Speakers: Najaf Haider, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); Aparna Balachandran, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Delhi University; Harish Wankhede, Assistant Professor, Centre for Political Studies, JNU; Akanksha Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Janaki Devi Memorial College, Delhi University; and Divya Cherian  Assistant  Professor, Department of History, Princeton University

Moderator: Suhas Borker, Editor, Citizens First TV (CFTV) & Trustee, IIC 

The programme shall commence with the release of Divya Cherian's book Merchants of Virtue - Hindus, Muslims and Untouchables in Eighteenth-Century South Asia - Recipient of the 2022 Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences

What did it mean to be Hindu in pre-colonial India in the centuries immediately prior to British conquest? What do histories of Hindu identity have to do with histories of caste? These questions have taken on increasing relevance in contemporary India and in the Indian diaspora, with the assertions of the anti-caste movement being countered through references to historical scholarship that has demonstrated the ways in which colonialism remade caste. Centering the pre-colonial pasts of caste provides a new perspective into how categories of “Hindu,” “Muslim,” and “Untouchable” animated life, law, and local politics in India on the eve of colonial modernity. In turn, these insights are significant for the quest for social justice today.
 

In the Reflections of poems, music and the letters of the artist

Compiled by Gábor Lanczkor to mark the 110th birth anniversary of Amrita Sher-Gil. The programme includes his own poems about Amrita Sher-Gil and letters by her

Music by Krisztina Lanczkor

Gábor Lanczkor is an award-winning Hungarian author with sixteen published books, novels, poetry volumes, essays and children’s books. He is the Editor-in Chief of the Hungarian online world literature magazine

(Collaboration: Liszt Institute-Hungarian Cultural Centre)

Screening Details

At 11 am   

HEARTS AND BONES (Australia)
(111 min; 2019; English)
Director: Ben Lawrence

Multiple award winner including the awards for Best Narrative Feature & Best Actor, Fargo Film Festival 2020; ADG Award for Best Direction in a Feature Film, Australian Directors Guild Awards 2020; Awgie Award for Feature Film – Original, Australian Writers’ Guild 2020; among others

Daniel Fisher (Hugo Weaving) is an acclaimed war photographer. His work means he leaves his long-term partner, Josie Avril (Haley McElhinney), a ballet teacher, for long stretches. In the past she had been pregnant but lost that baby. When Daniel returns from his latest assignment, Josie drops the news that she is with child again, although he’s less than enamoured with the idea. Daniel is preparing for an upcoming exhibition of his work when he’s approached by Sebastian Aman (Andrew Luri), a South Sudanese refugee. Sebastian wants Fisher to photograph members of a community choir – all survivors of war. Daniel isn’t interested, but then matters take a turn. As Fisher gets to know Sebastian and his pregnant wife, Anishka Ahmed (Bolude Watson), he can see how drawn Sebastian is to owning a patch of land he can call his own. But he’s also hiding a dark secret.

Cancel

At 1:30 pm
HAPPY AS LAZZARO (Lazzaro felice/Italy) 
(128 min; 2018; Italian with English subtitles)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher

Multiple award winning film including Best Screenplay Award, Cannes Film Festival 2018; Spirit for Freedom Award for Best Feature, Jerusalem Film Festival 2018; Gold Hugo Award for Best Feature, Chicago International Film Festival, 2018; Winner ICS Cannes Award for Best Director, International Cinephile Society Cannes Award 2018; among others

The story of Lazzaro, a peasant still shy of 20 and so good he appears stupid, and Tancredi, a young man of the same age but spoilt by his own imagination, is the story of a friendship. It’s a friendship that begins genuinely amid a flurry of secret schemes and lies. Full of light and youthful enthusiasm, it’s the first friendship Lazzaro has ever had. And it subsequently survives the passing of time and the disruptive consequences of a Big Swindle to bring the one, Lazzaro, to a huge, empty city in search of the other, Tancredi.
 

At 4 pm  

THE CATHEDRAL (USA)
(88 min; 2021; English)
Director: Ricky D’Ambrose

Recipient of the HFPA Special Prize, Venice Film Festival 2021; and John Cassavetes Award, Film Independent Spirit Award 2023 

An only child's meditative, impressionistic account of an American family's rise and fall over two decades.

An unseen narrator unfolds the constellation of familial relationships of Jesse Damrosh, born in 1987, chronicling the dissolution of his parents’ marriage and the feuds, money concerns, and deaths that define a typical middle-class American existence. Yet in this impressionistic account of one life, what penetrates the most are not events but incidents. The beautiful yet quotidian moments of the shoulder-padded jacket of an aunt, the certain print of a rug, an ad for Kodak film, or the light in a room one afternoon from years before.

At 6.30 pm  

 FOOTPRINTS ON WATER (UK)
(108 min; 2023; English)
Director: Nathalia Syam

Recipient of the Best Actor Award & Best Director Award, UK Asian Film Festival 2023; Best Debut Film & Best Actor Award, Indo-German Film Week 2023; and Special Jury Award for Best Debut Film & Best Actor Award, Ottawa Indian Film Festival 2023

The director, Nathalia Syam and the lead actor, Adil Hussain will be present to introduce the film and lead a discussion after

Away from the glitz and glam of Birmingham resides an illegal immigrant community who are always in hiding, leaving no proof of their existence, not even their footprints.

Raghu, an illegal immigrant in Birmingham - UK, believes that he has finally struck gold as his daughter, Meera, is all set to marry a wealthy groom, a legal resident in the UK.

Raghu was a small-scale business owner in India who fled to the UK with his wife and daughter after being mired in a financial scam. The life that awaited them in the UK was far from perfect – they were dumped into shared accommodation, they did not have legit visas, and they were all expected to work for a meagre wage. Raghu regrets this move, but he is left with no choice but to stay on in the UK, make enough money to pay off his debts, and return home with dignity.

 Screening Details

At 11 am   

 ROBE OF GEMS (Manto de gemas/Mexico/Argentina/USA)
(117 min; 2022; Spanish with English subtitles)
Director: Natalia López

Recipient of the Silver Berlin Bear Jury Prize, Berlin International Film Festival 2022; and Winner Feature Film Competition Award for Best Director, Morelia International Film Festival 2022

In the countryside of Mexico, the fates of three women collide when the case of a missing person leads them on a path of pain and redemption. The tale of three women - the wealthy and emotionally unstable Isabel (Nailea Norvind), her housekeeper Maria (Antonia Olivares), and a defeated police chief, Roberta (Aida Roa) - whose paths connect and unfold within a rural Mexican community that is passive in the face of crime, violence, and systemic corruption.

At 2 pm
MY NIGHT (Ma nuit/France)
(87 min; 2021; French with English subtitles)
Director: Antoinette Boulat 

Recipient of the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film, Athens Panorama of European Cinema, 2021

Marion is 18 years old. Filled with grief since the loss of her sister, she has reached an age where she feels a vital need for freedom. One night, she embarks on a ride through the streets of Paris. What follows is an evening of encounters until Marion meets the impulsive and free-spirited Alex. Like a reunion of two lonely souls, their path will evolve into a rhythm of wandering in a city that youth no longer relates to, like a journey into the night.
 

At 4 pm    

NOAH LAND (Nuh Tepesi/Turkey)
(109 min; 2019; Turkish with English subtitle)
Director: Cenk Ertürk 

Multiple award winner including awards for Best Actor & Best Screenplay - International Narrative Competition, Tribeca Film Festival 2019; SIYAD Award for Best Actor, Turkish Film Critics Association Awards 2020; Golden Boll in National Feature Film Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film & FILMYON Best Director, Adana Film Festival 2019; among others

Writer-director Cenk Ertürk’s début film, Noah Land, follows Ömer (Ali Atay), a recently-divorced man who takes his estranged father, Ibrahim (Haluk Bilginer), back to the remote, Turkish town that expelled him 45 years earlier. Dying of cancer, Ibrahim returns to arrange to be buried under a tree he planted as a child.

However, it turns out the tree has since become a religious landmark called the “Noah Tree,” which the locals believe the biblical figure planted after The Flood. As Ömer and Ibrahim fight to have the latter’s deed on the land recognized, they begin to fix their troubled relationship. 

 At 6.30 pm  

 DECISION TO LEAVE (Heojil kyolshim/South Korea)
(139 min; 2022; Korean with English subtitles)
Director: Park Chan-wook
 
Multiple award winner including Best Director Award, Cannes Film Festival 2022; NBR Award for Top Five International Films, National Board of Film Review, USA 2022; ALFS Award for Best Foreign Language Film, London Critics Circle Film Awards 2023; Grand Bell Awards for Best Film, Best Actor & Best Screenplay, Grand Bell Awards, South Korea 2022; among others

In Busan, Jang Hae-Joon (Park Hae-il), an insomniac but cool police detective is investigating the death of a man who apparently fell from a mountain top. He becomes increasingly suspicious of Song Seo-rae (Tang Wei), the deceased’s wife. His suspicion goes side by side with his attraction for her, which begins to cloud his vision as another murder case and the distant relationship with his wife (who due to work, lives elsewhere) occupy his mind.

One of 2022's best films is full of mystery and longing. The film's ending is just as enigmatic as its plot. The film guards its secrets with extreme care, and slowly reveals them in moments where they are the least expected. Its slow-burning plot has echoes of Alfred Hitchcock’s storylines, making whichever notion of what's going to happen useless…

Screening Details

MEZQUITE’S HEART (Corazón de Mezquite/Mexico)

(74 min; 2019; Spanish with English subtitles)
Director: Ana Laura Calderón

The film will be introduced by H.E. Mr. Federico Salas Lofte, Ambassador of Mexico

Recipient of The City of Malmö Children’s Film Award for Best Film, Buff International Film Festival 2021; and Schlingel Award, Children’s Competition, International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience Schlingel 2020

A girl in northern Mexico dreams of healing her father's broken heart by going against tradition and playing the harp. 

Lucía belongs to the Yoreme people and lives a secluded life with her father, a harp player, and her grandparents in a small village in Sonora, Mexico. Lucía’s father Fidel cannot get over the death of his wife and drowns his grief in alcohol. The little girl’s biggest wish is to play the traditional harp like her father, to touch his heart and be loved by him again.

Screening Details

ARISTOCRATS (Anoko was kizoku/Japan)

(124 min; 2021; Japanese with English subtitles)
Director: Yukiko Sode

Born in Tokyo into wealth, Hanako (Mugi Kadowaki) has never really had to think about how her life would play out. However, at the age of 27 she’s suddenly dumped by her fiancé and finds herself pressurised by her family to find a husband. Mika (Kiko Mizuhara) grew up in a small town, moving to the capital in order to give herself a chance of a future; working hard for everything she got. When Hanako finds a prospective partner, who happens to be Mika’s best friend, they bond over their differences and similarities.

Aristocrats is an expertly measured drama about class and gender in a society which is nowhere near as progressive as it may like to think. The trick with Yukiko Sode’s film is the restraint. Every shot is calculated. Every gesture. There’s an exactness which is thrilling. While their backgrounds are very different, both women find an affinity in each other and their experiences in a patriarchal society.  Aristocrats is a quiet and thoughtful look at contemporary Japan.  
 

 Screening Details

IVIE WIE IVIE (Germany)

(109 min; 2021; German with English subtitles)
Director: Sarah Blaßkiewitz

Récipient of the Film Award in Gold for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, German Film Award 2021

The film will be introduced by Mr. Johannes Höber, Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of Germany

Sarah Blaßkiewitz's feature debut centres on Ivie, a 30-year-old woman with African roots living in Leipzig, who is searching for permanent employment as a teacher whilst working at her best friend's solarium. One day, her younger half-sister Naomie turns up unexpectedly from Berlin at her front door. Ivie had previously not even known of her existence and now learns that their father has died in Africa. The question is whether she will travel to Guinea for the funeral with Naomie. But, first of all, they have to get to know each other, triggering a rollercoaster of feelings and alienating her friends and work colleagues who suddenly see her in a new light...

Screening Details

THOU SHALT NOT HATE (Non odiare/Italy/Poland)

(96 min; 2020; Italian with English subtitles)
Director: Mauro Mancini

Recipient of the Sorriso Diverso Venezia Award for Best Italian Film & Pasinetti Award for Best Actor, Venice Film Festival 2020; Silver Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress, Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalist 2021; Jury Award for Best Film, Moscow Jewish Film Festival 2021

Simone is an established surgeon with a satisfying life, an elegant flat and no ties.

The conflicts with his father, a prison camp survivor, are just a memory, now that his father passed away. During a boating training, he witnesses a car accident and, as a doctor, he intervenes to save the victim. When he discovers a Nazi tattoo on his chest, he hesitates, leaving the man to his fate. But immediately, Simone, tormented by guilt, starts investigating on the dead man, reaching to his family in a working-class neighbourhood.

Screening Details

THE EMPTY NEST (China)

(84 min; 2020; Chinese with English subtitles)
Director: Zhang Wei  

The Empty Nest is about an old woman who is an empty nester. It is a melancholic story based on the novel by Xue Yiwei. The film ends with hope and realization by the central character Zhao Yemie that life is about moving on and not about pondering over the sad moments.

Zhao Yemie is played by Zhu Xijuan, a superstar of 1960s in China