Tales of diversity

A film festival brings to you flavours from countries across South Asia

Are you a sucker for world cinema? How about limiting your choices to documentaries from the continent? Head to the seventh edition of Travelling Film South Asia 2010 (TFSA), organised by the India International centre in collaboration with Himal Association and Himal Southasian, Kathmandu.


Mayomi deals with the protagonist's struggle to gain independence in
post-Tsunami Sri Lanka

The films to be screened have been selected from 35 documentaries that were screened at the competitive section of Film South Asia 2009 in Kathmandu.

The fest includes films which depict issues and concerns that bother South Asia, with issues as diverse as women in Afghanistan, classical notes to anarchy and even refugee situation.u00a0

The films being showcased have been selected with the help of the FSA '09 jury chaired by Chennai-based cultural critic Sadanand Menon.

16th July, 6:30 PM
Afghan Girls Can Kick
Director: Bahareh Hosseini
An intimate portrait of teenage girls breaking the stereotypical mould set for them by a conservative society. They become players in Afghanistan's first ever women's national football team.u00a0

7:30 PM
Sammam (The Music)
Director: Ramachandran K
An attempt to condense the huge body of memories about Carnatic music colossus, the late M D Ramanathan, Saaman (The Music) is a humble tribute to a musical genius.

17th July
10 AM
The Salt Stories
Director: Lalit Vachani
The film retraces Mahatma Gandhi's famous Dandi salt march trail, focussing on the issues of livelihood in modern, globalising India.

11:40 AM
The Battle for Pakistan
Director: Maheen Zia
Investigating the nexus between extremism and Pakistani madrasas, this film explores the factors behind the mushrooming of madrassas, government attempts at regulation and the socio-political dynamics at play.

12:30 PM
Mayomi
Director: Carol Salter
The film is a portrait of the protagonist Mayomi's struggle to gain independence, while holding her troublesome
family together in post-Tsunami Sri Lanka.

2:30 PM
Children of God
Director: Yi Seung-Jun
At the crematorium at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, there are many whose livelihoods depend on the ritual of death. Among them are the children who live off the food and money drifting in the water after being used as funeral offerings. The movie takes a look at the children's struggle to stay alive.

4:15 PM
Come to My Country: Journeys with Kabir and Friends
Director: Shabnam Virmani
A journey in search of the desh or country invoked in the writings of Kabir, this film interweaves the stories of two people from two very different backgrounds, Indian folk singer Prahlad Tippanya and North American scholar Linda Hess.

19th July
6:30 PM
The Promised Land (Swapnabhumi)
Director: Tanvir Mokkamel
A tale of statelessness spanning six decades and three countries, the movie is about the 160,000 strong Urdu-speaking community of Bangladesh, living isolated lives in 116 camps across the country. Three decades later, during the struggle for independence in Bangladesh in 1971, this community became embroiled in conflict.

20th July
6:30 PM
The Way of the Road
Director: Ben Campbell, Cosmo Campbell
In 2012, a road through Nepal's Rasuwa District will reconnect an ancient Himalayan trade route with global traffic. The film looks through Tamang villagers' eyes at the cultural and economic flows through this border land, including a dramatic re-enactment of Tibetan and Nepali armies in conflict.

7:40 PM
Out of Thin Air
Director: Samreen Farooqui, Shabani Hassanwalia
The Ladakhi film industry has been growing by leaps and bounds. But the lives of the locals working in the films are not about stardom. Instead, restaurant owners, police officers and even monks double up as producers, directors and actors. Out of Thin Air takes viewers into the lives of these figures from local cinema.

21st July
6:30 PM
In Search of the Riyal
Director: Kesang Tsetan
They are among the one million Nepalese who work in the Gulf, earning only $5-7 a day, to keep their families back home alive. The film explores the disillusion, sad, but at times empowering, experience of Nepalis in Qatar, rarely captured due to the Gulf's sensitivity to scrutiny of their labour practices. It explores the recurring lure of going abroad and the enormity of the journey.

8:10 PM
The Last Rites
Director: Yasmine Kabir
A silent film depicting the ship-breaking yards of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Every year, hundreds of ships are sent to these yards and thousands of people come here in search of jobs. Risking their lives to save themselves from hunger, they breathe in asbestos dust and toxic waste. The Last Rites bears testament to the resilience of the human spirit.