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Sensitive narration: Cristian Mungui’s ‘4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days’ focusses on the harrowing days under the Ceaucescu regime.

A festival of films proves to be a microcosm of multiple creativity and the many faces of humanity. Call it awesome, real, hard-hitting, disturbing or mind boggling; yet, year after year, we wait to take our pick from the films that unspool at the In ternational Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). This twelfth edition has over 65 films in the World Cinema section, reflecting life in all its complexities.

IFFK has uninterruptedly showcased films from Asia, Africa and Latin America. While this continues, the forthcoming festival has a basket of films from the Balkans and Turkey, which chronicle personal journeys and ethnic cleansing and dwell on political repression and relationships. Some of them are placed in the distant past but the issues are universal and are as much part of our lives to this day.

‘California Dreamin’ by Christian Numescu is an unusual film for more than one reason.

It portrays the changes in a Romanian village during the Kosova war where a train escorted by U.S. troops but carrying no official permission stops by. More striking is the fact that though the jury at Cannes had decided not to consider the film for a Prize because the film remained incomplete (due to the untimely death of the director), going against their earlier decision they went ahead and awarded a posthumous recognition!

Cristian Mungui, from the same country, with his film ‘4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days’ tells us the harrowing days under the Ceaucescu regime where a girl goes through illegal abortion. How the regime affected the most intimate aspects of a person’s life is what needs to be accepted.

The holocaust of the last century is fast receding from public memory but Paolo and Vittorio Taviani return after a break with ‘The Lark Farm,’ taking us through the experiences of an Armenian family awaiting reunion with their parents but falling victims to Turkey’s mindless killings. Call it by any name but life continues to hold out such threats and connects with the viewer, a reminder that narrow nationalism is a black mark on humanity.

A triptych tale from Bulgaria ‘Monkeys in Winter’ by debut filmmaker Milena Andanova spans 40 years and juxtaposes the lives of three women of different generations living through the country’s bleak political turmoil with intense social reverberations.

‘ww. what a wonderful world,’ set in Casablanca, is described by its director Faouzi Bansaidi, who is also in the lead, as “a film that combines several genres without obeying a single one”. Touching on the precociousness of a son who recognises the luckless love life of his mother, Claudio Antonini in ‘Ballroom Dancing’ turns the son into a matchmaker for his mother, who discovers new elements that he carries into adulthood.

Most of the films in the World Cinema section belong to the 2005-’07 period making them truly contemporary cinema from the world over. A notable inclusion at IFFK is Naomi Kawase’s meditative film ‘The Mourning Forest,’ (Japan) which brings the human being to the centre of relationships. Kawase’s words sum it up thus: “In life, there are many difficulties that make you suffer and hesitate along the way. At such moments, one finds strength not in money, cars, or clothing but in something intangible – people who came before us and who give us their strength.”

Films are not mere stories on celluloid but styles and structures of presentation, and use of technology to communicate ideas. For these reasons, the platter of over 200 films will present the many faces of creativity and excellence from all across the global village.

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