The Hindu Business Line : Pak films to be screened at Roopkala film fest

Ms Anita Agnihotri, Director and CEO said that the maiden offering by Pakistan would have a bouquet of three films — `Swara - a Bridge Over Troubled Water' by Samar Minallah, `Terror's Children' by Sharmeen Obaid and `King Cotton and the Freshwater Equation' by Sumaira Latif.

Among other notable films were `Bowling for Columbine' by Michael Moore and `Women Hold up the Sky' from the PDHRE, the USA, which was a group working for human rights.

The conference is to be inaugurated by the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, with a screening of Akiro Kurosawa's `Dodes-Kaden'. A package of animation films by Bruno Nozeto billed as the greatest European animation director, along with a package from Norman McLaren would also be screened. The festival would branch out to Coochbehar in North Bengal as the institute's first step towards taking events to the districts.

Local talent would be showcased during this part of the festival, which has a shoe-string budget of Rs 5 lakh but hopes to fulfil a mission thereby.

As part of the festival, an exhibition of `stills' recovered from personal collections would be displayed. This includes stills from `Devdas' and `Bordidi' made by Prithviraj Kapur. A 1942 Michelle camera with which Satyajit Ray shot `Pather Panchali', would also be exhibited.

In all 34 Indian flicks, and nine foreign ones would be shown during the Calcutta part, which closes with a movie by Sandip Ray (Satyajit Ray's son) on February 22.