International film festival of kerala is an initiative by the Government of Kerala to bring National and International films, that have achieved critical acclaim in Global arena, to God's Own Country. The 13th edition of IFFK is scheduled from 12th to 19th December 2008. The film festival will be held in the capital city of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. This event has got international recognition over a period of time and has established itself as one of the important film festivals across the globe. Ardent film lovers testify that IFFK is far superior a film festival compared to IFFI (International film festival of India) in quality and content.Contemporary World Cinema, New Malayalam Cinema, Retrospectives of Major filmmakers, Homage and Tributes, Contemporary Indian Cinema, Short films and Documentaries are the categories of the festival. The Golden Crow Pheasant Award (Suvarna Chakoram), the Silver Crow Pheasant Award (Rajata Chakoram), Best Debut Film Award (Rajata Chakoram) and Audience Prize (Rajata Chakoram) are the major awards to be presented.
Director : Takeshi Kitano
Country : Japan
Running Time: 119 mins.The film takes its title from a famous paradox by the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno, which claimed that motion, time and change are nothing but illusions. Achilles and the Tortoise tackles the idea that art is a chimera, and follows the absurd, star-crossed life of a man with no talent. As a result of his father's love of modern Western art, Machisu (Reo Yoshioka), a quiet, introverted child, is inspired to become a painter himself. Obsessive and obstinate – yet talentless – the child devotes all of his time to painting, not even losing heart when his father, once a wealthy factory owner, goes bankrupt and commits suicide.
As a young adult, Machisu (Yurei Yanag) continues to find comfort in his mediocre art and in the company of a group of fellow students with whom he shares the unrealistic dream of becoming famous. With banal results, he mimics all of the fashionable trends, from pop art to abstract expressionism, and struggles through life in a crescendo of crazy irrationality. Machisu (now played by Beat Takeshi himself), his stubborn lack of talent persisting into adulthood, eventually spirals into disturbed, upsetting behaviour.
Takeshi Kitano
Takeshi Kitano was born in Tokyo and has enjoyed enormous success in Japan as a stand-up comedian, actor and visual artist. His filmography includes Violent Cop (89), Sonatine (93), Kids Return (96), Fireworks (97), Kikujiro (99), Brother (00), Dolls (02), Zatôichi (03), which won the Festival's People's Choice Award in 2003, Takeshis' (05), the segment Une Belle journée for the film anthology Chacun son cinéma (07) and Glory to the Filmmaker! (07). Achilles and the Tortoise (08) is his eleventh feature to screen at the Festival.
Rating : 7.9/10
video : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=i1xTRU1MPLU
Director : Baltasar Kormakur
Country : Iceland
Running Time: 96 mins.
The film is inspired by Anton Checkhov's stage play Ivanov and was filmed in the small island Flatey with an all-Icelandic cast and crew.Jon, a middle-aged professor is about to get married for the second time. This time to a young woman, half his age. There are those who oppose to the marriage, including his future parents-in-law. When the guests start flocking to the island where the marriage is to be held, the groom starts getting cold feet. His mind goes back to the year before, when he moved to the island with his first wife.
Baltasar Kormákur
Born in 1966. He graduated from The Drama Academy of Iceland and is one of Iceland's most popular and critically acclaimed actors of the younger generation, working amongst others with Oscar-nominee Fridrik Thór Fridriksson. But it is as a director and theatre entrepreneur he has really made his name. He has directed ten theatre productions, both at home and abroad. Baltasar Kormákur formed his own theatre with two partners and has directed a string of productions there as well as in The National Theatre of Iceland. His first film, 101 Reykjavík (00), shared the Discovery Award at the Toronto Festival. His subsequent features are The Sea (02), A Little Trip to Heaven (05), Jar City (06) and White Night Wedding (08).
Rating : 8.0/10
Director : Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Country : Japan/The Netherlands/Hong Kong, China
Running Time: 119 mins.
Loyal salaryman Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa) loses his job when his company begins outsourcing to China. Incapable of facing the tragedy of his new reality, he hides his failure from his family and, weaving an intricate web of lies, pretends to have kept his job. As it turns out, he is not alone in this deception. At home, he tries to maintain the normal routine, though it soon becomes clear that this family has tragically lost touch with one another. His wife Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi) attends to her chores and keeps up with their two boys, rebellious college-age Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) and quiet, younger Kenji (Kai Inowaki). However, nothing feels or looks the same for Ryuhei, who has lost his honour and his place in society. Kenji's simple request for extra money to take piano lessons however tips the balance of their artificially sustained family stability, pushing it over a ruinous precipice of unforeseeable external events.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was born in Kobe, Japan, and studied sociology at Rikkyo University. He studied the art of filmmaking under Kazuhiko Hasegawa and Shinji Somai. He made his directorial feature debut in 1983 with Kandagawa Wars, and won a Sundance Institute Scholarship in 1992 for his original screenplay Charisma. Kurosawa was the featured director in the Festival's Spotlight programme in 1999. His films include The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl (85), Eyes of the Spider (97), Serpent's Path (97), Cure (98), License to Live (99), Barren Illusion (99), Charisma (99), Séance (00), Pulse (01), Bright Future (03), Doppelganger (03), Loft (05), Retribution (06) and Tokyo Sonata (08).
Rating : 8.0/10
Director : Li Lin Wee
Country : Singapore
Running Time: 97 mins.
A satirical drama about how a nation's obsession with shopping changes the course of one woman's life. Clara, a forty year old 'tai tai' (wealthy lady of leisure) faces a mid life crisis and decides to runaway to the only place that has ever made any sense to her - the shopping centres. As she lives there, Clara crosses paths with other 'creatures' of the mall, namely Renu, an eight-year old latchkey kid who has been abandoned by her parents in a 24 hour mall and Aaron, an angst-y twenty three year old who skives work to hang out at the mall with his friends. Together, these characters lead audiences through a journey of love, loss and liberation through the heart of Singapore where they find that their dreams can be bought and broken.Li Lin Wee
A graduate of Brown University (Class of '96) in America , with a BA in Art Semiotics, Li Lin also spent a semester in NYU doing “Sight and Sound”, an intensive filmmaking production course. Since her graduation she has been working in Singapore as a freelance television producer/director. She's an avid short filmmaker and has done several short films in Singapore so far, three of which have been award winners at the Singapore International Film Festival and two have won awards at American Film Festivals. In January last year the Singapore Film Society organized a retrospective of all her work for members and the public. This event was a first ever SFC retrospective of a local short filmmaker. In 2004, the Singapore history museum (in conjunction with the Substation) organized another retrospective of her work.
Rating : 6.6/10video : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=wNQ8Z8a0PBg
Director : Simón Bross
Country : Mexico
Running Time: 98 mins
Best Feature Film at Montréal World Film Festival 2007
The film is inspired by the true story of a 17th century Mexican nun.One family has a whole set of diverse eating disorders--their faith, love and vanity are put to the test at the dinner table. Matilde is a nun convinced that faith can turn wine into water. Secretly, she begins fasting to prevent what she considers to be the second great flood. Elena is a thin, stylish woman ashamed of her daughters weight. She is willing to do anything to make her daughter thin so she will look like a princess at her first communion. At the same time, Elenas architect husband Gustavo cannot cope any more with his wife's gaunt figure during intimate moments. For an escape, he finds himself in the arms of a buxom female student.
Simón Bross
Simón Bross, Director of Garcia Bross & Associates, is the most recognized and awarded director in the history of Mexico´s and Latin America´s advertising arena. He has co-produced two feature films, WHO THE HELL IS JULIETTE? and SECOND CENTURY and produced more than twenty short films.
Rating : 7.3/10
video : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=xzocbB2607g
Director : Marat Alykulov
Country : Kazakhistan
Running Time: 75 min.
Director Marat Alykulov explores the drastic changes sweeping through the streets of a post-Soviet Kyrgyzia as seen through the eyes of three lifelong friends each dealing with their own absurd problems. Erkin has decided to end his affair with his lover across the way after his wife becomes justifiably suspicious. Meanwhile, Erkin's lifelong friend Bakit has set out on a spiritual quest, and inexplicably attempts to leap in front of a moving train. Tying these two friends together is their relationship with Stas. Stas is certain that his request for a visa will be approved this time, and when it is he plans on emigrating to Germany. Every evening, the friends hold a farewell party for Stas in hopes that this will be the day he sets out on a new adventure in life.
Marat Alykulov
Marat ALYKULOV (1971, Moscow) worked as a camera assistant at Kyrgyz Film Studio in the early 1990s. Afterwards he attended film classes at the Kyrgyz State Institute of Arts. During his studies he gathered experience in the field of directing as an assistant director. Since 2000 he works as a screenwriter and director for the production company Djebe.
Rating : Not Available
International film festival of kerala is an initiative by the Government of Kerala to bring National and International films, that have achieved critical acclaim in Global arena, to God's Own Country. The 13th edition of IFFK is scheduled from 12th to 19th December 2008. The film festival will be held in the capital city of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. This event has got international recognition over a period of time and has established itself as one of the important film festivals across the globe. Ardent film lovers testify that IFFK is far superior a film festival compared to IFFI (International film festival of India) in quality and content.
