Thiruvananthapuram, Friday 30 July 2010: The curtain will go up on the 15th Trivandrum International Film Festival (TIFF) here on Friday evening. Famous Bengali Director Budhdeb Dasgupta will inaugurate the festival at a function at Kalabhavan Theatre.

Chalachithra film society, organizer of the festival, has been conducting the festival for the past 14 years in the city.

The 15th edition of the fest has got some rare collection of films from around 22 countries. The seven day long festival has got some interesting categories like Asian Cinema, Current masters, Oscar Series.

Two new interesting categories have been included in this year’s TIFF viz. French Sentimental Comedies and Dutch cinema. The festival will also have a retrospective session on films from Argentina.

‘The Hurt Locker’

This will be the inaugural film. An American war film about a three-men United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team during the Iraq War. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, it was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won six including Best Picture and Best Director for Bigelow, the first woman to win this award.(Screening at Kalabhavan on July 30 at 6.15 PM)

‘Castaway on the Moon’

Directed by Hae-jun Lee, this Korean film says about hope to be found at the end of a long tunnel of despair in today’s harsh reality. (Screening at Kalabhavan on July 30 at 10.15 AM)

‘Lovely Bones’

Directed by Peter Jackson, it is a film adaptation of the award-winning and best-selling 2002 novel of the same name by Alice Sebold. Saoirse Ronan plays Susie Salmon, a young girl who has been murdered and she is watching over her family and her killer from heaven. (Kalabhavan, July 30, 2.45 PM)

‘Hutong Days’

This Chinese film directed by Zhanjun An, is a contemporary drama about the emerging Chinese middle class. (Kalabhavan, July 31, 10.15 AM)

‘Dunya and Desie’

Directed by Dana Nechustan, it is based on the Dutch television series ‘Dunya en Desie’, which tells about the friendship between two Dutch teenage girls.(Kalabhavan, July 31, 12.15 PM)

‘Lost Islands’

This Israeli film written and directed by Reshef Levy tells of twin brothers. While one dreams of becoming a film-maker, the other aspires to join a commando unit of the Israeli army. The movie is said to be based on the director’s childhood experiences. (Kalabhavan, July 31, 2.45 PM)

‘Janala’

This Bengali film by Buddhadeb Dasgupta is the journey of a man against the wrath of circumstances when he decides to pursue his little impulsive dream. It has Tapas Paul, Swastika Mukherjee and Indraneil Sengupta in the cast. (Kalabhavan, July 31, 5 PM)

‘Nurse, Fighter, Boy’

This Canadian film by Charles Officer is the story of a sick Jamaican woman (nurse), her 12-year-old son (boy), and their friend Silence (a boxer). (Kalabhavan, August 1, 8.30PM)

‘Haeundaes’

Billed as South Korea’s first disaster film, it is directed by Youn Je-gyum. Haeundae is one of South Korea’s most famous beaches and is also the centre of one of the worst disasters to ever hit the country, a massive tsunami. (Kalabhavan, August 1, 10.15 AM)

‘Nine’

This Rob Marshall film tells the story of Guido Contini, a world famous film director, who must balance the many women of his life, including his wife, his mistress, his film star muse, his confidant and costume designer, an American fashion journalist, the whore from his youth and his mother.

The splendid cast has Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Fergie and Sophia Loren. (Kalabhavan, August 1, 5 PM)

‘How to Survive Myself’

The Dutch film by Nicole van Kilsdonk is about a sensitive thirteen-year-old girl with a vivid imagination. When she moves to another city with her step-brother and mother to live with her new step-dad, she struggles with her insecurity, her step-dad, and her alter ego. (Kesari Memorial auditorium, August 1, 5.30 PM)

‘Inglourious Basterds’

A war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Diane Kruger and Mélanie Laurent, it tells the story of two plots to assassinate the Nazi Germany political leadership. (Kalabhavan, August 2, 5PM)

‘Green Zone’

A war film directed by Paul Greengrass and inspired by the non-fiction 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, it documents life in the Green Zone, Baghdad. The film stars Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear and Brendan Gleeson . (Kalabhavan, August 3, 5 PM)

‘One Week’

This Canadian film by Michael McGowan tells about a young man when confronted with his mortality goes out on a cross-country road trip on a vintage motorcycle. (Kalabhavan, August 4, 12.15 PM)

‘Away We Go’

A comedy-drama directed by Academy award-winning director Sam Mendes, it is about a couple who is expecting their first child and travelling around the US in order to find a perfect place to start their family.(Kalabhavan, August 4, 2.45 PM).

‘Bets & Wedding Dresses’

This Italian flm by Vincenzo Terracciano is about Franco Campanella, a loving husband and affectionate father, who is addicted to gambling. As his daughter is getting ready to marry, he has to depend on gambling again to raise some money. (Kalabhavan, August 5, 12.15 noon).

‘Antaheen’

The closing film, directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, won the national award for the best film of 2008. The film stars Radhika Apte, Rahul Bose, Mita Vashisth, Aparna Sen, Kalyan roy and Sharmila Tagore. It follows the lives of three couples in tumultuous relationships, who lead different lives but are connected by the struggles and pain each of them goes through.(Screening at Kalabhavan on August 5 at 5 PM)

Attractions

A bunch of award-winning French sentimenatal comedy films form one package. This include ‘The Role of Her Life’, ‘Not Here To Be Loved’, ‘A Common Thread’, ‘Cold Shower’, ‘Love Is In The Air’ and ‘Viper in the Fist’.

The focus of the festival is Dutch cinema and in the retrospective section Argentinian films will be screened. Some of these films will be screened in the World Cinema category too. The Dutch package boasts of names like Dana Nechustan (‘Night Run’), Theo van Gogh (‘Sixth of May’), Nicole van Kilsdonk (‘How to Survive Myself), Wilem van do Sande (’A Thousand Kisses’ and ‘Funfair Behind the Dikes’), Pieter Kuijpers (Dennis P) and Nathalie Alonso Casale (Figner).

The Argentinian retrospective has ‘The Dreams of Heroes’ (Sergio Renan), ‘The Truce’ (Alfonso Rosas Priego), ‘Son of Bride’ (Juan Jose Campanella), ‘El Polaquito’ (Juan Carlos Desanzo), ‘Nine Queens’ (Fabian Bielinsky), Camila (Maria Luisa Bemberg) and ‘Pizza, Beer, Cigarettes’ (Adrian Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro). Screening time is 7.15 PM.

The Biggies

Pedro Almodovar (‘Broken Embraces’- Spain)), Pal Sandor (‘Noha’s Ark’- Hungary), John Woo (‘Red Cliff’-China), Joan ho Bong (‘Mother’- South Korea), Janusz Kaminski (‘Hania’- Poland), Ryszard Bugajski (‘General NIL- Poland), Panos Angelopoulos (‘A Hero in Rome’ - Italy) etc.