15 Documentaries you cannot miss at the 21st Mumbai Film Festival

By Asian Film Festival on October 13, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

We present a list of fifteen documentaries 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:

143 Sahara Street by Hassen Ferhani – Algeria, France | 2019 – 103 minutes
Section: World Cinema

In the middle of the Algerian Sahara, in her relay, a woman writes her history. She welcomes – for a cigarette, a coffee or eggs – truckers, wandering beings and dreams… Her name is Malika.

Trailer:

Aïlo’s Journey by Guillaume Maidatchevsky – France, Finland | 2018 – 86 minutes
Section: Half Ticket

Follow a young reindeer’s first year at close range, filled with moments of puzzlement,
wonder, struggle, and delight as Aïlo, guided by his mother, must navigate an icy world.
Sharing the terrain with Aïlo are a wily, ever-wiggly stoat, an endlessly curious red-
eared squirrel, and sharp-eyed wolves.

Screenings:
October 20th (Sunday) | Matterden Carnival Cinemas | 7:30 pm (Post Screening Discussion)

Trailer:

Coral Woman by Priya Thuvassery – India | 2019 – 52 minutes
Section: Half Ticket

The filmmaker travels with Uma Mani, a certified scuba diver, exploring the underwater
world and the threat to coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar, India. Born in a traditional family in Tamil Nadu, the 53-year-old, a homemaker, has been trying to bring attention to this
alarming environmental issue through her paintings.

Screenings:
October 20th (Sunday) | Matterden Carnival Cinemas | 6:00 pm (Post Screening Discussion)

Trailer:

Dream Away by Marouan Omara, Johanna Domke – Egypt, Germany | 2018 – 90 minutes
Section: Egyptian Cinema

Recent terror attacks have shaken Sharm El Sheikh, leaving it devoid of its usual tourist crowd. A group of young Egyptian workers in a luxury hotel compound are forced to confront their future and their identity, lingering between the liberal, western lifestyle of the town and the traditional culture they originate from.

Screenings:
October 20th (Sunday) | PVR ECX, Citi Mall | 2:30 pm
October 22nd (Tuesday) | PVR ICON, Infiniti Mall | 1:00 pm

Trailer:

For Sama by Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts – Syria, UK, USA | 2019 – 95 minutes
Section: World Cinema

A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, Waad al-Khateab brings us an intimate portrait of her life through five years of uprising in Aleppo, Syria, as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her.

Trailer:

Hail Satan? by Penny Lane – USA | 2019 – 95 minutes
Section: World Cinema

When media-savvy members of the Satanic Temple organize a series of public actions designed to advocate for religious freedom and challenge corrupt authority, they prove that with little more than a clever idea, a mischievous sense of humour, and a few rebellious friends, you can speak truth to power in some truly profound ways.

Trailer:

Last Headhunters of the Nagas by Aryan Biju Baruah – India | 2019 – 77 minutes
Section: India Story

Only the last generation of ‘headhunters’ survive on the hills of Naga. Once, they killed people and collected heads and other body parts, but today their lives have changed with the arrival of a new generation.

Memory: The Origins of Alien by Alexandre O. Philippe – USA | 2019 – 93 minutes
Section: After Dark

A contemplation on the symbiotic collaborative process of moviemaking, the power of myth and the collective unconscious, this is the untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), rooted in Greek and Egyptian mythology, underground comics, the art of Francis Bacon, and the dark visions of Dan O’Bannon and H.R. Giger.

Screenings:
October 21st (Monday) | PVR Le Reve, Bandra | 8:00 pm
October 24th (Thursday) | PVR ICON, Infiniti Mall | 8:30 pm

Trailer:

Midnight Family by Luke Lorentzen – USA, Mexico | 2019 – 81 minutes
Section: World Cinema

In a city where the government operates only 45 emergency ambulances for a population of over nine million, the Ochoa family acts as a crucial – but unregistered – underground lifeline. In a job riddled with police bribes and cutthroat competition, will the Ochoas wade into ethically questionable territory?

Trailer:

Midnight Traveler by Hassan Fazili – USA, Qatar, Canada, UK | 2019 – 86 minutes
Section: World Cinema

When Hassan Fazili’s documentary aired on Afghan national television, the Taliban assassinated the film’s main subject and put a price on Fazili’s head, forcing him to flee with his family. With the help of his wife and two young daughters, he shot this film on three mobile phones, capturing an intimate portrait of their struggle.

Trailer:

One Child Nation by Nunfu Wang, Jialing Zhang – China, USA | 2019 – 85 minutes
Section: World Cinema

First-time mother and filmmaker Nanfu Wang, uncovers the untold history of China’s One-Child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.

Trailer:

Shut Up Sona by Deepti Gupta – India | 2019 – 84 minutes
Section: Spotlight

A legal notice arrives one day at singer and popstar Sona’s doorstep, accusing her of blasphemy. Her fault? Singing an 800-year-old song that has devotional lyrics while being dressed ‘obscenely’. Used to being questioned every single day, this is just one fight of many, as she fights for equal space in a culture ridden with misogyny.

Screenings:
October 21st (Monday) | PVR ICON, Infinity Mall | 4:20 pm
October 24th (Thursday) | PVR Le Reve, Bandra | 11:30 am

Talking About Trees by Suhaib Gasmelbari
France, Sudan, Germany, Chad, Qatar | 2019 – 93 minutes
Section: International Competition

Ibrahim, Suleiman, Manar and Eltayeb have been friends for over 45 years. They left their motherland in the 1960s and 70s to study film abroad and founded the Sudanese Film Group in 1989. After years of distance and exile, they reunite, hoping to finally make their old dream come true: to bring cinema to Sudan. They are determined to leave something behind and ignite a love for cinema. Throughout the images they created, the ones they lost and the ones they had hoped to make, the beautiful and horrific faces of their country appear.

Clip:

The Churning of the Ocean (Samudra Manthan) by Kamal Swaroop
India, USA | 2019 – 106 minutes
Section: Spotlight

At Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest congregation of religious pilgrims, a troupe of theatre actors stage a play based on an origin myth of Hinduism – the churning of the cosmic ocean. The legend tells of an epic battle between the gods and the demons for an elixir of immortality. The mela (or fair) is celebrated at the site where the elixir was believed to have fallen. Today, millions of Hindu pilgrims gather there to bathe in the holy river over a two-month period.

Screenings:
October 22nd (Tuesday) | PVR ICON, Infiniti Mall | 5:15 pm (With Q&A)
October 23rd (Wednesday) | PVR Le Reve, Bandra | 11:30 am

Trailer:

The Kingmaker by Lauren Greenfield – USA, Denmark | 2019 – 100 minutes
Section: World Cinema

Centered on the indomitable character of Imelda Marcos, The Kingmaker examines, with unprecedented access, the Marcos family’s improbable return to power in the Philippines. The film explores the disturbing legacy of the Marcos regime and chronicles Imelda’s present-day push to help her son, Bongbong, win the vice-presidency.

Trailer: