The 54th International Film Festival of India organised by the National Film Development Corporation, and Entertainment Society of Goa concluded on November 28. Close to 270 films from 105 countries were screened in a week in 12 halls at four venues. There were also over 30 lectures and interaction sessions with film personalities, in addition to a Film Bazar where prospective film producers and film makers could meet and make deals.
I was there with my daughter, an amateur film maker. We averaged three films a day for seven days after avoiding the red carpet opening and closing events. We picked films randomly but evenly spread across continents. Surprisingly, none disappointed, partly because we were looking not just for cinematic excellence but also for the residues of the political and social climates which shaped these films. The broad pattern was as we expected. Films from Africa generally had some elements of lawlessness, Central Asian films evoked pictures of conflict migration and gender oppression, South East Asian films showed underlying social tensions of the rural-urban divide while in Western European films themes of boredom and juvenile delinquency were common.
