Manju Warrier‘s A’hr/Kayattam, Fahadh Faasil‘s C U Soon, Pinki Elli, Ritwick Chakraborty‘s Mayar Jonjal are among the 40 films to be screened at the 25th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IIFK), 2021.
The film festival will begin on February 10 at Thiruvananthapuram, which is the usual host city of the annual film festival. This year, for the first time, it will be held in three other cities in Kerala– Kochi, Thalassery and Palakkad along with Thiruvananthapuram.
Quo Vadis, Aida?, a 2020 internationally co-produced war drama film written and directed by Bosnian filmmaker and screenwriter Jasmila Žbanić, will be the opening film. The film narrates the story of Aida, who is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica and whose family is seeking shelter at a UN camp when the Serbian army takes over the town. The film premiered at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. It won the International Feature Film Competition Award at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival 2020 and the Audience Choice Prize at the Les Arcs European Film Festival 2020.
Among the 14 films in the International Competition, there are four Indian language films– Hasyam/Humour, a 2019 Malayalam film directed by Jayaraj; Churuli, a 2020 Malayalam film directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, Sthalpuran/Chronicle of Space, a 2020 Marathi film directed by Akshay Indikar, and Kosa, a 2020 Hindi film directed by Mohit Priyadarshi. Other films in this category include two Azerbaijani films– Bilesuvar and In Between Dying / Sepelenmis Ölümler Arasinda, Observer Las Aves/Birdwatching (written and directed by Mexican-Canadian filmmaker Andrea Martínez Crowther), Desterro (written and directed by Brazilian filmmaker and poet Maria Clara Escobar), Memory House/Casa De Antiguidades (a 2020 drama directed and co-written by João Paulo Miranda Maria, which was an official selection at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival), Piedra Sola (Argentina), Rom (Vietnam), The Names of The Flowers / Los Nombres De Las Flores (Bolivia), There is No Evil / Sheytan Vojud Nadarad (Iran, Germany) and This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (Lesotho, Italy).
A’hr/Kayattam, Android Kunjappan Version 5.25, C U Soon, Gramavrikshathile Kuyil, Attention Please, Kappela, and Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam are some of the 12 Malayalam films that will premiere this year at the festival.
Seven films under the category of Indian films include three Tamil films– Horse Tail / Kuthiraivaal, Nasir and Pig / Seththumaan, two Hindi films– 12×12 Untitled / Barah by Barah, and The Shepherdess and The Seven Songs / Laila Aur Satt Geet, an Assamese film God on the Balcony / Balcony T Bhogawan, and a 2020 Kannada film Pinki Elli?
A category named Kaleidoscope has five films- Malayalam films 1956, Central Travancore / 1956, Madhyathiruvithamkoor, Biriyaani and Vasanthi, Bengali film Mayar Jonjal, and Kannada film Can Neither Be Here nor Journey Beyond / Illiralaare Allige Hogalaare.
While the Thiruvananthapuram edition of IFFK will be held between February 10 and 14, the Kochi edition will be held between February 17 and 21, followed by the Thalassery edition which will be held between February 23 and 27. In Palakkad, the film festival will be held between March 1 and 5.
