From To A Land Unknown and Happy Holidays to Saulė Bliuvaitė’s Toxic and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, a look at standout films and documentaries at IFFI 2024
The first film I watched at this year’s International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was To A Land Unknown by Danish-Palestinian director Mahdi Fleifel. Fleifel’s work has a distinct tenor — quiet, raw, and deeply suffused with yearning. Having previously seen one of his short films, I had an inkling of his cinematic vocabulary, which often revolves around the inescapable question of statelessness. For Palestinians, both in life and in art, this remains the central wound, and Fleifel’s exploration of it is no exception.
The narrative is sincere, and the treatment astute, yet the film ultimately feels caught in the gravitational pull of a genre now well-trodden — the refugee drama. Over the past decade, this subgenre has proliferated, much as the post-Cold War cinema of the late 1990s and early 2000s capitalised on narratives of walls torn down and borders redefined. Fleifel’s film skirts the edges of profound insight, refraining from confronting the abrasions of today’s geopolitical conflicts. It’s a measured work, undoubtedly evocative, but it doesn’t transcend the well-worn frameworks that define much of contemporary cinema on forced displacement.
Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays: The Alienation of the Arabs
There were a handful of other films, too, that touched upon the Middle Eastern crisis films in this genre, but Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays stood out for its subtle portrayal of the everyday alienation experienced by the Arab community in Israel. Set in Haifa, the film delicately explores the growing mistrust between the two religious communities, regardless of how secular or agnostic their lives may be. It operates with a subtlety that is all the more disarming for its restraint.
Also read: Rhythm of Dammam: Untold story of Siddi community, India’s forgotten African tribe
On the surface, the film unravels as a family drama, exploring relationships, breakups, and morality that puts familial bonds at stake. However, beneath this veneer lies the insistent undercurrent of mistrust rooted in religious and ethnic identity. Copti eschews grand pronouncements, opting instead for small, piercing moments that reveal the fractures. This layered approach elevates the narrative beyond the immediate conflicts of the characters, gesturing toward the larger social rifts that haunt their world.
The contrast between Fleifel’s sweeping yet distanced treatment of displacement and Copti’s granular dissection of internalised alienation is striking. While Fleifel showcases the enormity of statelessness, Copti narrows his lens, illuminating how alienation operates not just at the margins of society but in its very fabric. The story’s intimacy becomes a mirror for the broader anxieties that pervade Israeli and Palestinian identities, even in spaces that aspire to be neutral ground. If To A Land Unknown carries the elegiac weight of exile, Happy Holidays feels like an excavation — unearthing the almost imperceptible ways in which trust erodes under the pressure of historical grievances. Together, these films bring to the fore the varied possibilities in Middle Eastern cinema: the panoramic versus the personal, the epic versus the intimate.
The Quiet Son: An examination of far-right extremism
Covering a film festival and watching films as a delegate are entirely different experiences. A reporter must remain sharp and attentive, often juggling limited film-watching opportunities with the demands of engaging with stakeholders on their schedule. Despite managing a strict clock and a realistically curated watchlist, I still missed a few highly recommended “must-watch” films from fellow cinephiles. Conversations with delegates and participants revealed a palpable sense of politicisation and a perceptible right-wing dominance in the festival’s organisational framework. However, the international content appeared relatively insulated from such influence.
As many pointed out, the organisers’ primary focus seemed to be on content catering to Indian media, encompassing high-visibility events like the opening and closing ceremonies, the Indian Panorama section, and the red-carpet spectacles outside the theatres. In contrast, foreign films — less likely to attract media attention domestically — remained largely unaffected and comparatively free from political considerations. This freedom was partly due to the dynamics of the global festival circuit, where peer pressures and reputational stakes play a significant role. Without this latitude, films like The Quiet Son might not have made it to the lineup.
The Quiet Son, the French film by sister duo Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin, explores the political tensions of a fractured society through the lens of a father’s despair as he watches his son drift into the world of far-right extremism, embracing values that starkly oppose his own. From Pierre’s perspective, it is a heartbreaking examination of parental love, the limits of influence, and the devastating consequences of ideological divides in a family. The brilliant Vincent Lindon brings Pierre to life as one of the most compelling characters of the festival, his mesmerizing and elegant presence also standing out in The Second Act, an absurdist comedy written, shot, edited, and directed by Quentin Dupieux.
Documentary highlights: Afternoons of Solitude, Gaucho Gaucho, Toxic
The documentary section was this year’s highlight, showcasing many sterling films, including Afternoons of Solitude, Albert Serra’s compelling portrayal of celebrated Peruvian bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey. Gaucho Gaucho, another astonishing monochrome film, is a captivating celebration of the resilient community of Argentine cowboys and cowgirls, known as Gauchos, who live on the fringes of the modern world.
Directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, the film is an intimate portrait of their enduring traditions, deep connection to the land, and timeless way of life. While the Gaucho lifestyle is often framed in the context of Argentina’s legendary literature, such as Martín Fierro (an epic poem by José Hernández), this film takes a refreshing departure by focusing solely on the raw, authentic life stories from the Pampas, making it feel both genuine and deeply personal.
Also read: IFFI 2024: Three films spotlight the harrowing realities of sexual harassment
Mati Diop’s Dahomey, a Golden Bear winner at Berlin Film Festival, was another film that captivated Indian audiences with its brilliant hybrid narrative that seamlessly intertwined the past and present. Saulė Bliuvaitė Toxic (winner of the Golden Peacock), was the only film among the award winners that I managed to watch. It explores the lives of working-class girls in Lithuania who dream of becoming models in Asian countries, willing to push their bodies to extreme limits in pursuit of those aspirations. The grim and shadowy atmosphere of the film is profoundly unsettling, made even more impactful by the scintillating performances of lead actresses Vesta Matulytė and Ieva Rupeikaitė, who play Marija and Kristina. Their portrayals earned them the Best Female Actor award at this festival.
Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door
The venues for screening emerged as a major concern at the 55th edition of the festival, which had adopted a more decentralised approach, with Ponda and Margao included as additional screening locations. On November 27, The Quiet Son was screened to an audience of just eight people in the theatre, six of whom were from Kerala. Similarly, earlier screenings in Margao attracted only a handful of viewers. The situation was no different in Ponda, where Jayan Cherian’s Rhythm of Dammam saw only three attendees at its second screening, including the director himself. Other festivals such as the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) as well as Kolkata and Mumbai film festivals have all packed screenings. However, the venue in Panaji, and to some extent Porvorim, witnessed packed halls for nearly all the shows.
There were allegations that certain films were deliberately scheduled in remote locations rather than being allotted slots at the main venue — the INOX complex in Panaji. Additionally, concerns were raised about unequal treatment. For instance, the cast and crew of Rhythm of Dammam, predominantly members of the Siddi tribal community from Uttara Kannada, were not given a red-carpet welcome. In contrast, even relatively obscure Bollywood personalities were afforded this privilege, regardless of whether their films were screened at the festival.
Among the standout films of the festival, there were several noteworthy contenders, including Miguel Gomes’ The Grand Tour, Huo Xin’s debut Bound in Heaven, and Shirori Ito’s autobiopic Black Box Diaries. However, the film I absolutely could not miss was Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. An adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s novel What Are You Going Through, it marks Almodóvar’s first feature in English. While it may not be his finest work or even among his best, as a film enthusiast, I would never pass up the opportunity to see an Almodóvar film. For that reason, it stands out as my favourite film of the festival.
