THE ARYAN SAGA -- A TALE OF WANNABE MASTERRACE MOTHERSIn the documentary section Sanjeev Sivan's "The Aryan Saga" starts out like a colorful Himalayan tribal travelogue but slowly sneaks a time bomb into the Llaps of the unsuspecting audience, with a film which unleashed the most heated post screening discussion of the entire festival. It is generally accepted historically that somewhere around 1,500 BC the Indian subcontinent was invaded from the north by so-called Aryan tribes who spoke langu...
Director: Jano Rosebiani.
Five years following the infamous chemical and biological bombing of Halabja, Diyari, a Kurdish/ American good Samaritan, returns to his homeland to build an orphanage in what is left of Halabja. He meets Jiyan, a ten-year old orphan and a survivor of the chemical attack, doomed to live with a burn scar covering most of her right cheek.. A strong bond between the two ensues and later he names his orphanage after her. During the course of his stay in Halabja, Diyari meets a colorful bunch of townsfolk, many of whom remain physically and/or psychologically marked with the effects of the chemical agents. Among them is Jiyan's only living relative, Shérco, a twelve-year old who has also lost his family to the poison gas. While Shérco dreams of marrying her one day, Jiyan dreams of seeing flowers, a picture of which she finds on the back of a magazine. In addition to building the orphanage, Diyari brings a spark of hope and happiness to Shérco's and Jiyan's lives. However, this affair is short lived. As he leaves, the two orphans turn back to their lonely shells with very little light to look forward to - a familiar state of mind echoing throughout Halabja. Diyari departs with a promise to return, but now leaving a tearful Jiyan at the place where he first meet her - on a swing under a lonely tree on a small lonely hill.
It's fairly unusual at a film festival with umpteen titles to pick from that one selects three names out of a hat, and all three turn out to be not only winners, back to back, but films of quality ranging from excellent to astounding. Today's triple winning ticket: "ZOZO" from Norway by way of Beirut, "Fratricide" Brudermord) -- astounding turf battle between Turks and Kurds in a German city, and "Bashing", a hypnotic Kafkaesque look at life on Desolation Row in a northern Japanese industrial w...
KUKTAU - THE SKY MOUNTAINTartar Feature debut at ZLINKUKTAU is the first full-length feature film ever made in Tatar. Its premier presentation at the 45th ZLIN International Childrens Film Festival on May 30th has raised considerable interest, highlighted by the onstage appearance of lovely Alina Rizvanova, Executive Producer, in native costume, singing a song in Tartar before the audience "Children should not be separated from their Parents".A production of the The Kazan Documentary Film Studi...
