1. It is once again the time of the year, when film
lovers from all over India and abroad head for
Kerala for the week-long festival of the celluloid.
Into its 20th edition, IFFK continues to draw
members of the film fraternity because of its high standards
and rewarding experiences. IFFK offers professional as well as
amateur film makers to share and experience the many nuances
of film making and have their works evaluated by jury members
of eminence. I would like to congratulate all associated with the
Kerala Chalachitra Academy, the organizers of IFFK, and hope
that the 20th edition of the festival would turn out as yet another
delightful experience for all the participants.
Wishing all success.
During this celebration of film as a
cultural fest, let me wish all the very
best for this fest of pluralities.
Art was looked upon as a mirror held
towards the societal visage right from the
classical periods onwards. As art is a key
force in inculcating the basic humanistic
values, film plays a pivotal role towards this end. This
becomes sharply relevant in our country today, as the divisive
elements pop up in the social arena more frequently. Along
with the artistic focus of the festival, humanism, too, has to
come as a highlight. The packages and guests here would be
offering the movie enthusiasts a mixed taste of the current
world in its multifaceted aspects. I wish IFFK 2015 all success.
Chen Zhen, a young student from
Beijing, sent to Inner Mongolia to teach a
nomadic tribe of shepherds, has to learn
about existence in this endless, harsh
and breathtakingly beautiful wilderness,
about the most feared and revered
creature of the steppes - the wolf.
Fascinated by their cunning, strength
and ferocious beauty, he captures a
cub and tries to tame it. This relation is
threatened when a central government
officer decides to eliminate a ll wolves
from the region, whatever the cost. The
movie is based on the bestselling book
by Jiang Rong omniet ommo et acernam,
officab oraerae quae vit, te omnis sit
maxime.
WOLF TOTEM | LE DERNIER LOUP
China, France/ 2015 / Colour / 119 min / Mongolian
Direction: Jean-Jacques Annaud
OPENINGFILM
Message
Oommen Chandy
Hon. Chief Minister, Kerala
Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan
Hon. Minister, Environment, Forest, Transport,
Sports and Cinema

2. IFFK, which has become a cultural-
tone-marker of the state of Kerala
was inaugurated on December 17,
1994, by Sri. K Karunakaran, the then
chief minister, at Kozhikode. IFFK was
under the aegis of Kerala State Film
Development Corporation (KSFDC),
led by the actor Sri. Sukumaran as its
chairman and Sri. K Jayakumar IAS, the
managing director. Many other vibrant
personalities like K P Ummer, KG
George, PV Gangadharan, M G Soma n,
Soorya Krishnamoorthi and Rajiv Nath
had dynamic roles in materializing it.
The films came from the Film Archives
of Pune with the backing of the former
Archive Director P. K. Nair who was also
the festival director.
The Filmotsav (the current IFFI)
conducted in Thiruvananthapuram
in 1988 was one of the major factors
that prompted the film societies
like Chithralekha, Chalachitra and a
few others to organize a major film
festival in Kerala. The International
Film Festival for Children conducted in
Thiruvananthapuram by Children’s Film
Society of India and the celebration of
100 years of cinema by the Soorya Film
Society also gave a fillip to film societies
to begin a film festival in Kerala.
The opening film was
Marthandavarma, the second silent
film in Malayalam. Birth of the Nation,
Battleship Potemkin, Our Daily Bread,
Man of Aran, Olympia I & Olympia II, The
Grapes of Wrath, To Be Or Not To Be, Miss
Julie, Wages of Fear, Ugetsu Monogatari,
La Strada, The Hour of the Furnaces,
Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The
Cranes are Flying, Nazarin, The Island,
Woman in the Dunes, 400 Blows,
Closely Watched Trains, The Round Up,
Hiroshima Mon Amor, Two Half Times
In Hell were the films screened under
world cinema category. Marta Meszaros,
István Szabó, Nagisa Oshima, Costa
Gavras, Carlos Saura, Lindsay Anderson,
Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Bernardo
Bertolucci, Paul Cox, Claude Chabrol
were presented in the Contemporary
World Masters category. There were also
slots like ‘Landmarks of Indian Cinema’
and ‘Focus on Latin America’, etc.
Malayalam directors like Ramu Karyat,
John Abraham, Padmarajan, Aravindan
and PA Backer were honoured in first IFFK
as a part of homage to five Malayalam
Masters. Muhafis directed by Ismayil
Merchant was the closing film.
The major lapse of the first edition
of IFFK was the late release of a festival
book. Number of delegates had a steep
rise in the next edition in comparison to
the previous year. The second edition
of the festival has its own place in the
history of IFFK on many grounds. It
was the first festival that had foreign
participation. The introduction of a
platform for screening Afro-Asian and
Latin American films proved to be an
innovation, indeed. This move set the
tone for later editions, which focussed
on screening movies from the Third
World. This edition had packages like
Contemporary world cinema, Tribute
to the Centenary of cinema, Women
in Indian cinema, Malayalam cinema
now, World War II films, Retrospectives
on- Sathyan, Marta Meszaros & Mrinal
Sen; also, shorts and documentaries,
and country focus on Srilanka. The
debate and discussion platforms like
Mukhamukham, Open Forum etc.
were introduced. The Kerala State
Chalachitra Academy founded in 1998
conducts the film festivals introducing
variety of categories. The hike in
participation including that of the
foreign delegates has been an added
feather on the hat of IFFK in 20 years of
its evolution.
Prepared by: Amala T Chacko
M F Thomas
That wasa momentous start!
MF Thomas
2

3. It’s long since IFFK has become an
inevitable iconic spot in the cultural
calendar, not only of the state of
Kerala, but of the Indian subcontinent
at large. The Afro-Asian and Latin
American focus of the Festival has
rendered it a rare slot in the global
festival circuits, as well. This year,
being the vicennial jubilee of the fest,
we are really glad about its reputation
for the popularity among ordinary
film-goers and filmmakers alike. The
unquenchable urge of film buffs has
been a constant source of support
this cultural treat has been banking
upon. This edition also will prove to
be another successful experience of
a peoples’ sheer dedication to serious
cinema in this small state of India. This
edition turns to be a reunion of all the
national and international cultural
organizations. Let me whole heartedly
welcome you all to this edition.
Happy viewing.
With 180 films to be screened within
7 days, the 20th edition of IFFK
has accomplished in opening an inclusive
platform for all kinds of audience with
diverse film genres. IFFK has achieved
a character of its own during the short
history it has passed through. Our focus
now is to strive and achieve the prestigious
status of being the first film festival in
India in which films will be submitted
without any prior invitation being made.
By 2020, IFFK should be a hub of film
sharing for all global film festivals. As a
part, future collaborations with Dubai Film
Festival would be hopefully realized at the
earliest. UNESCO has to be a platform
in popularizing movies of developing
countries like Asia and Africa. This also
opens vistas for IFFK to be a spinal market
of world movies. The ultimate aim is to
open up an international market at IFFK
with a character of its own, and there is a
long way to go in achieving it.
T Rajeevnath
Chairman, Kerala State
Chalachitra Academy &
Festival Director, 20th IFFK
Shaji N Karun
Chairman, Advisory Board, IFFK
Welcome
IFFK Has To Be The Gate Way
To The World Of Future Festivals
04th
December 20153

4. The film buffs are eagerly biding,
all eyes and ears, for the inaugural
ceremony of the 20th edition of the
International Film Festival of Kerala
(IFFK) as the programme will be a
sumptuous aural/visual treat for movie
lovers. The world-renowned tabla
maestro – the Guest of Honour at the
festival’s curtain-raiser will treat the
august gathering of dignitaries and
delegates at Nishagandhi auditorium
with the percussive magic. Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy will light the
lamp, flagging off both the ceremony
and the week-long festivity of filmic and
artistic expression. The eminent Iranian
filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui, the IFFK
Lifetime Achievement Awardee, will be
felicitated in the function. The opening
film, by the French director Jean-
Jacques Annaud’s 3-D spectacular Wolf
Totem, will follow the function.
The thirteen theatres and additional
screening setups are all set to receive
the very vibrant audience with the
routine as well as novel film packages.
In the World Cinema Competition slot
fourteen films from across the globe
compete for the Golden Crow Pheasant
Award. A discerning collection of
Malayalam Cinemas is screened under
Malyalam Cinema Today. Indian Cinema
Now showcases some of the celluloid
representations of diversity from India.
Within the Country Focus category, a
package of five Lithuanian-one of the
Northern European Baltic states- films,
and two Myanmar- Burmese- films
would adorn the festival.
In addition to these, a cross-section
of movies made around the globe is
presented in the World Cinema section.
Tony Gatlif movies with their nomadic
spirit will enthuse cinephiles in the
Contemporary Masters in Focus. A slice
of Contemporary Korean films in Korean
Panorama, and seven films at curated
sections of debut films First Look, films
depicting women as protagonists in
Women Power, six films based on true
stories in the curated section- Based
On True Story ,too, would be the major
attraction of this edition of IFFK.
To add to the hues of experiencing
films, the Aravindan Memorial Lecture,
delivered by the well-known Australian
script advisor and editor Claire Dobbin,
with seminars and symposia this fest is
going to be a gala of events for the film
buffs in letter and spirit.
Moreover, to update the film
students about the developments of
film technology in serious films, a pack
of Classic films from National Film
Archives, Pune, in Restored Classics
category, three films in Jury Films, films
by Lifetime Acheivement Awardee -
Dariush Mehrjui- as Life Time Awardee
Films will be offering distinct visual and
aural milieu before the audience.
Mammed montage
Zakir Hussain is today appreciated both
in the field of percussion and in the
music world at large as an international
phenomenon. A classical tabla virtuoso of
the highest order, his consistently brilliant
and exciting performances have not only
established him as a national treasure
in our own country, but gained him
worldwide fame. His playing is marked
by uncanny intuition and masterful
improvisational dexterity, founded in
formidable knowledge and study. The
favourite accompanist for many of India’s
greatest classical musicians and dancers,
he has not let his genius rest there.
Widely considered a chief architect of the
contemporary world music movement,
Zakir’s contribution to world music
has been unique, with many historic
collaborations. The opening ceremony
of the 20th edition of the International
Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will resonate
to the pulsing of Ustad Zakir Hussain’s
percussive stylings.
The Crescendo of An Aural / Visual Treat…
Zakir Hussain
The Music Genius
At IFFK 2015
4

5. International
20th
IFFK Jury
FIPRESCI
Delec Malcolm Ershad kamol Latika
Padgaonkar
Julio Bressane Maxine
Williamson
Jahnu Barua Nadia Dresti Newton
Aduaka
Meenakshi
Shedde
Suraj Prasad Swarna
Mallawarachchi
NETPAC
Kerala State Chalachitra Academy
conducted a competition for the
IFFK Signature Film 2015 in order to
searchforandpromoteyoungtalents,
fresh ideas, innovative storytelling
and approaches to filmmaking
from the wider public. A jury
comprising the cinematographers
Shri Ramachandra Babu and Shri
Sunny Joseph, noted director Shri
G.S Vijayan and KSCA chairman Shri
T. Rajeevnath selected Shameer
Babu’s entry out of 25 submissions.
Babu, who hails from Chala in Kannur
district, is an animation film maker
with 15 years of experience in the
television and film fields. He has
worked for Pogo, Cartoon Network
and Doordarshan. The jury expressed
its appreciation for Babu’s concept
and the signature film was made
under the banner of Moving Kraft
animation studio and will feature the
play of light and shadow through the
five elements of nature being water,
air, earth, fire and sky as its theme.
Any object that enters the path of
light gets exposed and as a result
casts its shadow which is a true form
of representation itself. This essence
of truth is universal and so are good
films. When exposed to the light of
truth, it casts a true representation
of the society and things around it
and helps in its betterment. Along
with receiving an official citation, the
director will be handed a cash prize of
Rs 25,000 at the inaugural ceremony
of IFFK 2015.
Signature
Film 2015
Partners Technical Partners
04th
December 20155

6. Mongolia to teach a nomadic tribe of
shepherds during the Cultural Revolution.
But, it was Chen Zhen who had much
to learn from them- about community,
freedom, responsibility and life’s
existence in the breathtakingly beautiful,
yet, harsh wilderness. Entranced with the
wolves there - whose behavior inspired
Genghis Khan according to the village
leader - Chen Zhen adopts a cub and
tries to tame the ferociously beautiful
creature. But the growing relationship
between man and animal as well as
the tribe’s ancient ways of life and the
land itself is threatened when a central
government officer decides to eliminate
all wolves from the region at any cost.
As Annaud is no stranger in casting
animals in his films, most of the
fantastically exciting sequences with
wolves - like filming the pack on cliff
tops in pouting choreographed ranks
or a desperate attempt by the herders
to head off a horse stampede in a
blizzard - are mostly done in camera
instead of CGI, thus making the
landscape and painstakingly trained
wolves the true stars. “Having made
a number of successful fictional films
and documentaries about wild animals,
Annaud knows how to endow the film's
wildlife with both character and realistic
intention”, says Oleg Ivanov.
Jayasree C.
The 20th International Film Festival of
Kerala kicked off with French director
Jean-Jacques Annaud’s latest spectacular
adventure into the heart of natural
world, Wolf Totem. Chosen as China’s
foreign-language Oscar entry of 2015,
the movie is about the tale of an outsider
acclimating to a vanishing way of life. It
is an adaptation from the best-seller by
Lü Jiamin, whose novel was received
as a critique of Chinese modernization
and environmental policies. “Wolf
Totem's political message feels muddled,
though one remains in constant thrall
of its stunning cinematography and
anthropological attention throughout.”
The story concerns Chen Zhen, a
student who travels from Beijing to Inner
Documenting
A Vanishing
Way Of Life
Festival Director T Rajeevnath, Chaiman KSCA Editorial Board Chairman J Ajith Kumar Convenor Renji Kuriakose
Coordinator Jayanthi Narendranath Chief Editor S Rajendran Nair, Secretary KSCA Executive Editor Sadeesh Chalippadam
Associate Editor Mammed Montage Assistant Editor TM Hisham Sub Editor Haris Nenmeni Reporters Amala T Chacko,
Jayasree C, Keerthana Mannayam Stills Ajay Saga, Shijin V K Design & Layout Shabeer M P Layout Assistant Saeed Fasal
Printing Akshara Offset, Thiruvananthapuram Editorial Support Haris Kormath
Printed & published by S Rajendran Nair, Secretary, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, Thiruvananthapuram on behalf of
the Department of Cultural Affairs, Govt of Kerala.
6

7. IFFK is into its 20th edition this year. From
its humble but passionate beginnings in
1994 at Kozhikode, it has travelled a long
way, and has created a niche for itself
among festivals in the country. This year
also marks the 50th anniversary of Film
Society Movement in Kerala, which still
has a remarkable presence across the
state. In fact, the idea of international film festivals was first
implemented and later mooted at the government level by the
film societies in Kerala, whose enthusiasm was reciprocated
by Kerala Film Development Corporation in the beginning, and
later the Government of Kerala. The overwhelming popularity
of IFFK and the dreams it evoked has also contributed to the
establishment of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, an Academy
for Film by a State Government, for the first time in India.
The most enduring features of IFFK are its focus on content,
vibrant participation and democratic organization. The films and
filmmakers of the Third World, whose works and vision have a lot
in common with our socio-political and economic predicament,
have always had a prominent place in the festival. IFFK was
always a cineastes’ festival, giving premium to the quality and
content of films rather than glamour and glitz. Its organization
has never been bureaucratic but open, democratic and one with
space for voices and visions of dissent and difference, values
that have become all the more relevant in the world we live in.
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04th
December 20157

8. Dariush Mehrjui is the most critical
filmmaker of Iran since the 1970s.
Remembered as a maverick director
who really spearheaded Iran’s cinematic
renaissance,histwofilmslikeTheCowand
The Cycle triggered a nasty controversy
by the conservative establishment. Mr
Naive (Agha-e Haloo), his third feature,
was a kind a reaction to his unscreened
film The Cow which became a box-office
hit. His next film, The Postman (Postchi)
was a political metaphor based on Karl
Buchner's Woyzeck.
Dariush Mehrjui was born on
December 8, 1939 in Tehran. In 1959,
he left for California to study cinema. He
attended a number of film courses. His
subjects are so realistic and depicting
gray, grimy and restricted life and society
of Iran. The Cycle (Dayereh Mina) was
said to have been kept in the shelves for
four years and then it turned to be one of
Mehrjui’s most successful films abroad.
He was involved in the revolution and
shot miles of reels of its daily events. At
this time Mehrjui was challenged by his
Govt to the extent that he had to settle
in France for a couple of years and he
could just make a docu-fiction on life of
the great French poet, Arthur Rimbaud.
On return, he made The Lodgers (Ejareh
Neshinha) which is still considered as
the best comedy of Iranian cinema.
Mehrjui's most popular film among the
Iranians is Hamoon which was the most
controversial film of 1990 and it marked
Mehrjui's shift from social issues to a
more personal cinema. By personal
cinema he means using his medium in
his maverick manner and introduced
much of poetic symbolism and stream of
consciousness in his works.
At the bandwagon of the Iranian New
Wave movement of the 1970, Mehrjui
introduced hitherto little-explored and
innovative cinematic themes, treatment
and narratives. Infused with an aesthetic
mix of realism and symbolism, his films
helped foster the keener development
of art house sensibilities among a
fast-maturing cinema audience. After
debuting with the unsuccessful Diamond
33 (1966), a big budget parody of
Bond films, Mehrjui found acclaim and
recognition with The Cow (GAAV) in 1969.
Incidentally, his films are said to
have found kinship with the works of
Roberto Rosselini, Vittorio de Sica and
Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen; his oeuvre
possesses a distinctively Iranian flavour
in part because they are ardently and
mostly inspired from Iranian literature.
Mehrjui’s magnum opus, The Cycle
(1975) was banned for three years before
being released in Iran in 1978. “Mehrjui
is an all time uncompromising artist and
a master filmmaker who knows how to
invest his subjects with contemporary
sensibilities. I saw his two of controversial
films The Cow and The Cycle that tell of
saddest thought. His formative films are
an indication to what great filmmaker he
could be in times to come”, says Mrinal
Sen.
Ajay Saga
Pradip Biswas
Dariush Mehrjui
A Maverick
Director of Iran
8