കിംഗ്‌ സൈസ്

Kingsize(1998)
Dir:Juliusz Machulski
Country:Poland

Kingsize is a fantasy film, made in the late 1980s (the synth-pop soundtrack will clue you in). There is a tribe of mouse-sized people who live in “Drawerland,” which is really the filing cabinets of a long-forgotten office. One of their tiny scientists has developed a formula that will enlarge them to full-sized, normal human beings. (They call our world “Kingsize.”)

The leaders of Drawerland (among them, Jerzy Stuhr) are worried that if the formula is made widely available, their entire population may disappear forever. So the politicians and conservatives want to suppress the formula to keep the populace from fleeing into the larger world. If you wanted to, you could say that Kingsize is an allegory for life under a Communist regime before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Or you could say that it’s just a silly fantasy movie with cute special effects.

And I was often amazed at how good the special effects were. Obviously the film was made on a limited budget (at least by Hollywood standards), but it’s surprising how freeing and inspiring that can be. Most of the “special effects” are simple sets and props. Repeatedly, I would be convinced by the texture and shape of some tiny (and/or gigantic) object. For example, in Drawerland, someone uses a sheet of paper as a blanket. The oversize prop has the exact right stiffness of a real sheet of paper, while still appearing to be as light as a leaf.

വിഞ്ചി

Vincy(2004)
Dir:Juliusz Machulski
Country:Poland
1 win & 2 nominations See more »

Petty thieves plot to purloin a Da Vinci painting in this caper comedy from popular and prolific action-comedy director Juliusz Machulski (Sexmission; Kingsize; Kiler).
Ex-con Cuma is on parole from prison, but a once-in-a-lifetime chance to steal one of the world s most priceless paintings falls into his lap. What s an inveterate thief to do? Cuma tracks down his old partner, Julian, who is reluctant to participate because he has found new employment as a cop. Finally, Julian gives in, the old gang comes together, and the heist is on.
Director Machulski s signature combination of humor and action makes this Polish version of heist films like The Score or The Italian Job highly entertaining.

കാര്‍മെന്‍ ഗെഇ

Karmen Gei(2001)
Dir:Joseph Gaï Ramaka
Country:Senegal

There's an aphorism about translations that says that translations are like women--if they are beautiful they aren't faithful, and if they are faithful they aren't beautiful. This may not be a literal version of the familiar Carmen, but it is beautifully true to the spirit of the original. It is also unlike anything you've ever seen.

The acting and cinematography are splendid. The score honors Bizet in its tonality without ever quoting the opera. Djeïnaba Diop Gaï's Karmen is a shooting star. The original Carmen's transgressive sexuality, freely flaunted in a way that spills outrageously beyond societal rules, translates here into bisexuality. Other themes are also aptly and satisfyingly tranmuted--the smugglers are hauling dope; her toreador is a musical star.

ദി ജാപ്പനീസ് വൈഫ്‌

The Japanese Wife(2010)
Dir:Aparna Sen
Country:India

Aparna Sen’s Japanese Wife, based on the novel of the same name by Kunal Basu, is the most offbeat love triangle one can hope to come across. Snehamoy is a “chhaposha” (simple, average, middle/lower middle-class) Bengali school teacher at the Sundarbans, while Miyage is a shy Japanese girl residing in Yokohama, who, through pen-friendship, end up having a 17-year long platonic relationship and marriage despite never getting to see each other in person. The third angle is a young widow who silently loves Snehamoy, who in turn gets subtly attracted to her physically. The movie is, lets face it, based on an improbable premise, and the emotional impact is not as much as a movie such as this ought to have. But the acting of Rahul Bose as the soft-spoken teacher, Moushumi Chatterjee as his loquacious aunt, and especially Raima Sen as the young widow, are pitch-perfect, which in turn get amply complemented by the impressive photography – the tranquility and fury of the region and the river Matla have been very well captured. The standout moment in the movie – the kite-flying competition between Bengali and Japanese kites; the overhead shots of the soaring kites took the film to a different plane altogether at times

ക്യാപിറ്റലിസ്റ്റ് മാനിഫെസ്റ്റോ : വര്‍ക്കിംഗ്‌ മെന്‍ ഓഫ് ഓള്‍ കന്ട്രീസ് ,അക്കുമുലെട്റ്റ്

Capitalist manifesto:Working Men of all countries,
Accumulate(2003)

Dir;Gok Kim & Sun Kim
Country:Korea
With their characteristic dark, manic wit, the Kim Brothers offer a sardonic parable of the logic of capitalism: the endless cycle of wealth production and profit and the endless cycle of desire and gratification, both running inexorably towards crisis -- as experienced when supply exceeds demand. The characters are an exploited vendor of porno videos, a teenage prostitute and a hooker who uses her physical assets as collateral for stakes in a floating crap game. The narrative loops and twists like a Moebius strip, while the various settings keep interfacing like spaces in an MC Escher hall of mirrors. Brilliantly original.

A strange and yet unique story about hoodlums who spend
most of their times either on gambling or dealing pornog-
raphies, high school students who sell their bodies, and
prostitutes. This film meticulously depicts how capitalism
reproduces ruling party and the opposition even in social
outsiders. The viewers may find its outrageous repetition
and bold description a bit odd, but then again its audacity
and joyousness make this eexcperimental film something
to remember.
Directors’ statement
Capitalism wants accumulation. It absolutely subsumes peo-
ple. Their labour power is nothing but an apparatus to help
capital circulate. The capitalist society where desire does
not produce capital, but capital produces desire, is where
we all live now. Capitalism evolves. It makes variations on a
deceptive method to expand the quality and quantity of
accumulation. Now desire becomes capital, capital becomes
desire – now capitalism relatively subsumes people. The
faster its accumulation gets, the bigger its desire gets.

ദി ഫൊട്ടൊഗ്രാഫ്

The photograph(2007)
Dir:Nan Triveni Achnas
Country:indonesia
2 wins & 1 nomination See more »




Sita is an escort at a karaoke bar who struggles to raise money to send her daughter out of the city to live with her grandmother and settle her debts with her pimp. She moves in with aging photographer Jan and helps him fulfill his last wishes.

ഐ വിഷ് ഐ ന്യൂ

I Wish I Knew(2010)
Dir;Zhang Ke Jia
Country:China



Like his last film, 2008's 24 City, Jia Zhangke's Un Certain Regard title I Wish I Knew is a documentary/fiction hybrid about modern-day China. Where 24 City took a personal focus on the citizens of a Chinese town affected by the construction of a high-rise condominium, I Wish I Knew takes a broader view, examining the history of Shanghai as viewed from the present. It combines interviews with citizens, actors, and filmmakers with architectural shots of present-day Shanghai and footage of actress Zhao Tao wandering the city. The film is never less than gorgeous, and there's often an intuitive and pleasing internal rhythm to how he cuts within and between shots.

ജെര്‍മല്‍

Jermal aka Fishing platform(2008)
Dir;Ravi L.Bharwani
Country:Indonesia
2 wins See more »

A jermal is a wooden fishing platform located in the middle of the ocean, supported by stilts and carrying very few of amenities life has to offer. This is the entire setting for the Indonesian film Jermal: a glorified boat dock unconnected to anything else. There's a forward section where implements to reel in fishing nets are located, a work house-type structure where the fish are cleaned, rudimentary sleeping quarters for the child workers, a fairly large open space where they capture rain water to use for drinking and a structure home to Johar (Didi Petet), a large, bearded man we assume is using the kids as slave labor.

The film, written and directed by a trio of filmmakers (Ravi L. Bharwani, Rayya Makarim and Orlow Seunke),

After his mothers death, 12-year-old Jaya (Iqbal S. Manurung) is sent to his father, Johar (Didi Petet), who works as a supervisor on a jermal (a fishing platform perched on log stilts in the middle of the sea). Johar is shocked, never knowing he has a son, and rejects the boy as his kin. Fully aware he cant bring Jaya back to land due to a dark past, Johar is forced to accept the boy as a worker on the site.

Faced with constant rejection from his father and relentless bullying by the other boys who work on the jermal, Jaya decides to take fate into his own hands. He gives up hope on being accepted and learns the skills and attitude needed to survive on the jermal.

Jaya increasingly becomes like the other boys: a tough, rough survivor; while Johar is forced to gradually face and accept his past. Eventually, both Johar and Jaya learn that they are bound by their past, united by the space in which they move, and connected by the inescapable truth.

ദി കാറ്റ്സ് ഓഫ് മിറി കിടാനി

Cats of Mirikitani(2006)
Documentary
Dir;Linda Hattendorf
Country;USA
Documentary about red-bereted Jimmy Mirikitani, a feisty painter working and living on the street, near the World Trade Center, when 9/11 devastates the neighborhood. A nearby film editor, Linda Hattendorf, persuades elderly Jimmy to move in with her, while seeking a permanent home for him. The young woman delves into the California-born, Japan-raised artist's unique life which developed his resilient personality, and fuel his 2 main subjects, cats and internment camps. The editor films Jimmy's remarkable journey.

New York documentary filmmaker Linda Hattendorf should be proud of what she did in filming Asian-American artist Jimmy Mirikitani, his paintings, and his telling the stories of his life of living in an internment camp during World War II. This Sacramento-born, Hiroshima-raised artist is frank and occasionally profane in his feelings of what the American government had done to him especially when he had to sign his U. S. citizenship away, which explains why he initially refuses Social Security. Taking place before and after 9/11, Mirikitani experiences some deja vu when he watches television reports of Arab-Americans being treated like second-class citizens. But with Linda's help, he also talks on the phone with his sister who he lost contact with during the war and discovers a poet daughter of a cousin named Janice, who lives in San Francisco. He also gets his own apartment and starts teaching an art class. The most touching scenes come at the end when he and Linda travel back to where he was interned at Tule Lake. Essential viewing for anyone wanting to know how narrow-minded the American government was during World War II and how far we've come since then. Oh, and the title refers to the many cats he paints.

ആന്‍ ആര്‍മി ഓഫ് വണ്‍

An Army of One(2010)
Documentary
Dir;Guillaume Coudray
Country;France

I came to Vilnius as a young man ten years ago to work with Lithuanian master filmmaker Šarūnas Bartas. I wanted to discover what made Bartas’s films so exceptional, how he achieved his unique balance of visual contemplation and dissolved narration. I lived in a corner of his “studio”, an old wooden house in the middle of the forest, and little by little began to get inside his elusive creative process, but I always felt that I was missing the big picture. In order to put the pieces together, I needed to come back. —Guillaume Coudray