By: Amit Agarwal
The 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) - IFFI 2016 gets ready to kick-off with a varied genre of close to 200 films from 88 countries across the world, here is the writer's list of 12 not-to-be-missed films
5. Barakah Meets Barakah (Saudi Arabia)
Mahmoud Sabbagh directs, what is being touted as the, first romantic comedy from Saudi Arabia. Barakah, a laid-back 20-something Jeddah municipal law enforcement officer from a humble background, meets Bibi, a rebellious beauty and Instagram star from a wealthy family. As the two start knowing each other better and fall in love, the comical situations that follow also provide an insight into a system where traditions and laws clash with modern principles.
Critics say the film is fascinating as ethnography.
6. The Age of Shadows (South Korea)
South Korea’s official entry for the 2017 Oscars will bring down the curtain on IFFI. Director Kim-Jee Woon’s epic, set in the 1930s, is said to be loosely based on ‘an explosive footnote’ in the history of Japanese-Korean relations.
Critics laud it for its labyrinthine story emerging from a single incident and describes it as a magical beanstalk. Produced by Warner Bros., The Age of Shadows is the studio’s first Korean-language film.
7. Afterimage (Poland)
Cine-astes feel no film other than Polish auteur Andrzej Wajda’s final film based on the life of avant-garde painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski could open IFFI better; though the film got mixed reviews from the festival circuit worldwide, it bears the signature Wajda stamp.
Set in the dark days of Soviet communist rule, the film is much more than a biography of a painter.
8. Wolf and Sheep (Afghanistan)
Shahrbanoo Sadat's debut feature has won the Art Cinema Prize at Cannes. Wolf and Sheep is a slice-of-life drama that portrays Afghan society through shepherd children’s eyes. A community in a small village in rural Afghanistan has its own beliefs, traditions and stories. It believes in the existence of a certain Kashmir Wolf, who walks on two legs and is the enemy of the rich and the cruel.
Critics say that the film mixes naturalistic, ethnographic images with an appealing thread of folkloric magical realism.