10 foreign films to look out for at International Film Festival of Kerala

In addition to Zanussi’s retrospective, the festival will showcase a curated package titled ‘Masterminds,’ featuring works from 11 contemporary masters: Ken Loach, Wim Wenders, Aki Kaurismäki, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Marco Bellocchio, Wes Anderson, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nanni Moretti, Radu Jude, Agnieszka Holland, and Stephan Komandarev.

The festival will spotlight the ‘Female Gaze’ section, featuring films directed by eight women. These films delve into global concerns, anxieties, and emotions experienced by women, offering diverse perspectives on shared experiences worldwide. The festival also aims to pay tribute to iconic filmmaker Mrinal Sen on his birth centenary by presenting a retrospective of five of his films. Here is a selection of ten films to look out for:

1. Fallen Leaves/Kuolleet lehdet, directed Aki Aki Kaurismäki (Finnish/Finland-Germany): Finnish maestro Aki Kaurismäki’s latest film Fallen Leaves will be one of the greatest attractions of this year’s IFFK. Recipient of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and chosen as Finland’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Academy Awards, Fallen Leaves is generating high levels of anticipation among film buffs of Thiruvananthapuram. Kaurismäki weaves a narrative around two individuals facing financial challenges in Helsinki, repeatedly crossing paths and drifting apart in a world on the brink of collapse. Consistent with Kaurismäki’s finest works, seemingly ordinary details resonate as significant and impactful cinematic expressions in Fallen Leaves, too. 

2. About Dry Grasses/Kuru Otlar Üstüne by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkish/Turkey, France, and Germany): Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest is one of the most discussed films of 2023. It debuted in the primary competition category of Cannes Film Festival, where Dizdar secured the Best Actress accolade. Subsequently, it was chosen as Turkey’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the 96th Academy Awards. The topical drama unfolds multiple interconnected narratives, revolving around a rural schoolteacher entangled in a scandal within the school environment, wherein his colleague and roommate are also implicated. 

3. The Old Oak/The Old Oak by Ken Loach (English/Belgium, France, and UK): The 2023 drama film, The Old Oak, directed by Ken Loach and written by Paul Laverty, is a collaborative effort between the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium. Having its global debut at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the film contended for the prestigious Palme d’Or. Subsequently, it was released in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2023, through Studio Canal. Set in England during the Brexit period, the film seamlessly earns its reputation as a compassionate refugee drama, embodying the distinctive political niche characteristic of Ken Loach’s works. 

4. Endless Borders by Abbas Amini (Persian/Czech Republic, Germany): The film that bagged Golden Peacock for Best Film at 54th IFFI will be an obvious choice for the cinephiles to bet their money on. The Rotterdam prize-winning film follows the story of Ahmad, an exiled Iranian teacher residing in a destitute village near the Afghan border. Against the backdrop of the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan, the region is ablaze with ethnic and tribal conflicts. Faced with imminent danger from the Taliban, the Hazara Afghans take the perilous route of entering Iran clandestinely. 

5. Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet (French, English, German/France): Winner of the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this thriller by French director Justine Triet revolves around Sandra, portrayed by Sandra Huller. Sandra, alongside her husband Samuel and their young son, leads a secluded life in the Alps. Anatomy of a Fall was ranked third on Cahiers du Cinema’s top 10 films of 2023 list. 

6. Southern Storm/La Sudestada by Edgardo Dieleke and Daniel Casabé (Spanish/ Argentina): Based on Juan Saenz Valiente’s 2015 graphic novel of the same title, Southern Storm initially combines familiar elements such as South American social realism and a detective narrative. However, it skillfully keeps the audience on edge by playing with both its storyline and mood. Directors Daniel Casabe and Edgardo Dieleke, transitioning from documentary collaborations like Carack de nacar (2013) and The Exact Shape of the Islands (2014) to fiction for the first time, adeptly navigate the complexities of this peculiar and ultimately uplifting mystery. 

7. Prison in the Andes/Penal Cordillera by Felipe Carmona (Spanish/ Chile, Brazil): Selected for the main competition at the 49th Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival in Spain, Prison in the Andes (Penal Cordillera) focuses on the notorious incarceration of five senior officers from General Augusto Pinochet’s brutal military junta. The drama, which had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, has already had global attention. 

8. Hanging Gardens/Janain mualaqa by Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji (Arabic/ Iraq, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Egypt, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia): In 2010s Baghdad, 12-year-old Asad and his older brother, Taha, are grappling with financial challenges as garbage collectors in the city’s overflowing dumps, known as the “Hanging Gardens.” The narrative takes an intriguing turn when Asad discovers an American sex doll in the dump and brings it home. This taboo object becomes the catalyst for a remarkable coming-of-age tale, set against the backdrop of the simultaneously real and surreal conditions of present-day Iraq. 

9. The Green Border/Zielona granica by Agnieszka Holland (Polish, Arabic, English/ French Poland, US, France, Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, Turkey): Agnieszka Holland’s The Green Border, marked by urgency and unwavering direction, scrutinises a real-world geopolitical crisis on the Poland-Belarus border. The film unveils the plight of refugees heading to the European Union and the efforts of humanitarian activists. The narrative follows a family of Syrian refugees, an English teacher from Afghanistan and a border guard. They all meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis in Belarus. 

10. Opponent/Motstandaren by Milad Alami (Swedish, Persian/ Sweden, Norway): In Milad Alami’s skilfully crafted second feature, the writer-director spins an emotional domestic drama centered around a wrestler who finds himself torn between family obligations and suppressed desires. Alami adeptly portrays the bureaucratic indifference that refugees encounter in their daily lives, where they are often treated more as statistics than as individuals.