AT THE end of the International Film Festival of India of 2008 and 25 films or so later, I’m sorely ruing the films I missed out on! One can’t see all 300 feature and short films scheduled, but I wish I’d made it to all of the Finnish film maker Aki Kaurismaki’s films in the Retrospective category. Kauri-smaki warms the cockles of my heart and soul or so to speak and makes life worth living. It’s my viewpoint that anyone or anything, which makes life worth living, is a success story. The success of a film festival surely lies in how many films are remembered by viewers long afterwards…

THE INTERNATIONAL Film Festival of India, 2008, closed on a sober note at the Kala Academy in Panaji with the jury declaring the Sergei Dvortesvoy-directed Kazakh-Russian film Tulpan as the award-winning film of the festival on December 2, 1008. Jury chairman Peter Chan exclaimed that the 10-12 days of IFFI was, for the jury, akin to flying through films from “the coal mines of China to the pristine landscapes of the Philippines to the harsh steppes lands of Kazakhastan”, and Tulpan was a double winner for best film (prize money Rs. 40 lakhs) and best promising director (prize money Rs. 15 lakhs).

This year’s IFFI was worth all the itsy bitsy easily resolved irritations just to see master Finnish film maker Aki Kaurismaki’s films which, with exquisite ruthlessness, focus on a gamut of human strengths and frailties…

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