27 November 2018

Directors of five   films in the International Cinema category of 49th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI)- 2018  -   Iro, The Manslayer/The Virgin/The Shadow, Rage,  Los Silencious  & The Load addressed a press conference today.

While sharing her experience on Los Silencious  - a bilingual film in Portuguese & Spanish,  Director Ms.  Beatriz Seigner recalled her Indian films connection.  She informed that she is one of the organisers of the Indian film festival in Brazil. Her first feature film   "Bollywood Dream - O Sonho Bollywoodiano" (2009) was the first Indian- Brazilian film co-production. She  has worked with Indian directors like Anurag Kashyap who  helped her  in getting co-producers from France & Columbia during the Cannes film screening of his film Gangs of Wasseypur.

The Load which is basically a road movie has different flavours like mystery, war scenes, drama, informed Mr, Ognjen Glavonic , director of   the film.  The story revolves around a man Vlada who works as a truck driver during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. Tasked with transporting mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, he drives through unfamiliar territory, trying to make his way in a country scarred by the war.

Directed by Mr. Sulev Keedus, The Manslayer/The Virgin/The Shadow is a bilingual film in Estonian & Spanish based on three  novels having characterisation of young women.  The Director recalled that Estonian people used to watch Indian movies in Soviet times and continue to have a  connection to Indian films that are screened through film festivals.  

Sérgio Tréfaut, Director of the Portuguese film Rage  informed that his film is a  beautiful and intense visual story about people living under a dictatorship in southern Portugal’s countryside. It  potrays hunger, misery and exploitation in the 1950's and the growing rage  building up among the people against the exploitative regime.  He said he  portrayed the country-side totally in black & white to pay the tribute to the cinema & love of the people who are fighting against the  tyranny of adverse laws. It is a film about injustice  and the  abusiveness of power, he added. 

Mr. Hadi Mohaghegh director of Persian film Iro (Here) also narrated his experience about the film shooting in  Iran. He also praised Indian talent in the film-making industry.

 BACKGROUND:

 Iro

Iro (Here) is Persian film directed, written & edited by Mr. Hadi Mohaghegh. The story of the film revolves around an isolated and lonely old man in the mountains who tries to save the life of his son Sohrab. But despite all his efforts, he cannot change the son’s death sentence and Sohrab is executed. So he takes the body of his son through the mountains and rivers, baptizing him.

 Mr. Hadi Mohaghegh is an Iranian film director and screenwriter. In 2013, he made his first feature film Bardou which won Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 2013 Isfahan Film Festival for Children and Young Adults.

The Manslayer/The Virgin/The Shadow

It is a bilingual film in Estonian & Spanish  languages that consists of three chapters directed by Mr. Sulev Keedus.  Sulev’s other  films, "In Paradisum", "Georgica", "Somnambuul", "Jonathan Australia" and "Varesesaare Russians", have been  praised by the Estonian Film Journalists Association. "Georgica" has been acclaimed at international film festivals.

The film consists of three chapters. It employs a theme known in Scandinavian folklore. The time frame of the story is from the early morning  of the wedding day until the early morning of the following day. The leading character Maara is a young bride  who is about to start her life in her new family. The Virgin, set in the spring of 1949, tells the story of a young woman called Elina, who has been deported from Ingria to Estonia during the previous war. The shadow moves in the present, on the border of real life and fantasy.

Rage:

Set in Portugal in 1950,  amidst the  desolate landscape of the South, battered by wind, by misery and hunger, sudden violence erupts: a succession of cold blooded murders occur over a single night. Why and what’s the origin of these crimes? The film speaks about it all.

Los Silencious 

Los Silencious is a bilingual film in Portuguese and Spanish directed by Ms. Beatriz Seigner.  Beatriz Seigner is a film director, writer and producer, best known for the film "Bollywood Dream - O Sonho Bollywoodiano" (2009), the first Indian-Brazilian film co-production, released in the cinema theatres in Brazil in 2011. Nuria, (12) Fabio, (9) , and their mother Amparo arrive in a small island in the middle of Amazonia, at the border of Brazil, Colombia and Peru. They ran away from the Colombian armed conflict in which their father disappeared. One day, he reappears in their new house. The family is haunted by this strange secret and discovers the island is peopled with ghosts.

The Load:

The Load is a Serbian language film directed by Mr  Ognjen Glavonic.

In the film, Vlada, the main character,  works as a truck driver during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. Tasked with transporting mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, he drives through unfamiliar territory, trying to make his way in a country scarred by the war. He knows that once the job is over, he will need to return home and face the consequences.

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ED/DW