A Potpourri of Vestiges Feature
The Habitat International Film Festival (HIFF)
is set to return after a two year hiatus. Scheduled to take
place at the India Habitat Centre from 6-15 May 2022, the festival’s impressive
lineup includes films from India as well as across the globe and India. There
is a nice mix of award-winning and festival favorite films which include,
Nathalie Alvarez Mesen’s Spanish language film from Costa Rica Clara Sola, entry for the Best
International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, Stefan Ruzowitsky’s Austrian-Luxembourgish film Hinterland which
won the Prix du Public UBS award at the 74th Locarno Film Festival, Lukas
Pitscheider’s The Last Austrians, winner at the
Zurich Film Festival, the Finnish film The
Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See The Titanic, winner of numerous film
awards, including at the Venice Film Festival, El Gouna Film Festival, Norwegian International Film
Festival, and The Metamorphosis of Birds—a Portuguese
entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
A few other international titles to look forward to at
this year’s festival include the Spanish film Parallel Mothers (directed by the legendary Pedro Almodovar), the Iranian film A Hero (directed by Asghar
Farhadi), the Egyptian film Amira (directed
by Mohamed Diab), the German film I’m You Man (directed by Maria
Schrader), the Italian films
A Chiara (directed by Jonas
Carpignano) and Bad Tales (directed
by Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo), the French film The Night Doctor (directed by Elie Wajeman), the Swedish film About Endlessness (directed by Roy Anderson), the Latvian
language film The Year Before the War
(directed by Dāvis Sīmanis), the Australian film The Drover's Wife (directed by Leah Purcell), the Irish film Calm with Horses (directed by Nick
Rowland), the Portuguese film The
Metamorphosis of Birds (directed by Catarina Vasconcelos), and the Turkish
film Brother’s Keeper (directed by Ferit
Karahan).
This edition of the festival, which celebrates of the
coming together of the film fraternity and cinephiles, also brings together a
pan-Indian selection of films from a plethora of Indian languages such as
Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Bengali, etc.
Director G. Prabha’s Taya, Achal
Mishra’s Dhuin, Ritesh Sharma’s Jhini Bini Chadariya, Madhuja
Mukherjee’s Deep 6, Rahman Brothers’ Chavittu, Nikhil Mahajan’s Godavari are some of the rich offerings
at the festival. A special selection of South Korean films such as In the Name of the Son, Chorokbam, Seire, The
Book of Fish, and The Cave will be screened at the festival.
The festival also has a section of Malayalam films that
paved the way for a New Wave of Malayalam cinema. Short films, documentaries
(including Lovemobil and The Beatles and India), Q&A and
interactive sessions, and a Festival Café serving a selection of International
Street Food promises to provide just the right kind of mood and flavor for the
festival. “The India Habitat Centre
has become synonymous with the best in the arts and culture over the years. It
is a great relief and pleasure for the entire team to be able to present
another edition of the Habitat International Film Festival after a two-year gap
necessitated by the pandemic,” rejoices Sunit Tandon, Director of India Habitat
Centre.
Vidyun Singh, Creative Head Programmes, India Habitat
Centre likes to describe the Habitat International Film Festival as an
eclectic selection of award-winning and critically acclaimed films. “We are the
IHC’s Programmes Department which deals with more than 300 programmes. So we
don’t have a separate secretariat that’s working just on curating the festival
which is required. You work throughout the year, searching, inviting, sorting,
and short listing entries,” explains Singh. She further adds, “HIFF, though
smaller and more niche in comparison to other film festivals, has carved out a
special space and a loyal audience. I would like to emphasize that it is a
cherry-picked curation of critically acclaimed and award winning cinema, made
possible by the generous cooperation and collaboration of the Embassies
and Cultural Centres for which we are deeply grateful. We cannot wait to
welcome back filmmakers and film lovers to Habitat”.
The Habitat International Film Festival right
from its inception has evolved into an indispensable annual experience in the
cultural calendar of Delhi. The schedule and film details are available on www.habitatworld.com. Free online passes are
available on the website on a first come, first served basis.
A version of this review was first published at The Daily Guardian.
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