MAMI, the 18th Mumbai Film festival which returns October 20-27 even bigger and better than before has added a host of exciting new themed packages.One of these is a package of 12 stunning films, submitted for the most prestigious award in the world, the Academy Award. These films are from 18 countries and in 10 foreign languages and will be screened in India for the first time at the festival which is set to kick off at the iconic Royal Opera House.
The package includes The Salesman, a fiction feature from Iran/ France in the Farsi language.
Directed by Academy Award-winner, Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman revolves around a young couple, Emad and Rana who are forced to move into a new apartment when their old flat is damaged in Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant begins to dramatically influence the couple’s life.
Director Asghar Farhadi made his first short film at age 13 and studied theatre at university. In 2011, he directed A Separation, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Mohammed Diab’s Clash comes from Egypt/France in Arabic and is set in Cairo in the summer of 2013 – two years after the Egyptian revolution. In the wake of the ouster of Islamist president Morsi, a police truck full of detained demonstrators of divergent political and religious backgrounds roams through the violence-ridden streets of the city. Can the detainees overcome their differences to stand a chance of survival? Mohamed Diab is an award-winning writer and director whose second film Clash (Eshtebak), was the Opening film of Un Certain Regard in Cannes Film Festival 2016.
Spanish language “Neruda” is a multi-country feature involving Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, and USA.
The setting is Chile in 1948. In the Congress, Senator Pablo Neruda accuses the government of betraying the Communist Party and is impeached by President Gonzalez Videla. Police Prefect Oscar Peluchonneau is assigned to arrest the poet. Neruda tries to flee the country with his wife – the painter Delia del Carril – but they are forced into hiding, where the fugitive, Neruda writes an epic collection of poems, “Canto General”.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows, and artists led by Pablo Picasso clamour for Neruda’s freedom. Neruda is directed by Chilean director, Pablo Larrain. Larrian’s previous film, No was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards
Saudi Arabia’s Barakah Meets Barakah is a feature whose central character,a funny municipal agent responsible for law and order in a town, falls in love with a beautiful erratic ultra-famous Instagram video blogger.
Death in Sarajevo is from Bosnia and Herzegovina.The Bosnian language film is set in Sarajevo‘s Hotel Europe which is bustling in preparation for the European Union gala for the centennial of Archduke Franz Ferdinand‘s assassination. But the disgruntled staff plans to strike because they haven‘t been paid for two months. The chief receptionist Lamija’s mother Hatidza,is elected strike leader while Lamija tries to keep everything running smoothly.
Israeli film Sand Storm is an Arabic language film about life in a Bedouin village Director Elite Zexer has participated in over 120 film festivals around the world and won several international awards.
Letters From War is from Portual.Its protagonist Antonio Lobo Antunes’s life is brutally interrupted when he is drafted into the Portuguese army to serve as a doctor in one of the worst zones of the Colonial war – Angola.
Paradise is a multi-national offering from Russia, Germany in Russian, German, and French.
‘Paradise’ reflects on a twentieth century filled with great illusions buried in ruins, the dangers of hateful rhetoric and the need for mankind to use the power of love to triumph over evil.
My Life as a Courgette from Switzerland/France, Under The Shadow from Jordan, Qatar & UK,Elle from France and Apprentice yet another multi-national feature from Singapore, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Qatar in Malay and English are the other films to be screened.
