communities and angst

As the pleasant October sunshine fought hard to stall the onset of winter, London’s South Bank and Leicester Square came alive for two weeks with over 11,00,000 film buffs making a beeline to watch over 300 films at the 51st edition of the Lond on Film Festival (LFF).

As the lights went out in the theatres, the stories unfolded from 43 countries…Ukraine, Brazil, Romania, China, India, Uruguay, France, Indonesia, Spain, U.K., Japan, Germany, U.S., Sri Lanka, Egypt, Mongolia, South Africa…stories of communities and their struggle for survival against insurmountable odds.

Initial controversy

Booker-nominated Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane in its celluloid adaptation premiered at the LFF amidst initial controversy. The story of poor immigrant Bangladeshi families living in London’s impoverished East End found its protagonist in Nazneen, a Bangladeshi woman (sensitively played by Tannishta Chatterjee) living in a tiny council flat with her much older husband and her two daughters.

Life changes when Nazneen buys a sewing machine, and a handsome Bangladeshi youth walks through her door to give her tailoring orders. What follows is not only financial independence but also heady sensual love… Things change when her lover decides to join a group of militant Islamic youth to avenge western attacks on Islam.

The glittering closing night gala had a heady Indian flavour to it with Wes Anderson’s “The Darjeeling Limited” starring Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Amara Karan, a British-born Sri Lankan in her debut role as a train attendant. The film is a whacky comedy about three American brothers who decide to bond after several years of separation. They are not quite prepared for the surprises in store for them in trains, the deserts of Rajasthan and the foothills of the Himalayas as the journey unfolds.

British-Asian director Asif Kapadia, earlier celebrated for his award-winning “The Warrior”, locates “Far North” in the Arctic tundra and proceeds to tell an amazing story about two women and their struggle to stay alive in the harsh conditions. The entry of Loki, whom they rescue and nurse back to health, provides the director a canvas to probe both psychological and physical conflict.

Miles away from the Arctic on the plains of Kolkata, Indian director Buddhadeb Dasgupta weaves a cinematic tale of ennui, desire, love and terrorism . In “The Voyeurs”, Dasgupta builds a complex narrative through the comic-tragic experiences of two youth from Beherempore who come to Kolkata to find a livelihood in and their adventures when they find a real-life Madhubala to replace the one in their fantasy. What starts as playful voyeurism soon turns dark. Yasin is gunned down by the police in a case of mistaken identity. Dasgupta was inspired by Charles De Menezes incident following the London bombings.