Deepa Mehta at 15th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival (#R2RFIFF) / Looking back at Stuttgart’s #IFFSTR15

Deepa Mehta at the 7th Annual Canadian Filmmakers’ Party 2012 (Photo: Canadian Film Centre / Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

Announced today: Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter Deepa Mehta will be the guest of honour at this year’s River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival in beautiful Florence/Italy (from December 5 to 11, 2015) – always my favourite movie fest of the year.

From Deepa Mehta’s Wikipedia entry :

[She is] most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005); among which Earth was sent by India as its official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Water was Canada’s official entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it only the second non-French-language Canadian film to put forth for consideration in that category (the first being Zacharias Kunuk’s 2001 Inuktitut-language feature, Atanarjuat), and the first to receive an Oscar nomination. She also co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996. She was awarded a Genie Award in 2003 for the screenplay of Bollywood/Hollywood. In May 2012, Mehta received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts.

From the festival’s announcement:

The famous director will introduce the Italian premiere of her latest film, Beeba Boys (Sunday, December 6, at 8.30pm), a crime thriller starring Randeep Hoda, about the violent culture clash between Indo-Canadian gangs fighting for control over drugs and firearms trafficking in Vancouver.

The Festival will pay tribute to Deepa Mehta by screening two other of her films: Water (2005), Canada’s nominee for the 2007 Academy Awards and the third in Mehta’s Elements Trilogy, about the life of Chuyia, an 8-year-old widowed child bride forced to live in eternal penance in a house with other Hindu widows; and Midnight’s Children (2012), an adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s book of the same name – the script was written by Rushdie himself – about the fate of two children, switched at birth by a nurse to let them live each other’s life.

River to River is will showcase over 40 films. It was founded by my friend Selvaggia Velo.

While I am on the topic of Indian movies, allow me to look back at Stuttgart’s 12th Indian Film Festival which took place from July 15 to 19, 2015. I did not have time before to collect my tweets – so here we go:

Today's recommendation for #iffstr15: Finding Fanny (IND 2014). Funny & moving Goa road movie with great cast. **** https://t.co/maJwEb9mW6

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 16, 2015

15 Filme sollte ich beim #iffstr15 schaffen. http://t.co/JZEmaImmN3. https://t.co/Kdvjsh1zCL pic.twitter.com/FVCPdeemWI

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 16, 2015

The Quest/Ringan (IND 2015): Small but cute crowd-funded Marathi movie about the love between a poor father & his little son. *** #iffstr15

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 16, 2015

Child of Debt/Saalada Magu (IND 2015): Depressing story of an indebted farmer's son. Nicely shot, weak script. ** of ***** #iffstr15

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 17, 2015

Labour of Love/Asha Jaoar Majhe (IND '14) Couple's struggle in Calcutta. Beautifully shot, long-winded.*** #iffstr15 https://t.co/imo1no1QVs

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 17, 2015

Court (IND 2014): Powerful courtroom drama with smart script. Strong debut by Chaitanya Tamhane (27) ****½ #iffstr15 https://t.co/dwQIjWi0Ny

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 18, 2015

Badlapur (IND 2015): Brilliantly shot & acted revenge thriller, marred by questionable moral messages ***½ #iffstr15 https://t.co/vdJIwVw08X

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 18, 2015

Rough Book (IND 2014): Intelligent & entertaining film about education. Great as always: @TannishthaC! **** #iffstr15 http://t.co/ipD4uxmqNg

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 18, 2015

Whenever the wonderful Tannnishta Chatterjee comes up, I get reminded of two of my favourite paperazzi video moments:

The Silence (IND 2015). World Premiere and world-class: moving true-story Marathi rape drama. Wonderful cast! ****½ #iffstr15

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 18, 2015

Now there even is Marathi wine at Indian Film Festival Stuttgart! (Courtesy of @sula_vineyards.) #iffstr15 pic.twitter.com/vx8qmV0YP0

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 18, 2015

Piku (IND 2015): A pure joy to see three masters at work: @SrBachchan, @deepikapadukone & @irrfan_k. ****½ #iffstr15 https://t.co/xjYywffg07

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 18, 2015

Sunrise/Arunoday (IND/F 2014): Gloomy drama about child theft. Confusing mix of reality & imagination ***½ #iffstr15 https://t.co/VFasFoMFyL

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 19, 2015

Three Obsessions/Teenkahon (IND 2014): Three different takes on love (b&w, Technicolor, digital). ***½ #iffstr15 https://t.co/nWwUICqige

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 19, 2015

Rainbow/Dhanak (IND 2015): Cute road movie about sister & blind little brother in search of @IamSRK. **** #iffstr15 https://t.co/xdQFuckJ2k

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 19, 2015

Lots of (well-deserved) praise for @CourtTheFilm, winner of #iffstr15's German Star of India award for best feature. https://t.co/h4rXa9HFSI

— Peter Jebsen (@pjebsen) July 20, 2015

Finally: Congratulations to Alexandra Schott, this year’s programme direcor, on a job well done! In past years, I used to be critical because the festival formerly known as „Bollywood and beyond“ did not show enough Bollywood movies for my taste. But those you can get on DVDs at least. Many of the fine movies I saw in Stuttgart probably won’t make it to DVD so the Indian film festival is the only chance to watch them. This year’s edition focussed on Marathi movies, and there were quite a few great discoveries to be made.

Previous posts about River to River

• Looking back at River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival 2014 … and some Florence tips
• Movie Talk with Irrfan Khan @River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival (Videos)
• Irrfan Khan at 14th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival / Looking back at last year’s #R2RFIFF
• Preview: 13th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival: From Ganges to Arno … and Tiber! #R2RFIFF
• Shukriya, Amitabh Bachchan! (Celebrating 100 Years of Indian Cinema at River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival)
• YouTube: „Gandu“ director Q. on his soundtrack choices … and why he is sick of Bengali music
• YouTube: „Gandu“ director Q. on being self-taught
• YouTube: „Gandu“ director Q. on guerrilla marketing and having a torrent hit
• YouTube: „Gandu“ director Q. on the meaning of the title term
• YouTube: „Gandu“ director Q. on the first (and last) screening in India (at a beachside film festival)
• YouTube: „Gandu“ director Q. answers an audience question about his courage
• YouTube: „Gandu“ director Q. on the audience reaction he expected at „River to River“
• From Ganges to Arno: 11th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival
• Aparna Sen and Rahul Bose at River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival
• Qype: River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival in Florenz (in German)
• Flickr post about my first visit in 2005
• River to River Facebook fan page / Twitter hashtag: #R2RFIFF

Previous posts about Indisches Filmfestival / Indian Film Festival Stuttgart

• Bollywood and beyond: Looking Back at the 9th Indian Film Festival Stuttgart (2012)
• Film Festival “Bollywood and beyond”: The Tweets (2009)
• Bollywood (and beyond) im Erlebniszentrum (2009)
• Bollywood and beyond (2008)
• Bollywood, here I come! (2008)

See you in Florence … or at Indisches Filmfestival / Indian Film Festival 2016 in Stuttgart!

Favourite photo from the 10th edition in 2013:

Peter Jebsen