Venue: Alliance Francaise of Madras, Chennai Date: 23rd to 24th October 2017
Schedule
1. La Tempestad Calmada | The Calm Storm | 2016 | 73 Min | Dir.: Omar Razzak | 23 Oct 2017 | 6.20 PM
On an island that was once a prison, the lighthouse keeper’s con tries to flee. Meanwhile, one of the few fishing boats still on the island goes out to fish among the yachts of the port, the last night before being scrapped. Suddenly a storm explodes, and when it is over, the twelve crewmen remain calm absorbed in an uncertain future: theirs, their craft and their island.
2. Sccotra, la isla de los genios | 2016 | 54 Min | Dir.: Jordi Esteva | 23 Oct 2017 | 7.35 PM
The island of Socotra lies in the Indian Ocean between Arabia and Somalia. It was known in antiquity times for its Phoenix and Rukh birds. Frankincense and myrrh trees grow freely, as well as the dragon’s blood tree proved by Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. The first commercial flights, at the start of this century marked, for almost a couple of decades, the end of Socotra’s century of isolation. The current situation of civil war in Yemen has isolated again the remote island. In the film, a group of camel drivers heads to the secret interior of Socotra before the rainy season and they explain by the fire ancient stories of djinns and giant snakes.
3. Mother Tongue | 2016 | 73 Min | Dir.: Teresa Sendargorta | 24 Oct 2017 | 6.15 PM
Keith Wiedersheim (46) has no mother tongue. Keith, a tired international executive, looks for his father’s footprints (deceased a few years ago) by the testimony of five women in three continents. His father was German but refused to speak that language to him as a child, as it might have been related to his father’s experience in the war. Two years after his father’s death, Keith finds out that he left him a letter-path to follow: “Keith, come and join me”. 600 letters sent by his father since 1940 to the important women in his father’s life. Some women already died. Most of them are in their late 80s. Time is short. Keith decides to travel and listen to their words will mark the path to find his own voice. Beirut is his first step.
4. Brumaire | 2015 | 66 Min | Dir.: Pablo Stoll | 24 Oct 2017 – 7.30 PM
According to the French Revolutionary Calendar, Germinal is the month of germination. Brumaire is the month of mists. From Germinal to Brumario, a cycle of industrial and social history closes in front of our eyes. It is the history of a land. It is called “Lorraine mining basin”. Ten years after the closing of the last coal mine, the region has been transformed. In this land two glances cross: that of the old miner, anchored in a mythical past, and that of the new generation. The old miner will take us to the bottom of his memory and he will discover the mine. The darkness of the galleries, the smells, the underground city, work and swear, the danger of the grisu, camaraderie and solidarity, the social struggles, the final closure, the void. These words hammer upon their heirs. The new generation was born in another ecosystem, in another social geography, that of the post-industrial era. In Lorraine, everything has changed.
Venue: Alliance Francaise of Madras, Chennai Date: 23rd to 24th October 2017
