Focus: The Shape of Things to Come?
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?
Overview of films
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52 Seconds
Prathap Joseph | 1' | India | None
A sharp, sprightly parody of censorship, official and self-imposed, which corrodes film images in India. -
All Was Good
Teresa Braggs | 76' | India | Dutch Premiere
Night-time street views of marginalised student groups protesting India’s controversial citizenship legislation. -
Bajrangi bhaijaan
Kabir Khan | 163' | India | None
Humanity trumps borders and governments in a big-hearted, unabashedly sentimental Bollywood musical comedy. -
An Election Diary + In the Name of God
Two films from IFFR’s programme reflecting on the socio-political development of India in the past 30 years. -
An Election Diary
Avijit Mukul Kishore | 32' | India | World premiere
A revealing look into the mechanics of ‘India’s Greatest Election Machine’. -
Encountered on Saffron Agenda?
Shubhradeep Chakravorty | 90' | India | None
A persuasive exposé of the extrajudicial police killings that shook India in the 2000s. -
Final Solution
Rakesh Sharma | 152' | India | None
A harrowing work of historical remembrance in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots. -
Firaaq
Nandita Das | 101' | India | None
A cosmopolitan city comes undone by civil unrest in a sensitive, searching hyperlink drama. -
Follower
Harshad Nalawade | 99' | India | World premiere
An astute examination of the personal and political sources of a young man’s radicalisation. -
Four Slippers
Anurag Kashyap | 34' | India | World premiere
Sharply analytical psychosexual portrait of a thinking, desiring individual lost to hatred and communal polarisation. -
Holy Cowboys
Varun Chopra | 26' | India | Dutch Premiere
A topical, engrossing documentary about the weaponisation of cow protection in India. -
I Am Offended
Jaideep Varma | 102' | India | None
A revealing, uncensored survey of stand-up comedy in India, its possibilities and its limitations.