IFFK 2011: Power and Policing Culture
// December 25th, 2011 // No Comments » // Cultural Politics
2011 edition of International Film Festival of Kerala (9-16 Dec. 2011) witnessed an overwhelming presence of people from all over the world. This annual cultural fest is so crucial for the Kerala intelligentsia, students and the youth as it becomes their vital democratic and creative space for cultural communication and democratic cultural politics.
Unfortunately some of the major movies from Europe this year, including that of Almodover were omitted in the selection. The blind spots in power and the academy also tried to exclude innovative new Malayalam movies like Adimadhyandam by Sherrey. But such corruptions of power were adequately identified and corrected by the literate delegates and film makers of Kerala with an ethical and collective consciousness of cultural resistance.
Alexander Sokurov’s Faust and Andrey Zyagintsev’s Elena were significant works from Russia. Sokurov has established himself as the leading director from Europe and Russia after Tarkovsky. Semih Kaplanoglu’s Turkish films were a delight to the serious film buffs, so was the French master Robert Bresson. The football films and Arab Spring package scintillated the youth and radicals. Thai and Philippine movies captivated mixed audiences.
The shadow policing and the police aggression in the venues were a new and nasty practice this year. Market orientation and moral policing in the festival marred its cultural and democratic spirit this year due to the ignorance and degraded nature of power that crossed all limits of modesty.
