Capital hosts international film festival

Over a hundred fiction and non-fiction films from 15 countries, including India, are to be screened at the first international film festival for documentary, short and animation films being held in Delhi on Saturday.

The Delhi International Film Festival, being organised by the Films Division on the lines of the Mumbai International Film Festival, will screen films in both celluloid and video format for the first time.

The festival, which will go on till February 9 at Siri Fort II, will also screen some fiction films of short duration. Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit will inaugurate the festival.

The Films Division today announced that the proceeds from the sale of the main brochure DIFF 2001 would be donated to the earthquake relief fund.

The festival will open on February 3 with the acclaimed Oscar-winning British film One Day in September by Arthur Cohn and Kevin Mac Donald. The 94-minute-film is based on a terrorist attack during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

A thriller with a rock soundtrack, the film revolves around a select group of highly motivated and specially trained Palestinian terrorists who took an Israeli athletic team hostage in their apartments at the Olympic village. The group killed two during the raid and the rest later. It was a moment of shame for German authorities who prided themselves for their ruthless efficiency.

The animation Portuguese film A Suspeita - The Suspect directed by Jose Miguel Ribeiro will mark the end of the festival.

Some special features of the festival are a retrospective of famed filmmaker Loksen Lalvani on Indian classical maestros Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Yamini Krishnamurthy and Mallika Sarabhai; student films from Israel, India and Australia; MIFF award-winners of previous years, and a package of French short fiction films.

The festival is being organised by the Films Division within its own budget. The festival will cost about Rs 3.5 lakh since the auditorium has been obtained free of cost.

Besides India, Australia, China, Denmark, Netherlands, Israel, Portugal, Switzerland, Canada, Croatia, France, Russia, United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States will be the participating countries in the festival.

UNI