S Viswanath

From acclaimed auteurs, to celebrated global cinema giants, to those cutting their teeth, that have had their initial film festival circuits run, awarded and feted at Cannes, Berlinale, Venice and Sundance that happen before KVIFF, the film festival’s anchor segment – Horizons is eagerly anticipated and awaited one by both cinephiles and critics in this part of the world. Stringing and bringing in a curated panoply of acclaimed and accoladed contemporary cinemas from the global festival marquee, KVIFF’s Horizons is the singular window to globally diversified cinemas right from the European, North American, to those from less represented regions, providing a wide window into the world cinemas raising a shindig in the festival circuit cosmos.

While KVIFF’s Cystal Globe and Proxima Competitions collective are its mainstay providing the film festival its distinct identity and exclusivity, its counterpart, Horizons, is a platform that provides for showcasing of contemporary films from the world over that have been in film circuit discourse and gives the film festival the Cinema of World character for the itinerant KVIFF attendee to experience and enjoy. So without much ado lets take a cursory peek into the feastful of fascinating films that have been specially and carefully curated by the KVIFF programming team in the section for those in attendance to catch up with.

Animol is a 93 min British drama by Ashley Walters and winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale spotlighting on how behind the walls of a juvenile detention and correction centre, young inmates navigate friendship, identity, and personal growth while confronting harsh realities and their own paths to redemption delving into the dark world of gangs, humiliation and violence through the trials and tribulations of the protagonist Troy.

The 90 min Long live Carmen! (Carmen, Loiseau Rebelle ) is a colourful rich palette animated feature film by acclaimed French filmmaker Sébastien Laudenbach. Set in the back streets of sunny Seville, this modern adaptation, tells the story of an orphan Salvador and his friend Belén, who, together with a group of teenagers, try to prevent an ominous prophecy concerning the free-spirited beauty Carmen.

The film had its premiere in Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar generating a lot of buzz besides the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The Lebanese-Palestine 100 min feature Watchful Eyes (Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep) by Rakan Mayasi is a observational drama shot entirely in the foggy Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, which explores strict tribal customs and patriarchal traditions, following two Bedouin sisters who are offered up to resolve a dangerous blood feud.The Rwandan 102 min feature Ben’Imana by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo the first ever film from that nation to screen at Cannes with the genocide of Tutsi at its pith follows women rebuilding their lives amidst shared trauma, showing how the past shapes their present and narrates the horrific past and present of the strife torn nation through Vénéranda, one of the survivors of the genocide.

The 116 min British documentary Cantona by the directors-duo of David Tryhorn & Ben Nicholas charts the exceptional footballer Eric Cantona phenomenon legendary for his absolute football mastery. Dao the nearly three hour plus epic film by Alain Gomis is an innovative film with its free floating cinematography and immersive editing which revolves around the daughter of a woman from Guinea-Bissau marries in France, prompting a large gathering of her extended family. Sometime later, they meet again in the family’s home village to commemorate the deceased grandfather’s family.

This expansive family portrait, centred around these two celebrations and poised between fiction and documentary, develops a unique rhythm as long as it allows itself to embrace its intimate immediacy.The 102 mins American film The History of Concrete by John Wilson is a documentary which The follows the director as he tries to sell his idea to investors and travels to various locations—from the sidewalks of New York to ancient Pantheon in Rome. Along the way, the project becomes a hilarious and touching chronicle of city life.

The film documents quirky people and curious companies connected to the material, from teams that clean chewing gum off sidewalks to construction conventions. Paweł Pawlikowski’s Polish 82 min Fatherland is set in 1949, when writer Thomas Mann, accompanied by his daughter Erika, arrives in Germany after sixteen long years to accept two awards, one in American-controlled Frankfurt, the other in Weimar, dominated by Soviets. The pair are struck by news of unexpected family tragedy. The film is an intellectual probe into post-war society and a road movie meandering between myth and reality.

The Cyprus-Greece film Hold me (Krata Me) 103 min by Myrsini Aristidou tracks the life of 11-year-old Iris’s life in a sleepy, peaceful seaside town until the unexpected return of her father arriving for a funeral. The heartwarming film tackles the complex relationship between a daughter and her father, who find their way to each other for the first time in their lives.

The first ever Cypriot film premiering at Sundance Film Festival went on to bag the Audience Award.Directed by Viv Li the Dutch-German 86 min Two Mountains Weighing Down My Chest is described as an infectiously energetic, endearingly wacky, yet deeply personal and extraordinarily penetrating, self-portrait of Chinese artist and filmmaker Viv Li.

The filmmaker captures herself straddling the vibrant scene of Berlin’s alternative community and the more conservative environment of contemporary China, in the process, revealing the subtle cultural clashes in a world that is both globalised and polarised. Everybody Digs Bill Evans the 103 min Irish film by Grant Gee is set in New York of 1961 and based on the novel Intermission by Owen Martell which follows the legendary musician Bill Evans at the peak of his career with his jazz trio, who a few days after recording a new double album, his double bassist and musical soul mate tragically die in a car accident. Crushed by grief, Evans renounces music and leaves New York. The film a fragile blues portrait of one of the greatest jazz geniuses of 20th C which won the Silver Bear for Best Director at Berlinale.The Chilean, 112 min film Bitch (La Perra) by Dominga Sotomayor is an adaptation of 2017 novel of the same name by Colombian writer Pilar Quintana.

We are introduced to 40-year-old Silvia who makes a living collecting and selling seaweed. One day, she adopts puppy and becomes intensely attached. The film, screened at Cannes, explores the complex relationship between human nature and nature. Rafael Manuel’s 101 min Singaporean film Filipino (Filipiñana) set in a luxury golf resort on the outskirts of Manila revolves around 17-year-old Isabel a ball carrier tasked with delivering a golf club to the club’s president, Dr Palanga, who is nowhere to be found. Winner of the Palme d’Or the Romanian flick Fjord (149 min) by Cristian Mungiu follows the fate of a Romanian-Norwegian family that moves to a remote part of Norway tackling the issues of identity, parenthood and possibilities of coexistence in a culturally divided Europe.

Shame and Money the 130 min Kosovar film by Visar Morina speaks of the trials and tribulations of an aging man from countryside, who, though works hard, it’s still not enough. His efforts become a measure of human dignity in the eyes of others. The film picked the Grand Prize at Sundance festival this year.American filmmaker Ramzi Bashour’s 98 mins Hot spring (Hot Water) is warm-hearted road movie about Layal, a college professor torn between different worlds, taking her son Daniel across the United States to his father to save his high school education. The film provides a bittersweet insights into filial relationships. Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar’s 111 mins Bitter Holidays (Amarga Navidad) is an intimate drama with two storylines. It tells the story of acclaimed screenwriter and film director Raúl and the heroine of his new screenplay, Elsa, an advertising director.

While Elsa faces psychological exhaustion and reevaluates her life, Raúl increasingly uses the fates of his loved ones as a source of inspiration. Valentina Maurel’s 108 min Belgian flick We Are Of One Blood (Siempre soy tu animal materno) charts the life of Elsa, who, after years of studyin Europe, returns to native Costa Rica, to find her family in a state she never expected. Elsa is convinced she is the only stable one in the family, and trying to put things in order. The film picked Best Actress(es) Award in Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival for all three leading actresses.

The Gradient (La gradiva) the 145 min French fare from Marine Atlan tracks a group of French students setting off on their last school trip in this coming-of-age drama where arguments, summer loves, poorly concealed jealousy, unspoken desires all erupt at the mythical volcanic spot with subtle intensity, subliminal tension, and powerful catharsis.The 135 mins Spanish film Beloved (El ser querido) by Rodrigo Sorogoyen is about dads who chose careers over their diurnal lives. Here we have famous Spanish filmmaker Esteban Garcia returning to his native country after many years to shoot a new film with main female role for his daughter, whom he has not seen for many years, who are estranged from one another. Fernando Eimbcke’s 103 min Mexican film Flies (Moscas) centres around Olga, a pensioner, who earns extra money renting out a room in her apartment. However, with the arrival of nine-year-old Cristian suddenly in her life bestirs her placid, peaceful life.

The film was screened in the main competition of the Berlinale.The 98 min documentary Rehearsals for a Revolution by Pegah Ahangarani traces the history of her country Iran through her personal history. In five portraits of her loved ones, she finds moments that are common to her own past and to the turning points of Iran, whether it is the Iran-Iraq war, the revolution or the current Women, Life, Freedom movement. Sandra Wollner’s 124 mins Forever (Everytime) Austrian film revolves around amother, daughter and a young boy reflecting on their own at first, before setting off together to distant Tenerife, where feelings of guilt, possibility of forgiveness and mysterious scenes from past materialise.

Winner in the Cannes Un Certain Regard competition the film constantly casts rays of light deep into the shadows of human soul.Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s 115 mins Italian flick May God Forgive Everyone (Che dio perdona a tutti) is a romantic comedy about an infallible real estate agent who feigns deep Catholic devotion to win over his soulmate, a pastry chef, with the unexpected help of the Pope.

The French 139 min film Unknown (L’ inconnue) by Arthur Harari is a psychological fantasy film whose plot follows a recluse photographer who gets entangled in a psychosexual nightmare where unsuspecting lovers swap bodies and souls. The film loosely inspired by the graphic novel Le cas by David Zimmerman centres around a virtually homebound photographer being dragged to a wild party by friends, and becomes entirely fixated on a mysterious woman, kicking off a surreal, unsettling chain of events The Belgium 102 min flick Intoxicated By The Forest (Forest High / Forêt Ivre) by Manon Coubia revolves around three women residing in a mountain hut in Northern Alps managing it at different times.

The three Anne, Hélène and Suzanne listen to stories, watch changes luxuriating in their solitude inviting the audiences to experience the meditative peace and breathtaking scenery of the European mountains.

The Brazilian 75 min animation Papaya by Priscilla Kellen speaks of a little seed growing somewhere inside a soft, sweet fruit and once out finds itself with other seeds sprouting their roots while birds are flying around and animals are roaming around. Deciding enough is enough it turns its freshly sprouted roots into legs setting off in a fable like tale that awaits both the young and adults alike.

James Gray’s Paper Tiger (115 min) set in New York of 1980s where suspicious deals and dangerous acquaintances interact invites us into the family of engineer Irwin, his wife Hester and their two sons living orderly middle-class life until Irwin’s charismatic brother Gary shows up with the offer of a lucrative side job setting the stage for a thriller ride. Spaniard Jaume Claret Muxart’s Strange River (Estrany riu) (106 min) takes viewers into the world of adolescence in this debut coming of age feature with sensually captivating, poetic journey along the Danube, telling the story of the emotional and sexual awakening of 16-year-old Dídac and the impact his inner transformation has on the rest of his family.

Markus Schleinzer’s black and white 94 min Austrian drama Rose takes one to the beginning of 17th C, with a soldier arriving in a remote German village claiming ownership of a dilapidated farm he has supposedly inherited. Through his discipline and hard work he gains the villagers trust despite their initial misgivings, until he is about to have a child with the daughter of one of the villagers. The film’s actress Sandra Hüller was awarded Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlinale for her dazzling portrayal of the titular character Rose, for whom freedom can only be achieved if she wears her trousers.Directed by Andrius Blaževičius Divorce In Times Of War (Skyrybos karo metu) the 109 min Lithuanian film centres around Marija who files for divorce – just hours before Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The marital crisis metaphorically becomes much bigger with the couple having to navigate the separation at a time when nothing is certain due to the war while their life in Vilnius is changing dramatically. The film had its world premiere in World Cinema Dramatic competition section at Sundance Film Festival, where Blaževičius won the Best Director Award.The 108 min Nepalese flick Elephants In The Fog by Abinash Bikram Shah is set in a village abetting the forest inhabited by wild elephants. Pirati the leading healer of Kinnari community in order to live with the man she is besotted dreams of leaving her adopted family.

But the disappearance of her daughter Apsara changes everything. The film, revolving around the transgender community, won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes.The Austrian-Argentinian 78 min Prompter (The Souffleur) by Gastón Solnicki is about hotelier Lucius who has to come to terms with the loss of his life’s work, his home and his daughter’s home while realty developer Facundo sets about to buy the Intercontinental Hotel, destroy it and rebuild it again? The film was featured in the Orizzonti section at Venice Biennale.Umberto Carteni’s Italian flick Classmates (Domani interrogo) (97 min) showcases how the energetic English teacher Anna Ferzetti doughtily takes over a class of misfit students at a high school on the outskirts of Rome called Rebibbia and how her fellow faculty are thrown off guard by her authority and determination to bring about change in the given up wards.

Yemini director Sara Ishaq’s Station (Al Mahatta) 113 min speaks of Lajal who manages a gas station in the middle of a war zone and leading a placed existence till her younger brother is also called up for war forcing her to take things into her hands to ensure he does not get drafted into military service. The film seeks to give voice to women whose husbands, brothers, and fathers have disappeared in the war, leaving them to their fate and fed for themselves.

The Chinese animation feature Light pole (Han ye deng zhu) (90 min) by Xu Zao is a sci-fi thriller set in the near future where a lonely maintenance worker Zha, who has for company a cat or VR glasses he received from the studio boss instead of a pay check. Zha escapes into a world that is more real, more understandable, in which he even plans a trip to moon with a beautiful girl. Likewise, the Latvian animation feature of 72 min Secrets of the Jungle (Laimīgie) by Edmunds Jansons spotlights on nine-year-old Elisabeth returning home from boarding school for holidays joins her parents in the middle of jungle where they work.

A family adventure full of real and mythical animals the film seeks to enchant viewers with its colourful jungle and cute inhabitants.British filmmaker Lance Hammer’s 122 min In Unknown Waters ( Queen at Sea) focuses on the family comprising the daughter, her dementia ridden mother and stepfather. Who has the right to make decisions about the euthanasia is the question the film addresses for which there is no clear answer.

The film won the Jury Prize at Berlinale. Where the main couple, also received the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actors.Bulgarian Valeska Griesbach’s nearly 2 hours 47 mins epic Dream Adventure (The Dreamed Adventure) is a thriller set in Svilengrad, Southeastern Bulgaria, where Veska returns to her hometown to oversee archaeological research in the area. Her chance meeting with Said, an old friend whose car has been stolen propels her to get involved in an illegal business setting her on a dangerous adventure, confronting her own desires and past.

Winner of Jury Prize at Cannes, this gangster film also functions as a coherent social archaeology of diverse Bulgarian borderlands.With football world cup on, Argentinian 91 min Match of the Century (The Party) by director-duo Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco takes viewers to June 22, 1986, Azteca Stadium Mexico City where quarter-final of World Cup between England and Argentina is on as it chronicles Diego Maradona’s infamous “hand of God” goal.

The Falklands War, national pride, political tensions and fates of players is evoked as the backdrop for a match that still provokes heated debate today providing for a fascinating story of rivalry, memory and reconciliation reminds us why football can capture the attention of the whole world for ninety minutes.Belgium’s 120 min Coward by Lukas Dhont takes audiences into the thick of First World War, where two Belgian soldiers meet – Pierre, a timid young man from a farm, and Francis, a lively, charismatic tailor. As horrors of war intensify, their mutual closeness grows stronger, but so do their thoughts of escape or their fear of detection.

The film examines queer identity and new aspects of masculinity, with sensitivity and dramatic tension that are characteristic of the filmmaker.Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi 196 min monumental Suddenly (Soudain) introduces us to Marie-Lou who runs a nursing home and attempts to introduce new, more humane ways of patient care. However the experienced staff used to established norms frown upon her methods. Ryusuke Hamaguchi follows up on his Oscar-winning film Drive Me, Drive Me, with a new opus, which won the audience in the main competition at Cannes Film Festival with its meditative and deeply emotional tone and which won both protagonists Best Actress Award.Franco-Belgian flick A Woman’s Life (La vie d’une femme) 98 min by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet has 50 year old doctor and head of department who believes work comes first even before family of a dementia ridden mother and her own marital life.

The 128 min Yellow letters (Gelbe Briefe) Turkish fare by İlker Çatak winner of Berlinale Award narratives the story about power struggle wherein theatre artist Aziz and his wife Derya become displeased with the regime, and although t

However, the arrival of young writer looking for inspiration for her new book has the doctor rethink her priorities in life. The protagonist’s sensitive portrait explores the boundaries between professional success, caring for others and the need for closeness.