Der 10. Mai
When Nazi Germany invaded the Benelux, Switzerland faced the question: what if we’re next? Restored 1950s masterpiece.
93'
Switzerland
IFFR 2021
A Malayalam-speaking filmmaker called Chris sets out for Kolkata to shoot a documentary in reaction to Louis Malle’s 1969 Calcutta. Despite being Indian, he’s as much a stranger to the city as Malle was. Shortly after starting to shoot the film, Covid-19 hits the world, forcing him into quarantine. Instead of facing Kolkata, Chris is now faced with the relationship with his wife who accompanied him, with both not expecting to see that much of each other. Instead of looking outwards, he’s now looking inwards.
For Don Palathara, Malle’s masterpiece offers a medium through which he can ask not only some fundamental questions about our relationship with reality, but also about the relationship between politics and cinema. If the Indian government back then considered Calcutta insulting, what will the current regime say to essentially the same images, but made by an Indian?
IFFR 2021
Programme IFFR 2021
A sphere of collective remembrance and imagination offering restored classics, documentaries on film culture, and explorations of cinema’s heritage.
Read more about this programmeWhen Nazi Germany invaded the Benelux, Switzerland faced the question: what if we’re next? Restored 1950s masterpiece.
93'
Switzerland
IFFR 2021
As Japanese monsters like Godzilla have so often saved the world, could they now help us fight Covid-19? Find out here!
88'
Japan
IFFR 2021
Can we find a different feminism in the images of state-sponsored Soviet documentaries about women and their role in socialism? Yes.
20'
Russia
IFFR 2021