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MALAYALAM CINEMA FROM POLITICS TO POETICSINDIA IS the leading producer of films in the world with over 1000 films per year. The tiny south-western state of Kerala where a language called Malayalam is spoken has surpassed West Bengal as a major centre of art films. Its most important filmmaker, Adoor Gopalakrishnan is hailed as the living Satyajit Ray. Since the beginning of the 1970s, with the strong film society movement supported by the literary traditions of the state, Malayalam cinema has excelled in politically engagé films with artistic inclinations. When the Golden Age of Tamil and Telugu movies ended, Kannada and Malayalam cinemas came to the fore. Although, they too had their share of stars, the director came to be recognized as the most important person behind a film. The "new cinema" distinguished itself from the outset for its thematic excellence. Even the mediocre films initiated by...

ISTANBUL 2012 April was the cruellest month of the year for Istanbul this spring, with incessant rains and cold weather, which increased the attendance figures at the cinemas. The festival (31 March-15 April, 2012) celebrated its 31st anniversary with an eclectic program of features and documentaries, relying heavily on European products as customary, except for a martial arts package, the Chinese wuxia films. Due to its belated date in the festival calendar, Istanbul suffers from paucity of new films, but it is a feast for the local cinephiles with its wide spectrum of selections including feature films of the year, classics, masterpieces from masters, festival favorites, National Golden Tulip, International Golden Tulip and FACE Human Rights Competitions, documentaries, and children’s movies. This year’s additions were Cinema and Music, Filming Revolution, What’s Happening in Greece?, Within the Family and a 15-hour special view of Mark Cousins’s The Story of Film: An...

Attending Tehran's Fajr Film Festival for the first time, particularly if this is a first visit to Iran is a source of excitement (and anxiety) even for a seasoned festival-goer and foreign traveller. Excited to know more about the film industry of a country that is on the map of every festival, anxious about the visa and the hejab, the head scarf which is obligatory for all women including foreigners, I arrived after midnight at the Tehran airport to a most warm welcome. This friendly but at the same time very professional atmosphere would continue throughout my stay.The festival celebrated its twentieth anniversary (February 1-11, 2002) with sections such as the International Competition (The Son's Room, Brother, Beijing Bicycle, No Man's Land, Slogans, The Pledge to name a few films); Festival of Festivals (Traffic, The Skulls, Donnie Brasco); Special screenings (Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, Apocalypse Now, Polish Gems);...