We present a list of 20 Films you cannot miss at the 18th Mumbai Film Festival that will take place from October 20th – 27th in Mumbai, India.
A Touch of Sin (Thian Zhu Ding) by Jia Zhang-Ke – China | 2013 – 139 min.
Fiction | Section: Excellence in Cinema Awards
An angry miner revolts against the corruption of his village leaders. A migrant worker at home for the New Year discovers the infinite possibilities a firearm can offer. A pretty receptionist at a sauna is pushed to the limit when a rich client assaults her. A young factory worker goes from job to job trying to improve his lot in life. Four people, four different provinces. A reflection on contemporary China: that of an economic giant slowly being eroded by violence.
Schedule
10.22.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 4 312 – 12:45 pm
10.25.2016 – REGAL 1166 – 1:30 pm
After the Storm (Umi Yorimo Mada Fukaku) by Koreeda Hirokazu – Japan | 2016 – 117 min.
Fiction | Section: World Cinema
Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay child support. After the death of his father, his aging mother and beautiful ex-wife seem to be moving on with their lives. Renewing contact with his initially distrusting family, Ryota struggles to take back control of his existence and to find a lasting place in the life of his young son – until a stormy summer night offers them a chance to truly bond again.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 2 216 – 1:00 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 3 – 312 – 10:00 am
10.23.2016 – REGAL 1166 – 8:00 pm
10.25.2016 – PVR MULUND Audi 1 287 – 8:30 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR KURLA Audi 8 207 – 8:30 pm
Apprentice by Boo Junfeng – Singapore | 2016 – 96 min.
Fiction | Section: World Cinema
Aiman is a 28-year-old Malay correctional officer who is recently transferred to the territory’s top prison. Aiman lives with his older sister Suhaila in a modest housing estate.
At his new workplace, Aiman begins to take an interest in a 65-year-old sergeant named Rahim. Soon, it is revealed that the charismatic Rahim is actually the long-serving chief executioner of the prison. Rahim also takes notice of the principled and diligent Aiman. When Rahim’s assistant suddenly quits, he asks Aiman to become his apprentice. Aiman tells Suhaila of his new job position, but Suhaila becomes upset, as their father was actually executed by Rahim. Aiman knew this all along. Can Aiman overcome his conscience and a haunted past to possibly take over as the next chief executioner?
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR KURLA Audi 8 207 – 8:30 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 3 216 – 8:45 pm
10.25.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 3 216 – 5:45 pm
Barakah Meets Barakah (Barakah Yoqabil Barakah) by Mahmoud Sabbagh
Saudi Arabia | 2016 – 88 min.
Fiction | Section: World Cinema
Barakah (Hisham Fageeh) is a municipal worker from a humble background while Bibi (Fatima Al Banawi) is the beautiful and stylish adopted daughter of a wealthy couple. Barakah goes about his mundane tasks, following rules he’s unsure about. In stark contrast, the sophisticated fashionista Bibi lives the high life, committed to cultivating her personal social media brand. When the two meet by chance, sparks fly. A first date, though, is no simple matter because unchaperoned meetings and physical contact are strictly forbidden. The two romantics must find a way around the rules to get to know each other. Filled with a sharp, frank humour, and with subtle social commentary, Barakah Meets Barakah is an enchanting love story.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR MULUND Audi 1 287 – 8:30 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 1 216 – 8:00 pm
10.24.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 1 147 – 8:30 pm
10.27.2017 – PVR ICON Audi 2 220 – 9:15 pm
Chronicles of Hari (Harikatha Prasanga) by Ananya Kasaravalli
India | 2015 – 105 min.
Fiction | Section: The India Story
Chronicles of Hari begins with two young documentary filmmakers interviewing Yakshagana artists. Yakshagana is a type of Indian folk theater in which all the characters are played by men. The documentary crew wants to research Harishandra, known to have killed himself despite his popularity in playing female roles. His story shows how a society with strong prejudices toward gender roles can destroy a talented person.
Harishandra played female roles on stage at night but lived as a man during the day, but soon the boundaries between night and day, the stage and reality became blurred. The resulting an identity crisis and social prejudices made looking into his own desires an impossibility. Because he played female roles, he was excluded from heterosexual relationships and marriage. When he tried to cross gender roles by wearing a skirt in everyday life, people who had admired him started to despise him. This mockumentary appropriately conveys his fragmented and fluid life as he spans the gender divide as well as art and daily life via an episodic structure based on various interviews.
Schedule
10.23.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 2 217 – 1:15 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 1 216 – 6:00 pm
Colours of Innocence (Sahaj Paather Gappo) by Manas Mukul Pal
India | 2016 – 86 min.
Fiction | Section: Half Ticket
Chhottu and Gopal are two brothers of a tender age. Their childhood in their village is disrupted when their father meets with an accident. Circumstances force Gopal to mature rather quickly. He becomes more responsible and starts selling wares to earn a little money for home. Meanwhile, Chhottu comes to learn of the grand Janmastomi (Lord Krishna’s Birthday) feast at the Seth’s house. He is overcome by excitement at the thought of a possible invitation! To ensure that it arrives, Chhottu bribes the grandma from the affluent Seth’s house with palmyras. When his brother Gopal discovers this scheme, he is furious: he had plans to sell the palmyra to earn some cash for their mother. The brothers fight over this but Chhottu is still hopeful that they will be invited to the grand feast. He starts counting the hours!
Schedule
10.23.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 4 216 – 5:00 pm
10.24.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 2 217 – 11:30 am
10.27.2016 – PVR MULUND Audi 1 287 – 6:30 pm
Diamond Island by Davy Chou – Cambodia | 2015 – 101 min.
Fiction | Section: International Competition
Diamond Island is a symbol of Cambodia’s future – a sprawling, ultra-modern paradise for the rich on the riverbank in Phnom Penh. Like many other country boys, Bora, 18, is lured from his village to work on the construction of this property developer’s dream. In Diamond Island, he forges new friendships and is even reunited with his charismatic older brother Solei, who disappeared five years ago. Solei introduces Bora to the exciting world of Cambodia’s privileged urban youth, with its girls, its nightlife and its illusions.
Schedule
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 2 216 – 1:15 pm
10.24.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 3 169 – 3:45 pm
10.27.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 4 312 – 8:30 pm
Evolution of a Filipino Family by Lav Diaz – Philippines | 2004 – 654 min.
Fiction | Section: The New Medium
An especially long film. And a special long film, that ranks among the longest films of all time. An even more special detail is that, while watching it, the film gives you an inevitable feeling that it should last exactly this long, if not longer. The film was shot bit by bit over a period of ten years, first on film and more recently on video. It is a method of shooting that was partly necessitated by financial considerations, but that also fits in well with the epic story that extends over a period of more than fifteen years. The film spans the Marcos regime’s state of siege in the Philippines (1971-1987). As the title indicates, Diaz follows the adventures of a family against the backdrop of the social and political developments in this crucial period in history. – Gertjan Zuilhof (IFFR)
Schedule
10.26.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 6 86 – 5:30 pm
10.27.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 5 86 – 2:00 pm
Fukushima, Mon Amour (Grusse Aus Fukushima) by Doris Dörrie
Germany | 2016 – 104 min.
Fiction | Section: World Cinema
Young German woman Marie (Rosalie Thomass) escapes to Fukushima to change her life. Working with the organization Clowns4Help, she hopes to bring joy to 2011 nuclear disaster survivors, some still living in emergency shelters. Marie soon realizes she‘s absolutely unsuited to the task of making tragedy less weari- some. But instead of running away, Marie decides to stay with cantankerous old Satomi (Kaori Momoi), the last geisha of Fukushima, who of her own accord has decided to retreat back to her ruined house in the formerly radioactive Exclusion Zone. Two women who couldn‘t be more different, but who – each in her own way – are trapped in the past and must learn to liberate themselves from guilt and the burden of memory.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 1 216 – 12:30 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 3 169 – 3:40 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 2 220 – 4:15 pm
Lady of the Lake (Loktak Lairembee) by Haobam Paban Kumar
India | 2016 – 71 min.
Fiction | Section: India Gold
Tomba is sick and depressed since the authorities burnt his huts after blaming his community for the pollution of the Loktak Lake. He has confined himself at home and lies idle the entire day, terrified of the possibility that the authorities may return to take whatever he has left. One fine morning, Tomba accidentally finds a gun within the biomass. At first he is confused, but slowly, starts enjoying his newfound toy. He becomes aggressive and starts looking for opportunities to use the gun. One day an old lady knocks at his door in the middle of the night.
Schedule
10.24.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 4 216 – 7:15 pm
10.25.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 4 177 – 3:45 pm
10.27.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 3 216 – 2:30 pm
Old Stone (Lao Shi) by Johnny Ma – China, Canada | 2016 – 80 min.
Fiction | Section: World Cinema
After he is responsible for a car accident, Mr. Old Stone, a taxi driver in small-town China has to face the absurdity wrought by contemporary, Kafkaesque Chinese bureaucracy. With his family, friends and his work endangered – he begins to wonder if murder is a way out?
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 4 312 – 4:00 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR MULUND Audi 1 287 – 8:00 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 1 147 – 1:10 pm
Railway Children by Prithvi Konanur – India | 2016 – 115 min.
Fiction | Section: India Gold
Raju, a 12-year-old runaway, steps into an unknown, never-seen-before world on the railway platform. Timid, insecure and unsure, he falls into the hands of a gang involved in illegal businesses. Jollu, a gang-member of Raju’s age and a substance addict, teaches Raju the tricks and trades of surviving on the platform. They realize that while platforms are divided among gangs for selling spurious drinking water, the trains themselves are free for anyone. Both Raju and Jollu reconcile with another platform-boy and start selling water on their own, undercutting their boss and inviting danger to their lives.
Schedule
10.23.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 4 216 – 1:45 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 1 147 – 5:15 pm
10.27.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 3 216 – 5:00 pm
Sand Storm (Sufat Chol) by Elite Zexer – Israel | 2016 – 87 min.
Fiction | Section: International Competition
As wedding festivities get underway in a Bedouin village in Israel, Jalila finds herself in the awkward position of hosting her husband Suliman’s marriage to a second, much younger wife. During the celebration, Jalila stumbles across eldest daughter Layla’s involvement with a boy from her university – a strictly forbidden liaison that would shame the family. Burying the indignity of Suliman and his new bride living next door, Jalila also tries to contain Layla’s situation by clamping down on her. Younger and possessed of a boundless spirit, Layla sees a different life for herself.
Schedule
10.23.2016 – PVR MULUND Audi 1 287 – 2:45 pm
10.25.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 3 312 – 3:00 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 2 216 – 7:00 pm
The Bait (Tope) by Buddhadeb Dasgupta – India | 2016 – 88 min.
Fiction | Section: Spotlight
Dasgupta Buddhadeb, one of India’s most well-known independent film directors over the last 40 years, displays lyrical and cinematic charms in his most recent work, which reminds us of Fellini’s surrealistic mysticism and Makhmalbaf’s ethnographic illusionism. The Bait adopts a mythical symbolism based on India’s locality and self-reflexive modernist aesthetics. The four groups of people in the film represent India’s magnificent diversity: A poor family living on circus tricks; a village lord, in pursuit of a tiger, lives in the glory of his past and is accompanied by a young and lonely wife who dreams of sex; a documentary film crew trying to capture a tiger hunting prey; and finally a postman who gets tired of his tedious life and climbs up a tree to become friends with monkeys. These stories intersect with one another. Elaborately directed mise-en-scene and plots rich with allegory create a phenomenal film-viewing experience. The contrasts between the poor aspiring to be rich and the rich indulging in weird enterprise, between the young longing for success and the old who tire of the everyday are carefully used as devices to project the complexities of contemporary Indian society. (Minah JEONG BIFF Catalogue 2016)
Schedule
10.26.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 3 312 – 5:00 pm
The Red Turtle (La Tortue Rouge) by Michael Dudok De Wit
France, Japan, Belgium | 2016 – 80 min.
Fiction | Section: Rendezvous
Studio Ghibli’s first international co-production is a ravishing castaway fable that combines beauty, mystery, drama and heartbreak – with not a word spoken. It’s a triumph for animator Michael Dudok de Wit.
Schedule
10.23.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 3 312 – 10:30 am
10.24.2016 – PVR ECX Audi5 216 – 6:10 pm
10.25.2016 – PVR KURLA Audi 8 207 – 8:30 pm
10.26.2016 – REGAL 1166 – 5:45 pm
The Road to Mandalay by Midi Z
Taiwan, France, Germany, Myanmar | 2016 – 108 min.
Fiction | Section: World Cinema
Lianqing is a 23-year-old Burmese. To find work, she and many others from Myanmar follow a secret route down the Mekong River and on into Thailand. Since she has no work permit, she starts out washing dishes for a low wage in a rundown restaurant. Guo, who illegally crossed the border with her and has fallen in love with her, brings her to a textile factory where she can earn a higher wage. They work together there, but Lianqing hopes to eventually get the necessary legal documents and find better work in Bangkok or Taiwan. Even though she keeps getting cheated by people who profess that they can help her, she never gives up—a stubbornness that Guo just can’t understand. In order to make more money to pay for the documents, Lianqing becomes a prostitute, and when Guo finds out, he becomes incensed. When Lianqing finally gets her hands on the permits, Guo confronts her…with a knife in his hand. This is a rare, slow-burning and realistic drama about the Burmese migrants and their life in the slums. (KANG Naeyoung BIFF Catalogue 2016)
Schedule
10.21.2016 – REGAL 1166 – 10:30 am
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 1 216 – 11:00 am
10.24.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 3 216 – 5:55 pm
The Wailing (Goksung) by Na Hong-jin
South Korea, US | 2016 – 156 min.
Fiction | Section: After Dark
Mysterious events following the appearance of a stranger throws a village into utter chaos. The police provisionally conclude that it is down to a mass poisoning caused by wild mushrooms, but paranoia and rumor point the finger at the stranger—and it’s escalating. Policeman Jonggu becomes convinced by the stories when, first, a woman claims to have witnessed something, and then his daughter Hyojin gets sick with similar symptoms to the other villagers. In his desperation he has an exorcism performed on the stranger by shaman Ilgwang.
The Wailing is not the kind of horror film that shocks and scares without reason; it sticks to the rules of the genre but uses them in a less than conventional way. Director Na Hong-jin utilizes this spooky scenario as a canvas on which he paints people’s fates, which is clearly unavoidable no matter what path they choose. Neither Jonggu nor the young priest is to blame for the awful consequences; they just fall into tragedy as Jonggu tries to save his daughter and the priest’s compassion become the root of his suspicion.
Schedule
10.23.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 5 216 – 8:00 pm
10.24.2016 – LE REVE 259 – 9:00 pm
The Woman Who Left (Ang Babeng Humayo) by Lav Diaz
Philippines – 226 min.
Fiction | Section: World Cinema
Horacia has spent the last thirty years in a women’s correctional facility. A former elementary school teacher, she leads a quiet existence helping others practice reading and writing. When another inmate confesses to the original crime, Horacia is released and seeks out her estranged family. While searching for her missing son Junior, she discovers that the homeland of her memory – the Philippines of the late 90s – is overrun by corruption and rampant kidnappings. Gradually, her kind demeanour begins to decompose into something vengeful and malicious.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 2 220 – 10:00 am
10.26.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 5 86 – 11:00 am
10.27.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 4 216 – 10:00 am
The World of Us (Woorideul) by Yoon Gaeun
South Korea | 2016 – 95 min.
Fiction | Section: Half Ticket
Sun is a quiet girl from a poor family, always chosen last for sports teams at school and picked on by her classmates despite her agreeable and kind nature. As luck would have it, she bumps into Jia, a new transfer student, on the last day of the term and they spend the summer break together. As Sun shows Jia around the neighborhood and they play at each other’s houses and share secrets, they become best friends. Sun is fascinated by exciting stories of Jia’s affluent jet-setting family, while Jia admires Sun’s skilled fingers, her braided bracelets and the nail polish she makes herself from crushed flower petals. But when the new school year begins, everyday reality puts their relationship to the test.
White Sun (Seto Surya) by Deepak Rauniyar
Nepal, US, Qatar, Netherlands | 2016 – 89 min.
When his father dies, former anti-regime partisan Chandra must travel to his remote mountain village after nearly a decade away. Little Pooja is anxiously awaiting to see the man she thinks is her father for the first time. But she’s confused when Chandra arrives with Badri, a young street orphan rumoured to be his son. She tries to calm her mother Durga, the old man‘s caretaker, after the angry woman is excluded from preparing the body for funeral rites because tradition does not allow women to participate. Chandra‘s arrival is more awkward than he expected due to a complication with removing his father‘s body from home. He and Durga struggle with an unspoken pain that prevents any reconciliation. To make matters worse, Chandra must face his brother Suraj, who was on the opposing side during the civil war. The two brothers cannot put aside political feelings while carrying their father‘s body down the steep mountain path to the river for cremation. Suraj storms off in a rage, leaving Chandra with no other men strong enough to help. Under pressure from the village elders, Chandra must seek help from outside the village to obey the rigid caste and discriminatory gender traditions he fought to eliminate during the war. Young children Pooja and Badri tag along as Chandra searches for a solution in neighboring villages. The unlikely trio search for help among the police, guests at a local wedding, and rebel guerrillas… (BIFF Catalogue 2016)
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR PHOENIX Audi 2 217 – 2:15 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR MULUND Audi 1 287 – 5:30 pm
10.27.2016 – LE REVE 259 – 7:30 pm
If you like this article you may want to check the 5 Short Films and 10 Documentaries you cannot miss.
To know more about this festival visit the FESTIVAL PROFILE or go to the official webpage of the festival HERE.
Categories: Film Festival
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