IFFK: Action starts today

IFFK: Action starts today

The wait with bated breath is finally over! As the festival starts rolling today, the city of Ananthapadmanabhan is all set to welcome the ten thousand delegates who will throng the streets of the city for the next eight days. Organized by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy on behalf of the department of cultural affairs, government of Kerala, the week-long fiesta is a celebration of sorts for movie buffs and will screen around 200 films from various countries.

  The Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandi will inaugurate the festival at Nishagandhi auditorium, Kanakakkunnu at 6 in the evening. Minister of forest, wildlife, sports and cinema K.B. Ganesh Kumar will preside over the function and the renowned Bollywood actress Jaya Bachan will be the chief guest. The inaugural function will be followed by ‘Destiny’s Dice’, a twenty three minute long cultural performance. The show is conceived and directed by eminent film maker T K Rajeev Kumar.

  The Chinese film ‘Under The Hawthorn Tree’, directed by Zhang Yimou will be this years’s opening film. This is the debut screening of the film in India.

  The films screened at the festival have been put under 14 categories. Arab cinema, Best of FIPRESCI, DEFA Films, Homage films, Indian cinema now, Jury films, Kaidan horror classics, kicking and screening, Malayalam cinema today, Philippine cinema, retrospectives, Contemporary master in focus: Semih Kaplanoglu, World cinema and competition films are the divisions.

  The international jury, headed by Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford includes Philippine director Jeffrey Jeturian, Turkish filmmaker Semih Kaplanoglu, French director Laurence Gavron and Indian filmmaker Rahul Boss.

In the retrospective section, films of eminent directors Adolfas Mekas, Nagisa Oshima, Robert Bresson, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Yasuzo Masumura, Djibril Diop Mambety, and veteran Malayalam actor Madhu will be screened.

   The competition section this year consists of 14 films from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

This is the 16th edition of the IFFK which was initiated in Kozhikode in 1996. Hundred films were screened at that festival. This year features almost double the number.