Films from the world get a screening in IFFI

Thursday, 09 December 2004, 20:30 IST
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PANAJI: With English films from Hollywood and Hindi ones from Bollywood occupying centrestage, cinema from countries like Argentina and Malaysia don't make much of an impact normally - but they did at the film festival here. The 35th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which ends here Thursday, saw some interesting films from Malaysia, Bangladesh and Argentina among others from non-English-speaking countries. One such was Law Teong Hin's Malaysian movie "The Princess of Mount Ledang" about a Hindu-Muslim romance in the Hindu Majapahit Empire centred around a royal princess in Melaka. Said Law Teong Hin about his film: "Our hope is that films like mine would get picked up for distribution in India." He said "The Princess..." is "by far the biggest made in Malaysia" though small by Indian standards. "There's not much awareness of Malaysian films anywhere in the world. They've hardly travelled," the filmmaker admitted. But things are changing with a whole new wave of younger producers. The number of films made in Malaysia has grown from 12 a year to about 30. "Censorship is really tight. Even exposed armpits can be a problem. Our film got cleared with no cuts though," Law said. He was flattered when told his period romance reminded some Indian viewers of K. Asif's epic 1960 love story "Mughal-e-Azam" about a prince falling in love with a commoner. Another film making waves was Jorge Dyszel's "En Fin, El Mar" (Finally, The Sea) from Argentina about Cuban migrants to the US. Dyszel said the Argentine film industry produces 40-60 films a year, and has a "very nice system" where one-tenth of cinema tickets go to the film commission which, in turn, supports filmmakers. Then there was the Thai film "Beautiful Boxer". "It's pretty overwhelming to be here. I was unsure how my film would be accepted because India has its own strong culture. But people were coming out and hugging me. One lady was in tears," said the film's producer Ekachai Uekrongtham. The film is a real life story about a kick-boxer who believes he's a girl trapped in a boy's body and sets out to master the most masculine and lethal sport to achieve his ultimate goal of total femininity. The film that attracted huge crowds, however, was the much talked about "The Motorcycle Diaries", an Argentina-Brazil-Chile-Peru-US co-production directed by Walter Salles, on the life of Che Guevara.
Source: IANS