“The idea was to build something new related to cinema, good cinema and auteur cinema. Something that could bring in India a glimpse of European cinematographic excellence in a different way, not necessarily built on big names,” says Alessandra Bertini, director of Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Italian Cultural Centre in Delhi. “We decided to create an event that could gather a selection of some of the works presented in the most renowned European film festivals. A festival of festivals that could give space to artworks often not produced by the major film studio system”. These kind of films have, despite high artistic value, usually few chances of becoming accessible with the risk of either becoming a niche product or being forgotten. “I believe that the life of a film becomes greater when after a festival it is shown somewhere else too”, feels Carmen Werner, Head of programmes of the Festival del Film di Locarno, one of the most prestigious and oldest international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Film Festivals from Europe started on March 28th and is going on till April 14th at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre. The films have been chosen from among the participants to the Berlin International Film Festival or the Berlinale, the International Week of Cinema of Valladolid, the Rome Independent Film Festivaland the Festival del Film di Locarno. The event is the result of the collaboration of the Embassy of Switzerland, the Goethe Institute (German cultural centre), Instituto Cervantes (Spanish cultural centre) and Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
Feelings, expectations and personal stories are the themes around which the majority of works revolve. The narrative focuses not just on on Europe but also on Asia as it wanders from the Mediterranean Sea to the cities of Spain and Germany and from the Indian border with Pakistan to Malaysian and Laothian jungle villages. Different experiences of individuals and communities in faraway places, apparently without meeting points, worries of the future, ghosts of the past, expectations and fear of unknown are some of the emotions the filmmakers explore in their works. “Discovering films from faraway places makes me realise that we all have the same or similar feelings, hopes, sorrows and joys. I think that the exposure to others’ cinema can also bring us a little bit closer,” says Werner.
The narrative of personal experiences, even when characterized by anxiety, doesn’t come across as a melancholic. As the short story of a Spanish actress living a difficult and long period of unemployment suggests us, irony is often the common thread. She decides to call on her agent and to speak with him about three possible solutions; to keep working in the film industry in times of crisis; go to the United States to improve her acting skills in a renowned school; doing a plastic surgery to enhance her breasts. Between quality and appearance she chooses the second one. Success comes back and the story develops subsequently.
The encounter with the stranger is also a constant in these films. A meeting that always brings surprises and discoveries. An encounter which is not always easy and too often full of preconceptions and prejudices. Things that perhaps can be spread through cinema.
