Ajit Hari introduces our readers to some of the landmark films of World Cinema.

This is easily one of the best loved films of all time.

The story is simple enough. It is set in Rome in the year 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War. Our hero is Ricci, in his mid thirties, with a wife and two children, unemployed for the last two years.

The film begins with him getting a job, which requires him to possess a bicycle. Ricci’s cycle has been pawned so that this poor working class family could put food on the table. Ricci’s wife, Maria, pawns the family linen and gets the cycle released from the pawn shop.

Huned Contractor reviews Pune-based filmmaker Kaushik Gupta Ray’s documentary on the mystical Maibis of Manipur and speaks to him about its making.

The high tide of time gradually begins to wash out many a culture and tradition. Will that happen to the Meitei religion of Manipur too? Hopefully, not. That is the assurance that emerges from Pune-based filmmaker Kaushik Gupta Ray’s documentary titled ‘Sacred Space’, which forays into a relatively unfamiliar territory (both geographically and spiritually), and unveils the magic of the Maibis. These are the female mediators between spirits and men, and as such have been the guardians of the scriptures. Only they are ordained to enter into oracular trances and perform ritual functions such as the Lai Hraoba.

At some point in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, between tears and smiles, I wanted to punch the air with my fist and say, “You go Caesar!”

Caesar. We will come to him later but on a day when I heard a supposedly well meaning teacher say, “Only if you take away something that a child loves, will he learn,” watching Rupert Wyatt’s film which has power hungry representatives of the human race taking away the dignity and natural joy of those they call “stupid monkeys,” rang bells in the soul.

It happened at the SVA theatre in Manhattan, New York. An unknown film, Anima and Persona premiered in the competitive section of SAIFF 2010 (The South Asian International Film Festival). The film had a little-known cast; a dark and grainy preliminary print and the first-time director had used stock music. Yet, at the end of the screening, AaranyaKaandam (the Tamil film had been given an English title for the festival) was feted with a standing ovation, and ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize for the best film.

Director Thiagarajan Kumararaja says he was not particularly elated at winning the coveted prize. “Of course, I was happy,” he says in a matter-of-fact manner that belies the extreme responses the film has generated. In India, censors were shocked by the film’s violence and use of foul language. They refused to clear the film even with adult certification.