An edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala with conflict and resistance as its running theme could not have got a better opening than the one it had at the Nishagandhi auditorium in the capital on Friday evening.
The crowd, taken by surprise, stood up and roared in applause as actor Bhavana walked to the stage to make her first appearance in five years, a day after announcing her return to Malayalam cinema following a hiatus.
The actor, who wrote recently on her journey from being a victim to a survivor, thanked the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the organisers of the festival, for the invitation to the ceremony.
“I thank every woman who fights against the odds. My wishes to the creators of good cinema and those who enjoy it,” Bhavana said in her short speech to the packed audience.
With her on stage was another symbol of resistance. Kurdish filmmaker Lisa Calan, who lost both her legs in an Islamic State bomb attack in 2015, but has continued to pursue her art with prosthetic legs. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who inaugurated the festival, presented her with the Spirit of Cinema award.
“We stand against patriarchy and every kind of gender-based violence. Cinema is a revolutionary medium of expression. It should be provocative. I have never stopped resisting the system. I have come a long way here to accept this award. Long Live Kerala,” said Calan in a speech in which she invoked the names of Rosa Luxemburg, Simone de Beauvoir, and Karl Marx as the persons who inspired her.
The Chief Minister hailed her for using the medium of cinema for social change, to fight against sectarianism and authoritarianism.
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who also got an overwhelming reception, praised the State for producing the "best of Indian Cinema" at present.
"While our history is being distorted, Kerala is chronicling the times that we are living in. The experimentation that is happening even in mainstream cinema here is so inspiring. It is very rooted and with a sense of time and place, which I don't find much in Hindi films. Congratulations to the State for standing up to the bullies," said Kashyap.
Minister for Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian, who presided over the function, spoke on the government's efforts to improve the film industry as well as to ensure the representation of women and backward castes in it. He said 27 new cinema halls would be completed within a year across the State.
