A PIFFin' good time

I could only watch five films at the Pune International Film Festival '09. The reasons why and why not, well, they're too tedious to go into on a community blog. I shall leave self-pity behind and plunge instead, into giving you the dope on the five films I did manage to see.

1. The Deserted Station directed by Alireza Raisian

In a word, functional. The adjective perhaps doesn't befit the beauty of the film, nor its protagonist, essayed by the lovely Leila Hatami but the film truly works as smoothly as a well-oiled machine. It seemed to be about miscommunication and half attention. People pretend not to hear, get left behind, have to be fetched and so on. A sort of in media res snapshot of a day in a village school unfurled from the perspective of a woman who one doesn't even see till the first 5 minutes are over, the film tackles the basic idea of contact through themes of isolation, the interpersonal hide-and-seek people play and perhaps even the most fundamental form of disconnection with the world - death. There is an arresting scene in a stationary train which ties all of this together. And the ending - the little boy and the woman looking at each other through the open car window - was almost heartbreaking. 7/10

2.Persepolis by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi

Measured, relevant, poignant, comic and imbued with a female idiosyncrasy which is utterly absent in mainstream, andro-normative narratives. Named after the ancient Persian city and mining the childhood and young adulthood of a little girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution, Satrapi's autobiography provides a panoramic glance at a world that is insular and robust, that craves acceptance and is split between hemispheres and histories, much like its presenter. 8/10

3.In The Flesh by Christian Angeli

Predictable, inelegant and meandering. It neither involves one in the centrality of its protagonists nor allows you to admire the vacancy in its symbolic backdrops. The director struggles with the triteness of the themes and the ambition of the context.3/10

4.Overdose by Shmuel Imberman

Utter rubbish. By-the-numbers and banal. The only saving grace was its charming lead actress who portrayed her role with a panache that this deformed, plain and vapid vision did not deserve. Unrateable.

5.El Camino by Ishtar Yasin

Haunting, layered and compelling. A visual revelation that can be enjoyed on a completely superficial level, but if regarded with attention, excavates the deepest fears of the human soul. An almost tribal, spooky fairy tale with magic realist hints and a sense of horror that is distinctly Central American - all dark tropical jungles, resplendent butterflies, motley travellers and almost no dialogue - pervades the picaresque storyline. The marriage of otherworldly morality tale with a painfully realistic grit elevates the film, as do the sublime young actors and the stunning cinematography that explains the supernatural environment. It deserves multiple viewings. 9/10