The last three days were pretty hectic for Rajasree. She would leave her home at nine in the morning after finishing her chores and cooking food for her family. She would ensure that she reached the Kairali-Sree theatre complex well in time to get a seat for the first screening of the day.
The housewife from the outskirts of the city would leave the theatre only after the last show of the night. Women like her made the third edition of the Women’s International Film Festival, which concluded on Monday, a success.
“I watched as many films as possible and it was an enjoyable experience,” she says. “The ₹300 I spent on the delegate pass was more than worth it. I liked most of the foreign films I watched. And I liked the Malayalam film Nishiddho too.”
Nishiddho wasn’t the only Malayalam feature film directed by debutant female directors; there were films by Aisha Sultana and Mini I.G. And there were of course some fine films from overseas, such as Clara Sola (Costa Rica). Most of the shows drew full houses.
A good percentage of the viewers at the festival, which screened films made by only female directors, were women. Mind you, a woman going alone to movies is still not that common in Kerala. In her speech during the inaugural ceremony of the festival, Mayor Beena Philip had recalled an incident at a theatre in the city. When she asked the man at the ticket counter for one ticket, he said, “Only one?”
These festivals are important for a city like Kozhikode, which rarely gets to host such major cultural events.
The festival had its share of controversies, too. Kunjila Mascilamani had staged a protest, a little before the inaugural function, against the exclusion of a film she directed. Director Vidhu Vincent withdrew her film from the festival in support of Kunjila.
