By Sujoy Dhar , IANS
Kolkata : A weeklong carnival of 247 films from 56 countries is usually enough to send film buffs into raptures. But when the 13th Kolkata Film Festival (KFF) begins Saturday, a large section of the city’s film fraternity will be missing — to protest the ongoing violence in Nandigram.
The city’s intellectuals have long been divided into two camps — one spearheading a civil society movement against the state government’s Nandigram and Singur policy and ongoing bloodbath in Nandigram, and the other defending the ruling communists.
Now the division is casting its shadow on the city’s much-awaited annual event. The KFF is organised by the state government under the patronage of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, an ardent film lover.
With filmmakers like Aparna Sen deciding to boycott the festival this year, it is a jolt for Bhattacharjee who loves to hobnob with internationally acclaimed filmmakers during Kolkata’s annual cultural event.
“I refuse to be a part of the festival in the backdrop of the Nandigram violence which is worse this time,” Sen said.
“This is a kind of self-censorship as we artistes are taking our own decision driven by our own conscience. With a person of Sen’s stature boycotting the festival, the message would be loud and clear,” noted playwright and film and TV serial actor Kaushik Sen told IANS.
The actors are members of the Artists, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals’ Forum.
While Aparna Sen may not have been a regular at the festival, in the past actors like Kaushik Sen were seen at the venue almost every day.
Ignoring the boycott, the festival is offering a smorgasbord of films from across the world and will have legendary Argentine director Fernando Ezequiel ‘Pino’ Solanos as the chief guest.
Solanos is scheduled to arrive here Nov 11. Before leaving Nov 13, he’ll address a seminar on Revisiting Third Cinema at Nandan, Kolkata’s state-run film complex and KFF’s main venue.
KFF might also play host to the daughter of Brazilian filmmaker, theoretician and critic Glauber Rocha.
“The package this year includes socially relevant and aesthetically rich contemporary films,” said the chief minister.
Mexican director Francisco Vargas Quevedo’s “El Violin” (The Violin) is the inaugural film.
The eight-day spread will have special packages on Katherine Hepburn, Laurence Olivier, Jean-Luc Godard, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, Rocha, Shyam Benegal and films based on the literary works of Dostoevsky and Alberto Moravia.
Amos Gitai from Israel and Shyam Benegal are also scheduled to attend the festival, which will have about 40 delegates from across the globe.
There will be five films from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and 10 documentaries from Croatia, Israel, Spain, the US, the Netherlands and India. Global warming will be the focus of four films from Britain and two from the US.
The Indian Select section has two Bengali films this year — Agnidev Chatterjee’s “Prabhu Nasto Hoye Jai” and Samir Chanda’s “Ekti Nadir Galpo”.
The film market — an annual feature — has been organised to celebrate 50 years of Bengali cinema. There will be an exhibition on Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Bismillah Khan.
“The festival’s budget is Rs.12 million of which the government will provide Rs.7 million and Rs.5 million will be raised through sponsorships,” the chief minister said.
Bhattacharjee, meanwhile, wants Kolkata to be the permanent venue of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
“Kolkata should be made the permanent venue for IFFI rather than Goa because of its cultural environment and infrastructure,” he said earlier.
“We have said this several times but in vain. I hope the centre will understand our views,” the chief minister told reporters.