Indian Films at Osian’s Cine Fan Delhi 2007
There were nine films in the Indian competition section:

38 IFFI- Goa- News

List of selected Non-feature Films

Review:

By H.N.Narahari Rao

The film Desert Dream (Hyazgar, 2007/ South Korea), directed by Zhang Lu, was in the main competition section at the Osian’s-Cinefan Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema. This film impressed me for various reasons, principally its visuals, explicitly portraying the life in stark reality of Hungai, who lives in a desert. A vast landscape of desert totally isolated from the outside world harbors Hungai's only hut where he lives with his wife and child. The only other companions are his cattle. This being a border area between Mongolia and China, quite frequently we see the movement of army tanks patrolling the area.

Hungai has a mission in life: he faithfully plants trees in the desert, procuring seedlings from a vendor who runs the only shop in that area, also supplying various other provisions. He is so obsessed with his work, even his family gets disillusioned with him. His wife leaves the place, taking her daughter to a faraway city to get treatment for her illness. Poor Hungai, now lonely, drowns himself in drinks. The sudden arrival of a Korean refugee woman, Choi Soonhee, with her son, in search of a shelter, enlivens the situation to a great extent, even though they find it difficult to communicate effectively because they do not speak the same language. A strange relationship develops among the three. Both the mother and son willingly help Hungai in planting trees and other routine chores. The boy, who has lost his father, comes closer and closer to Hungai and one night he shifts from his bed to sleep at Hungai's side to find much needed security in his arms. Strangely, the son finds this village a place where he would like to stay, but his mother is totally against it. She wants to move out at the earliest opportunity. The visuals that capture the moods of these three characters are very well shot. The camera takes a long shot, a conversation is taking place, and it pans around slowly almost from one end to the other, capturing the vast landscape of desert, on the one side Choi Sonhee, and on the other Hungai and the boy standing. This particular shot reminds us of the Hungarian filmmaker Miklos Jancso who successfully adopted this style in his films. Justifiably the film is snail-paced, reminiscent of Bresson, quite powerful in content.

While the boy finds solace under Hungai, Choi flatly refuses his sexual advances, fearing that she may have to stay back in the desert in case she falls in love with him. While Hungai is away to visit his wife and daughter, she satisfies her sexual need with a young Mongolian soldier. When her son sees her making love, he rushes to bring the gun to drive the soldier away and to protect the family in Hungai's absence. While the boy identifies himself with the surroundings, his mother makes her bid to flee with a Korean film crew but fails. Finally she takes the boy away and moves to a highway which points to her destination. The only one left behind is poor Hungai.

This is a movie that has its originality and a style that suits the content and documents the human emotions of a person living in a totally uninhabited desert. 

H.N.Narahari Rao

Desert Dream by ZHANG LU won the Best Film Award at 9 Osian Cinefan Film Festival Delhi 2007 for the conviction with which Zhang Lu depicts the contemporary crisis of our time. He has found the right cinematic expression to tackle a theme of such great importance.

River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival , under the direction of Selvaggia Velo, will have its seventh edition in Florence, Italy, from December 7 th to 13 th , 2007.

Once again, the event will be supported by the Ministry of the Cultural Heritage - Cinema Department, Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze, Banca Toscana, Regional Council of Tuscany, Quartiere 1, India Tourism Office of Milan, sponsored by Apt Firenze, Hotel Roma, Instyle and Lisa Corti Firenze, with the assistance of Mediateca Regionale Toscana Film Commission, and both The Florentine and www.1takemedia.com as media partners.

The Festival will offer viewings of the latest independent Indian films, with a wide range of feature films, short films and documentaries, and the latest works on India by international directors.

Actors, directors and producers will be there to meet the press and speak of their films with the audience.

One film from each category will be voted by the audience to win the River to River Digichannel Audience Award: an extract from the film can be viewed in streaming mode at www.digichannel.net all through 2008.

The schedule includes a retrospective on Bimal Roy (1909-1966), one of the greatest Indian film directors of the past, who is often compared to Italian Neorealist film directors for his stories and subjects. Thanks to Mr. Roy’s family, three of his masterpieces will be screened, in collaboration with the National Film Archive of India and the Directorate of Film Festivals: Do Bigha Zamin (Two Acres of Land) of 1953, reminiscent of De Sica’s Ladri di biciclette; Devdas (1955), the remake of which by Sanjay Leela Bhansali was nominated for an Oscar in 2003; and the heart-breaking Bandini of 1963.

In order to give a full portrait of Bimal Roy, the Festival will screen, for the first time in Europe, the documentary Remembering Bimal Roy by the director’s son, Joy Roy.

As usual, between one film and the next, do not miss the food tastings offered by the Indian Restaurant of Fiesole, a heaven of Maharaja cuisine.

This year, the Festival has started working with new partners in events that will go on all through Autumn 2007:

• within the framework of the Festa del Cinema di Roma (18-27 October), a side event will be organised by Tad Art Events. For the occasion, Selvaggia Velo and Francesca Micheli of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival will offer a selection of Indian short films, which will be screened in Rome on October 23 rd on a bus fitted out in Indian style and at the Apollo 11 cinema, which will also host a meeting on the Indian movie industry;
• during the Festival della Creatività of Florence (25-28 October), four short films from the 2006 River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival will be screened on Saturday October 17 th at the Teatrino Lorenese at Fortezza da Basso.

For informations:
River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival
Piazza Santo Spirito, 1
50125 Florence - Italy
ph. +39 055 286929
fax +39 055 284983
pressoffice@rivertoriver.it
www.rivertoriver.it