3,000 film entries lead to remarkable film selection at Jagran Film Festival

Diligently browsing through a maze of over 3,000 film entries the Preview Team of 7 th Jagran FilmFestival concluded its selection process yesterday. The selection includes the Best of Indian andInternational Cinema.

While some films are from renowned film festivals like Berlin, Rotterdam and Sundance, there are a lotof films hitherto unexplored by film festivals. On one hand the festival beginning in New Delhi this Julywill screen films like Lee Tamahori’s ‘Mahana’ (The Patriarch) from New Zealand, ‘The First, The Last byBouli Lanners from France/Belgium, both from Berlinale and ‘Thank you for bombing’ by Barbara Eder,an Austrian film from Toronto, on the other it also screens unexplored films like ‘Discordia’ (Romania) byIon Indolean and ‘Chatô - The King of Brazil’ by Guilhermo Fontes based on the life of Brazilian MediaMoghul, Assis Chateaubriand, the film is a revelation and won 13 film awards in Brazil.

Talking about ‘Discordia’, Festival’s Strategic Consultant, Manoj Srivastava says, “A unique film thatactually impressed the Preview team because of its great cinematic treatment like use of blank spaces,camera work, minimal dialogues and deep exploration of subjects. A drama that is low on intensity buthigh on attraction sucks you in.”

Lee Tamahori known for his films ‘Die Another Day’(2002) and ‘State of the Union’ explores in ‘Mahana’, the lives of. two Maori families, the Mahanas and the Poatas, in New Zealand of 1960s whomake a living shearing sheep on the east coast of New Zealand. The two clans, who are bitter enemies,face each other as rivals at the annual sheep shearing competitions. Simeon is a 14-year- old scion of theMahana clan. A courageous schoolboy, he rebels against his authoritarian grandfather Tamihana and histraditional ways of thinking and begins to unravel the reasons for the long-standing feud between thetwo families. Before long, the hierarchies and established structures of the community are in disarraybecause Tamihana, who is as stubborn as he is proud, is not prepared to acquiesce and pursue new.

The Preview Team that worked relentlessly for over a month included renowned Film Critics SaibalChatterjee, Manjula Shirodkar, Sharad Dutt, Former Chief Producer, Doordarshan, Vinod Kapoor, Former Deputy Director General and Columnist, Cinematographer Sanjay Dattani and K S Sahani, Former Joint Director, Directorate of Film Festivals.