18th PIFF Interactions with Samar Nakhate at NFAI on Wednesday, January 15, 2020
18th PIFF Interactions with Samar Nakhate at NFAI on Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Jyothi venkatesh
1) Movie- Liza’s Tale
Valeriy Kalmykov, Producer and Irina Glushkova, Translator
The movie by Ukranian writer, screenwriter and director, Alexander Zhovna deals with a couple suffering from Down Syndrome. Known as ‘sunny kids’, they do not feel comfortable in the harsh and cruel modern world and intuitively look for a way out. They accordingly get an opportunity to watch old silent movies of Charlie Chaplin in a theatre, which helps them forget their everyday problems, empathise with the heroes of silent cinema, and feel clear joy and sincere love, feelings that the world they came from utterly lacks.
“The film is about human feelings and characters’ struggle to come out of mundane existence of life. It is the outburst of all emotions of the director, Alexander Zhovna, which were accumulated in him since past 30 years as a guardian of the students suffering from Down Syndrome in Ukraine. We had our doubts while making this film as we thought people may not like the topic we wanted to highlight, but eventually we received good response. We wanted to tell the world that ‘sunny people’ are wonderful, sincere and real and with proper treatment and privileges they can lead normal lives,” said Valeriy Kalmykov, Producer.
He added saying that for the film, the characters with Down Syndrome were chosen from a boarding school in Ukraine where the director teaches after casting their age and health.
2) The Teacher
Julia Franszke, Actor
“The film explores facts about cultural ethos and how linguistic hierarchy can make things unstable. It also highlights the problems of migrants who are unable to adapt to the German culture. With many interesting scenes, the film has received good response so far and has been released in Paris,” said Julia Franszke, lead actor in the film.
