Fifteen successful summers have flit past. BIFFes aka Bengaluru International Film Festival has now daintly stepped into its 16th year as part of its annual calendar cultural ritual.

This controversies and delays not withstanding.
Having grown in strength and stature as one of the premier film festivals in the country BIFFes has held its stead making it one of the much awaited film festival dos among the legions of
loyals who grace it year after year.
From March 1 to 8, all roads of namma Bengaluru will be leading to the City’s Orion Mall on the busy Dr Rajkumar Road within which is nestled PVR Cinema’s 11 screens which will play
host to the annual film jamboree.
Orion Mall’s PVR Cinemas will be the site of activity for all things films for a whole week as cineastes and avowed film aficionados congregate to catch the best of contemporary cinemas
as also confabulate among fellow film fans on those than won their hearts or were simply duds.
The film festival’s main course – Contemporary World Cinema – which boasts of around 70 plus films – will be the cynosure of all the cine buffs as they try to catch in some of the showpiece films that have won accolades and appreciation across the international film circuits.
Drawn from as many as 60 countries these specially curated section which brings a myriad of cinematic explorations and thematic delineations is sure to whet the discerning audiences’
expectations and picky palates.
From among the 70 odd films that vie for one’s attention, one could surely tick their schedule to watch a handful of these – the Norwegian film Armand about a six-year old in an elementary school who innocuous act has the parents, teachers and the entire educational system roiled against one another.
Likewise, Spain’s Little Loves is another film one ought to watch for. The film is a delectable and delightful exploration of a mother and daughter dynamics making for a pleasurable and
insightful watch.
The Turkey film One Of These Days When Hemme Dies is another beauty of a minimalist roadie film which provides a tongue-in-cheek look at an angry farmer who sets out with vengeance in mind to finish off his oppressing foreman who has not paid his wages.

The colourful and craftily done film is a study in subtle comecdic cinema of moods and manners.
The countryside oif Tukey is captured in all its vibrant colours and blazing sunlight glorfy.
Inspired by real life incidents, the Tunisian film Red Path is a gut wrenching social drama wherein two young boys face violence and the aftermath of which brings the entire village in remote mountain locked terrain in a fear psychosis to combat the perpetators.
Similarly, the Swedish film The Girl With The Needle is another real life inspired social treatise based on a serial killer of children which brings in stunning and stupefying detail the horrors of war ridden Danish society and its effects on the heartless and unscrupulous
prepator.
The Village Next To Paradise from Somalia is another moving and heart warming tale of a grave digger widower single dad who does all he can within his means to provide a meaningful education and life for his son while the dad’s sister too fights her own battle to
bring some meaning into her estranged life.
Besides these handful of films, one can also explore a few others like the Chinese film Caught By The Tides that tracks a woman’s personal odyssey in modern China, Crocodile Tears from
Indonesia wherein a mother and her son are caught in a symbiotic relationship, Familiar Touch from the US centred around an octogenarian woman, Good One also from US wherein
a young teen girl learns life’s lessons caught between her father and his friend during a trekking trip, Portugal’s epic Grand Tour, Costa-Rica’s Measures of a Burning Body, the Swedish-Greece Quiet Life, Shepherds from Canada, Dog Thief from Spain.
The entire offerings in the Country Focus Section from Brazil & Georgia, the entire lot from Critics’ Week, the German film From Hilde, With Love, the Spanish film I Am Nevanka, French film Niki, the Somalian flick Samia, and The Swedish Torpedo from Sweden from the Biopics section should provide one with a staple diet of multifarious films.
Of course, there are other sections as well one can consider which includes the Asian, Indian and Kannada Competition Sections, the Retrospectives and Restored Classics who look for
the “old is gold” era movies from past masters.
Besides the films to gorge upon providing for a fantabolous feast for the eyes, BIFFes academic sessions are another section wherein the aspiring talents can take a learn or two from the
initiated and experts.
In sum, as has always been with film festivals, more so with BIFFes, an eventful of engagements await true blue cine buffs as they embark on another exciting and enterprising edition of BIFFes.

Yes folks, lets toast the best of movies and indulge in the mesmerising magic they weave for us as namma Bengaluru turns Cinema Paradiso once more this summer.

See you then at the Orion Mall from March 1-8. Prosit!

by

S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.