20 Films you cannot miss at the 21st Mumbai Film Festival (Part 2)

By Asian Film Festival on October 16, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

We continue with our list of films that you shouldn’t miss at the 21st Mumbai Film Festival which will take place from October 17th – 24th in Mumbai, India.

About the festival:
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star is an inclusive movie feast. We showcase the latest cutting-edge, independent cinema – art house fare alongside genre movies from Bollywood and Hollywood and cult international movies. They offer the best of world cinema to the people of Mumbai and we offer the best of Indian cinema to the world.
The festival is run by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image popularly known as MAMI. Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival With Star is a space where Aamir Khan, Quentin Tarantino, Zhang Yimou and Rajinikanth would all feel equally at home.

Selected Documentaries:

Gamak Ghar by Achal Mishra – India | 2019 – 91 minutes
Section: India Gold

In a north Indian village, a family reunites at their ancestral home to celebrate a new birth in the family. It’s a joyous, carefree occasion. Over the next two decades, through festivals and feasts, births and deaths, the film observes one house as it ages and falls to neglect.

Trailer:

Just like that (Aise Hi) by Kislay – India | 2019 – 109 minutes
Section: India Gold

Mrs. Sharma is the wife of a respected, small-time government employee in small-town Allahabad. When her husband dies, she is expected to move in with her son and grandchildren. But the woman wants to live by herself. She stops going to the temple, buys herself things without worrying about the expense, makes friends with a girl half her age and chooses to spend more time with her new friend than with her family. When Mrs. Sharma decides to learn doll-making with a Muslim tailor called Ali, the entire locality, including her own family, slowly turn against her. In a climate of increasing tensions, Ali begins to fear for his life, and Mrs. Sharma must face the consequences.

Market (Iewduh) by Pradip Kurbah – India | 2019 – 94 minutes
Section: India Story

Iewduh is one of the liveliest markets of North-East India, where people from different communities and religions work and co-exist. Behind the scars, the colours, the freshness and the stench, are untold stories of ordinary people who make each other’s lives better.

Trailer:

No.7 Cherry Lane by Yonfan – Hong Kong | 2019 – 125 minutes
Section: World Cinema

Hong Kong, 1967. Ziming, an undergraduate, is entangled between his amorous feelings for Mrs Yu, a self-exiled mother from Taiwan in the White Terror period, and her beautiful daughter, Meiling. He takes them to different movies and through a series of magical moments on the big screen, forbidden passions are revealed.

Trailer:

Panghrun by Mahesh Vaman Manjrekar – India | 2019 – 131 minutes
Section: Marathi Talkies

India gained independence in 1947, but for women, freedom was still a distant dream. It took a long period of struggle for society to accept remarriage of widows or prevent underage girls from getting married in the first place. In this dark age, when women could do no more than honour their family name, fall in love with a person chosen for them by someone else, and remain faithful to him at any cost, a tragic tale of love, sacrifice and redemption unfolds. Inspired by a short story by renowned poet and author B. B. Borkar.

Screenings:
October 19th (Saturday) | PVR ECX, Citi Mall | 7:30 pm (Q&A)
October 20th (Sunday) | PVR ECX, Phoenix MarketCity Mall | 4:30 pm

Slow Burn (Ranj) by Sunit Sinha – India | 2019 – 80 minutes
Section: India Story

Amanpreet, a young man from a village in Punjab, is forced to migrate to India’s capital city, New Delhi for his livelihood. But he is not wired for city life. He yearns for everything he has left behind – his carefree days, his bride-to-be Geetu, and the familiarity of village life. Amanpreet’s co-workers at the automobile tools shop jump at every opportunity to humiliate him. His boss constantly threatens to fire him. When Amanpreet cracks under the pressure of a troubled work-life, the impending wedding, and his pennilessness, all hell breaks loose.

That Cloud Never Left by Yashaswini Raghunandan – India | 2019 – 65 minutes
Section: India Gold

The children of Daspara are convinced there is a ruby hidden somewhere within their village. They go looking for it every day, inventing various games to make this search less frustrating. Meanwhile, two friends in their early 30s who build toys for a living, Chickoo and Baban, have decided to build their biggest toy yet. A tall bamboo ladder with a single eye, which can be used to climb, sit, perform, get better mobile network, look at the village from atop or watch the sky from afar. Grounded by the porch is Kakoli didi, who spends her afternoons dreaming of the return of her husband and sons, who migrate from city to city, selling toys.

The Halt by Lav Diaz – Philippines | 2019 – 278 minutes
Section: World Cinema

Manilla, 2034. As a result of massive volcanic eruptions in the Celebes Sea in 2031, Southeast Asia has literally been in the dark for the last three years, zero sunlight. Madmen control countries, communities, and new bubble cities. Cataclysmic epidemics ravage the continent. Millions have died and millions more have left.

Screenings:
October 21st (Monday) | PVR ECX, Citi Mall | 10:30 am
October 24th (Thursday) | PVR ICON, Infiniti Mall | 12:30 pm

Trailer:

The Wild Goose Lake by Diao Yinan – China, France | 2019 – 110 minutes
Section: World Cinema

After an ill-fated encounter with a rival gang, in which he kills a policeman, gangster Zhou Zenong flees along the dark lakes of Wuhan. While the police tighten the net around him, the members of his former gang set out to trap him with the help of prostitute Liu Aiai.

Trailer:

Wet Season by Anthony Chen – Taiwan, Singapore | 2019 – 103 minutes
Section: World Cinema

Monsoon season in Singapore. The city is pouring with rain. Ling is a Chinese language teacher, whose marriage and school life are falling apart because she is unable to bear a child. But an unlikely friendship with a student helps her reaffirm her identity as a woman.

Trailer: