IFFK 2022 to spotlight the Afghan conflict through five hard-hitting films
In the backdrop of the conflict in Afghanistan, five movies which portrays the Afghan politics and lives of people during a war will be showcased at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK 2022) under three categories: Framing Conflict, Jury Films and World Cinema. Another notable fact is that three of the five films in the list are directed by women filmmakers: Sahraa Karimi, Granaz Moussavi and Roya Sadat.
The Iranian-Australian director Granaz Moussavi’s When Pomegranates Howl (2021) charts the life of Hewad, a nine-year-old boy who ekes out a living on the streets of Kabul to support his family. A photojournalist documents the life of this boy, holding a mirror to the lives of children of this war-torn society.
Mordan Dar Abe Motahhar or Drowning in Holy Water (2020) is the work of Navid Mahmoudi, who migrated to Iraq from Afghanistan. Two lovers, Rona and Hamed, are planning to immigrate to Europe in search of a better life. However, Hamed finds it difficult to deal with the offer to convert to Christianity in exchange for quick immigration.
In A Letter to the President (2017), Roya Sadat, the first woman director in the history of Afghanistan cinema in the post-Taliban era, focuses on the heart-wrenching story of Soraya, a Kabul police chief who is forced to write a letter to the President for reprieve after having been arrested for murder committed while trying to save a young woman accused of adultery from a violent village clan.
Sahraa Karimi’s Hava, Maryam , Ayesha (2019) revolves around three pregnant Afghan women from different social backgrounds trying to figure out their lives on their own terms.
The irony of two wounded US soldiers having to depend on a displaced Afghan family living in a Soviet era tank for survival is the theme of Opium War (2008), directed by Golden Globe-winner Siddiq Barmak.
IFFK 2022 runs from March 18 – 25 at Thiruvananthapuram.
‘A Tale of Love and Desire’, an abstract expression of poetry, love and lust,
to be screened at IFFK 2022
A Tale of Love and Desire, written and directed by Leyla Bouzid, which will premiere at the 26th IFFK under the World Cinema category, is a coming-of-age tale of love and eroticism.
The film follows Ahmed, an 18-year-old Algerian-French university student, and Farah, a girl from Tunisia, who is new to Paris. He discovers a collection of erotic Arabic literature and falls in love with Farah, who he finds to be full of life. The film showcases the friendship, budding romance and sexual tension between the two. It also portrays the shyness from the boy’s side, something that is rarely narrated in films.
“Pure love prefers to turn
away,” mumbles Ahmed a…
