Praise for five films in competition category

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Five films in the competition section provided a veritable fare for the viewers on day three of the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala here on Sunday. ‘Black Blood’ by Miaoyan Zhang, ‘Body’ by Mustafa Nuri, ‘The Dreams of Elibidi’ directed by Kamau Wa Ndungu and Nick Reding, ‘Delhi in a Day’ by Prashanth Nair and ‘A Stone’s Throw Away’ by Sebastian Hiriat were lined up in the category.  Except ‘Black Blood’ and ‘Delhi in a Day,’ other films were screened in the festival for the first time. Mustafa Nuri’s ‘Body’ revolves around the mental turmoil suffered by a middle-aged woman who falls in love with a twenty-year- old boy. The film was extolled for the effective  depiction of inner conflicts. ‘The Dreams of Elibidi,’ the Swahili story, received praise for the wonderful blend of drama in cinema.‘A Separation’ by Asghar Farhadi, the film which received the Best Director Silver Peacock award at the recently-concluded Goa Film Festival, effectively portrays the life set in the background of contemporary Iran in the category of ‘World Cinema’. ‘Two Escobars’, in the ‘Kicking and Screening’ category was screened before a packed audience. The film was well-received by the viewers.Ruckus in open forumThe open forum, on its second day too witnessed much ruckus on the venue. The forum is turning a headache for the festival organisers as the session on Sunday was forced to conclude following an tiff between some delegates. The event took an ugly turn when the secretary of Purogamana Kala Sahithya Sangham (PUKASA) Vinod Vaisakhi raised a question on whether the intervention of Minister K B Ganesh Kumar had resulted in the hijacking of the identity of IFFK. This led to a scuffle between the delegates on the open forum venue. Responding to the issue, Gandhimathi Balan, vice-chairman of the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy, said the problems were ‘intentionally created’ by a group of people. ‘’The committee will convene on Monday to take a decision on steps to prevent such incidents in future,’’ he said.