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Afghan Uzbek films dropped from fest for lack of English sub-titles
NEW DELHI:
Two films — Rebellion from Afghanistan and The Great Amir Temur from Uzbekistan have been dropped from the Asian directors competition at the ongoing 29th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) as they lacked sub-titles in English. Addressing a press meet here on Sunday, Indian actress Sharmila Tagore, a jury member, said sub-titles in English were a prerequisite for entering in the competition and bath the films were rejected by the jury for the absence of sub-titles. Rebellion is directed by Mohammad Sadiq bedi and The Great Amir Temur by Isamat Irgashev.
“Nobody can deviate from the rules,” Sharmila Tagore said, adding that it was difficult for the jury to arrive at the decision as they wanted to encourage filmmakers from those parts of the world where film- making was difficult.
Later talking to UNI, a member of the selection committee for the competition, Gautam Kaul said the committee had viewed video tapes of the two films on the condition that sub-titled prints would be made available for screening before the festival started.
All attempts to contact producer of the Afghan film proved futile as he was not traceable on account of the political turmoil his country was facing, he said.
He said both the films were processed at colour laboratories in Chennai. With the dropping of these films, the number of films now remaining in the competition has come down to 15.
The festival directorate had earlier planned to select only 12 films for the competition,’ but later increased the number to 17 at the recommendation of the selection committee headed by eminent film-maker M.S. Sathyu.
The 15 films include two each from India, Iran, Israel, one each from China, Bangladesh, Phillipines, Russia, South Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Japan and a China-Hong Kong co-production.
Meanwhile, members of the jury for Asian directors competition section emphasised the need to encourage filmmakers in the region by giving due recognition to their work.
Addressing a press meet, renowned Hungarian director and chairman of the jury Gaal said: “Cinema gave people a commonality which no other medium had been able to provide. Though the television has wider audience now, it aims only at the individual,” he added.
Indian actress Sharmila Tagore said the standard of films selected for the competition has been so high that the jury had a difficult job at hand. She hoped that the jury had tried their best in critically evaluating each movie.
The jury member said she was not averse to extending awards to other branches of film-making as well, as long as the standard of the awards was not lost in the process.
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