The stage set for the one-week long cinematic delight in the capital Thiruvavanthapuram for the 13th International Film Festival of Kerala from 12-19 December, 2008 has come to an end. I was a delegate in the festival who spent a week-long living, thinking and talking only films, shut out from the world of reality. Some of the movies which I thoroughly enjoyed were,


Machan, a movie I thought to be discussing some chronic problems of a developing country is in its way a surprise package for its audience. Set in the slums of Sri Lanka the film shares very light moments with its audience amidst an island of dark movies in the IFFK 2008. No prizes for guessing this year’s Best Entry in Competition film category by festival delegates, it is deservedly Machan, in its first ever screening at an Asian film festival.
The movie revolves around the lives of four educated youths trying to escape from their country to overseas for a better way of living but have no resources to achieve the ends. Things take a U-turn when they find an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria. They garner some neighbourhood people making it to sixteen members and name themselves as Sri Lankan National Handball Federation. They play the international tournament to lose out the three games to the host team. By very next day cops reach their hotel rooms to arrest on charges of illegal immigration but all would have fled by then to different parts of the EU. The Srilankan sports authorities later inform that they never had a national handball team.
Uberto Pasolini, the German director of the film says he got accidentally involved in the making of the movie and it was the real effort of the natives including the cast-and-crew, co-script writer Ruwanthie de Chickera, and the production team.
Machan’s a movie narrating the lives hapless youths who wish to make it high but are shackled due to lack of opportunity and resources, plus indicates the extreme measures people will take to better their fortunes.

The Photograph
One reason I liked photograph (an Indonesian movie) the most in the competition category is its resemblance to my favourite Thai movies I watched before, at least the similarity in their faces. The second is the excellent photography connecting the film’s mood to the audience. The movie was successful to well my eyes with tears and make me ponder how losing the very special people in our life can alter us forever, here towards self-indignation and destruction.
The story is about Sita, a stunning prostitute who sings at a karaoke bar, works very hard to send money to her daughter in her hometown. Searching for a new place to stay, she comes to rent an old room upstairs at the house of Mr Johan, who is a photographer. She soon discovers that Mr Johan doesn’t have much time to live and has three wishes before his death; one was to find a male successor to his passion in photography. Unable to come across a good successor, Mr Johan had to let Sita perform the task of getting himself photographed in his last breathing moments. Sita realizes the value of life watching Johan as he prepares for his death.