Mumbai, 02 November 2023
Day 6 of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023 was power-packed with Cinema, Conversations & masterclasses, and interesting films playing across the festival’s 8 venues and 20 screens. Audiences were entertained & moved with a holistic experience of the films they watched across the categories of contemporary movies and new cinematic voices from South Asia.
There were two insightful masterclasses at the festival today powered by Film AlUla. The first was a conversation with Lisa Joy, co-creator of the sci-fi show Westworld speaking on the subject of ‘Creating fan fiction series in the streaming era’. Lisa Joy spoke about the rhythm and shape of stories, shining the spotlight on the process of breaking down a story into seasons and episodes for television viewing while maintaining solid storytelling. She spoke to Suchin Mehrotra on the art of writing a compelling plot and structuring a story across multiple seasons to engage your viewers. The second masterclass witnessed a houseful for Australian director, screenwriter & actor David Michôd in conversation with film producer Paolo Bertolin speaking about how his early life and time at the film school influenced his filmmaking journey. The award-winning filmmaker David Michôd, known for his festival-favourite films Animal Kingdom, The Rover, and War Machine shared insights on the process of filmmaking, telling stories from an organic context and keeping it all in perspective.
The special screenings were led by the world premiere of Sharma ji ki Beti and the India premiere of Yellow Bus.
Mississippi Masala made a debut at the festival with a screening followed by a special Q&A session on the film with Mira Nair and Sooni Taraporevala moderated by Aseem Chhabra.
There were several press conferences throughout the day focusing on the larger impact, from filmmakers to audiences. At the South Asia press conference, filmmakers Sarvnik Kaur, Dibakar Das Roy, Saurav Rai, Dominic Sangma and Jayant Somalkar spoke about their films and filmmaking process. The South Asia
Features panel saw directors Prasanth Vijay, Avinash Prakash and Akshay Shah in conversation with Srikanth Srinivasan. They spoke about their personal connection with their research, need for doing the ground work, have the right material to construct a narrative and how their films came to life.. Next, at the South Asia Non Features saw a conversation between Rathindran R. Prasad, Virat Pal, Omkar Phatak, Milind Dhaimade, Shailesh Singh and Samrat DasGupta about the processes and inspirations. And the discussion on World Cinema brought together directors Savanah Leaf, Annie Ohayon, Amjad Al-Rasheed, Tommaso Santambrogio, Ismail Basbeth and Nehir Tuan.
The Wednesday glamorous red carpet was walked by prestigious filmmakers like Tahira Kashyap Khurrana, Aayushman Khurrana Tanishtha Chatterjee, Shrutismriti Changkakoti, Adhiraj Kashyap and Shailesh Singh.
On day 6, films including Four Daughters, Strange Way of Life, Rapture, The Battle, Dilli Dark, The Yellow Bus and Today Me, Tomorrow You were screened, leaving the audiences in awe with their lively storytelling and carefully crafted narrative styles.
Here’s a full list of the films that played on Day 6, with synopses of the movies.
Movie: Shoebox
Director: Faraz Ali
Synopsis:Mampu watches her father struggle to keep his one screen theatre afloat, as her hometown acquires a new name, losing traces of its rich cultural past.
Movie: The Monk and the Gun
Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji
Synopsis: Kingdom of Bhutan, 2006. Modernisation has finally arrived. It is the last country in the world to connect to the internet and television, and now the biggest change of all awaits: democracy. To teach people how to vote, the authorities organise a mock election, but the locals appear unconvinced. Travelling to rural Bhutan, where religion is more popular than politics, the election supervisor discovers that a monk is planning a mysterious ceremony for election day.
Movie: Naangal
Director: Avinash Prakash
Synopsis: Naangal traces the journey of 3 siblings and their dog, finding joy and happiness in growing up alone, making peace with a tyrant of a father and an absent mother. Hope arrives in the form of their maternal grandparents, but will it be too good to be true?
Movie :Sahela
Director :Raghuvir Joshi
Synopsis : Sahela follows the journey of Vir Oza and Nitya Behl, a married couple living in the suburbs of Parramatta, Sydney. They face challenges in their personal and professional lives. After reaching a breaking point, Vir comes out to Nitya about his sexuality, which causes a rift between them and brings shame to their families. Eventually, they divorce and go their separate ways, albeit still emotionally tethered to each other. Nitya is now with another man while Vir sails, having successfully tied the bowline knot.
Movie:Return to Reason Director:Man Ray
Synopsis: In 1923, Man Ray improvises his first film. This movie, boldly surrealist, is called Le Retour à la raison. Subsequently, he renews the experience with Emak Bakia in 1926, L‘Étoile de mer in 1928 and Les Mystères du château de Dé in 1929. In 2023, Jim Jarmush and Carter Logan, the founding members of the group Sqürl, compose a soundtrack to the four films as if they were forming one unique piece. Return to Reason celebrates the 100th anniversary of Man Ray’s cinematic oeuvre, restored for the first time in 4K. It reveals the unique dialogue between two multi talented artists and creates a piece of visual music that resonates through its modernity and poetry.
Movie: The Delinquents
Director: Rodrigo Moreno
Synopsis : The Delinquents reinvents the heist film as a free-flowing adventure like no other. A bank employee plans his liberation from corporate monotony: he’ll steal enough money for a modest retirement, then confess and serve prison time while his co-worker holds on to the cash. But, under pressure, the accomplice heads to a remote idyll to hide the funds. There, he encounters a mysterious woman who will transform his life forever. This latest film from Argentinian writer-director Rodrigo Moreno melds the existential and the playful to explore the nature of freedom. It is at turns surreal, relatable, funny, romantic, surprising, restorative, and above all – a delight.
Movie: France Against the Robots
Director:Jean-Marie Straub
Synopsis:A man wanders near the Léman reciting the critical thoughts of Bernanos!
Movie: The return of the prodigal son – Humiliated
Director: Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
Synopsis: A kind of installment to Workers, Peasants, this film deals with workers and peasants who find themselves confronted with the laws of politics and economy.
Movie: Millennium Mambo
Director:Hsiao-Hsien Hou
Synopsis: A stylish and seductive submersion into the techno-scored neon nightlife of Taipei, Hou’s much-misunderstood marvel star Shu Qi (The Assassin, 2015) as an aimless bar hostess drifting away from her blowhard boyfriend and towards Jack Kao’s suave, sensitive gangster. Structured as a flashback to the then-present from the then-future of 2011, it’s a transfixing trance-out of a movie, drenched in club lights, ecstatic endorphin-rush exhilaration, and a nagging undercurrent of ennui.
Movie: Guras
Director: Saurav Rai
Synopsis: The cardamom price drop in the mountain village of Darjeeling brings instability to nine-year-old Guras’s life. Then her pet dog goes missing. Despite the looming fear of a loose leopard, a faint bark from across the valley brings hope and she sets out. It turns into a mystical journey where she meets unworldly beings.
Movie: Movie:Dilli Dark
Director: Dibakar Das Roy
Synopsis: Michael Okeke, a Nigerian student living in New Delhi wants to get his MBA and settle in India… but his part-time job gives him a dubious double life in a city notoriously difficult for outsiders.
Movie: Un Amor Director: Isabel Coixet
Synopsis: Escaping her overwhelming life in the city, Natalia (30) finds refuge in La Escapa, a village deep in the Spanish countryside. In a rustic derelict house, Nat aims to build anew. But when confronted with a hostile landlord and distrusting villagers, Nat gives in to an unsettling sexual proposal from her neighbour, Andreas. Soon, a devouring, obsessive passion will consume Nat fully, forcing her to reconsider the woman she thought she was. Based on the best-selling novel by Sara Mesa, Un Amor is a moving account of existential doubt and the transformative power of carnal desire, exploring the subversive nature of gender roles.
Movie: Against The Tide
Director: Sarvnik Kaur
Synopsis: Bombay fishermen Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the Koli knowledge system of harvesting the sea following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods; Ganesh has instead embraced technology. The film follows their deep friendship and rising resentment against the backdrop of an increasingly hostile sea because of climate change.
Movie: Celluloid Underground
Director: Ehsan Khoshbakht
Synopsis: Celluloid Underground is an autobiographical feature-length documentary by Iranian filmmaker, writer, and curator Ehsan Khoshbakht about his experience of growing up in Iran after the 1979 revolution when his love of cinema became the catalyst for his rebellion against the Islamic regime.
It’s the story of his friendship with the mysterious Ahmad, a maverick film collector who hid thousands of banned 35mm prints and posters in basements in downtown Tehran to save them from the fundamentalist fanatics. Ehsan celebrates the power of cinema to resist tyranny and the unsung heroism of the friend who changed his life.
Category: Focus South Asia
Movie: The Awakening
Director: Sumi Mathai
Synopsis: A young girl unwittingly learns the rules of existence in a patriarchal world.
Movie: A Bleak Home
Director: Bidushi Giri
Synopsis: A dance tutor encounters the infidelity of her partner and her father. She has to go through the misery as she walks her own way.
Movie :Helena
Director: Ayarush Paudel
Synopsis: Helena works in the UAE as a waitress. Her son in Nepal has been asking for a laptop for the last four months and has now stopped going to school. Finally, when she’s saved enough money to buy one, she finds out a small amount of cash is missing. When the son calls her, she lies to him saying she has bought the laptop and is sending it with her friend. Submersed in the lies, amid the pressure from work and family, how will Helena get through this?
Movie: Evening Clouds
Director: Aung Phyoe
Synopsis: Out of work and forced to marry a man she dislikes, young San Kyi plans to run away with her best friend, but complications unfold.
Movie: Thirty
Director: Ei Mon Kyaw
Synopsis: The film captures the story of a 30-year-old lady who wants to live independently, struggling against her mother, who refuses to let her move out of the family home.
Movie: Nehemich
Director: Yudhajit Basu
Synopsis: Banished from the village to a dilapidated hut for the duration of her period, a young girl hopes to elope with her lover.
Movie: Brick Lane
Director: Sarah Gavron
Synopsis: A young Bangladeshi woman, Nazneem, arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home, for an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped within the four walls of her flat in East London, and in a loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu, she fears her soul is quietly dying. Her sister Hasina, meanwhile, through letters to Nazneed, tells of her carefree life back in Bangladesh, stumbling from one adventure to the next. Nazneen struggles to accept her lifestyle, and keeps her head down in spite of life’s blows, but she soon discovers that life cannot be avoided – and is forced to confront it the day that the hotheaded young Karim comes knocking at her door.
Movie: Inheritance
Director: Prasanth Vijay
Synopsis: The unexpected demise of her mother turns teenager Kalyani’s life upside down. As the relatives disperse, she and her father are left alone, struggling to cope with the void in their midst. In the weeks that follow, it is not just the grief she has to deal with, but also some harsh realisations about the patriarchal and hypocritical society around her. As events unfold, Kalyani finds herself becoming more and more disillusioned with the progressive, considerate father she used to idolise. The film portrays the girl’s journey of coming to terms with her loss and finding a way forward.
Movie: Four Daughters
Director : Kaouther Ben Hania
Synopsis: The life of Olfa, mother of four daughters, oscillates between light and shadow. Director Hania creates a set to unveil their story after Olfa’s eldest two disappear one day. What follows is an intimate journey of hope, rebellion, violence, intergenerational transmission, and sisterhood, which will question the very foundation of our societies.
Movie: Today Me, Tomorrow You
Director: Sreejith Karnaver
Synopsis: An archaeologist unearths a medieval society idol from a drying lake in Goa. It triggers a phantom to roam the marshlands and in its path lies Carona, a sleepy village. Ravio, a bakery worker mocked for being ‘slow in the head’, ends up in a defunct iron-ore mine after losing his way. There, the phantom enters him. The Ravio back in Carona is no longer ‘defeated’. A series of killings and disappearances follow, and most people leave the village. Six months later, the archaeologist learns of the happenings at Carona after his discovery. He tracks Ravio’s movements on that fateful day, leading him to where the phantom is resting.
Movie: The Sentence
Director : Fazil Razak
Synopsis: Geetha (50) is a play school teacher and two-time divorcee with a history of postpartum depression. She’s attacked by Madhavan, her second husband, for meeting her younger child, now in his custody. An injured Geetha suffers an epileptic fit and is pushed into loneliness and depression. She tries to find solace in the children at the play school. Her long-time friends Hamza (50) and Uma (50) support her. Things take a turn for the worse when she’s falsely blamed for the death of a child at the playschool and loses everything, only to realise she’s also terminally ill and without money for treatment.
Movie: Which Colour?
Director: Shahrukhkhan Chavada
Synopsis: An unemployed Razzak wants to own an auto, and his daughter Ruba craves for a 100-rupee drink she cannot afford. An unexpected move threatens to alter their life. Set in an old Ahmedabad neighbourhood, the film follows the daily life of Razzak and his family as they navigate the intertwined yet unassuming layers of social and political influence.
Movie: Orlando, My Political Biography
Director: Paul B. Preciado
Synopsis: A century after the publication of Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf, Paul B. Preciado, philosopher and trans activist, addresses a letter to tell her that her character has come true: the world is becoming Orlandesque. The spectator encounters Orlando’s bearings as the portrait emerges of a collective being with multiple faces, voices, bodies.
Movie: Borderlands Director:Samarth Mahajan
Synopsis: Borderlands brings together six characters whose lives are defined by personal and political borders across the Indian subcontinent. Through conversations and observations, the characters reveal their efforts at finding meaning in a world beyond their control. Divided families meet, love blossoms across borders, traffickers get caught – in this slice-of-life documentary.
Movie: Solids by the Seashore
Director: Patiparn Boontarig
Synopsis: In a Southern Thai town, Shati, a local Muslim woman from a conservative family, meets Fon, an activist-turned-visual artist in town for the opening of her new art exhibition. As their bond deepens, Shati with her traditional values of same-sex relationships feels conflicted. On Fon’s last night in town, they consummate their relationship and wake up to find the strange, other-worldly occurrences from Shati’s grandmother’s old cautionary tales. Meteorites fall from the sky, the sea level rises, and menacing dark shadows lurk at every turn. As a storm brews and different worlds collide, Shati decides to forge a path for herself.
Movie:Vincent Must Die
Director: Stéphan Castang
Synopsis: Random strangers have suddenly started attacking Vincent with murderous intent. His existence as an unremarkable man is overturned, and as things spiral violently out of control, he is forced to flee and change his life completely. A nerve-shredding, ground-breaking movie riding the new wave of French horror.
Movie: The Chosen One
Director: Aribam Syam Sharma
Synopsis: A poignant tale of love and loss steeped in Manipuri culture, it follows Tampha, who abandons her husband and daughter to join the Maibi sect of priestesses, responding to the inexorable call of the deity. But behind her absorption in the mystical world of the Maibis lurks the anguish of a mother alienated from her child. The film beautifully juxtaposes the spiritual world of the Maibis with the rhythm of ordinary life. The director’s approach, delicate camerawork, understated acting, coupled with the depiction of the Maibi culture and the use of traditional Manipuri music, give the film an authenticity that blends storytelling, documentary, and ethnography.
Movie: Sultana’s Dream
Director: Isabel Herguera
Synopsis: Inés, a Spanish artist living in India, stumbles upon Sultana’s Dream, a science fiction story written by Rokeya Hossain in 1905. It describes Ladyland, a utopia in which women rule the country while men live in seclusion and are responsible for household chores. Fascinated by the story, Inés embarks on a journey across the country to search for the one place where women can live in peace.
Movie: Ancestral
Director: Vinod Rawat
Synopsis: A struggling Bollywood actor, Bhuppi, falls into deep despair when he finds himself embroiled in a scandal. In a race against time to save his reputation and his last chance at stardom, he is forced to return to his ancestral home in the mountains of Uttarakhand to ask his estranged family for help. However, the journey does not go as planned as Bhuppi is haunted by a secret he and his father have tried to hide for most of his life. Pushtaini is a drama about a working class father and his son Bhuppi and how they navigate notions of masculinity, family dynamics, and abuse.
Movie: Club Zero
Director: Jessica Hausner
Synopsis: Miss Novak joins the staff of an international boarding school to teach a conscious eating class. She instructs that eating less is healthy. The other teachers are slow to notice what is happening, and by the time the distracted parents begin to realise, Club Zero has become a reality.
Movie: Milisuthando
Director: Milisuthando Bongela
Synopsis: The Transkei, the apartheid-regime-founded unrecognised Black independent region, created the illusion for Black South Africans that separate could be equal. For filmmaker, writer, and poet Milisuthando Bongela, life in The Transkei proved as idyllic as the propaganda claimed. Until, the fall of apartheid ushered in a new life, one that included – for the first time – whiteness.
Milisuthando is a deeply intimate portrait of past, present, and future South Africa, blending poetry, film, and photography into a striking cinematic essay. Bongela explores love, friendship, and belonging in a South Africa stratified by racism – proving only if we understand its tentacles can we begin to extricate ourselves from its clutches.
Movie: Tiger Stripes
Director: Amanda Nell Eu
Synopsis: Zaffan (12) is a rebellious and carefree girl until she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body. She struggles to remain normal and cover herself. But her friends at school attack her, and then all hysteria breaks loose. When the Medical Officer identifies her as the root of the problem, like a tiger dragged out of its habitat and poked, Zaffan is driven to reveal her true self to everyone.
Movie: A Match
Director: Jayant Somalkar
Synopsis: In rural India, a determined young girl, Savita, yearns for education and a bright future. However, as her farmer parents anxiously struggle to find a suitable match for her, societal expectations place immense pressure on her to prioritise marriage over personal aspirations.
Facing countless rejections from suitors, she must navigate a world where the pursuit of marriage overshadows the very sustenance of life. The film is shot in a rural village with non-actors.
Movie: The Burmese Harp Director: Kon Ichikawa
Synopsis: An Imperial Japanese Army regiment surrenders to British forces in Burma at the close of World War II and finds harmony through song. A private, assumed dead, disguises himself as a Buddhist monk and stumbles upon spiritual enlightenment. Magnificently shot in hushed black and white, Kon Ichikawa’s The Burmese Harp is an eloquent meditation on beauty coexisting with death, and remains one of Japanese cinema’s most overwhelming anti-war statements, both tender and brutal in its grappling with Japan’s wartime legacy.
Movie:20,000 Species of Bees
Director :Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Synopsis: An eight-year-old child struggles with the fact that people keep addressing her in confusing ways. During a summer in the Basque Country among the beehives, she explores her identity alongside the women of her family, who at the same time reflect on their own lives and desires.
Movie: A Road to a Village
Director: Nabin Subba
Synopsis:Maila, a basket weaver, his wife, Maili, and their seven-year-old son, Bindre, live a simple village life in the mountainous region of eastern Nepal. When a their village finally gets a road, they see it as a blessing. Soon arrive the first bus, sodas, television, and hip hop beats. As the modern amenities creep in, Maila’s life begins to unravel. He’s trapped between sticking to tradition at home and going beyond the village to survive. Meanwhile Bindre uses his resourcefulness to get closer to the gifts the new road brings. Ultimately Maila and Maili must figure how to continue in a world that is leaving them behind.
Movies : Shift Focus
Movie : Kamathipura
Director : Aayushman Pandey
Synopsis
After a night of heavy drinking, a twenty-year-old virgin stumbles into Mumbai’s oldest brothel, where he encounters a mythical creature who turns his first sexual encounter on its head.
Movie : Flowering Man
Director : Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar
Synopsis
Shashi undergoes metamorphosis when a flowering plant starts growing from inside his mouth. His distanced teenage daughter undertakes a journey towards embracing the new image of her father.
Movie : Slow Shift
Director : Shambhavi Kaul
Synopsis
Langurs contemplate their world as it changes around them. In Slow Shift, humans, animals, music, and rock are entangled. The film playfully interrogates various intersections: real and mythic, lived and preserved, human and animal, and ancient and geological timescales.
Movie : Dentures
Director : Nikhil Lama, Siddharth Potade
Synopsis
A fish drowns, children feel nostalgic, and the memory of an elderly man is fading as he celebrates his 90th birthday.
Movie : White Ant Director : Shalini Adnani
Synopsis
While trying to navigate a city that won’t provide him a bathroom, a delivery worker discovers an unearthly presence infecting women all over New York.
Movie : Farther than Distance
Director : Taruna Khatri
Synopsis
A young student navigates through feelings of envy and isolation.
Movie : The Altar
Director : Moe Myat May Zarchi
Synopsis
A Buddhist fable-like story about the guilt of a childhood incident of killing an ant while washing hands in the sink.
Movie : The Last Fragment
Director : Anant Jain, Pranjal Acharya
Synopsis
Suraj, a migrant worker, tries to feel at home in the chaos of the urban environment as he settles in his new role as a watchman at a warehouse in the city
Movie : Strange Way of Life
Director : Pedro Almodóvar
Synopsis
A man crosses the desert on horseback that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, the Sheriff and Silva, the breeder who comes to meet him, worked together as hitmen. Silva visits him under the pretext of reuniting with his childhood friend, and they do indeed celebrate their reunion, but the next morning, Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to follow in the footsteps of their old friendship.
Supported by Embassy of Spain in India.
Movie : Follower
Director : Harshad Nalawade
Synopsis
In a small town riddled with territorial disputes between two linguistic communities, Raghu, a radicalized journalist, works for an online media that acts as a mouthpiece of an extremist leader. Raghu is strongly influenced by the leader’s words and believes that his community has been wronged. But when the line between his professional and personal life starts blurring, and Raghu is faced with some inconvenient truths, he chooses to be in denial and acts impulsively. Causing a deathly consequence, that makes him reflect back on a simpler time. A time when he was not a radicalized young gun, but a man who had not yet succumbed to the identity crisis perpetuated by a divided society.
Movie : Heroic Times
Director : József Gémes
Synopsis: Another animated feature directed by József Gémes, Daliás idök is based on an epic poem and tells the story of a young man and his attempts to become a knight in 14th century Hungary.
Movie : Fairy Folk
Director : Karan Gour
Synopsis In this fairytale-of-sorts, Ritika and Mohit, stranded in the middle of nowhere, chance upon a hairless, genderless being. It can bond with anyone willing to give it attention, love, and kindness. Once a bond is built, the being transforms into a brand new human, bearing a soul identical to that of the bonder. Besides gender, this new person shares no other physical attributes. Needless to say, this transformation brings waves of conflict in Ritika and Mohit’s relationship, some inconsequential, some catastrophic.
Movie : Agra
Director : Kanu Behl
Synopsis
Guru (25), a sexually repressed young boy, lives in a small house in Agra. He sleeps in the same room as his mother, and on the upper floor, his father lives with a mistress. In an already tiny house, the only available space is the terrace above the upper floor. Guru insists that he loves Mala, an imaginary girl, and will marry and live with her in a room on the terrace, just like his father does with his mistress. Agra then becomes the odyssey of a young Indian man’s sexual coming of age. Even as everyone in the house fights for the terrace for their material gains, Guru struggles with his sexuality.
Movie : The Play
Director : Anand Ekarshi
Synopsis
A play by a theatre group Arangu gets a chance to be recognised internationally when given an offer by Chris and Emily, friends of Hari, who has replaced the lead role actor Vinay. Anjaly, the only female artist in the play, loves Vinay. She tells him how Hari mistreated her at a party. Vinay tries to expose Hari’s true colours to Madan, who agrees to discuss the matter with the rest of the team and eventually expel Hari. But friendship is at stake when a bribe, in the form of monetary benefits and success, disrupts the moral fibre. Soon, reality seems weirder when the truth unravels.
Movie : Terrestrial Verses
Director : Ali Asgari, Alireza Khatami
Synopsis
Ayeh haye zamini follows everyday people from all walks of life as they navigate the cultural, religious, and institutional constraints imposed on them by various social authorities, from school teachers to bureaucrats. These stirring, humorous vignettes capture people’s spirit and determination amid adversity, offering a nuanced portrait of a complex society.
Movie : If Only I Could Hibernate
Director : Zoljargal Purevdash
Synopsis
A poor but prideful teenager, Ulzii, lives in the yurt area of Ulaanbaatar with his family. He is a physics genius and is determined to win a science competition to earn a scholarship. When his mother finds a job in the countryside, she leaves him and his younger siblings to face a harsh winter by themselves. Ulzii will have to take a risky job to look after them all and keep his home heated.
Movie : Music
Director : Angela Schanelec
Synopsis
The myth of Oedipus is the core of this masterful piece of elliptical storytelling in which every detail, no matter how small, becomes a sign – or not. Abandoned at birth in the Greek mountains, Jon is adopted. As a young man in prison after a deadly tragic accident, he meets Iro the warden who takes care of him, records music for him. Jon’s eyesight begins to fail. Then onwards, for every loss he suffers, he will gain something in return. In Angela Schanelec’s baroque-postmodern cinema, formulas from the doctrines of the affections and figures apply. An addictive intellectual-sensual challenge that allows us to blindly see.
Movie : In the Rearview
Director : Maciek Hamela
Synopsis
An intimate observation of war, following generations of Ukrainian civilians as they abandon their homes and rely on director Maciek Hamela’s volunteer aid van to escape the life-threatening conflict. The film offers a collective portrait of the experiences of Ukrainians sharing a single goal: finding a safe haven.
Movie : Bailadila
Director : Shailendra Sahu
Synopsis
After his mother’s demise, ten-year-old Rinku is sent away to live with his elder brother, Jiten, in Bailadila, a mining town in the interior of Chhattisgarh. Jiten is a passionate artist struggling with a teaching job in a school. The story captures the life of Rinku as he gets embroiled in the town’s affairs and is left with faded innocence, having been exposed to guilt, lust, anger, and agony. He also becomes the target for Jiten to vent his frustrations.
Movie : The Battle
Director : Vera Egito
Synopsis
Twenty-one long-takes depict moments of the Battle of the Students in October 1968, during the Brazilian dictatorship. Students and professors of the Left Student Movement are gathered in the Philosophy School building of São Paulo University in a definitive night. The characters face attacks by the Communist-Chasing Committee coming from across the street, from Mackenzie Presbyterian University. When confrontation erupts, screams, molotovs, rocks, sticks, homemade bombs are thrown, killing an innocent boy. Twenty-four hours go by alive with the passion of the youth of the 60s, in defense of an ideal, on the verge of a military invasion.
Movies : Royal Stag Package 1
Movie : Giallo
Director : Yogesh Chandekar
Synopsis
A quirky ode to Italian Giallo cinema, a young woman returning from a party is stalked by a mysterious masked killer who’s much more than what he seems to be. Starring Saiyami Kher and BhaDiPa fame Renuka Daftardar.
Movie : The Drop Director : Shrirang Phatak
Movie : Never Say Die Director : Diya Gambhir
Movie : Monsoon Killing Director : Sapan Taneja
Movie : ICU
Director : Nikhil Chalam
Movie : Anselm
Director : Wim Wenders
Synopsis
In Anselm, Wim Wenders creates a portrait of Anselm Kiefer, one of the most innovative and important painters and sculptors of our time. Shot in 3D and 6K resolution, the film presents a cinematic experience of the artist’s work, which explores human existence and the cyclical nature of history, inspired by literature, poetry, philosophy, science, mythology, and religion. Wenders traces Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to France, his current home, connecting the stages of his life to the essential places of his career that spans more than five decades.
Movie : Mississippi Masala
Director : Mira Nair
Synopsis
The vibrant cultures of India, Uganda, and the American South are blended and simmered into a rich and fragrant fusion feast in Mira Nair’s luminous look at the complexities of love in the modern melting pot. Years after her
Indian family was forced to flee their home in Uganda by the dictatorship of Idi Amin, twentysomething Mina (Sarita Choudhury) finds herself helping to run a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. It’s there that a passionate romance with the charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius (Denzel Washington) challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region’s Indian and African American communities.
Movie : Daaaaaali!
Director : Quentin Dupieux
Synopsis
A young French journalist meets Salvador Dalí repeatedly for a documentary film project, which never gets to start shooting…
Supported by Institut Francais en Inde
Movie : A House Named Shahana
Director : Leesa Gazi
Synopsis
Dipa is raised by weak parents in a peculiar family dominated by her maternal uncle and aunt. Under their authority, she is married off to a widower in England over a trunk-call wedding ceremony to protect her from the dangers of teenage passions. Dipa suffers marital rape, refuses to settle, and escapes.
Movie : Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa
Director : Rajat Kapoor
Synopsis
To celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary, Raman and Jayanti invite their friends and relatives for an outstation party at an old mansion. Raman’s business partner, Sohrab Handa, a foul-mouthed bully with an acid tongue, dominates the proceedings. Free-flowing banter, laughter, and a rollicking game of dumb charades decorate the eating and drinking sessions until Sohrab is found dead with his throat slit past midnight. As the dawn arrives with a cop and his associate, friendships and kinships reveal simmering tensions. Everyone is a possible suspect. Everyone hated Sohrab Handa, but who managed to kill him?
Movie : Yellow Bus
Director : Wendy Bednarz
Synopsis
In an Arabian Gulf city, Ananda’s dream for a life better than the one they left behind in India is shattered when she hears her younger daughter Anju (6) died of asphyxiation on the school bus. A grief-stricken Ananda refuses to scatter Anju’s ashes in the Arabian Sea as that world no longer feels like home. In her journey to find answers for Anju’s death, she neglects her other daughter Ravina (11), takes on various people, comes to blows with the Arab school owner, feels betrayed by her husband Gagan when he accepts ‘blood money’, and closes down the school before finally reconciling to let go of Anju’s spirit.
Movie : Rapture
Director : Dominic Sangma
Synopsis
A 14-year-old boy, collecting cicadas in the forest with other villagers, disappears and is rumoured to be kidnapped by people involved in the human organ transplant business. The villagers are also not sure if it is the forest nymph’s doing. Meanwhile arrives a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary, sent by the Pope to every Catholic Church in the world for ‘an approaching apocalyptic darkness that will last 80 days’. Nothing will provide light except for the blessed candles given by the priest. Through Kasan (10), suffering night blindness, and his father Nengsal (45), the village security head, we witness the unfolding of unprecedented events.
Movies : Royal Stag Package 2 Movie : Touched As Water
Director : Joshy Benedict
Movie : Summer of Soul Director : Sanjib Gogoi
Movie : C for Meow Director : Lokesh Deshmukh
Movie : Sakyad
Director : Shilpika Bordoloi
Movie : The Clause Director : Jayaraj R
Movie : Paris Belongs to Us
Director : Jacques Rivette
Synopsis
Anne Goupil is a literature student in Paris in 1957. Her elder brother, Pierre, takes her to a friend’s party where the guests include Philip Kaufman, an expatriate American escaping McCarthyism, and Gerard Lenz, a theatre director who arrives with the mysterious woman Terry. The talk at the party is about the apparent suicide of their friend Juan, a Spanish activist who had recently broken up with Terry. Philip warns Anne that the forces that killed Juan will soon do the same to Gerard. Gerard is trying to rehearse Shakespeare’s “Pericles”, although he has no financial backing. Anne takes a part in the play to help Gerard,
and to try to discover why Juan died.
Movie : Afire
Director : Christian Petzold
Synopsis
A small holiday house by the Baltic sea. The days are hot, and it hasn’t rained in weeks. Four young people come together, friends old and new. As the parched forests around them begin to ignite, so do their emotions – happiness, lust, and love, but also jealousies, resentments, and tensions.
Movie : White Plastic Sky
Director : Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó
Synopsis
2123. Faced with diminishing resources, the human race can only survive through a trade-off: at the age of 50, every citizen is gradually turned into a tree. When Stefan discovers that his beloved wife Nora has voluntarily signed up for donating her own body before her time, he sets out on an adventurous journey to save her at all costs.
Movie : The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed
Director : Joanna Arnow
Synopsis
Ann, a morose New Yorker in her 30s, feels stuck in all areas of her life. To her dismay, the years have gone by quickly in her long-term casual BDSM relationship, low-level corporate job, and quarrelsome Jewish family. As she begins to feel increasingly alienated, she wrestles with
herself and her relationships in this self-deprecating auto-fictional comedy and feature debut from writer/director/actor Joanna Arnow.
Movie : The Spark Director : Rajesh S. Jala Synopsis
Kabir, a young filmmaker, goes to the ancient Hindu city of Banaras with a camera and his troubled past. Kabir has a chronic habit of listening to the audio of a violent video that haunts Kabir. While his camera captures the dead and the dying of the city, he encounters two unusual individuals: Durga, a young boy who cremates dead bodies, and Amma, who is waiting to die in the sacred city to attain salvation. As Kabir’s camera focuses on Durga, Amma, ants, and the city, hidden realities emerge in the background. He is a victim of violence, and the rage burns in him. He decides on revenge, but a series of unexpected events challenge Kabir’s conviction. He is at the crossroads. Is it too late to make a U-turn?
Movie : Sharmajee Ki Beti
Director : Tahira Kashyap Khurrana
Synopsis
Best friends Swati and Gurveen, in their early teens and on the cusp of puberty, are trying to come to terms with who they are. Swati thinks her mother, the hard-working-tutor Jyoti, has no time for her. Gurveen’s mother, Kiran, struggles with urban loneliness and an absentee husband. Kiran’s neighbour, Tanvi, is the star player of her Ranji cricket team, but her boyfriend fails to appreciate her, with his constant attempts to make her behave more ‘feminine’.
Movie : 1234
Director : Varun Narvekar
Synopsis
Sayali and Sameer, both 23, are in love and decide to get married. They live on a budget most 23-year-olds survive on. He works in a tech company’s HR department. She is a PhD student and a German translator on the side. One day, Sayali discovers she is pregnant despite all precautions! Though shocked, they decide to have the child. To their dismay, the sonography test reveals Sayali’s carrying quadruplets! It’s a rare case, 1 in 6 lakhs! Rarer in India. Though in a fix, they take the plunge. It is going to be a roller coaster ride!
Movie : And, Towards Happy Alleys
Director : Sreemoyee Singh
Synopsis
Inspired by the cinema and poetry of Iran, a young Indian filmmaker explores the lives of filmmakers and women in Tehran. Intimate and and unguarded exchanges with acclaimed Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Shirvani reveal how Iranians negotiate life under the Islamic Regime that dismisses the idea of femininity by erasing a woman’s body, forbidding them to sing, forbidding desire.
Over six years, the camera captures the simmering anxieties, fears, hopes, and dreams of a nation on the brink of revolution, tracing the historic journey of its women from being mute observers to those fighting to reclaim their lost voices.
Movie : Perfect Days
Director : Wim Wenders
Synopsis
Hirayama seems content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside his structured everyday routine, he enjoys music and books. He loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters unfold in this deeply moving reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world.
Movie : The Book of Solutions
Director : Michel Gondry
Synopsis
Marc escapes with his team to a small village in the Cevennes to finish his film at his aunt Denise’s house. There, his creativity explodes in a million ideas that plunge him into some serious chaos. Marc starts writing The Book of Solutions, a practical advice guide that could be the solution to all his problems.
Supported by Institut Francais en Inde. Movie : Before Spring
Director : Shrutismriti Changkakoti
Synopsis
Jun (17), whose widowed mother works as a maid, decides to quit school and join the boat service as a driver. It separates him from his love, who belongs to an upper-caste and upper-middle-class family. When Monikanta’s (60) financial dependence on his much-younger wife causes unhappiness in the family, he crosses the river looking for livelihood, only to discover his wife with another man. The daughter, who witnesses this, seeks solace in her boyfriend. Majoni (16), preparing for her 10th exam, is tutored by Pradeep, a man in his late 20s. Pradeep makes use of her and Majoni thinks it is love. When Pradeep stops coming, Majoni sets out to know his actual intention. All three protagonists face desolation, but slowly resume their lives, like a boat floating through the ripples.
Movie : Mithya
Director : Sumanth Bhat
Synopsis
Mithya follows the eleven-year-old Mithun as he comes to terms with the sudden loss of his parents. Things turn gloomier when families squabble over his custody. Can a new house be home, can friendships be forged again, or is it merely a search for something long gone?
Movie : The Summer with Carmen
Director : Zacharias Mavroeidis
Synopsis
While enjoying a day at Athens’ queer beach, Demosthenes helps his bestie, Nikitas, with his film idea, inspired by the events surrounding a dog named Carmen. Two summers ago, Demosthenes was in Athens dealing with his father’s health issues. This served as an excuse to reach out to his ex, Panos. Meanwhile, Panos got the overly cute Carmen, something he soon regretted. Likewise, Demosthenes seems to have regretted breaking up with Panos. Or did he not? Struggling to transform real events into a hero’s journey, the two friends question the no.1 rule of scriptwriting theory – the hero that changes – while turning a page in their long-lasting friendship.
Movie : Man in Black
Director : Wang Bing
Synopsis
WANG Xilin, 86, is one of China’s most important modern classical composers. The film exhibits the body and soul of a man scarred by a life of suffering, a ‘man in black’ who is yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion. With excerpts from his symphonies, he revisits some of the horrifying events that still live on in his memory as testimony to an era that saw the dehumanization of the Chinese nation.
Movie : Raging Grace
Director : Paris Zarcilla
Synopsis
Raging Grace centres the Filipino experience using brushstrokes of horror and drama, rendered through the prism of race and power. It tells the story of Joy, an undocumented immigrant who lands a job as a care worker for a terminal old man and secures a better life for her and her daughter, Grace. But an unexpected discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s worked for and holds dear. This bold coming-of-rage transports audiences beyond terror to deliver us to the joy and peace we find when we transgress our masters.
Movie : Slow
Director : Marija Kavtaradze
Synopsis
Slow follows a relationship story of two 30-year-olds – dancer Elena and sign language interpreter Dovydas. The couple try to make their relationship work despite their different sexual needs and expectations. It’s an intimate portrayal of a very unlikely but relatable love story.
Movie : SCALA!!!
Director : Ali Catterall, Jane Giles
Synopsis
In the politically turbulent ‘Thatcher years’, over a million people from all over the UK passed through the doors of the Scala cinema for its high-art classics, sexploitation, horror, LGBTQ+ and more. SCALA!!! is a shout-out to the power of cinemas to inspire young minds and create a sense of community.
Movies : Mermaid + Raging Grace
Movie : Mermaid
Director : Darya Charusha
Synopsis
In the finale of the fairy tale the Little Mermaid, Hans Christian Andersen’s heroine refused to kill her beloved and turned into sea foam. The little mermaid was taken by the fairies of the air, who promised that after three thousand years of service to the ideas of good, she would be rewarded with an immortal human soul. We are witnessing the continuation of this story.
Movie : Raging Grace
Director : Paris Zarcilla
Synopsis
Raging Grace centres the Filipino experience using brushstrokes of horror and drama, rendered through the prism of race and power. It tells the story of Joy, an undocumented immigrant who lands a job as a care worker for a terminal old man and secures a better life for her and her daughter, Grace. But an unexpected discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s worked for and holds dear. This bold coming-of-rage transports audiences beyond terror to deliver us to the joy and peace we find when we transgress our masters.
Movies : Innermost + The Invisible Fight
Movie : Innermost
Director : Chongming Cao
Synopsis
To possess an enchanted lyre, a gathering of martial arts masters do battle with one another – and with their own tragic memories.
Movie : The Invisible Fight
Director : Rainer Sarnet
Synopsis
USSR-China border, 1973. Rafael is in the army on guard duty when the border falls under attack from flying Chinese kung fu warriors. Utterly fascinated by the long-haired Chinese hippie black-clad kung fu aces flying around blasting forbidden Black Sabbath music from their portable radio, Rafael gets struck by a revelation: he too wants to become a kung fu warrior. Faith leads Rafael to an Orthodox monastery where the black-clad monks do their training, but his road to achieving the almighty power of humility required is long, winding, and full of kick-ass adventures.
Day 6 has continued to keep up the excitement about the world class cinema being screened at the Festival. On day 7, a fresh batch of films will come to the Festival’s 20 screens.
About Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival
Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), has brought the best of contemporary world cinema and talent to the city of Mumbai since 1997. With its new expanded vision to spotlight South Asian and South Asian diaspora filmmakers, Jio MAMI becomes the hub for South Asia, discovering and connecting emerging talent to the worldwide
festival ecosystem.
Along with celebrating cinematic excellence and bringing joy to our audiences, we aim to facilitate the exchange of ideas and provide easy access to information related to filmmaking, funding, film distribution, business opportunities, and strategic marketing support for films and filmmakers. The festival also conducts a robust Year-Round Programme that acts as a hub for creators and cinephiles through screenings, networking opportunities, access to labs and workshops for skill development, masterclasses, and, very importantly, creating a community of cinema lovers.
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival has been happening since Friday, October 27 and continues till Sunday, November 5, 2023, in Mumbai, India.
