News

“Court”, the debut feature of Chaitanya Tamhane, is a poignant and bitter portrayal of institutional dysfunction. Made in a gritty, documentary-like style, the movie leaves a sense of helplessness and terror. The story unfolds unhurriedly, told with long, steady shots and wide angles, without a blink of an eye exposing the inanities of Indian judiciary to lay a charge against the system, though Tamhane defines „justice” as something much broader than only a set of codified rules, stretching its meaning to society’s welfare and stark inequalities. He uses a disguise of a court drama to narrate the tale that is nothing like a generic courtroom crowd pleaser, built of displays of lambent word-fencing and twist-and-turns of evidence jugglery.

Narayan Kamble (Vira Sathidar), a humble-looking, white-haired and bearded, sixty-a few years old lok shahir, folk singer, or more accurately a people’s poet, is accused of abetting...

★★★★☆ Chaitanya Tamhane's quietly brilliant Court takes an individual court case and, through following its laborious labyrinthine process, creates a damning j'accuse of wider Indian society. Narayan Kambal (Vira Sathidar) is the defendant. In the first shot we see him at work in his local community, teaching school children geography. He boards a bus which takes him to a rally to commemorate a massacre. Here with his group, this unassuming, white-bearded gentleman is transformed into the "people's poet", singing songs denounces racism, nationalism, the caste system and pervasive corruption. Tamhane keeps his camera on Kambal's performance and it's riveting stuff.

Chaitanya Tamhane made his debut in the Indian film industry with Court and his first film has got an official entry into the Oscars. The jury has selected this courtroom drama as India's Official Entry to the 88th Academy Awards.

The decision was taken by the new jury headed by Amol Palekar and we hear that it was Suparn Sen, the secretary general of the Film Federation of India who announced the news. Court which was released in multiple languages is a story about a singer facing charges of abetment to suicide which later unfolds a lot more drama. The film not only received mass appreciation when it was released but has also won several awards at film festivals.

Starring Usha Bane, Vivek Gomber, Pradeep Joshi, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Shirish Pawar, Vira Sathidar among others, Court also received the 62nd National Award for the Best Feature Film.

Legal Ease: Tamhane’s Frustrating, Numbing Portrait of India’s Legal System

Director Chaitanya Tamhane won Best Film in the Horizons program at the 2014 Venice Film Festival for his debut feature, Court, a near two hour procedural documenting the hellish process of India’s legal justice system. An impressive achievement for a first feature on a technical and narrative level, the film is exhausting as it is fascinating, figuring as a prominent and compelling indictment on archaic procedures dictated by the laws of a draconian age. Compelling performances from both professional and non-professional cast members help paint an indelibly human face on the type of predicament generally referred to as Kafkaesque.

Narayan Kamble (Vira Sathidar) is a 65 year old folk singer arrested for performing a song in public calling for sewer workers to kill themselves. After the body of one such worker is discovered, he is charged with abetting suicide.

The festival returns this month for its sixth edition. Every year Liff aims to bring audiences some of the very best new Indian independent cinema, which includes features, documentaries and short films by both acclaimed and emerging filmmakers. This year’s line up promises to leave you entertained, informed, thought provoking and even in some cases leaving a screen shocked.

We now present the films that will be screened at this prestigious festival

Umrika | Opening Night | UK Premiere | cert 12A

Hindi with English subtitles | 98 min | India 2015 | Dir. Prashant Nair | with: Suraj Sharma, Tony Revolori, Adil Hussain, Smita Tambe, Prateik Babbar.

This year’s Sundance Audience Award winner is an uplifting, rights of passage tale about two brothers from a small village who have dreams of making it big in Umrika (America). Udai (Pratiek Babbar) is the eldest and adored by his hard-working mum. He leaves their hamlet on a bullock...

Neil Armfield.s Holding the Man, Simon Stone.s The Daughter, Jeremy Sims. Last Cab to Darwin and Jen Peedom.s feature doc Sherpa will have their world premieres at the Sydney Film Festival.

The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.

Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.

Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.

As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...

While a Venetian touch (gondolas, art, architecture, margherita pizzas) certainly adds to the charm of the Venice Film Festival experience, for a third year straight, cinephiles can skip the packing their suitcases portion of a trip and bring the Lido into their own screening rooms. Venice Biennale’s Sala Web has reteamed with Festival Scope folks to offer an appetite whetting total of eleven features (8 Orizzonti section & 3 Biennale College – Cinema). Announced yesterday, digital tickets for the Sala Web screenings (4€ each) can be grabbed at www.boxoffice.festivalscope.com – but don’t throw your popcorn into the microwave just yet. The 2014 sampling of world cinema/72nd Venice Film Fest is only available during a period of 5 days beginning at 9 pm (Italian time) on the day of each film’s official presentation.

Among the headliner items we find Kandahar helmer Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The President tells a story set in a fictional...

The 71st Venice Film Festival announced its lineup this morning, highlighted by films from American directors, including David Gordon Green, Barry Levinson, Peter Bogdanovich, Lisa Cholodenko, Andrew Niccol, and James Franco. As had been previously announced, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton and many others, will be the opening film when the festival begins on Aug. 27.

Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.

Competition

The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin

Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou

A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson

Starring Holger Andersson,...