True stories make for compelling viewing at film festival
KARACHI: The second day of the Karachi International Film Festival 2013 organised by the Dawn Media Group on Monday was striking for films and documentaries based on real-life events. These world cinema films featured titles from South Korea, Australia, China, Italy and the Netherlands being screened at Cinepax, Ocean Mall.
“This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” said the first human to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, on July 21, 1969. That historic moment when Armstrong walked on the moon was captured on TV cameras installed on the Eagle landing module and whose signals were transmitted by a satellite dish located in the small town of Parkes in Australia. The movie The Dish (2000) highlights the critical role the team of Australian scientists and engineers played in successfully transmitting the TV signal waves via the satellite dish.
The initial scenes of the movie discuss the significance of the satellite dish, particularly to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), which had been trying for long to get the first man step onto the moon. At the time it was the largest radio telescope in the world and hence according to the head scientist Cliff Buxton (Sam Neil), it was not only important to support the Americans in their mission but also important for scientific history of Australia if they could successfully pull off the live transmission of the moon landing. The movie begins from July 15 leading up to July 21 is a day-by-day nail-biting account of the mission interspersed with footage at the time of TV channels reporting the daily account of the lunar mission. Even though one knows what exactly happened on July 21 yet watching the actual grainy footage of Armstrong climbing down the steps of the Eagle and hearing him on the big screen saying his memorable quotes are indeed breathtaking moments.
The Murmuring (1995), a documentary by Byun Young-joo, deals with the issue of comfort women, a euphemistic phrase coined for women who were forcibly taken away during the second world war mainly from Korea to service Japanese soldiers. Forgotten by Korean historians, the documentary was filmed over the course of three months from August to October in 1994, when the comfort women had started to speak up and were demonstrating in front of the Japanese embassy demanding immediate apology and monetary compensation.
The Murmuring takes a behind-the-scenes look at those comfort women, mostly in their 70s, living together in a house, Nanum Sharing House, supported by Buddhist monks. Most women who Young-joo speaks to are depressed and suicidal, some take refuge in smoking and some in drinking. Then there are also some who take refuge in painting or playing cards or doing household chores. The Murmuring thus highlights the devastating consequences of being comfort women, many of whom are shown to be struggling with their inner demons.
With the rapid urbanisation of China and the vanishing of the old and uncomplicated lifestyles of the rural lives in villages, Close to the Sun (2011) made for relevant viewing. It was a beautiful film with lush cinematography centering on the lives and customs of the Bird Totem tribe of the Miao ethnic group living in a remote village in Guizhou.
Today’s line-up
Six films are lined up to be screened on Tuesday from 11:30am onwards at Cinepax, Ocean Mall, one of which is The Unforgiven (2005), an award-winning feature-length graduation thesis film from undergraduate director Yoon Jong-bin. The film grapples with the psychological and physical violence of the protracted and compulsory military service in Korea.
Bon Voyage (2011) is a portrait of a middle-class Dutch family, the Verbeeks, who are driving off for a three-week summer vacation in France when a phone call informs them of their family patriarch being taken gravely ill. Director Rogaar explores the pains of growing up, acceptance of mortality and immortality and interplay of generations.
The documentary Farewell My Mountain (2004) explores the declining Alpine life and questions the future of the craftsmen in the mountain villages of Switzerland who have no land or cattle to leave behind to the younger generation.
Also, from 5pm onwards, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University Campus-3 auditorium in collaboration with the Consulate-General of Japan will be screening two Japanese films: Water Boys (2001) an award-winning comedy film about five boys who start a synchronized swimming team at their high school and Hana No Ato (2008), a historical romance set at the Edo period in Unasaka, Northeastern Japan.
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