New Delhi: The 2023 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will witness a heavy presence of Indian films, including the Manoj Bajpayee-starrer 'Joram' and writer Varun Grover's directorial debut 'All India Rank'.
Films in various Indian languages feature in diverse segments of the festival, being held in the port city of the Netherlands for the past 52 years. This year, the film gala will run from January 25 to February 5.
'Joram' will be screened as part of 'Big Screen Competition', which aims to bridge the gap between popular, classic and art house cinema. The film, which reunites Bajpayee and filmmaker Devashish Makhija after the success of their 2019 movie 'Bhonsle', is a survival thriller about a displaced indigenous man.
'All India Rank', part of 'Bright Future' segment that showcases feature-length debuts, is a semi-autobiographical tale, centers on a middle-class boy named Vivek, who enrolled in coaching classes for the notoriously competitive entrance exams of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).
The film, produced by 'Matchbox Shots', will serve as the closing film of the festival.
Two short films - 'Dear Me' by Suchana Saha and 'A Flower In A Foglight' by Gaurav Puri - will be screened as part of the 'Short and Mid-length' programme, which is a showcase of films under 63 minutes.
Santosh Sivan's 'Moha', starring Jaaved Jaffrey and Shaylee Krishen, along with two Malayalam movies - Senna Hegde's '1744 White Alto' and 'Family' by Don Palathara - will be screened in the 'Harbour' segment. The section features a range of contemporary cinema that the festival champions.
Ladakhi-language movie 'Last Days of Summer', directed by Stenzin Tankong, will be competing in the 'Ammodo Tiger Short Competition'. The segment also includes 'Night and Fear', an Odia movie directed by Lipika Singh Darai.
The film gala will also celebrate filmmaker Manmohan Desai's 1977 multistarrer classic 'Amar Akbar Anthony' in its 'Cinema Regained' programme. The segment offers restored classics, documentaries on film culture and explorations of cinema's heritage. It will also screen a 10-minute documentary 'Blueprint of a Pleasure Machine', directed by Amit Dutta.
The IFFR has also dedicated a segment in India, titled 'Focus: The Shape of Things to Come?'.
"In 2022, India celebrated the 75th anniversary of independence. But is really all well in the 'world's largest democracy'? Both documentaries and fictional narratives reflect on the socio-political development of the past 30 years and ask: Is the institutional success of right-wing Hindu-nationalist groups and the persecution of dissenting voices a sign of the shape of things to come and not only in India?" the official description of the programme read.
It features line-up of films and documentaries, including Kabir Khan's 2015 directorial 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan', starring Salman Khan, Anand Patwardhan's celebrated documentary 'In the Name of God' ('Ram Ke Naam'), 'Kali of Emergency', 'Election Diary - Phulpur', 'Encountered on Saffron Agenda?' and 'Final Solution'.