Lane, TV Series, 1999–2012
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ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES

Director: Pan Nalin | India, Germany / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi, English, Konkani / 119 mins
Frieda invites her closest friends to her family home for a surprise announcement: she’s getting
married! Thus begins an impromptu bachelorette – a riotous roller coaster of girl bonding in Goa.
Their conversations – based on improvisatory dialogue among the actors – revolve around all aspects
of their lives, from their careers to their love lives, gossip, dreams, desires and fears. Among the fun
and frenzy, heart breaks and heart aches, passion and obsession, youth and innocence, emotions run
high and hidden secrets surface – secrets that could lead to unanticipated consequences.

Producer: Gaurav Dhingra Story and Script/Screenplay: Pan Nalin, Subhadra Mahajan, Dilip
Shankar, Arsala Qureishi Director of Photography: Swapneel S. Sonawane Editor: Shreyas
Beltangdy Music: Cyril Morin Cast: Amrit Maghera, Rajshri Deshpande, Pavleen Gujral, Sarah Jane Dias,
Anushka Manchanda, Sandhya Mridul, Tannishtha Chatterjee
Production Company: Jungle Book Entertainment International Sales: Mongrel International
Indian Distributor: AA Films Festivals and Awards: Toronto International Film Festival 2015 (1st
Runner Up for Grolsch People’s Choice Awards); Atlantic Film Festival 2015; Sadbury Cinefest International
Film Festival 2015; Zurich Film Festival 2015, Rome Film Festival 2015; Singapore Film Festival 2015

PAN NALIN
is best known for directing award-winning films like Samsara, Valley of Flowers and Ayurveda: Art of Being. Samsara,
his debut film, won multiple prestigious awards. Nalin’s latest feature documentary, Faith Connections, was a great
critical and commercial success. He recently completed filming a spiritual thriller called Beyond the Known World.
Director’s Filmography: The Khajuraho, Short Film,1991; The Tulkus, Documentary, 1993; The Nagas,
Documentary, 1994; The Doubt, Short Film, 1995; Eiffel Tower Trilogy: Height, Weight & Gravity, Short Film; The
Devadasi, Documentary, 1997; Amazing World India, Documentary, 1999; Samsara, Feature, 2001; Ayurveda:
Art of Being, Documentary, 2001; Valley of Flowers, Feature, 2006; Echo of Eco, Short, 2009; Faith Connections,
Documentary, 2013

SANJAY’S SUPER TEAM

Director: Sanjay Patel | USA / 2015 / Col. / English / 7 mins
The film is inspired by Patel’s own childhood. His conflicted feelings towards the modern world
and Hindu traditions of his family gave birth to Sanjay’s Super Team. It follows the daydream of a
young Indian boy who imagines Hindu deities as superheroes

Producer: Nicole Paradis Grindle Music: Nicole Paradis Grindle Animator: Brett Coderre, Erick Oh,
Royce Wesley Character Designer: Carey Yost
Production Company: Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Pictures

SANJAY PATEL
is an Indian-origin animator based in the US. He is known for Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters
University, Toy Story 2 and The Incredibles. Sanjay’s Super Team is his directorial debut.

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IMAGES | REFLECTIONS:
A JOURNEY INTO THE IMAGES
OF ADOOR GOPALAKRISHNAN
Director: Girish Kasaravalli | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / English / 88 mins
Images | Reflections is a journey into the images of Adoor Gopalakrishnan unfolded in five chapters,
each named after his significant films. In the first chapter, ‘Kathapurushan’ (Man of the story), eminent
filmmakers Mrinal Sen and Shyam Benegal, journalist Gouridasan Nair, and historian K.N. Panikkar
discuss Adoor’s significance.The second chapter, ‘Mukhamukham’ (Face to Face), has Girish Kasaravalli,
the director of this film, and film critic Venkiteswaran in conversation with Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
In the third chapter ‘Naalu Pennungal’ (Four Women), Adoor’s cousin, his daughter, an actor and a
friend share their fond memories of Adoor. ‘Swayamvaram’ (One’s Own Choice), explicates Adoor’s
choice of cinematic idioms in his own words.The final chapter, ‘Anantharam’ (Post script), elucidates
how his films anticipate the changes in individual lives and socio-political spaces of our country.
Story and Script/Screenplay: Gopalkrishna Pai Director of Photography: Sunny Joseph
Editor: Mohan Kamakshi
Production Company: Films Division International Sales: Films Division
Indian Distributor: Films Division

GIRISH KASARAVALLI
has made 14 feature films in a career spanning four decades. He has won the Golden Lotus for the best
Indian feature film four times and the Silver Lotus Award 13 times. His documentary film on noted writer
Dr. U.R. Ananthamurty won the Jury Award in the National Film Competition 2014.
Director’s Filmography: Ghatashraddha, 1977; Akramana, 1980; Mooru Darigalu, 1981; Tabarana Kathe,
1987; Mane, 1990; Ek Ghar, 1991; Kraurya, 1996; Thaayi Saheba, 1997; Dweepa, 2002; Hasina, 2004; Naayi
Neralu, 2006; Gulabi Talkies, 2008; Kanasemba Kudureyaneri, 2010; Koormavatara, 2012

AHALYA
Director: Sujoy Ghosh | India / 2015 / Col. / Bengali, English / 14 mins
A young policeman, Indra Sen, visits the home of a famous ageing artist, Goutam Sadhu, while
investigating the case of a missing man called Arjun.There he is greeted by his young and beautiful
wife, Ahalya. On the mantelpiece he sees a doll that looks like the missing man, along with four
other dolls and a stone. The stone, Sadhu claims, has magical powers that can transform anyone
who touches it into whoever they would like to become. As Indra strives to solve the case, he
finds himself falling into a mysterious web....

Producers: Mohammad Attarwala, Zico​Story and Script/Screenplay: Sujoy Ghosh​

Editor: Namrata Rao​Music: Anupam Roy​ Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee​, Radhika Apte, Tota Roy
Chowdhury
Production Company: Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films

SUJOY GHOSH
is an Indian film director, actor and screenwriter. He was born in Calcutta and moved to London when he
was 13. He has a degree in engineering and an MBA from Manchester University. Ghosh’s film Kahaani
received critical and commercial acclaim. He made his acting debut with Rituparno Ghosh’s Satyanweshi.
Director’s Filmography: Jhankaar Beats, 2003; Home Delivery: Aapko... Ghar Tak, 2005; Aladin, 2009;
Kahaani, 2012

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NATIONAL ANTHEM: A TRIBUTE

TO THE HEROES OF 26/11/2008
Director: Raj Konar| India / 2015 / Digital / Col. / Sanskrit / 3 mins
This is a rendition of the national anthem of India featuring more than a hundred courageous
heroes from the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, including the Mumbai Police, NSG commandoes and
civilians.The result of collaboration between several renowned actors, musicians, and artistes, this
project is a tribute to those who fought bravely and sacrificed their all in the face of terror, but
are forgotten in popular discourse.

Story and Script/Screenplay: Raj Konar Directors of Photography: Siddharth Mitragotri ,

Prashant Machhar, Gautami Vegiraju , Alex Thaipparambil Editor: Prashant Machhar Music: Salim and
Sulaiman Merchant Singers: Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shaan, Kailash Kher, Salim and
Sulaiman Merchant
Production Company: Fadoo Media Pvt. Ltd.

RAJ KONAR started his career in advertising, where he worked for various brands like Reliance, Idea,
Tata, etc. He then pioneered India’s first web TV, called FadooTV.com. He is now working on various shows
for web and television.

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TRIBUTES
Honouring masters of Indian and International cinema

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 TRIBUTES

AGNÈS VARDA: Grandmère of Cinecriture

In a 1960s interview, Agnès Varda says about her first film, Le Point Courte, ‘I wanted to make a film that was not very
pleasant to watch, but people would think about later. That’s exactly what happened.’ Indeed, in all of Varda’s work this
is the duality that the viewer is confronted with – the discomfiture of seeing something they can find uncomfortably
familiar, even as they remain riveted by it, and how bits of the film play themselves out in one’s mind’s eye for weeks,
months, even years after watching the film.

Often referred to as the grandmère of the French Nouvelle Vague, and indeed the only woman director to be part
of the New Wave Cinema of France in the 1960s and 1970s, Varda’s film text reminds one of literature, and it is no
wonder that she has often described her method of filmmaking as cinecriture (‘writing on film’).

The first Agnès Varda film I ever watched was Cleo from 5 to 7, one of the films included in the Tribute section this year
at the Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival With Star India. This was Varda’s first big film; released in 1962, it sealed her
reputation as being a progenitor of the French New Wave Cinema. A renowned singer drifts about the streets of Paris
for two hours as she awaits the results of her biopsy and the camera follows her every step of the way. A real-time
portrait, the film is stunningly complimented by a haunting score by Michel Legrand. In an interview about her work,
Varda once said that her one aim in all her films is to find the fine balance between verité and that which is constructed.
Cleo exemplifies one of her most successful attempts in this regard. As the singer-flâneuse walks down the streets of
Paris, she is troubled and disengaged from what is happening all around her, and yet part of it all. For in some way, her
predicament is a universal one. Varda’s expertise in photography and deep interest in art shines through some very
special scenes in Cleo. Watch out for a scene in a sculptor’s studio, where the camera circles the periphery of the room
all the time focused on the model’s statuesque naked back before coming to rest on it lovingly, a split second before
the model turns and says ‘Salut!’

Varda’s hard-hitting 1985 film, Vagabond, or Sans Toit ni Loi (Without Roof nor Law), as it was titled in French, deals
with the drifter again, but here ‘drifting’ is the purpose. The young vagabond with a rucksack on her back roams about
the countryside, camping even as the weather turns cold. As she does so, she attracts a lot of attention. The men
are discomfited by her, desire her, they have problems accepting her boundaries. The women she encounters envy
her sense of freedom; some are even inspired by it. But Varda paints a bleak, un-pretty picture of the vagabond’s
surroundings. At no point does she allow the viewer to romanticise the young drifter’s experiences. The drifter is
anarchy herself – upsetting sexual, social, economic mores, and like innumerable times before, anarchy when presented
in female form must be crushed.

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 Interestingly, the grandmère of the Nouvelle Vague has done some of her most experimental work in her documentaries.
And the fact that she has been equally prolific with documentaries and short films sets her apart from most filmmakers
of the New Wave. Just like she infused her feature films with a strong flavour of la verité, in the same way, her
documentary work is often subjective, and she figures in almost all of it. The third film included in this Tribute section
this year is her 2000 documentary, Les Glaneurs et La Glaneuse or The Gleaners and I. Inspired by an iconic painting
by the same name showing the gleaners in rural France, by the famous 19th-century artist Jean-Francois Millet, Varda’s
film is a portrait of those who collect/glean the leftovers of others. Varda talks to gleaners in the French countryside
as well as urban gleaners, and those who have in their lives had some connection with gleaners. The gleaners collect a
variety of objects – food, of course, but also knick-knacks, and personal items which are disposed of by the consumerist
privileged society on a regular basis. As made clear by the French title, Varda considers herself a gleaner too, and she is
ever-present in the film, as indicated by the frequent shots of her aging hands.

A filmmaker always ahead of her times, and with ideas that remain as unique and novel today as they were in the 1950s
when she started making films, Varda is one of the rare masters of her craft. In an early interview, she was asked who
her influences were. She replied that she had barely watched cinema in her childhood, and if she had done so, she
probably would not have made her own. Such is the honesty that permeates her every frame, making you shift uneasily
in your seat, even as you cannot take your eyes off the screen.

ARPITA DAS

Arpita Das runs an independent publishing house called Yoda Press, writes on books and book culture for various
platforms and periodicals, and inhales cinema in her free time.

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 TRIBUTES

LES GLANEURS ET LA
GLANEUSE | THE GLEANERS
AND I
Director: Agnès Varda | France / 2000 / Col. / French, English / 82 mins
An 1867 painting by Jean-Francois Millet inspired septuagenarian documentarian Agnes Varda to
cross the French countryside to videotape people who scavenge. Taking everything from surplus
in the fields, to rubbish in trashcans, to oysters washed up after a storm, the ‘gleaners’ range from
those sadly in need to those hoping to recreate the community activity of centuries past, and still
others who use whatever they find to cobble together a rough art.
Story and Script/Screenplay: Agnès Varda Music: Joanna Bruzdowicz, Isabelle Olivier
Cast: Agnès Varda, François Wertheimer, Bodan Litnanski
Production Company: Ciné Tamaris
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 2000

CLÉO DE 5 À 7 |
CLÉO FROM 5 TO 7
Director: Agnès Varda | France, Italy / 1962 / B&W/ French / 90 mins
Cléo, a young pop singer, has two hours to wait until the results of her biopsy. After an ominous
tarot card reading, she visits her friends, all of whom fail to give her the emotional support she
needs. Wandering around Paris, she finally finds comfort talking with a soldier in a park. On leave
from the Algerian War, his troubles put hers in perspective. Finally, she returns to meet her doctor.

Producers: Georges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti Story and Script/Screenplay: Agnès Varda
Music: Michel Legrand Editors: Rose Sokol, Janine Verneau Cast: Corinne Marchand, Antoine
Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothée Blanc, Michel Legrand
Production Company: Ciné Tamaris; Rome Paris Films
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 1962

SANS TOIT NI LOI | VAGABOND

Director: Agnès Varda | France, Italy / 1985 / Col. / French / 105 mins
Mona Bergeron is dead, her frozen body found in a ditch in the French countryside. A flashback
through the weeks leading up to her death traces Mona’s gradual decline as she travels from place
to place, taking up odd jobs and staying with whomever will offer her a place to sleep. Fiercely
independent, Mona craves freedom over comfort, and ultimately drifts towards her own end.

Producer: Oury Milshtein Story and Script/Screenplay: Agnès Varda Music: Joanna Bruzdowicz,
Fred Chichin Editors: Patricia Mazuy, Agnès Varda Cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Méril, Yolande Moreau
Production Company: Ciné Tamaris; Films A2; Ministère de la Culture
Festivals and Awards: French Syndicate of Cinema Critics (Best Film); Los Angeles Film Critics
Association Awards (Best Foreign Film); Venice Film Festival (Golden Lion, FIPRESCI, OCIC)

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 TRIBUTES

CHETAN ANAND: The Indie Ahead of His Times

More than halfway through the film Haqeeqat, comes a song that is a remarkable counterpoint to the proceedings till
then. A small unit of Indian soldiers – tired, bedraggled and gradually losing hope – is trying to make its way through
the treacherous and snowy mountains of Ladakh. The unit is surrounded on all sides by the enemy and, because its
communication equipment has broken down, cannot get in touch with its headquarters. The soldiers are presumed
lost and perhaps even dead. It dawns on the commanding officer that if they are not found, this is the message that
will reach their families.

This realisation hits home and the soldiers, taking shelter in a cave, first start humming, and then singing, one of the
most heartrending songs in Hindi cinema. Kaifi Azmi’s words, ‘Ho ke majboor mujhe, usne bhulaya hoga’ speak of the pain
in each soldier’s heart as he tries to think of how his loved one would react when told of his disappearance. In this
one moment, Chetan Anand brings home the brutality of war and the heavy toll it takes on those who are out on the
front, fighting for their country. Anand cleverly made sure that the song was filmed on non-stars, thus adding a layer of
verisimilitude that rarely comes through when a recognisable face is lip-syncing.

Haqeeqat was made less than two years after India lost a war to China. The national mood was sombre, even
demoralised. There was a sense of not just humiliation but also betrayal, because China was seen as a friend, with
civilisational links to India. And yet, it had invaded this country.The country, along with Nehru, had gone into depression.

Chetan Anand was offered finance by the government of Punjab to make a war film when he made Haqeeqat. He
could have turned it into a fake celebration of patriotism, or even played fast and loose with historical events. Instead,
he chose to make it a human story, about real people with families and loved ones, doing their duty with conviction
and bravery but at great personal cost. Haqeeqat has not just become a classic, it is now the template of all war films,
which juxtapose dramatic fighting scenes with intimate stories of the people who do the fighting. The human touch,
done in a poetic way – that was what made Chetan Anand different.

While Haqeeqat has achieved the status of a classic and its songs are played routinely on every Independence Day, it
would be misplaced to reduce Chetan Anand to just the maker of one war film. Yet, the sad fact is that this is exactly
what has happened. For film buffs today, Chetan Anand is a name lost in the mists of time.They might find it difficult to
exactly place him in the context of his era. The significance of the man who made Neecha Nagar, and then Taxi Driver,
Aakhri Khat or Heer Ranjha may escape them. How, then, does one identify a Chetan Anand film?

That remains a problem. He had no identifiable genre. It is not possible to draw a straight line through his oeuvre, to say,
‘this looks like a Chetan Anand film’.Yet, a certain poetic sensibility, a fluidity of narrative, and most of all, a humaneness,

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are all marks of a Chetan Anand film – he was, in today’s words, an ‘indie’ director, unmoved by the conventions of the
day, unhurried by the demands of the Box Office Goddess.

His very first film, Neecha Nagar, is a good example of his approach. In the turbulent 1940s, in the post-war phase
of shortages, when raw stock licences were difficult to obtain, most producers wanted to play it safe and make
commercial films. Young Anand, newly arrived in Bombay, was approached by a friend, Rafiq Anwar, to direct a film.
Happily, Chetan Anand had a story handy.

Thus came about Neecha Nagar, an adaptation – written by K.A. Abbas and Hidayatullah Ansari, of Gorky’s play Lower
Depths – about an underclass which is victimised by the rich who want to remove shanties and build apartments
instead, a story that has remarkable resonance even today.

Zohra Sehgal made her cinema debut in Neecha Nagar, and Pt. Ravi Shankar composed its musical score. Another new
actress, a friend from back in Lahore, made her debut in the film – her screen name was Kamini Kaushal. Rafi Pir, trained
as an actor in Germany (and later went to Pakistan), too, acted in the film. Neecha Nagar, which borrowed heavily
from German Expressionist cinema, was replete with allegorical references to prevailing social conditions. It went on
to share the best film award at Cannes – a remarkable feat for a first-time director – but instead of this bringing him
fame and fortune, Chetan Anand sank further into oblivion. Caught in the maelstrom of fast-moving events and a poor
response from distributors who did not see any commercial merit in a film without song and dance, Neecha Nagar
found no takers. It was shown to Pandit Nehru and several other leaders, but the producers migrated to Pakistan
and took the film with them – there was just no print available for a commercial release. (Years later, some cans were
discovered in a junk shop in Calcutta.) It must have been a harrowing time for Chetan Anand, who, despite winning a
prestigious award, had little or nothing to show for it.

In the mid-1940s, when the Anands moved to a ramshackle bungalow in Pali Hill, Bandra – then a distant suburb
surrounded by woods – their residence, 41, Pali Hill soon became a hub for creative and intellectual activity, drawing
all manner of young artists, musicians, dancers, actors and other hopefuls to it. A remarkable photograph from the
time shows Dev Anand, S.D. Burman, Guru Dutt, Madan Puri, Zohra Sehgal and a young Vijay Anand, all brimming with
ideas and dreams that were to be realised in the coming years. Uma Anand, in her book Chetan Anand, the Poetics of
Film has written a wonderful account of the salon-like atmosphere of their home – a dance here, a play there, furious
discussions on the meaning of art and life. Neecha Nagar – and much else afterwards – came out of that spirit of
inquiry and drew upon the high quality of talent that was available at hand.

Around the same time, the Bombay film industry was undergoing a major upheaval. The big studios – which housed
directors, stars and technicians on salaries – had been collapsing for some time, and this was accelerated by the
migration of several industry denizens to the new nation of Pakistan. Film stars began to realise their power to make or
break a film’s fortunes and also that going freelance would be more lucrative. Chetan Anand and his younger brother,
Dev Anand jointly set up Navketan (New Banner), named after the older brother’s son. After years of trying to make
it in Bombay, Chetan Anand was finally on firmer footing.

In 1950, Chetan Anand made Navketan’s first film, Afsar, based on the satirical play The Inspector General by Gogol.
Prints of the film are no longer in existence, but it appeared to be a bit stagey; in any case, it was a big flop and almost
sank the company. Just four years later, however, he made Taxi Driver, a huge hit that established Navketan as a house
that made smart entertainers with great songs, and with stories with a distinct urban and modern sensibility. Taxi
Driver was made on a very cheap budget – the company was almost broke by then – and with a noirish sensibility
that looks stylish even today. It was the first Hindi film to be extensively shot outdoors – Bombay is mentioned as
a character in the credits – and it told the story of the migrant underclass which was at that time pouring into the
cities. The characters in Taxi Driver were not to be pitied; Anand showed them as ordinary humans with their joys and
sorrows and aspirations, out of sight of the elite but nonetheless living a full life. Rarely has a Bombay story been told
so evocatively and entertainingly with a lightness of touch and with such empathy for its characters. The friendships
and loyalties among the rag tag bunch of indigents, who will spend their last bit of money on friends, and the greedy
and slimy rich, who will exploit the innocent girls who come to try their luck in the city, Taxi Driver told their stories
engagingly and without any maudlin self-pity.

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 The next few years produced a mixed bag from Anand. Funtoosh was a fun and frivolous outing, which, despite its
great songs, was no more than an average performer at the box office. Anand tried his hand at acting – with decidedly
uneven results – in films like Kala Bazaar, Kinare Kinare and Anjali, in which he played Ananda, a bhikshu and disciple of
the Buddha, giving up all desire in his bid for redemption. ‘Was he working out here, a personal problem?’ asks Uma
Anand in her book. Perhaps there was an effort to reconcile a deeper need to make meaningful cinema with the
demands of the marketplace.

In the early 1960s, Dev Anand, who was by then a big star, bought the rights to R.K. Narayan’s novel Guide. Sensing its
potential, Dev Anand decided to make two versions, in English and Hindi. A director, Tad Danielski was imported from
Hollywood for the first and Chetan Anand was commissioned for the second. To save money, they would shoot the
same scene twice, with the same sets and, strangely, the same camera settings.

It was never going to work and it didn’t. Their disagreements held up the project and Dev Anand decided to shoot the
two versions separately. Around that time, Chetan Anand, who was planning a film based on the Indo-Chinese war of
1962, got the news that the government of Punjab was ready to back his project. He withdrew from Guide and moved
on to Haqeeqat.

Anand’s post-Haqeeqat career has some very interesting moments. Aakhri Khat (1966) is a charming little gem, about
a two-year-old who is separated from his mother on a visit to Kullu. The father of the child goes to the police, even as
the child roams about, uncared for, on the streets of Bombay. Some of the sequences of the child wandering around in
the middle of heavy Bombay traffic were shot on location, a brave decision that lends a neo-realist quality to the black
and white film. It was a risk that did not pay off commercially.

Anand took another risk with his next film, Heer Ranjha (1970), by asking Kaifi Azmi to write all the dialogues in verse.
It might conceivably be argued that even the cast – Raj Kumar and Priya Rajvansh played the ill-starred couple – was
risky. The audiences, however, loved it and the film is a well-remembered landmark.

Not all Chetan Anand films were great, or even good. Some, seen from this distance, appear wooden and stilted. Some
remain puzzling – why did he have to remake Afsar (as Sahib Bahadur,1977) and Taxi Driver (as Jaanemann, 1976)? Or
even attempt yet another war film, Hindustan ki Kasam (1973)?

On the other hand, vintage Chetan Anand storytelling is visible in Hanste Zakhm (1973), about the love between a rich
playboy and a prostitute and all the class conflicts that it brings. Here, again, the soft human touches, the predicaments,
the longings are all gently explored. Who can forget the song, ‘Tum jo mil gaye ho’, shot in a rainy Bombay, the waves
hitting the stones, the lightning hitting the streets even as the girl hums a few lines. At 60, Chetan Anand was still capable
of exploring young love in an intelligent way.

In her book on the director, Uma Anand writes that Chetan’s father was an admirer of British ways. He wanted his son to
join the Indian Civil Service, that bastion of Anglicised privilege. His mother, however, chose to send him first to Gurukul
Kangdi to study in the Indian tradition. Only then did he move to Government College, Lahore, where Uma’s father
taught Philosophy. She has written about a gilded world where young men and women freely mixed to take part in tennis
matches, debate and poetry-reading, carrying on the tradition of watching good films and classic plays during his time in
London.These early influences would have moulded him. Whatever it was, throughout his life he remained committed to
higher standards. It is in the fitness of things that this edition of MAMI celebrates the works of Chetan Anand.

SIDHARTH BHATIA

Sidharth Bhatia is a journalist and writer. He is the Founder-Editor of Thewire.in. His most recent book is The Patels of
Filmindia.

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NEECHA NAGAR
Director: Chetan Anand | India / B&W / 1946 / Hindi / 122 mins
A sub-urban town is divided into an upper Ooncha Nagar – home to the rich and affluent, and
a low-lying Neecha Nagar, whose inhabitants are mostly quite poor. When an immoral, wealthy
builder, Sarkar, orders the diversion of a sewage drain into Neecha Nagar to make way for a
building project, which causes widespread diseases, the inhabitants of Neecha Nagar are forced to
come together and fight him – and their own insecurities. In this, they are joined by Sarkar’s own
daughter, who has done the unthinkable and fallen in love with the man leading the movement
against her own father. Will the poor people of Neecha Nagar survive the greed and wickedness
of the rich? Can Sarkar and his malicious ways be put to an end?

Producer: Rashid Anwar Story and Script/Screenplay: Hayatulla Ansari

Director of Photoraphy: Bidyapati Ghosh Editor: N.R. Chauhan Music: Ravi Shankar Cast: Rafiq
Anwar, Uma Anand, Kamini Kaushal
Production Company: India Pictures
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival 1946 (Grand Prix)

HAQEEQAT
Director: Chetan Anand | 1964 / India / B&W / Hindi / 184 mins
A unit of brave Indian soldiers making their way through the hilly terrain of Ladakh are asked to
retreat from their post as the Chinese have surrounded them. Presumed dead, they are rescued
by Captain Bahadur Singh and his Ladakhi lady love. The film follows their plight as they valiantly
struggle to defend their country’s borders despite being heavily outnumbered.

Story and Script/Screenplay: Chetan Anand Director of Photography: Sadanand

Editor: M.D. Jadhav Rao Music: Madan Mohan Cast: Balraaj Sahni, Dharmendra, Vijay Anand, Indrani
Mukherjee, Jayant
Production Company: Himalaya Films

HEER RANJHA
Director: Chetan Anand | 1970 / India / Col. / Hindi / 142 mins
Based on Waris Shah’s epic poem by the same name, this film follows the trajectory of Heer and
Raanjha, two young people irrevocably in love, and their tussle against conspiring family members
and, ultimately, fate itself. The film’s dialogues are delivered entirely in poetical verse.

Producer: Ketan Anand Story and Script/Screenplay: Waris Shah, Kaifi Azmi, Chetan Anand
Director of Photography: Jal Mistry Editor: M.D. Jadhav Rao Music: Madan Mohan Cast: Raaj
Kumar, Priya Rajvansh
Production Company: Himalaya Films
Festivals and Awards: Filmfare Awards 1971 (Best Cinematography)

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225
 THE JIO MAMI
MUMBAI FILM MART
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Mart is a platform that enables
filmmakers to find distributors and audiences. We give films an
opportunity to pitch for distribution to a select group of distributors
from India and abroad, and we get top-of-the-line content
disseminators across platforms (studios, VODs, digital and television
channels, distributors) to interact with specially-curated, top-notch
Indian films.

SAAMEER MODY
Curators
is the managing director of Pocket Films and the producer of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film
Mart. Pocket Films is India’s largest aggregator of short films and documentaries.
Their library of 6300+ films aggregated from 1600+ filmmakers is distributed pri-
marily on the internet and mobile through partnerships with YouTube, Daily Motion,
Vuclip, etc. Their partner channelwww.youtube.com/pocketfilms is the No. 1 desti-
nation on YouTube in India for such content having aggregated 100+ million views
and adding over 150,000 views daily. With a view to promoting fresh and upcoming
talent, SaameerMody’s brand regularly conducts short film contests boasting of
eminent jury members from the industry. Having conducted 28+ successful contests,
it has provided amazing opportunities to filmmakers including international festival
screenings, internships with reputed directors, professional equipment, etc. His
company has now also ventured into production of made-for-web original content,
co-producing India’s first thriller drama web-series Hankaar, an under-production
romantic web-series, and three short films.

APOORVA BAKSHI
Curators
completed her Master’s in Business Administration, and then forayed into research and
brand management in media as her specialisation. She has worked on several high-scale
original productions like the Amazing Race Asia, Minute To Win It, Men 2.0, AXN Action
Awards, Kiefer Sutherland’s 24, So You Think You Can Dance and Top Chef. Post her corpo-
rate stint, she went on to lead strategic business development at Sikhya Entertainment,
the makers of Tigers, The Lunchbox, Gangs of Wasseypur, Zubaan, Masaan, to name a few.
Apoorva currently heads the strategic business development and production partner-
ships at FilmKaravan, and is instrumental in founding a special initiative to distribute and
market South Asian Independent Films. Having experienced both the creative and the
business side of the entertainment industry, Apoorva successfully navigates both and
continues to find new ways to innovate and merge the two. She is also a professional
sharp shooter and a formally-trained BharatNatyam dancer,

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KAASH | IF ONLY
Director: Ishaan Nair | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi, English / 106 mins
Producer: Shailesh Singh, Irrfan Khan, Shimit Amin, Mira Nair Story and Script/Screenplay: Ishaan Nair, Karuna Ezara Parikh
Director of Photography: Tanay Satam Editor: Shreyas Beltangdy Music: Savera Mehta Cast: Nidhi Sunil, Kavya Trehan, Varun
Mitra, Kalki Koechlin, Shikha Talsania
Production Company: Paramhans Productions Pvt. Ltd.
Festivals and Awards: Tokyo International Film Festival

ISLAND CITY
Director: Ruchika Oberoi | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 110 mins
Story and Script/Screenplay: Ruchika Oberoi Director of Photography: Sylvester Fonseca Editor: Hemanti Sarkar
Music: Sagar Desai Cast: Vinay Pathak, Amruta Subhash, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Samir Kochhar, Uttara Baokar,
Ashwin Mushran, Sana Amin Sheikh
Production Company: National Film Development Corporation Limited
International Sales: Stray Dogs – Nathan Fischer, +33 6 5994 1284, nathan@stray-dogs.com
Indian Distributor: National Film Development Corporation Limited
Festivals and Awards: Venice Film Festival 2015 (Best Director of a Debut Film); 31st Warsaw Film Festival

THE THRESHOLD
Director: Pushan Kripalani | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi, English / 87 mins
Producer: Akshat Shah, Vishal Dhandhia Story and Script/Screenplay: Nihaarika Negi, Neena Gupta, Rajit Kapur, Pushan
Kripalani Director of Photography: Pushan Kripalani Editor: Pradip Patil Music: Tapas Relia Cast: Neena Gupta, Rajit Kapur
Production Company: BlackBoxers Productions, info@blackboxers.in, thethreshold@blackboxers.in; Akshat Shah, akshat@
blackboxers.in, +91 98 33 44 2016; Vishal Dhandhia, vishal@blackboxers.in, +91 98 19 65 9015

KUTRAME THANDANAI | CRIME IS PUNISHMENT

Director: M. Manikandan | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Tamil / 98:54 mins
Producer: S. Hariharanaganathan, S. Muthu, S. Kaleeswaran, M. Manikandan Story and Script/Screenplay: M. Manikandan
Director of Photography: M. Manikandan Editor: Anucharan Music: Illaiyaraaja Cast: Vidharth, Rehman, Nassar,
Aishwarya Rajesh
Production Company: DON Productions, No. 155 A2 Latha Flats Lakshmi, 6th Cross Street, Mangala Nagar, Porur, Chennai-600116,
Tamil Nadu, India, +91 9444 048090, donproductions14@gmail.com

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KOTHANODI
Director: Bhaskar Hazarika | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Assamese / 115 mins

Producer: Anurupa Hazarika, Utpala Mukherjee Story and Script/Screenplay: Bhaskar Hazarika Director of Photography:
Vijay Kutty Editor: Suresh Pai Music: Amarnath Hazarika Cast: Adil Hussain, Seema Biswas, Zerifa Wahid, Urmila Mahanta
Production Company: Metanormal Motion Pictures
Festivals and Awards: ACF Post Production Fund Award 2015; Busan International Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection); BFI London
Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection)

MUNDROTHURUTH | MUNROE ISLAND

Director: Manu | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Malayalam / 92 mins

Producer: Manu Story and Script/Screenplay: Manu Director of Photography: Pratap P. Nair Editor: Manoj Kannoth
Music: Subbu, Dawn, Ponnappan Cast: Indrans, Jason Chacko, Abhija , Alencier
Production Company: Cinema Lopamudra

CITIES OF SLEEP
Director: Shaunak Sen | India / 2015 / DCP / B&W, Col. / Hindi / 77 mins

Producers: V.S. Kundu, Films Division Directors of Photography: Salim Khan, Shaunak Sen Editors: Sreya Chatterjee, Shaunak
Sen Music: Ritwik De
Production Company: Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, 24, Dr. G. Deshmukh Marg,
Mumbai 400026
Festivals and Awards: Film Southasia 2015; VI International Ethnographic Film Festival of Recife 2015

G–A WANTON HEART

Director: Rahul Dahiya | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Haryanvi, Hindi / 103 mins

Producer: Vinod Sharma Story and Script/Screenplay: Rahul Dahiya Director of Photography: Sachin Kabir Editors:
Pranay Nillay, Sandeep Singh Bajeli Music: Anjo John Cast: Rajveer Singh, Neha Chauhan, Nitin Pandit, Rashmi Singh Somvanshi,
Sandeep Goyat, Vibha Dikshit
Production Company: SFE International, +91-8879984199, +91-9811444804, 0124 4074167, vs@sfeindia.com,
rahul.raj.dahiya@gmail.com
Festivals and Awards: Chicago South Asian Film Festival (Official Selection)

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LUDO
Directors: Nikon, Q | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Bengali / 86 mins

Producers: Nandini Mansinghka, Celine Loop, Q, Tilak Sarkar Story and Script/Screenplay: Nikon , Q, Surojit Sen Directors
of Photography: Q, Sayak Bhattacharya Editors: Supratim Roy, Nikon Music: Neel Adhikari, Q Cast: Rii , Joyraj, Ananya Biswas,
Subholina Sen, Ronodeep Bose , Soumendra Bhattacharya, Murari Mukhopadhyay, Kamalika Banerjee, Tilotamma Shome
Production Company: Overdose Art Pvt Ltd, 358, Prince Anwar Shah Road, Kolkata 700045
International Sales: Reel Suspects, 6, Rue Legraverend, Paris 75012, France
Festivals and Awards: Fantasia International Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection, Camera Lucida section); Fantastic Fest 2015;
Sitges 2015

HARAAMKHOR
Director: Shlok Sharma | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. Hindi / 92 mins

Production Company: Sikhya Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Khussro Films, guneet@sikhya.in

Festivals and Awards: Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (Best Actress); New York Indian Film Festival (Best Actor); London Indian
Film Festival; Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart; Indian Film Festival of Melbourne; Indian International Film Festival, Tampa; Chicago South
Asian Film Festival

VISAARANAI | INTERROGATION
Director:Vetri Maaran | India / 2015 / DCP / Col., B&W / Tamil, Telugu / 106 mins

Producer: Dhanush Kasthoori Raja Story and Script/Screenplay: M. Chandra Kumar / Vetri Maaran Director of
Photography: S. Ramalingam Editor: Kishore T.E. Music: G.V. Prakash Kumar Cast: Dinesh Ravi, Samuthirakani
Production Company: Wunder Bar Films Pvt Ltd, S. Vinod
Indian Distributor: Lyca Productions Pvt Ltd
Festivals and Awards: Venice International Film Festival (Orizzonti)

THITHI
Director: Raam Reddy | India, USA / DCP / Col. / Kannada / 120 mins

Producers: Pratap Reddy, Sunmin Park Story and Script/Screenplay: Eregowda, Raam Reddy Director of Photography:
Doron Tempert Editors: John Zimmerman, Raam Reddy Sound: Nithin Lukose Cast: Thammegowda S., Channegowda, Abhishek
H.N., Pooja S.M.
Production Company: Prspctvs Productions, prspctvsproductions@gmail.com
Festivals and awards: Locarno Film Festival 2015 (Golden Leopard, Swatch First Feature Award); NFDC Film Bazaar 2014 (Work in
Progress Lab)

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FOR THE LOVE OF A MAN

Director: Rinku Kalsy | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Tamil / 85 mins

Producer: Joyojeet Pal Story and Script/Screenplay: Joyojeet Pal Directors of Photography: Sandeep P.S., Udit Khurana
Editor: Rinku Kalsy Music: Anuraag Dhoundeyal Cast: N. Ravi, N. Murugan, G. Mani, Kamal Anand
Production Company: Anecdote Films, Rinku Kalsy, +918860143312
Festivals and Awards: Venice Film Festival

THE VIOLIN PLAYER

Director: Bauddhayan Mukherji | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 72 mins

Producer: Monalisa Mukherji Story and Script/Screenplay: Bauddhayan Mukherji Director of Photography: Avik
Mukhopadhyay Editor: Arghyakamal Mitra Music: Bhaskar Dutta, Arnab Chakraborty Cast: Ritwick Chakraborty, Adil Hussain, Nayni
Dixit, Sonam Stobgais
Production Company: Little Lamb Films Pvt. Ltd., Monalisa Mukherji, 9821582444

RINGAN | THE QUEST

Director: Makarand Mane | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Marathi / 106 mins

Producers: Vitthal Patil, Ganesh Phuke, Mahesh Yewale, Yogesh Nikam, Makarand Mane Story and Script/Screenplay: Makarand
Mane Director of Photography: Abhijit D. Abde Editor: Suchitra Sathe Music: Rohit Nagbhide Cast: Shashank Shende, Sahil
Joshi, Kalyanee Mulay, Suhas Sirsat, Umesh Jagtap, Abhay Mahajan, Shantanu Gangane, Shyam Savaji, Vitthal Patil, Ketan Pawar
Production Company: My Role Motion Pictures, H-307, Sarang, Nanded City, Sinhgad Road, Pune-411041, +919822915566
Festivals and Awards: 12th Stuttgart film festival 2015 (‘Director’s Vision’ Special Jury Mention Award)

NACHOM-IA KUMPASAR | LET’S DANCE TO THE RHYTHM

Director: Bardroy Barretto | India / 2014 / DCP / Col. / Romi Konkani / 156 mins

Producers: Angelo Braganza, Bardroy Barretto Story and Script/Screenplay: Bardroy Barretto, Mridul Toolsidas, Angelo
Braganza Director of Photography: Suhas Gujarathi Editors: Bardroy Barretto, Lionel Fernandes, Shweta Venkat Music: Ronnie
Monsorate, Jackson Pereira Cast: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob
Production Company: Goa Folklore Productions, +91 9664815065
Festivals and Awards: London Indian Film Festival (Lebara Audience Choice Award); Brasov Film Festival (Best Film)

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IN THE NAME OF GOD |

DAKER SAAJ
Director: Somnath Gupta | India / 2015 / Col. / Bengali / 112 mins
Durga Puja is one of the most important festivals in India, celebrating the victory of good over evil. Each
year, organisations and clubs compete for prizes for the most artistic and unique pandals. The organisers
of one such club decide to use their pandal to depict the theme of terrorism, displaying it as broken and
vandalised. A group of jobless factory workers come to work in this broken pandal, as non-living properties
for five continuous days.

Story and Script/Screenplay: Somnath Gupta Director of Photography: Chandan Goswami

Editor: Arghyakamal Mitra Music: Raja Narayan Deb Cast: Ritwik Chakraborty, Saheb Bhattacharya,
Rimil Sen, Mumtaj Sorcar, Patralekha Paul
Production Company: New Theatres International Sales: New Theatres
Indian Distributor: New Theatres

SOMNATH GUPTA
was born in Kolkata, India. Parallel to his involvement as a film director, he has developed a career as ‘media consultant’ and
‘workshop facilitator’ and is associated with various organisations in the development sector. He was the key speaker at a
seminar on ‘Language of Cinema’ in Colombo organised by ICCR in 2011.
Director’s Filmography: Ami Aadu, Feature, 2011

FIREFLIES IN THE ABYSS

Director: Chandrasekhar Reddy | India, UK / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi, English, Nepali /
88 mins
The ‘rat-hole’ mines in the Jaintia Hills of Northeast India are hostile pits where men and boys risk
their lives every day to scratch coal out of hard rock, burrowing into narrow tunnels armed with
nothing more than a pickaxe and a torch. The film follows Suraj, an 11-year-old boy, and several
other such miners whose lives intertwine with his, to reveal the extraordinary circumstances they
survive under, and the brutal choices they are forced to resolve at every turn.

Producer: Chandrasekhar Reddy Story and Script/Screenplay: Chandrasekhar Reddy Director

of Photography: Chandrasekhar Reddy Editors: Abhro Banerjee, Chandrasekhar Reddy Music:
Cooper-Moore Cast: Suraj Subba, Nishant Rai, Raj Rai
Production Company: Mayabazaar Productions
Festivals and Awards: Busan International Film Festival 2015

CHANDRASEKHAR REDDY
has worked as producer-director for the BBC, National Geographic Asia, Discovery Asia and the United Nations
Development Program. His films have been screened at IDFA, Uppsala Film Festival and several other festivals.
Director’s Filmography: Don’t Rubbish It, 2010; Creative Climate, 2011; My Brilliant Brain, 2013; Coalboy:
Mind the Gap, 2014

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MONSOON SHOOTOUT
Director:Amit Kumar | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 90 mins
As heavy rains lash Mumbai, Adi, a cop on his first assignment faces a life-altering decision when he
faces the ruthless hitman Shiva¬¬ – to kill him, arrest him, or let him go. An intense examination of
decision-making, the film returns three times to the key moment. Each decision pits him against a
system which demands a compromise of his morals, and every choice has a price.

Producer: Guneet Monga Story and Script/Screenplay: Amit Kumar Director of

Photography: Rajeev Ravi Editor: Atanu Mukherjee, Eva Lind Music: Gingger Shankar Cast:
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vijay Varma, Neeraj Kabi, Geetanjali Thapa
Production Company: Sikhya Entertainment
Festivals and Awards: Cannes Film Festival; BFI London Film Festival; Brussels International Film
Festival; Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles; Sydney International Film Festival; Jerusalem Film Festival;
Stockholm International Film Festival; Dubai International Film Festival

AMIT KUMAR
graduated in Film Direction from FTII, Pune. His short film The Bypass won the Kodak BAFTA showcase, and was the UK
entry for the Kodak showcase at Cannes 2004. Amit was earlier Associate Director to the BAFTA-winning UK director Asif
Kapadia on The Warrior, and to the Oscar-winning German director, Florian Gallenberger, on his debut feature,
Shadows of Time.
Director’s Filmography: The Bypass, Short, 2003

PEDDLERS
Director:Vasan Bala | India / 2012 / DCP / Col. / Hindi / 118 mins
Set in Mumbai, the film follows the parallel lives of an intelligence officer at the Narcotics
Control Bureau, a Bangladeshi immigrant and a young rebel. The lives of these self-proclaimed
social outcasts begin to collide on a path to love and destruction.

Producers: Guneet Monga, Anurag Kashyap Story and Script/Screenplay: Vasan Bala Director
of Photography: Siddharth Diwan Editor: Prerna Saigal Music: Karan Kulkarni Cast: Gulshan
Devaiah, Nimrat Kaur, Kriti Malhotra, Siddharth Menon
Production Company: Sikhya Entertainment
Festivals and Awards: International Critics Week; Toronto International Film Festival; BFI London Film
Festival; Indian Film Festival of LA; Stockholm International Film Festival; Istanbul Film Festival

VASAN BALA
is an actor and writer known for The Lunchbox (2013), Bombay Velvet (2015) and Dev D (2009). Bala made his feature film
debut with Peddlers, which was selected in competition at the Cannes Critics Week of the Cannes Film Festival in 2012,
winning him rave reviews.
Director’s Filmography: Geek Out, Short, 2013

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ROUGH BOOK
Director: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan | India / 2015 / DCP, Secure Online Screener /
Col. / Hindi / 104 mins
Rough Book offers a hard look at the education system in India, and the lacunae threatening to clog
the channels of learning. The story, based on actual experiences of parents, teachers and students,
is told through the eyes of a teacher, Santoshi Kumari, who rallies through a divorce with a corrupt
income tax officer to become a Physics teacher. How Santoshi tackles a system to set her own
terms for her students forms the bulk of this simply told, yet thought-provoking and timely film.

Producer: Aakash Chaudhry Story and Script/Screenplay: Sanjay Chouhan and Ananth Narayan
Mahadevan Director of Photography: Maneesh Bhatt Editor: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan
Music: Sonjoy Chowdhary Cast: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Amaan F. Khan, Ram Kapoor
Production Company: Aerika Cineworks Indian Distributor: Multimedia Combines
Festivals and Awards: Dallas South Asian Film Festival 2015 (Closing Film); Indian Film Festival
of Houston 2015 (Best Feature); New York International Film Festival 2015 (Official Selection); Indian
Film Festival of Stuttgart 2015 (Official Selection); San Francisco Global Fest 2015 (Official Selection);
Washington DC South Asian Film Festival 2015 (Best Story)

ANANTH NARAYAN MAHADEVAN

is a screenwriter, actor and director of Hindi and Marathi films and television serials in India. He has been an integral part
of the Indian television serials and Hindi movies since the 1980s, and has received the National Award (2010) for Best
Screenplay and Dialogues for the Marathi film Mee Sindhutai Sapkal.
Director’s Filmography: Dil Vil Pyar Vyar, 2002; Dil Maange More!!!, 2004; Aksar, 2006; Victoria No. 203: Diamonds
Are Forever, 2007; Aggar: Passion Betrayal Terror, 2007; Anamika: The Untold Story, 2008; Red Alert: The War Within, 2009; Mee
Sindhutai Sapkal, 2010; Staying Alive, 2012; The Xposé, 2014; Gour Hari Dastaan, 2015

WAGHERYA |
THE TALE OF A TIGER
Director: Sameer Asha Patil | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Marathi / 139 mins
When a hunt for a tiger breaks out, the people of the village see it as an opportunity to exploit the
situation for their personal ends. Narrated by a man famous for lying, Wagherya is a satire which
intertwines various stories of many distinctive characters to look at the relationship between
modern man and ancient nature.

Producer: Rahul Shinde, Ketan Madiwale Story and Script/Screenplay: Sameer Asha Patil
Director of Photography: Siddharta Jatla Editor: Ketan Madiwale Music: Mayuresh Kelkar
Cast: Kishor Kadam, Rushikesh Joshi, Bharat Ganeshpure, Kishor Chaughule, Suhas Palshikar, Leena Bhagwat,
Chaya Kadam
Production Company: Gaurama Media Entertainment; Vasudha Film Production

SAMEER ASHA PATIL

is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter from a small village in Maharashtra, India. He graduated in Mass Communication
and started working as an assistant director on numerous advertisement and feature films, before taking on the role of
director for the films Chaurya and Wagherya.
Director’s Filmography: Chaurya, Feature, 2015

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THE SILENCE
Director: Gajendra Ahire | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Marathi / 91 mins
Based on a true story, the narrative revolves around a little girl, Chini, growing up in poverty with
her father in a rural area. When he is unable to provide for her, he sends Chini to her uncle in a
nearby town, where life-changing events occur. Late one night in Mumbai, when Chini witnesses
a woman being sexually abused, demons from her past resurface. Blending past and present with
forceful drama, the film tackles crucial, taboo topics, tracing the recurring dilemma of responsibility
– or silence.

Producer: Ashwini Sidwani, Arpan Bhukhanwala, Navneet Hullad Moradabadi Story and Script/
Screenplay: Gajendra Ahire Director of Photography: Krishna Soren Editor: Mayur Hardas
Music: Indian Ocean Cast: Raghuvir Yadav, Anjali Patil, Nagraj Manjule, Kadambari Kadam, Mugdha
Chaphekar, Vedashree Mahajan
Production Company: SMR Films
Festivals and Awards: 12th Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart 2015; German Star of India 2015
(Director’s Vision Award); Festival Bollywoodskeho Filmu, 2015; Brasilia International Film Festival 2015;
All Lights India International Film Festival 2015

GAJENDRA AHIRE
has directed over 40 films including Not Only Mrs. Raut and Shevri both of which won National Awards for Best Marathi
Film. He has received 17 personal Maharashtra State Awards for direction, screenplay, dialogues and lyrics for his films.
Director’s Filmography: Not Only Mrs. Raut, 2003; Sariwar Sari, 2005; Shevari, 2006; Divase Divas, 2006; Vasudev
Balwant Fadke, 2007; Maay Baap, 2008; Bayo, 2008; Anumati, 2013;Touring Talkies, 2013; Postcard, 2014;

KIRUMI | VIRUS
Director:Anucharan Murugaiyan | India / 2015 / DCP / Col. / Tamil / 106 mins
Kathir is an irresponsible young man, stumbling through life with little shame, supported by a loving wife
and generous friends. After a night in jail leads him to a new career as a top police informant, he uses his
knowledge of the city’s illegal activities to become a favourite with the Chennai cops. All is going well until
Kathir foolishly decides to use his position to take revenge. His arrogance compromises his hidden identity, and
he soon learns there are consequences for tattling on the city’s most ruthless gangsters.

Producer: S. Rajendran, L. Prithiviraj, K. Jayaraman, M. Jayaraman Story and Script/Screenplay: M.

Manikandan, Anucharan Murugaiyan Director of Photography: Arul Vincent Editor: Anucharan
Murugaiyan Music: K Cast: Kathir, Charlie, Reshmi Menon
Production Company: JPR Films
Indian Distributor: Escape Artists Motion Pictures
Festivals and Awards: 19th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, 2015

ANUCHARAN MURUGAIYAN
a design engineer by education, left his job in Kolkata to pursue his lifelong love of film. He shifted to Australia where he
enrolled in a prestigious Animation Mentor course. He soon shot his first live action short, Infinity on a minimal budget,
which was selected for Tropfest Sydney, the world’s largest short film festival, and made it to the semi-finals.
Director’s Filmography: Infinity, Short Film, 2010; Watch Dog, Short Film, 2012

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Date: 31 October 2015
Venue: Mehboob Studios

This year, Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India introduces
the Movie Mela, a celebration of cinema. On 31 October, when
delegates of the festival walk into Mehboob Studio, they will enter a
different world – a world of movie characters, moviemerchandising, and
above all, movie conversations.

The Jio MAMI Movie Mela with Star is a platform for movie fans to
connect with the films, actors and filmmakers they love. The one-day
event, which is open to all delegates of the festival, is choc-a-bloc with
filmy sessions and activities. The highlights include:

• Team reunion of Mr India, where actors Anil Kapoor, Sridevi

and Satish Kaushik, and producer Boney Kapoor will talk about the
making of this much loved classic.
• Masterclass with Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi
on how to write a blockbuster.
• Masterclass with Rishi Kapoor on his journey in cinema
over four decades.
• Bollywood: The Next 5 Years: A discussion on the changing
landscape of Bollywood. On the panel are Alia Bhatt, Arjun Kapoor,
Parineeti Chopra, Ayushmann Khurana and Aditya Roy Kapur.
• The Director’s Studio: Kabir Khan, Dibakar Banerjee and other
leading directors will be in conversation with an intimate gathering of
film buffs about making movies.
• Life-size Avengers figurines and a Star Wars:The Force
Awakens photo booth by Disney India to bring out the
force in you
• Exclusive film merchandise, posters and accessories for the
delegates to own.

The Mela is being co-curated by film critic Rajeev Masand.

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 MR. INDIA REUNION
Twenty-eight years after the classic film won hearts acrossthe country, actors Anil
Kapoor, Sridevi and Satish Kaushik, producer Boney Kapoor, and co-writer Javed
Akhtar will travel back in time to share their experiences from the much loved
classic: Mr India.

BOLLYWOOD: THE NEXT 5 YEARS with Alia Bhatt,

ArjunKapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Ayushmann Khurana, Aditya
Roy Kapur, Kriti Sanon
Moderated by Anupama Chopra and Rajeev Masand

Bollywood has long beeninfamous for rivalries and catfights between actors, but
does thatstill hold true? In this special discussion,leading next-gen actorscome
together in a discussion, which will explore how the landscape of Bollywood is
evolving, whathas changed and what has not, and will throw some light on the
changingparadigms that are defining the future of the industry.

MASTERCLASS
With RISHI KAPOOR
Four decades in the movies. Acinematic family legacy that is unparalleled.
Outspoken and constantly evolving, Rishi Kapoor has tried everything from
sweaters to Twitter. In this session he will take the audience on a journey through
his life and his movies.

HOW TO WRITE A BLOCKBUSTER

Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi
The most successful director-writer pair in the history of Bollywood, Rajkumar
Hirani and Abhijat Joshi will be in conversation with Rajeev Masand and
Anupama Chopra, on the art of popular storytelling.

THE DIRECTORS' STUDIO

Directors Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Kabir Khan chat about their filmmaking process and experiences, and take an intimate
gathering on ajourney of what goes on behind the scenes of iconic films.

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 Jio MAMI YOUNG CRITICS LAB

Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India presents the Young Critics Lab, an attempt
to hone and mentor future film journalists of the country.Two-day workshops were conducted,
over the three months running up to the festival, with students from colleges all across
Mumbai. These workshops with chosen journalism students from Mumbai were mentored by
Meenakshi Shedde. She, along with a selection committee comprising of renowned film critics,
handpicked 20 students for the final workshop. This final workshop was conducted by the
internationally acclaimed film critic for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw.The students will write on
films throughout the festival and the best from the batch will win the Critics’ Award at the festival.
These workshops aim to shape a breed of writers and critics who are shaped by the rich
experiences and knowledge of the most credible and successful personalities in the field. The
idea is also to create a pool that serves as a hiring ground for publications around the country.

PETER BRADSHAW: International Mentor

Peter Bradshaw is chief film critic for The Guardian, and has been since
1999. He broadcasts on the BBC, and is a regular attender at the film
festivals of Cannes, Berlin, Venice, London and Edinburgh. He has served
on the Un Certain Regard jury on the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.
He has published three novels: Lucky Baby Jesus (1999), Dr Sweet and
his Daughter (2003) and Night of Triumph (2013). He lives in London
with his wife and young son. This is his first time at Mumbai – and he is
thrilled to be here!

MEENAKSHI SHEDDE: Indian Mentor, Head of India

Jury

Meenakshi Shedde, based in Mumbai, is South Asia Consultant to the

Berlin and Dubai International Film Festivals. She has been Curator/
Consultant to festivals worldwide, including Toronto, Locarno, Busan,
International Film Festival of India (IFFI-Goa), Kerala and Mumbai
Film Festivals. Winner of the National Award for Best Film Critic,
she has been on the jury of 20 international film festivals, including
Cannes, Berlin and Venice. A senior journalist, she freelances for
Variety, Screen International, Cahiers du Cinema, CNN-IBN, Forbes Life
India and Sunday Midday. She has been Script Mentor/Advisor to the
Locarno Film Festival Open Doors, Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Institute
Screenwriters’ Lab, National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)
and Clinik South Asian Filmmakers’ Lab.

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 PRONOTI DATTA: Selection Committee

Pronoti Datta is the co-founder and editor of The Daily Pao, a Mumbai-
specific culture website. She has previously worked at MumbaiBoss.com,
The Times of India and Time Out Mumbai.

MIHIR FADNAVIS: Selection Committee

Mihir Fadnavis is a film critic for the Hindustan Times and a movie
columnist for The Quint, Firstpost and MidDay. A certified movie
geek, he claims to have consumed more movies than meals.

Young Critics
Anuradha Tripathi, Nav Samaj Mandal
Dhruvanka Medhekar, Kirti College
Eden Dias, Xaviers College
Hariharan Tilakan, K.E.S. Shroff College
Hetvi Chheda, M.L. Dahanukar College
Kajal Deobansi, M.L. Dahanukar College
Karishma Bansal, Jai Hind College
Mukta Pophali, V.G. Vaze College
Nikhil Pillai, V.G. Vaze College
Paloma Joseph, Thakur collage
Pratyush Dave, Thakur collage
Rutweek Deshmukh, Kirti College
Rutwij Nakhwa, Xaviers College
Saba Purkar, K.J. Somaiyya College
Suchita Ranglani, Whistling Woods Int.
Swara Jamdar, Ruia college
Wayne D’mello, Xaviers College
Stuti Khetan, Kelkar
Natasha Trivedi, Xaviers College

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 PLAY

PLAY
Curated by Nikhil Taneja

Is shorter better? It is certainly quicker, to ideate and to create; it’s is also cheaper, in terms of
time and money; it is perhaps easier, to visualise and to realise. But is shorter better? That’s the
question an eclectic mix of snappy narrative pieces will be attempting to answer in PLAY, Jio
MAMI’s brand new section seeking to celebrate a brand new medium for storytelling – the
internet.

The rules of filmmaking have changed. On the internet, you don’t need a degree or a
qualification, you don’t need marketing or PR, you don’t need funding or backing. On the
internet, you are Satyajit Ray and you are Sujoy Ghosh. You are Martin Scorsese and you are
Anurag Kashyap. You are Monty Python and you are The Viral Fever. You are Peter Sellers and
you are All India Bakchod. On the internet, you are free and you are equal. So, at PLAY, there
are no rules of filmmaking anymore.

Unabashed. Uncensored. Unadulterated. PLAY is of, by and for the uncompromising film fan,
who believes that medium is temporary, narrative is permanent.

PLAY, MAMI’s brand new section, seeks to celebrate a brand new medium for storytelling, the
internet. The section will showcase some of this year’s very best narrative features of varied
lengths, including content from comedy collective All India Bakchod, Youth Entertainment
Network, The Viral Fever and storytelling collective Terribly Tiny Talkies. The section will also see
the world premiere of the Y-Films original series, Bang Baaja Baaraat and unseen sketches from
Aditi Mittal and SnG Comedy, among others.

NIKHIL TANEJA
is a Mumbai based writer-producer, who currently looks after creative and
development for Y-Films at Yash Raj Films. He has earlier worked at MTV India,
Viacom18 Digital and Hindustan Times, and they’ve all survived without a scratch.
He spends most of his free time either watching TV and films, or writing them.

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 EXPERIMENTS IN FILM FORM

In its history spanning a little over a hundred years, cinema has been inseparably linked
with technologies of image-making and replication for mass consumption. It has, therefore,
transformed periodically as its ever-changing technologies created newer ways of telling stories
with multiple registers of expressing and experiencing art.

As the film medium grew rapidly around the world, it imbibed different cultures of visual
language specific to the contexts within which the images were being made and consumed. It
was conscious of its own history, forming theoretical premises and fostering political ambitions
to transform society – a mission that cut across genres, whether fiction or documentary.

The history of experiment with cinematic form is as old as the medium itself. Exploring different
modes of storytelling intrinsically included experimenting with the material of image-making
itself, which was celluloid film for the longest time. The last few decades saw the use of tape-
based video, both analogue and digital. In the present day, images exist as sequences of digital
code and can be stored on generic data-storage devices, not necessarily specific to the image-
making medium. In today’s terms, experiments with film would be defined as the process of
rethinking both the ‘software’ and ‘hardware’ of cinema, in an attempt to invent newer ways of
expression.

This year at the 17th Jio MAMI Film Festival 2015 With Star India we present a workshop that
includes screenings, presentations and discussions that focus on these ‘Experiments in Film
Form’. The programme has eight sessions that focus on different themes concerning film form.

The programme will start off with an introduction to classic Experimental Film to address the
question, ‘What is experimental cinema?’ Within fiction films we shall look at films that challenge
the conventions of genre and narrative. These include the work of the Canadian maverick
filmmaker Guy Maddin, whose recent The Forbidden Room will meet Urf Professor, the absurdist
cult classic by Pankaj Advani. In non-fiction we shall screen Mani Kaul’s masterful exploration of
musical form in Dhrupad, along with the highly stylised propaganda films made by S.N.S. Sastry
for Films Division. There will be a lecture on the formal experimentation during the Indian
New Wave movement, followed by a screening of Aadmi ki Aurat aur Anya Kahaniyan by Amit
Dutta, one of the most celebrated contemporary film directors in India. One of the highlights
of the series will be a rare screening of the Derek Jarman classic film Blue, a work that uses the
absence of image and a rich soundtrack to create a haunting and intimate portrait of suffering
from AIDS. This will be accompanied by a discussion around the queer gaze and aesthetic. And
finally, the programme will look at ways in which moving image practice has transcended the
theatrical space by exploring visual art practices that stretch the boundaries of cinema into the
space of the gallery or the internet.

This programme is curated by Avijit Mukul Kishore and Rohan Shivkumar, both inter-disciplinary
practitioners. Avijit is a filmmaker and cinematographer whose work includes documentary and
feature films, visual art, teaching and curating. Rohan Shivkumar is an architect and urban studies
scholar, Deputy Director of Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture, who has worked
on film-based research projects, curation and is the co-editor of the book Project Cinema City.

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 EXPERIMENTS IN FILM FORM

DAY 1, 30 OCTOBER
FILM AS ART: AN INTRODUCTION
Lecture and screening session presented by Shai Heredia (180 mins)

The first level of connection with the film medium is immediate and sensory. Through a process of viewing and discussion
this session will explore the aesthetics of avant-garde/experimental films, both Indian and international. By forging intricate
connections with other art forms, particularly painting, poetry, photography and music, the medium will be deconstructed to
recognise layers of form and content.
This session will be presented by Shai Heredia, filmmaker and the founding director of the ‘Experimental’ – an artist-run
platform that encourages experimentation with the moving-image in India.

PROPAGANDA / ANTI-PROPAGANDA
The documentary films of S.N.S. Sastry, Films Division India (120 mins)

Films Division, Government of India, is the second largest state-run documentary-producing organisation in the world, the
largest ones being its equivalent in the former Soviet Union. It was formed in 1948, with the mandate of recording the visual
history of the newly formed nation, using documentary film. This was seen as a suitable medium for informing and instructing
the people of the country with the zeal of creating an ideal nation with ideal citizens.

The language and form of these films makes an interesting study, as do the distinct departures within them with voices that
radically interrogate and subvert the agenda of state propaganda. These departures are almost always expressed through
formal innovation, irony and humour, creating films that are disturbing and delightful at the same time. These films give us a
framework for viewing news and information as brought to us in the present day by 24-hour news.

This session features and analyses four landmark short films by S.N.S. Sastry, one of Films Division’s most illustrious filmmakers.
And I Make Short Films, Keep Going / Lage Raho, This Bit of That India and Our Indira.

IMAGE AS MUSIC
Dhrupad by Mani Kaul, Films Division India
(70 mins)

Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of Hindustani Classical music and the
Dagars, who have been singing for 20 generations, are responsible more
than anyone else for keeping it alive. Times have changed but the Dagars
have tenaciously strived to maintain the pristine art form. This film is a slow
meditative journey that fuses the depth and quiet of the traditional with the
hurly-burly of the modern. The conflict between the soulfulness of the gurukul
as envisaged and practised by the Dagars and the philistinism of city life is more
left to the imagination than spelt out here. The film’’s mood ranges from the
occasionally playful to the largely pure and profound.

NARRATIVE GAMES
Urf Professor by Pankaj Advani, presented by Kamal Swaroop
(130 mins)

Chaos follows after a hit-man’s car and winning lottery ticket go missing. Hudda
is a Mumbai-based gangster who undertakes to kill people with the help of a
man simply known as the Professor, who is in the habit of buying lottery tickets.
Both the Professor and Hudda will find their lives changing when the nephew
of a gangster gets killed, and they must find an undertaker who is able to put
his mutilated face together. This is a dark comedy that keeps playing with the
viewers’ expectations of the plot and its characters’ behaviour.

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 EXPERIMENTS IN FILM FORM

DAY 2, 31 OCTOBER
ILLUSTRATED LECTURE: THE INDIAN NEW WAVE AND ITS LEGACY      

It is often said that what distinguishes the independent sector of the New Cinemas from the better known middle-cinema
is its experimentation with the celluloid form. The experiments were with lensing, with lighting, with sound, with film stock
and lab processing, as much as they were with acting and scripting. While the best known of the celluloid experiments were
those of Mani Kaul, they also included films by Kumar Shahani, Avtar Kaul, Satyadev Dubey, Mrinal Sen and Girish Kasaravalli.

This presentation is a walkthrough of the formal experiments of the new cinemas of the 1970s by Ashish Rajadhyaksha, an
India-based film and cultural studies theorist. He has co-authored The Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema, a landmark work in
the study of Indian film. He has published widely on cinema and contemporary art, and presented papers on these topics
at conferences across the world. His works include Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic, The Sad and Glad of Kishore Kumar,
Ghatak: Arguments/Stories and a collection of essays titled Who’s Looking?

SCREENING:
Aadmi ki Aurat aur Anya Kahaniyan by Amit Dutta (80 mins)

Amit Dutta’s Aadmi ki Aurat aur Anya Kahaniyan is a film based on stories by
Vinod Kumar Shukla and Saadat Hasan Manto. The film attempts to explore
the relationship between forms of storytelling in literature and in cinema.

There are three stories presented in the film: Ped Par Kamra (Room on a
tree), Aadmi ki Aurat (Man’s Woman) and Sau Kendal ka Bulb (100 Watt Bulb),
each a tale concerning paranoia, displacement and alienation, a probing into
the complex nature of the relationship between a man and a woman, and of the internal world of lonely men in relation
to their environment.

Amit Dutta, a graduate of FTII with specialisation in direction, has directed films like Nainsukh, Sonchidi, Chitrashala, Museum
of Imagination, Seventh Walk and Lal bhi Udhaas Ho Sakta Hai (Even Red Can Be Sad). He is considered one of the most
significant contemporary practitioners of experimental cinema, known for his distinctive style of filmmaking rooted in
Indian aesthetic theories and personal symbolism, resulting in images that are visually rich and acoustically stimulating.

THE EXPANDED FIELD OF CINEMA

(90 mins)

This session looks at the unique ways in which film and moving-image practice transcends the boundaries of the cinema
theatre into the art gallery, the internet and other public places. It looks at how people work with found footage, videos
that may be archival, or made using CCTV cameras or cellphones.

Culture theorist Nancy Adajania will present this session and be in conversation with Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran
of CAMP, an art collective that has many full forms for the acronym including Cinema At the time of More cameras than
People. They will screen videos from their collection to illustrate the scope of their practice.

CAMP’s (Cinema At the time of More cameras than People) work has rebuilt relationships between the eye, the lens and
the audience and has pushed film form in ways that do not take these many component parts of film for granted. Their
interests lie in both the production and distribution of images, and how these two things may be connected.

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 EXPERIMENTS IN FILM FORM

OF MEMORY: COPIES WITHOUT AN ORIGINAL

The Forbidden Room by Guy Maddin (130 mins)

A submarine crew, a feared pack of forest bandits, a famous surgeon, and a

battalion of child soldiers – all get more than they bargained for as they wind
their way towards progressive ideas on life and love.

Guy Maddin is an installation artist, screenwriter, cinematographer and

filmmaker who has made 10 feature-length movies and innumerable shorts. He
has also mounted across the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Peru, Mexico
and Argentina numerous live performance versions of his films featuring live
music, sound effects, singing and narration.

PANEL DISCUSSION: THE IDEA OF A QUEER AESTHETIC

(45 mins)

Is there such a thing as a queer aesthetic?

While this has been a subject of tremendous discourse internationally, in India we are yet to start a serious study of
queer art from the perspective of form and aesthetics. Is queer art inherently related to sexual orientation? And is there a
difference between queer and camp? This panel discussion brings together a visual artist, a theatre person and an ethno-
musicologist, all of whom work on film, to discuss what queer art means to them.

Panelists: Natasha Mendonsa (visual artist), Vikram Phukan (theatre person) and Jeff Roy (ethno-musicologist). Moderator:
Avijit Mukul Kishore

SCREENING:
Blue by Derek Jarman (80 mins)

Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack

of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek
Jarman’s experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an
exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue. Blue is the twelfth
and final feature film by director Derek Jarman, released four months before
his death from AIDS-related complications. Such complications had already
rendered him partially blind at the time of the film’s release. The film was his
last testament as a filmmaker, and consists of a single shot of saturated blue
colour filling the screen, as background to a soundtrack where Jarman’s and
some of his favourite actors’ narration describes his life and vision.

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 FILM ARCHIVES
NOW AND IN THE FUTURE
When: 2 November 2015
Where: Citimall, Andheri

The romance of the film archives is integral to the magic of cinema. What happens to that magic when
the archives move into digital spaces where they meet contemporary filmmaking, pedagogy and writing?
What are the new relationships between cinema and a distributed public online, on both ends of a
film: its makers, but also commentators, remixers and contributors? Can we go beyond the VoD-piracy
debate into a wider, cinematic imagination of what this relationship could be?

In 2013, as a gift to our cinema centenary http://indiancine.ma, an online platform and community
initiative dedicated to Indian cinema’s history, was born. Its unique features include time-based annota-
tions and unprecedented ways of searching across the moving image through texts, cuts, colour, camera
movements, documents and maps.

Join film historians Sidharth Bhatia, Ranjani Mazumdar, Gayatri Chatterjee and Ashish Rajadhyaksha, ar-
chivist P.K. Nair, and filmmakers Anand Gandhi, Kiran Rao and CAMP as they offer a rapid and engaging
glimpse into how they use the digital film archive, and how they are formed by it.

Together they will take us through a lively and sometimes dizzying panoramic arc, from the glorious
era of black-and-white to the independent cinemas of the present: from the romances of the Bombay
Talkies and smoky nightclubs of noir movies of the 1950s to the realism of the independents of this
century.

The interaction will take place using the indiancine.ma platform, followed by a discussion with the speak-
ers, and audience Q and A.

Ashish Rajadhyaksha takes us through the structure of the archive and excavates material of
Bombay Talkies films to show how new digital research can happen.

Sidharth Bhatia introduces his annotations of classic ‘nightclub’ songs in 1950s Hindi melodrama.

Gayatri Chatterjee looks deep into Jogan (1950) by Kidar Sharma and Pakeezah (1972) by Kamal
Amrohi to find special narrative and visual strategies present in the works of few Indian filmmakers.

Ranjani Mazumdar, on the occasion of the release of her annotated version of Anuraag Kashyap’s
unreleased debut film Paanch (2001), speaks of the expanded archives of the cinema.

Anand Gandhi and Recyclewala Labs showcase their expanded annotations, an exhaustive Ship
of Theseus (2013) reader, which includes much more than director’s commentary.

Collaborative studio CAMP present http://Pad.ma (Public Access Digital Media Archive) and
provoke ways of using archives as a site for production.

Kiran Rao and P.K. Nair respond.

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 FILM ARCHIVES
NOW AND IN THE FUTURE

SPEAKERS
Sidharth Bhatia, journalist (The Wire), is also the author of India Psychedelic, The Story of a Rocking Generation (2013)
and Cinema Modern: The Navketan Story (2012).

Gayatri Chatterjee, the author of book-length works on Awara (1992/2003) and Mother India (2002), is a Pune-based
film scholar who has taught the Film Appreciation Course at NFAI/FTII since 1987. She has been a faculty member at FTII
(2006–2010) and Symbiosis School of Liberal Arts (2010–present).

Ranjani Mazumdar, the author of Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City (2007), is a professor of Cinema Studies at the
School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Ashish Rajadhyaksha is the co-editor of the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (2001), and the author of Indian Cinema
in the Time of Celluloid: From Bollywood to the Emergency (2009).

Anand Gandhi is a filmmaker and writer deeply interested in philosophy, evolutionary psychology, innovation and trans-
humanism. He has directed the award-winning Ship of Theseus (2013), and is the co-founder of Recyclewala Labs.

CAMP (Cinema At the time of More cameras than People) is a collaborative studio based in Bombay, set up by artists
Ashok Sukumaran and Shaina Anand in 2007. It combines film, video, installation, software, open-access archives and public
programming. Home to http://pad.ma and http://indiancine.ma

P.K. Nair is the founder and former director of the National Film Archive of India, Pune. He is India’s best-known film
archivist.

Kiran Rao is a screenwriter and the director of Dhobhi Ghaat (2011). She is an occasional film producer, deeply commit-
ted to promoting independent cinema and living screen cultures.

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NEW AWARDS

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 NEW AWARDS

FILM FOR SOCIAL IMPACT AWARD BY YES FOUNDATION

YES FOUNDATION, in partnership with Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film

Festival with Star India, has instituted the Film for Social Impact Award by
Yes Foundation. This award is to recognise a film that best highlights a social
cause with the potential to transform social mindset. It aims to encourage
professional filmmakers to address social issues and drive responsible citizenship through
films.

YES FOUNDATION has been consistently contributing towards nurturing and expanding
the ecosystem for social filmmakers through its flagship programme, YES! i am the
CHANGE (YIAC). Films have the potential to accelerate India’s inclusive
development. Through the Film for Social Impact Award by Yes
Foundation, we aim to bring ‘social’ into ‘mainstream’. The award will create a new
mindset in professional filmmakers to make more socially relevant films, touch millions of
lives and mobilise social action.

ABOUT YES FOUNDATION

YES FOUNDATION is the social development arm of YES BANK and works towards a vision of an
empowered and equitable India. The flagship programme of the Foundation – YES! i am the
CHANGE, World’s Largest Social Film Movement – inspires and empowers youth
to engage with social causes by making short films which catalyses their inner transformation
and enables them to become agents of social change while creating invaluable communication
resources for the use of Not-for-Profits

Titles under consideration for the

YES FOUNDATION Social Impact Award

1) Aligarh directed by Hansal Mehta

2) G–A Wanton Heart directed by Rahul Dahiya

3) Visaaranai (Interrogation) directed by Vetri Maaran

4) Ottaal (The Trap) directed by Jayaraj

5) Placebo directed by Abhay Kumar

6) Fireflies in the Abyss directed by Chandrasekhar Reddy

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 NEW AWARDS

DRISHYAM PRESENTS

In the last few years, Indian cinema has seen a surge in eclectic content that goes on to win
critical acclaim but often remains far from the reach of Indian audiences. As a studio, we
strongly believe in making our cinema self-sustainable and a key aspect of this is creating an
audience for these films. Mumbai Film Festival is an empowering platform for Indian films
and we feel it is only befitting that we support their endeavour of taking a film to wider
audience. With this in mind, the best feature film in the India Gold category this year will
receive the Drishyam Presents Award.

The award shall entail a minimum (but not limited to) P&A investment of Rs 50 Lacs
from Drishyam Films.

Drishyam Films will also extend support in terms of securing Indian theatrical distribution,
international sales and festival management.

‘We feel very strongly about the gap in distribution because of which deserving films are unable
to reach the audiences. In order to build a culture of meaningful cinema, we felt it was necessary
that we focus on supporting the distribution aspect and help a film complete its journey.’

Manish Mundra
Founder, Drishyam Films

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 NEW AWARDS

JIO MAMI BOOK AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN WRITING ON CINEMA

Nuanced and imaginative film writing and publishing in South Asia has only recently begun to gather
momentum. MAMI is committed to nurturing emerging and existing talent in this domain. To this effect,
MAMI has instituted a Book Award for Excellence in Writing on Cinema, which will be awarded at the
Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India.

Book-length works of fiction, creative nonfiction, reportage, analysis and screenplay, by authors from across
the continent and published by Indian publishers, were invited for this award. The long list was put together
by the curator, Arpita Das (Publisher, Yoda Press).

An eminent jury has been instituted to decide the winner of the Award. The winner will be rewarded with a
prize amount of Rs 5,00,000 at the end of the jury-led process at the Festival.

CURATOR

ARPITA DAS
runs an award-winning publishing house called YODA PRESS, which completed
10 years in 2014. Between 2009 and 2013 she also ran an indie bookstore
called Yodakin in South Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village. Arpita joined the MA in
Publishing programme at Ambedkar University as Adjunct Faculty in 2013,
and co-founded a self-publishing start-up called AuthorsUpFront in early
2014. In late 2014 she began consulting with the Indian Institute for Human
Settlements in Bangalore to help them set up their Word Lab. Apart from her
column for Mail Today, Arpita’s articles on book culture appear regularly in
OPEN Magazine, DailyO, Huffington Post India and DOMUS.

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 JURY

NARESH FERNANDES
is the author of Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay’s Jazz Age (Shortlisted for
the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2012) and co-author of Bombay Then and Mumbai
Now and Bombay Meri Jaan. He has also contributed to Second Read: Writers Look
Back at Classic Works of Reportage, The Greatest Show on Earth, Indian Mass Media
and the Politics of Change, Elsewhere: Unusual Takes on India, and When Bombay
Burned. He writes for the Hindustan Times, The New York Times, India Magazine,
Man’s World, Outlook Traveller, Columbia Journalism Review, and Art and Thought. He
is currently a Poiesis Fellow at the Institute of Public Knowledge at New York
University and is on the editorial policy board of the World Policy Journal.

JABEEN MERCHANT
is an India-based film editor. She graduated from the Film and Television Insitute
of India in 1995, majoring in Film Editing. Her first feature film after school
was Agni Varsha, a multi-star Bollywood adaptation of Girish Karnad’s play The
Fire and the Rain. Other films she has edited include Jari Mari: Of Cloth and
Other Stories, Unlimited Girls, Rita, Manorama Six Feet Under and NH10. In 2014,
she was awarded the Best Editor prize for documentary at the prestigious
Mumbai International Film Festival.

ASHISH RAJADHYAKSHA
is an India-based film and cultural studies theorist. He has co-authored The
Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema, a landmark work in the study of Indian film.
He is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society.
Rajadhyaksha attended the University of Bombay and, after working in political
journalism, began writing on film. He has published widely on cinema and
contemporary art, and presented papers on these topics at conferences
across the world. His works include Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic, The Sad
and Glad of Kishore Kumar, Ghatak: Arguments/Stories and a collection of essays
titled Who’s Looking?

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 SPECIAL THANKS

Government of Maharashtra
The festival would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of Maharashtra and the honour-
able Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis, who have enabled us every step of the way and shared and
supported our vision of giving Mumbai a truly world class film festival.

A.R. Rahman
Thanks to the maestro for supporting the festival and creating amusical identity through a signature tune for
the first time in thefestival’s 17-year-long history. It’s an honour to have one ofIndia’s greatest composers
collaborate with us in celebrating and nurturing cinema.

Prasoon Joshi
The festival has been greatly enriched by Prasoon’s boundless talent which traverses many spheres. As a
wordsmith he has given shape to the festival’s central vision – ‘Where India Celebrates Cinema’ – and also
helped greatly in designing our visual iconography.

Vikramaditya Motwane
Vikramaditya Motwane’s unstinting help has been a source of strength for the festival. He brought his con-
siderable talent to directing our campaign film, which is a poignant ode to the city of Mumbai and the city of
cinema.

Nirav Modi
For his sheer artistry and bringing his signature sense of design and craftsmanship to our festival trophies.
The trophy was inspired bythe harmony in movement, the flow of a story and the images which make a
film. It’s a tribute to brilliant filmmakers who have been ableto capture moments and emotions and immor-
talise them on celluloid.

Masaba Gupta
For her generous offer to design exclusive merchandise for guests of the festival. Her talent has continuously
broken new ground in fashionand now it has also found a frontier in the world of cinema.

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 FRIENDS OF THE FESTIVAL
A.R. Rahman, Composer, Jio MAMI Signature Tune
Kaustubh Dhavse, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Chief Minister at Government of Maharashtra
Zoraver Gill, Chief Minister’s Office, Government of Maharastra
Prasoon Joshi, CEO, McCann World Group India & Chairman (Asia Pacific)
Nirav Modi, Jewellery Designer, Jio MAMI Trophy
HE Erdal Sabri Ergen, Consul General of the Republic of Turkey
Parmeshwar Godrej, Philanthropist
Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group
Ramesh Taurani, Managing Director, Tips Industries
Anushka Sharma, Actress and Producer
Shakun Batra, Director and Filmmaker
Manmohan Shetty, Chairman & Managing Director, Walkwater
Pooja Shetty, Joint Managing Director, Walkwater
Reshma Shetty, Creative Head, Walkwater Films Division
Milind Deora, Politician
Sneha Rajani, Senior Executive VP & Business Head, Sony India
Neeraj Rajani, Senior Executive VP & Business Head, Sony India
Manish Girotra, Moelis & Company
Saurabh Singh,Vice President, Barclays
Sunaina Talwar Khiani, Publisher, Conde Nast India
Divia Thani Daswani, Editor, Conde Nast Traveller
Abu Jani, Fashion Designer
Sandeep Khosla, Fashion Designer
Neeraj Roy, MD & CEO, Bollywood Hungama
Sudhir Agarwal, Managing Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group
Saloni Arora, Dainik Bhaskar Group
Sanjay Sami, Owner, The Grip Works
Vivek Kamath, MD, Matrix India Entertainment
Sunil Doshi, Founder & Managing, The Adaptation Company
Vasanth Joshua, Creative Director, Mc Cann
Puneet Kapoor, Creative Director, Mc Cann
Ram Madhvani, Director, Equinox
Manoj Shroff, Producer, Equinox
Priyanka Ghose, Equinox
Avinash Jumani, CEO, Picture Works
Arunab Kumar, CEO, The Viral Fever Media Labs
Nikhil Taneja, Creative Producer,Yash Raj Films
Anshulika Dubey, Co-founder & COO, Wishberry
Marijke Desouza, Executive Producer, Dharma Productions
Ashish Sehgal, Dharma Productions
Dhirendra Ukarde, Times Television Network
Sumit Purohit, Editor
Nabeel Abbas, Founder, Epigram
Nitesh Kriplani, Head of Business Planning & New Initiatives, Amazon India
Philipe Haydon, President & CEO, The Himalaya Drug Company
Sandeep Raheja, Head, K. Raheja Constructions
Rahul Chitella, Producer, Writer and Director
Godrej Consumer Product Limited
Himalaya Drug Company
Clean Slate Films Pvt. Ltd.
Unique Estate Development Co. Ltd.
Tips Industry Limited
Rentrak Corporation

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 TEAM

Chairperson Marketing Team

Kiran Rao Seema Mohapatra
Anuradha Kini
Co-Chairperson Dhirendra Ukarde
Nita M. Ambani
Consultant, Operations and
Trustees Systems
Ajay Bijli Raman Chawla
Anand Mahindra
Farhan Akhtar Festival Manager
Karan Johar Eshaa Wardhan
Vikramaditya Motwane
Deepika Padukone Special Events
Riteish Deshmukh Kalpana Nair
Siddharth Roy Kapur
Manish Mundra Hospitality & Visitor Experience
Isha Ambani Anuja Singh
Zoya Akhtar Mugdha Singh
Vishal Bhardawaj
Dibakar Banerjee Jury Hospitality
Insia Lacewalla
Festival Director
Anupama Chopra Hospitality, Movie Mela
Leah Franqui
Creative Director
Smriti Kiran Coordinator, Indian Programme
Natasha Patel
Programming
Anu Rangachar – Head, International Programme Mumbai Film Mart
Deepanjana Pal – Consultant, International Programme Saameer Mody – Producer
Rashid Irani – Consultant, International Selection Apoorva Bakshi – Consultant, International
Bina Paul – Head, Indian Programme Guests
Deepti DCunha – Programmer, Indian Programme
Uma da Cunha – Curator, Discovering India Project Manager, Mumbai Young
Monica Wahi – Curator, Half Ticket Critics Lab
Ian Birnie – Programmer, International Programme Santosh Pathare
Paolo Bertolin – Programmer, International Program Amit Chavan
Jongsuk Thomas Nam – Curator, After Dark
Avijit Mukul Kishore – Curator, Experiments in Film Form Print Traffic Team
Rohan Shivkumar – Architect and Curator, Experiments in Film Form Vicky Barik
Sidharth Bhatia – Curator, MAMI Tributes (Chetan Anand) Ravi Singh
Santosh Pathare – Curator, Dimensions Mumbai
Amit Chavan – Curator, Dimensions Mumbai Assistant, Scheduling
Arpita Das – Curator, Book Award Devansh Daswani

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 TEAM

Talent Management Hospitality Partner

Kayomi Engineer J W Marriott
Vinisha Tauro
Registration Partner
Finance & Accounts Book My Show
Lokesh Gowda
Airline Partner
Social Media Team Turkish Airlines

Digital Consultant Events and Hospitality

Nikhil Taneja 70 EMG

Digital Head Festival Public Relations

Siddhanta Mathur Turning Point Media

Social Media Executive Festival Security

Swayam Khanna IIRIS

Interns Travel Agent

Lavanya Singh Jaya Travels
Abhishek
Website
Design Team H-One
Revathi Sekar
Ornellius Saldanha Office Assistants
Govinda
Video Content Santosh Sonkar
Srishty Agarwal
Vijay Nayyar Catalogue
Film Tent Productions Yoda Press

Editor, Daily Bulletin Editor, Catalogue

Daily Pao Arpita Das

Team, Daily Bulletin Design Support, Catalogue

Amit Gurbaxani Rajinder Singh
Pronoti Datta
Rohan Narula Team, Catalogue
Nishtha Vadehra
Trophy Courtesy Sonjuhi Negi
Nirav Modi Ketan Krishna
Vineeta Rai
Venue Partner Ayushi Saxena
PVR

Technical Partner
Real Image Media Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

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