I was in university when the first International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) was announced, 21 years ago. I wasted no time in getting on an overnight bus from Bangalore to Thiruvananthapuram and feasted on movies day and night thereafter. I had never been back to Kerala’s capital since, and it seemed only appropriate that the 21st edition of the IFFK would be my final stop in this year’s festival calendar. The first edition of the festival was quite popular, but nothing prepared me for the hysteria generated by film fans at the 21st edition. Some 15,000 delegates vied day and night for the 9,000 seats available. Needless to say, every screening was packed to the rafters with aficionados.
Like its fellow festivals in Mumbai and Kolkata, the IFFK is a treasure trove for those in pursuit of quality world cinema. The most popular film by some distance was Mohamed Diab’s protest-themed Clash , from Egypt. It was entirely in keeping with the theme that there were clashes outside the film’s venue due to disappointed punters unable to find seats and the organisers had to think on their feet and organise extra screenings at larger venues. The film duly won Best International Film at IFFK, and nobody was surprised when it also won the Audience Award. The jury citation read: “The jury unanimously underlines and applauds the excellent cinematographic work, that so aptly explains the historical shock of his country and sketches a living portrait of all the socio-political currents represented by real, authentic and truly human characters.” While we can discuss endlessly the other excellent films at IFFK, I’d like to particularly highlight an excellent initiative that was designed to let local filmmakers interact with international festival programmers and find out what exactly they are looking for in terms of content and also reveal some tips and deadlines. Thus, luminaries like Rada Sesic from Rotterdam, Cary Sawhney from London, and Paolo Bertolin from Venice shared their valuable insights and some tricks of the trade. The event was invaluable for the filmmakers.
The best part of attending an international film festival is hanging out with the filmmakers, and it was great spending time at an award-winning Ayurveda resort far from the Kovalam hordes, with South African filmmaker Brett Michael Innes, who was in competition with his film Sink , and Turkish filmmaker Yesim Ustaoglu, whose Clair Obscur won best director and also a special mention for actor Ecem Uzun at the festival’s FIPRESCI awards.
The closing night of the festival coincided with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ announcement of the foreign language Oscar long-list. Mahmoud Sabbagh, director of Saudi Arabia’s entry in the category, Barakah Meets Barakah , was in situ at the IFFK closing night dinner, and contained his disappointment at not making the cut well enough. As he revealed, team Barakah... spent hardly $1,500 on the Oscar campaign, compared to the hundreds of thousands spent by its rivals. Forget the Oscar long-list, the fact that films are getting made in Saudi Arabia at all is reason enough to celebrate.
