52 Seconds
A sharp, sprightly parody of censorship, official and self-imposed, which corrodes film images in India.
1'
India
IFFR 2023
A sensitive, searching hyperlink drama, actress Nandita Das's directorial debut Firaaq is set in the city of Ahmedabad, a month after the 2002 Gujarat riots. A young Muslim couple comes out of hiding to find their home reduced to ashes. A Hindu woman is wracked with guilt over her helplessness and negligence. After his store is looted, an unmarked, upper-class Muslim businessman suddenly feels too visible. An ageing musician oblivious to the tumult comes out of his shell. An orphaned child is repeatedly asked what his name is.
Through interconnected narratives of common people affected by the events, the film examines the violent social, economic and spiritual fissures a metropolis undergoes in the aftermath of civil unrest. Firaaq is a story about survivors, but it is dotted with the spectres of missing persons who once oiled the machinery of the city.
In its empathetic fictional retelling, Das's film lends flesh and blood to the kind of chilling testimonies we hear in Rakesh Sharma's Final Solution (2003). Foregrounding women's experience of the riots, it pays special attention to the way domestic spaces become vulnerable to violation, both physical and mental. Firaaq shows a city divided between those who can casually respond to knocks on the door and those who are gripped by mortal fear in doing so.
– Srikanth Srinivasan
The film has been provided by Film Heritage Foundation.
IFFR 2023
Programme IFFR 2023
In 2022, India celebrated the 75th anniversary of independence. But is really all well in the ‘world’s largest democracy’? Both documentaries and fictional narratives reflect on the socio-political development of the past 30 years – and ask: Is the institutional success of right-wing Hindu-nationalist groups and the persecution of dissenting voices a sign for the shape of things to come – and not only in India?
Read more about this programmeA sharp, sprightly parody of censorship, official and self-imposed, which corrodes film images in India.
1'
India
IFFR 2023
Night-time street views of marginalised student groups protesting India’s controversial citizenship legislation.
76'
India
IFFR 2023
Humanity trumps borders and governments in a big-hearted, unabashedly sentimental Bollywood musical comedy.
163'
India
IFFR 2023