The Hindu Business Line : Take two

We support good cinema and work with the director in script writing and post production. - Rada Sesic
Indian films are popular in Indonesia, and personalities like Shah Rukh Khan, Raj Kapoor are respected. - Christine Hakim

Christine Hakim

Santosh Mehta

Year after year, women’s participation at the Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema seems to be increasing. This year, the 10th edition of the festival, saw eight women jury members in a team of 22 film directors. And nearly 20 of the 200 films screened this year were made by women from countries such as Korea, Iran, Palestine, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, China, Belgium, Taiwan, Turkey and India. Their films were loved by the audiences, critics and fellow filmmakers.

Christine Hakim

The festival also celebrated the work of Indonesian actress Christine Hakim by screening four of her critically-acclaimed films — Six Scenes; Behind the Mosquito Net; Leaf on a Pillow; and Veranda.

Living in a small town in the island of Sumatra, Christine was spotted by Teguh Karya, famous Indonesian film director, at the tender age of 17, when she was still in high school. Karya offered her the lead role in his film First Love (Cinta Pertama); she agreed reluctantly as she had never dreamt of becoming a film star. This simple romantic film was an instant hit winning her several awards at the 1974 Indonesian Film Festival (FFI) and her first Citra award (the highest honour at FFI). The rest, as they say, is history. In a career spanning 30 feature films and many television serials, she has won six Citra awards for best actress and has been nominated almost every year.

It is easy to see why Christine is so widely appreciated. Her acting strength is supported by her charming appearance, warm, friendly and humble demeanour that dominates the screen and keeps the audiences captivated. But above all, it is her ability to completely immerse herself in the roles she plays that makes her tick..

Apart from her on-screen charm, Christine also plays an active off-screen role. She was part of the jury at various international film festivals including Shanghai, Hawaii, Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Rotterdam, Pussan, Cannes, and now the Osian’s. She has tried her hand at production and established a foundation called Untukmu Guru, which aims to improve the quality of teacher education and training. UNICEF and UNESCO have made her their goodwill ambassador, and the French government has honoured her with two of their highest awards, while the Indian government conferred on her the Jawaharlal Nehru award in 1993.

The Osian’s experience

Impressed by the films screened at the Osian’s, Christine says, “Being on the jury is sometimes very hard because I have to play a double role. I am on the jury of Asia and Arab cinema as well as the Jury Chairman. As a member, I have to judge 15 films. But sometimes there are differences of opinion about a particular film. As the Chairman, I have to find ways to sort out such problems.” This was her first visit to India.

She says Indian films are popular in Indonesia, and actors like Shah Rukh Khan and directors such as Raj Kapoor and Satyajit Ray are respected. Hindi films are screened regularly in cinema halls across Indonesia, where 150 films are made every year. There are only 2,000 theatres now as against 3,000 just a while back. Christine says “The tickets are so expensive that people have almost stopped going to the cinema!” Having acted in Japanese, Dutch and Malaysian films, she would love to act in an Indian film too.

Rada Sesic from Croatia

Rada Sesic

Another woman jury member was Croatia’s Rada Sesic, a noted critic, scriptwriter and director, and a guest lecturer at various universities. She is on the selection faculty for the Hubert Bals Fund, the Sarajevo documentary programme and the Rotterdam festival.

This is her second trip to India and she has been watching Indian films since 1989. “Every year, I watch about 150-200 films. I enjoy watching Indian films because I can relate to many things, from Indian music to dance. Like most things I think art, irrespective of culture, is universal.”

Her favourite Indian filmmakers are Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and Ritwik Ghatak. She says they are comparable to Russia’s Andrei Tarkovsky, Mexico’s finest director Luis Buñuel Portolés or Italy’s Federico Fellini. Having funded films made by Kumar Shahani, Mani Kaul and Adoor Gopalkrishnan, she says, “We support good cinema and work with the director in script writing and post production.

The director must give us a synopsis and we help him develop it into a script and in visual treatment. We start by funding €30,000 for a film; we are looking for non-conventional ideas with interesting visual style.”

At the Osian’s this year, Rada enjoyed watching Rajat Kapoor’s Mithya; Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi by Sudhir Mishra and Split Wide Open by Dev Benegal.

“I think Osian’s has a good reputation and a strong position among international film festivals. It gives Indian audiences an opportunity to watch cinema made in other countries. It is also a method of representing political conflicts and it exposes audiences to political realities.”