An insight into South Asian countries

The Festival of South Asian Documentaries will feature some of the best non-fiction films from the subcontinent

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Featuring some of the exceptional films from South Asia, a festival of South Asian Documentaries is being organised at India International Centre from July 30 till August 2. The four-day festival will have award-winning films showcasing the intensity of South Asian documentaries on topics as varied as Civil War, climatic changes in Bangladesh, women jamaats in India and recruitment of Gorkhas in Nepal.

The festival will begin with a Pakistani film, My Punjabi Lover for You, directed by Adnan Malik on July 30 at 6.30 pm. It is a behind-the-scene film of a music video shot in the summer of 2012. After this 17-minute documentary, Afghani film No Burqas Behind Bars, directed by Nima Sarvestani takes one inside one of world’s most restricted environments – the Afghan women’s person.

Documentaries to be screened on the second day include Burmese film No.62 Pansodan Street, recipient of the Tareque Masud Award for Best Debut Film, Film Southasia 2013. Are You Listening, Bangladeshi film, directed by Kamar Ahmad Simon, is a powerful and a beautifully photographed film that reveals the alarming effects of climate, will also be screened. The film deftly captures the fighting spirit of a community and their will to survive.

On August 1, Sri Lankan film The Story of One, directed by Kannan Arunasalam will be screened. It explores how the parents of the disappeared struggle to get on with their lives and how communities polarised by violence relearn to live together. Who Will Be a Gurkha, a Nepalese film that questions what it takes to be a Gorkha?

On the last day of the festival, August 2, documentaries will be screened from 11 am onwards. It will start with Deepa Dhanraj’s Invoking Justice, a film on women’s jamaats in South India, which applies Islamic Sharia law to cases ranging from divorce to domestic violence and brutal murders. At 3 pm Sri Lankan film No Fire Zone, an investigative documentary about the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War will be screened. Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls, an entertaining story of Burma’s first girl band will be screened at 5 pm.

And, the last film of the day will be Indian film Algorithm, directed by Ian McDonald, a film on the thriving but little-known world of ‘blind chess’in India.