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Local film slams acceptance limits: 'That’s the sadness of migration'

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Local film slams acceptance limits: 'That’s the sadness of migration'

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When Partho Sen-Gupta was a teenager growing up in Mumbai in the 1980s his father refused to let him attend art school, so the budding filmmaker got a summer job at one of the city’s Bollywood movie studios. It turned into a position working in the art department on musicals – taking pictures for continuity was too expensive, so Sen-Gupta and his fellow assistants would sketch each set in detail before it was packed away. It sounds like a different world, but those early years remain integral to the writer-director’s approach.

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When Partho Sen-Gupta was a teenager growing up in Mumbai in the 1980s his father refused to let him attend art school, so the budding filmmaker got a summer job at one of the city's Bollywood movie studios. It turned into a position working in the art department on musicals - taking pictures for continuity was too expensive, so Sen-Gupta and his fellow assistants would sketch each set in detail before it was packed away. It sounds like a different world, but those early years remain integral to the writer-director's approach.

Slam, directed by Partho Sen-Gupta, is about identity and acceptance in Australia. Credit:

"What I do now is thanks to what I did in the past," Sen-Gupta says. "That training taught me every technical aspect of filmmaking. Today I can push a dollar because when I walk on set with my fellow technicians - whether camera, costume or art department - I know the relevant details because I've worked on it. I know exactly how to do a shot I want with the budget allocated."

As time went by I was reminded that I was not from there, no matter how well I spoke.
Partho Sen-Gupta

That experience is apparent in Slam, the 54-year-old's first Australian feature after a career in India and France. A telling contemporary drama about the demands of identity and the limits of acceptance in Australia, it begins with the disappearance of Ameena Nasser (Danielle Horvat), a poet and activist born in Palestine and raised in Sydney's southwestern suburbs. With incendiary media reports circulating that she fled to Syria to aid Islamic State, the search for Ameena is separately carried out by her brother, Tariq (Omar Bakri), and a police officer struggling with her own loss, Joanne Hendricks (Rachael Blake).

A traffic jam on a rain-soaked Parramatta Road was created in a carpark with a handful of vehicles and some hosing, with Sen-Gupta shooting from the backseat of a vehicle. It's a matter, he says, "of creating spaces that look much larger on the screen", and the film does the same emotionally. The simmering plot is full of uncertainty and provocation, so that individual characters lose their way.

"I wanted to be close to my protagonists and show them lost in this space," Sen-Gupta says. "For me it was always a drama, but people felt the word thriller should be attached. This isn't a police story about finding a missing woman, it's a story about what the people left behind are made to experience. Someone disappearing is one story, those left behind experience a different story. I wanted the audience to feel the pain of that loss."

The story explores the limits reached by second-generation immigrants, especially Muslims such as Tariq. Seemingly a picture of multiculturalism, with a wife, Sally (Rebecca Breeds), and family who know him as Ricky, and an inner-city cafe to their name, the unassuming barista finds himself caught between his sister's political advocacy and his new community's racist suspicions. It's a gulf Sen-Gupta knows from his 16 years in France, where from the early 1990s he studied cinema, became a citizen, and launched his feature film career

"I spoke the language well, I went to film school, and I felt assimilated. But as time went by I was reminded that I was not from there, no matter how well I spoke," Sen-Gupta says. "Ricky believes that he can become what the mainstream wants and works hard to achieve that, but this situation pulls him back. He has no agency over that and that's the sadness of migration: you try to reach the goalposts, but they keep moving."

Sen-Gupta came to Australia in 2012 when his partner, prominent academic Alana Lentin, accepted a position at Western Sydney University. His daughter, now aged nine, has grown up in Australia, but her father looks at this country without the blinkers of being raised amidst the conventions and fallacies of our national identity. Sen-Gupta sees that as an opportunity.

"If I criticise it's because I want to make this place my own. I haven't grown up with those myths and I may have a critical eye, but that's an important role for an artist. We have to show society what it refuses to see or cannot see," Sen-Gupta says. "I want to make a better society for my daughter. As a democracy we have to question what our laws are, what our system is trying to tell us. Otherwise you cease to be a democracy."
Slam is now screening at Cinema Nova, Carlton; and at Dendy, Newtown, on Wednesday, October 30, as part of the Palestinian Film Festival.

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Local film slams acceptance limits: 'That's the sadness of migration'

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Director Partho Sen-Gupta's debut Australian feature film is a powerful story about loss, identity and acceptance in his adopted country.

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Radical feminist poetry inspires Sunrise director Partho Sen-Gupta’s new Sydney-set film 'Slam'

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Radical feminist poetry inspires Sunrise director Partho Sen-Gupta’s new Sydney-set film 'Slam'

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Radical feminist poetry inspires Sunrise director Partho Sen-Gupta’s new Sydney-set film ‘Slam’

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From Islamic State to slam poetry, filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta will explore simmering racial and religious tensions in his Western Sydney-set new film.

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A hard-hitting psychologial drama about a father's search for his missing daughter.

By Richard Kuiper

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A gripping psychological drama set in the seediest quarters of Mumbai, the pic cleverly weaves fantasy and reality so that neither can be taken at face value.

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Partho Sen-Gupta's thriller 'Slam' nabs co-pro funding

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Partho Sen-Gupta's thriller 'Slam' nabs co-pro funding

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Partho Sen-Gupta’s thriller ‘Slam’ nabs co-pro funding

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EXCLUSIVE: Adam Bakri to lead Australian-French co-pro.

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Sunrise, de Partho Sen-Gupta. En Inde, les disparitions d’enfants laissent des milliers de familles dans un deuil insurmontable. Une fiction hallucinée fait écho à ce phénomène.

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L’Inde des ténèbres en théâtre d’ombres - L’Humanité

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Sunrise, de Partho Sen-Gupta. En Inde, les disparitions d’enfants laissent des milliers de familles dans un deuil insurmontable. Une fiction hallucinée fait écho à ce phénom�…

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Ein traumatisierter Polizist ermittelt im Fall eines verschwundenen Mädchens und muss gleichzeitig die Schuld am Verschwinden seiner eigenen Tochter verarbeiten. Partho Sen-Guptas Neo-Noir-Thriller verbindet das Polizeidrama und den psychologischen Thriller

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Die Nacht ist in Partho Sen-Guptas »Sunrise« die Schwelle zwischen Traum und Realität. Irgendwo am Rande der Nacht befindet sich der Club Paradise, zu dem es den Polizisten Joshi in seinen Visionen immer wieder hinzieht. Auf seinen Streifzügen durch die Straßen von Mumbai begegnen ihm obdachlose Kinder, die Häuserwände sind plakatiert mit Vermisstenanzeigen. Der Nachtclub scheint etwas mit dem Verschwinden der Kinder zu tun zu haben: Auf der Bühne tanzen junge Mädchen, einige von ihnen nicht einmal volljährig, vor einem aufgeheizten männlichen Publikum. Joshi ist ein Teil dieser Menge, und doch steht er abseits, denn die Suche des Vaters gilt einem ganz bestimmten Mädchen. Ihre ausdruckslosen Gesichter, die teilnahmslosen Tanzbewegungen beobachtet er mit stummem Entsetzen. Es dauert eine kleine Ewigkeit, bis er das erste Mal spricht.

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Partho Sen-Gupta’s ‘Slam’ takes a fresh look at terrorism

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Partho Sen-Gupta’s ‘Slam’ takes a fresh look at terrorism

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https://if.com.au/partho-sen-guptas-slam-takes-fresh-look-terrorism/

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Partho Sen-Gupta’s ‘Slam’ takes a fresh look at terrorism - IF Magazine

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When a young Australian girl of Palestinian origin disappears the night after her slam poetry performance, the media runs stories which suggest she is a home-grown radical who went to Syria to join Islamic terrorists.

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One night in 2012, filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta, a recent immigrant to Australia, attended Bankstown Poetry Slam and was so struck that the image of one of the performers became the seed that generated his current movie, Slam, premiering this weekend at the Sydney Film Festival.

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Receiving its world premiere in BIFF’s New Currents competition, Partho Sen-Gupta’s Sunrise tells the story of a police inspector whose daughter was kidnapped years ago when she was only six.

The Indian director talks about his second feature Sunrise, which is premiering in the New Currents competition at Busan.

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Receiving its world premiere in BIFF’s New Currents competition, Partho Sen-Gupta’s Sunrise tells the story of a police inspector whose daughter was kidnapped years ago when she was only six.The Marathi-language film blurs the boundaries between reality and dreams, as the police inspector believes he has found her working in…

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Mumbai-based Independent Movies has finalised the financing on Film Bazaar project Sunrise (Arunoday), following a deal with India’s Infinitum Productions to increase its funding for the film.

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Mumbai-based Independent Movies has finalised the financing on Film Bazaar project Sunrise (Arunoday), following a deal with India’s Infinitum Productions to increase its funding for the film.

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DUBAI/EXCLUSIVE: Palestinian actor Adam Bakri (Omar) has been cast in Sydney-based director Partho Sen-Gupta’s upcoming drama Slam, alongside Australian actress Rachael Blake.

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DUBAI/EXCLUSIVE: Palestinian actor Adam Bakri (Omar) has been cast in Sydney-based director Partho Sen-Gupta’s upcoming drama Slam, alongside Australian actress Rachael Blake.

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Revolt Against The System: An Interview with Slam’s Partho Sen Gupta

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Revolt Against The System: An Interview with Slam’s Partho Sen Gupta

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Ahead of Slam’s premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, Claire Cao talks to director Partho Sen-Gupta about racial microaggressions, the rousing power of Bankstown Poetry Slam, and the strength of mothers all over the world.

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Locarno Open Doors selects 12 Indian projects

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Locarno Open Doors selects 12 Indian projects

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Locarno Open Doors selects 12 Indian projects

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Projects by Indian filmmakers Anup Singh [pictured] and Alka Raghuram are among 12 selected for this year’s edition of the Open Doors co-production lab to be held in Locarno from August 6-9.

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Written and Directed by Partho Sen-Gupta, Slam is an Australian film that tells the story of how one man’s life turns to hell when his younger sister disappears without a trace.

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Written and Directed by Partho Sen-Gupta, Slam is an Australian film that tells the story of how one man’s life turns to hell when his younger sister disappears without a trace. Ricky Nasser …

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Slam – the Australian movie that has broken the mould

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Slam – the Australian movie that has broken the mould

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Centring the lives of a Muslim family, the film tackles migrant identity against an intense backdrop of distrust and Islamophobia. “You could see Slam as a critique of Australian society, but you only critic things that concern you that you want to be part of,” Sen-Gupta tells MiNDFOOD. The film follows Ricky Naser (played by Adam Bakri), a young Australian who is living the Australian Dream.

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Slam – the Australian movie that has broken the mould

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Slam is very much an Australian film. It was directed by Partho Sen-Gupta who lives in Sydney’s Inner West, it was filmed in Sydney, it was funded by Screen Australia and it will premier at the Sydney Film Festival. But Slam isn’t a typical ‘Aussie’ film.

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This is not your average Australian film. In fact, it’s as international as it gets. The action takes place in New South Wales, but the crew and cast are very international indeed. The director Partho Sen-Gupta is originally from Mumbai, while the lead role is played by Palestinian actor Adam Bakri. The topics addressed are also universal: cultural assimilation, Islamophobia and religious/political extremism.

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Australian film directed by Indian filmmaker will hit you like a punch in the face; our editor describes it as “film of the year” - from the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

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This riveting Aussie thriller follows the disappearance of an outspoken young female Muslim slam poet.

By Richard Kuipers

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The disappearance of a fearless female Palestinian-Australian slam poet triggers suspense and powerful social and political commentary in "Slam," an outstanding slow-burn thriller by expat Indian filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta ("Sunrise"). Starring Palestinian actor Adam Bakri ("Omar," "Official Secrets") as the missing woman's conflicted brother, and leading Aussie performer Rachael Blake as a troubled cop, this gripping tale offers intelligent observations of race, gender, religion, xenophobia and the roles played by police and media in the names of national security and the war on terror. Opening Down Under on Oct. 17 after generating plenty of buzz at Sydney and Melbourne film festivals earlier this year, "Slam" has valuable things to say about the times in which we live and deserves to be seen on a much wider stage.

"Slam" slams into action with Ameena Nasser (Danielle Horvat) staring into the camera. Wearing a headscarf and addressing her speech "to mother," Ameena delivers a ferocious denunciation of colonization, patriarchy, intolerance and the misuse of power, all the while asserting her right and need as a woman to speak out. At first her delivery has the texture of hard prose before developing a timbre more akin to traditional poetry. Written by the late Australian-Palestinian-Lebanese queer performer Candy Royalle, Ameena's words provide a knockout opening and serve as an arresting introduction to slam poetry for viewers that may not be familiar with this lively form of expression.

That's almost it for Horvat's role in the film. Following an enthusiastic response to her performance at a local community center, Ameena nervously smokes a cigarette outside while a car appears to be following her. From here, Ameena is barely sighted again, leaving viewers to learn about her from family and friends.

Ameena's mother, Rana (Darina Al Joundi), is immediately alarmed by her daughter's failure to arrive home or leave a message. Rana's response is to call her son, Tariq (Bakri), who adopted the name Ricky and moved away from his migrant community to run an inner-city café with Sally (Rebecca Breed), his heavily pregnant Anglo-Australian wife.

Amid news reports of a captured Australian pilot facing execution in Syria, and flashbacks to harrowing events in Tariq's past, he files a missing persons report with Jo Hendricks (Blake), a police officer returning to duty after a tragedy connected to conflict in the Middle East and the breakdown of her marriage to emotionally destroyed husband Shane (the late Damian Hill, excellent in one of his final roles). Shortly after one of Jo's smarmy male superiors says, "Muslim girls just don't go missing," Ameena's case is brought to the attention of high-ranking cops who quickly suspect her of fleeing to become a jihadi bride.

Sen-Gupta's sharp screenplay shows how a climate of fear and a few shreds of social media and CCTV "evidence" can snowball into assumptions that fuel racism and intolerance. Bakri is outstanding as the second-generation migrant whose loyalties and sense of identity are put to the test. With reporters camped outside his house and his own efforts to locate Ameena creating conflict within the Muslim community and exposing casual racism in Sally's family circle, Tariq is eventually forced to protect himself by publicly denouncing his sister.

Providing a powerful counter-balance to the escalating nightmare around Tariq is Jo's determination to put media hysteria and pressures from male bosses aside and treat Ameena as a missing person rather than a potential terrorist. Blake excels as the investigator whose initial skepticism and prejudices are challenged and changed by talking to Rana and Ameena's best friend, Hanan (Abbey Aziz), about their lives and what Ameena was striving to achieve through her angry poetry.

For all its social and political subtext, "Slam" always stays firmly on track as a propulsive and engrossing thriller. Sen-Gupta generates high-level tension and suspense as the mystery deepens en route to a memorable conclusion.

Filmed around the multicultural Bankstown district in Sydney, "Slam" is splendidly served by Bonnie Elliott's moody widescreen photography and a spiky, strings-based score by Eryck Abecassis. All other technical aspects are right on the money.

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This riveting Aussie thriller follows the disappearance of an outspoken young female Muslim slam poet.

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I’m happy making small films: ‘Arunoday’ director

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I’m happy making small films: ‘Arunoday’ director

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https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/im-happy-making-small-films-arunoday-director/

Filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta's Marathi film "Arunoday" says he is happy making small films as they give him a lot of control.

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'Let the Wind Blow' director Partho Sen-Gupta returns with a timely story revolving around child abduction anchored by a standout performance from Adil Hussain

BY ELIZABETH KERR

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‘Let the Wind Blow’ director Partho Sen-Gupta returns with a timely story revolving around child abduction anchored by a standout performance from Adil Hussain

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Sunrise [2014] Review: A Familiar Tale of Child Abduction Hinged between Reality and Fantasy

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Sunrise [2014] Review: A Familiar Tale of Child Abduction Hinged between Reality and Fantasy

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Partho Sen-Gupta, famous for his award-winning debut “Let the Wind Go”, poignantly captures this harrowing in-betweenness in his film, Sunrise (Arunadoy) (2014) – an otherwise familiar tale of child abduction – facilitated by Adil Hussain’s spellbinding performance.

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Sunrise [2014] Review: A Familiar Tale of Child Abduction Hinged between Reality and Fantasy

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Arunadoy, or Sunrise (2014), by Partho Sen-Gupta, is a kaleidoscope of fantasy that plays out on an unending rainy night, beautifully captured

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Slam est l’histoire d’un emballement médiatique qui bouleverse la vie paisible de Ricky, un jeune Australien d’origine palestinienne. Lorsque sa sœur Amena disparaît, elle est très rapidement suspectée d’avoir rejoint l’État islamique en Syrie. Qui doit-il croire lorsque le doute et la suspicion s’immiscent ? Son intuition ou les médias ?

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Synopsis : Slam est l’histoire d’un emballement médiatique qui bouleverse la vie paisible de Ricky, un jeune Australien d’origine palestinienne. Lorsque sa sœur Amena disparaît, elle est très rapid…

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Let the Wind Blow - Hava aney dey (2004)

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Let the Wind Blow - Hava aney dey (2004)

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Exploring the life within several social strata of Mumbai, this film stands as one of the strongest cinematic stories within India’s new production.

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Exploring life within several social strata of Mumbai, this film stands as one of the strongest cinematic stories within India’s contemporary producti

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Partho Sen-Gupta was born in Mumbai, India. He started his career as an apprentice in the art department in the studios of Bollywood at the age of 17. His new feature film Sunrise (Arunoday), an Indo-French coproduction with Adil Hussain and Tannishtha Chatterjee, is showing at DIFF 2014, and was selected at the 19th Busan International film festival in the New Currents Competition section.

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Partho Sen-Gupta was born in Mumbai, India. He started his career as an apprentice in the art department in the studios of Bollywood at the age of 17. His new feature film Sunrise (Arunoday), an Indo-French coproduction with Adil Hussain and Tannishtha Chatterjee, is showing at DIFF 2014, and was se

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INTERVIEW: PARTHO SEN-GUPTA ON SLAM - Roffa Mon Amour

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INTERVIEW: PARTHO SEN-GUPTA ON SLAM - Roffa Mon Amour

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While interviewing Partho on his third feature film, he expresses his appreciation for selecting his most recent film Slam (2018). Why? We wonder. We are the ones who should be grateful he made this film and we are very happy to be able to add it to our special program Activism Now!
But somehow Slam (2018) is not being selected in European festivals. And that’s strange, because it was one of the rare films that was both selected for Cinemart – IFFR’s co-production market – and after, also for Berlin’s co-production market. Producers and its financing was found easily and the story didn’t change since, but both festivals didn’t select the end-result. How is that possible?

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While interviewing Partho on his third feature film, he expresses his appreciation for selecting his most recent film Slam (2018). Why? We wonder. We are the ones who should be grateful he made this film and we are very happy to be able to add it to our special program Activism Now!
But somehow Slam (2018) is not being selected in European festivals. And that's strange, because it was one of the rare films that was both selected for Cinemart - IFFR's co-production market - and after, also for Berlin's co-production market. Producers and its financing was found easily and the story didn't change since, but both festivals didn't select the end-result. How is that possible? [Partho] I think that there is a serious problem of inherent Islamophobia that exists in people's minds. I mean, one can see the way things are going with the European elections. And I think that's a serious problem. I can't give it any other explanation. Slam was a French co-production but the film has no distributor in France. When I spoke with the distributor who did Sunrise (2014) - a Muslim Tunisian woman - she said she liked the film but the rest of the office was against the film. That's an almost violent reaction. They didn't say: "We don't like the film", but "We hate the film. We are against it."

[RMA] But it's also a really strong emotion you evoke with your film. Don't get me wrong, but I think Slam makes a more impression on a younger audience. That's why it's a perfect fit with our festival. I believe our audience will be blown away by the film and moreover learn from it.

[Partho] That's exactly on my mind; I think that it's an age thing. The older generation is ruling the festivals in the world; I'm very excited to see how young people react to this.

[RMA] Maybe young people can emphasize more easily with the character whereas the (white) older generation, might be offended by the way you, for example, depict white men.

[Partho] That's right; I think that's the problem. In Europe we always want to relate racism to Nazis or skinheads, the extreme. But what I wanted to show was that there is an inherent racism in our society and that this everyday racism happens all the time and that that guy is not always a Nazi. I wanted to make a film about violence, not just about racism.

[RMA] Sometimes watching something is more confronting than when you read on paper.

[Partho] I think in retrospect that in their minds, they still thought that it was a film about radicalization. I don't think they realized what I was trying to say. They didn't see that whiteness was being accused of something.
Most liberals believe that they're on our sides. And if you accuse them then they get really angry: "Oh, how dare you tell me". But I'm not accusing anyone; I'm just saying this is how it exists. This is how it gets constructed. It's about the everyday little things that happen, that make this work. There is violence, there are assholes everywhere, and there are extremists everywhere. You can't just blame a whole community for that. You can't blame every young woman who's walking on the road in the hijab as being part of some kind of Islamic Republic. As I can't blame every white person I meet on the street to be some kind of Nazi. It doesn't work like that.

[RMA] Compared to Sunrise where you had very little dialogue to explain what's happening, Slam is an audience-friendly and dialogue-driven film.

[Partho] I was asked to make it more accessible, by the French and Australian producers. But it was not only that. This film got the Slam gives a voice to a group of people that has never been depicted in cinema before. Look at what just happened in Cannes! The Dardenne Brothers were selected with a film [ Le Jeune Ahmed (2019) Prix de la mise en scéne - the Best Director Award! Though they got terrible reviews, and everyone says: there is no explanation on why is this little boy suddenly gets radicalized. There is NO explanation given by the brothers. It's the hatred: you're born like that and there's no way out. ] about a small kid that radicalizes. I haven't seen the film yet, but what I read from the reviews is that there is no explanation on why the child gets radicalized.

[RMA] Did you base Slam on some actual events or the several stories that you hear all the time?

[Partho] Yes and no. I did not base it on anything that happened, but unfortunately things are happening which are based on the film.
When I just arrived in Australia I went to a poetry slam in Western Sydney where I shot the film. Western Sydney, Bankstown is a suburb, which has the largest Muslim population. There is an art center, where they hold a poetry slam. 80 percent of the poets are Muslim poets, mainly Muslim women poets.
I watched a section and there was a woman in a hijab who came and started saying these crazy, strong words and I was really impressed. The image that the media gives you about hijabi women is that they're weak and it's all about the men and they have no voice and I was like: wow, this is really a contrast. Visually and cinematographically it was inspiring and I realized: I have to do something - I don't know what - but I have to do something. And I said: what happens if she disappears tonight? That experience was the beginning of the story and how I started writing years ago.

Interview by: Charlotte Van Zanten

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interview: partho sen-gupta on slam - Roffa Mon Amour

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While interviewing Partho on his third feature film, he expresses his appreciation for selecting his most recent film Slam (2018). Why? We wonder. We are the ones who should be grateful he made this film and we are very happy to be able to add it to our special program Activism Now!

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David Stratton on a life reviewing films – and the one TV show he thinks is ‘pretty damn good’

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David Stratton on a life reviewing films – and the one TV show he thinks is ‘pretty damn good’

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These include, among many others, Partho Sen-Gupta’s portrait of a Palestinian Australian slam poet, Slam (“convincing and enthralling”), and Serhat Caradee’s dialogue-heavy Sydney-set drama A Lion Returns(“hermetic and potent”). This is Stratton’s sixth book, including two others on Australian cinema: 1980’s The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, and 1990’s The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry.

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David Stratton on a life reviewing films – and the one TV show he thinks is ‘pretty damn good’

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The 85-year-old critic has finished his huge history of Australian cinema from 1990 to 2020 – which involved rewatching 650 films. So which beloved classic has he changed his mind about?

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INTERVIEW PARTHO SEN-GUPTA ON SUNRISE - Roffa Mon Amour 2015

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INTERVIEW PARTHO SEN-GUPTA ON SUNRISE - Roffa Mon Amour 2015

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Friday July 24th we screen Sunrise, the psychedelic second feature film of Partho Sen-Gupta. Patho grew up in Mumbai, where he started working in the Bollywood studio’s at the age of sixteen. He received a scholarship to study at the prestigious film school La Fémis. Ever since, he has been living all around the world. In April Sunrise won the prestigious The Black Tulip Award at Imagine Film Festival. We interviewed Patho about the making of his second feature film, his struggles and ideals.

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RMA 2015 interview Partho Sen-Gupta on Sunrise - Roffa Mon Amour

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Friday July 24th we screen Sunrise, the psychedelic second feature film of Partho Sen-Gupta. Patho grew up in Mumbai, where he started working in the Bollywood studio’s at the age of sixteen. He received a scholarship to study at the prestigious film school La Fémis. Ever since, he has been living all around the world. […]

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Sunrise – An Interview with Director Partho Sen-Gupta and Actor Adil Hussain

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Sunrise – An Interview with Director Partho Sen-Gupta and Actor Adil Hussain

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Partho Sen-Gupta’s Sunrise is a debilitating portrait of man struggling to cope with the loss of his child. Relying mostly on non-verbal cues, the film has a unique raw emotional power that would’ve otherwise been lost in dialogue. Virat Nehru caught up with the film’s director Partho Sen-Gupta and actor Adil Hussain, who plays the leading protagonist in the film for a sprawling, discursive discussion about the changing nature of cinema and the intricacy of the relationship between a film-maker, actor and the audience. You can read our review of Sunrise here.

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Sunrise – An Interview with Director Partho Sen-Gupta and Actor Adil Hussain

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We spoke to director Partho Sen-Gupta and actor Adil Hussain about their striking film SUNRISE, which had its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival.

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June 6, 2015 By Conor Bateman

Modern neo-noir from India seems to have been defined by the work of Anurag Kashyap, with his script for Satya (1998) seen as the beginning of “Mumbai noir” movement, which he furthered in his own dark forays into the world of crime as noir, in particular No Smoking and Ugly.¹ A film he produced in 2013, Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout, would seem the clearest reference point for Partho Sen-Gupta’s Sunrise, a similarly nihilistic look at the obsession of the chase set against the backdrop of a torrential downpour. Where Kumar’s film borrowed from the Run Lola Run playbook, though, Sen-Gupta shirks all expectations of genre and influence after the first fifteen minutes; his sophomoric feature morphs into a unique and enigmatic look at grief, framed by a searing use of light and colour and anchored to an effective obfuscated narrative.

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Partho Sen-Gupta’s pseudo-noir is a bleak look at child abduction in India that plays out like a fever dream in which the truth is obscured but the tonal intent is unmistakable.

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After the psychological thrills of Mumbai-set drama Sunrise (MIFF 2015), Partho Sen-Gupta returns with a raw look at racial divisions in Sydney’s western suburbs.

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After the psychological thrills of Mumbai-set drama Sunrise (MIFF 2015), Partho Sen-Gupta returns with a raw look at racial divisions in Sydney’s western suburbs.

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https://www.thehansindia.com/posts/index/Cinema/2016-03-01/Partho-Sen-Gupta-s-Sunrise-Review/210741

Director Partho Sen-Gupta whose film Sunrise opened to great reviews at Film Festivals talks about his film, working with Bijon Das Gupta, studying at Paris film institute, being tongue-tied at Berlin after his first film’s screening and crowd funding for this film.

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Director Partho Sen-Gupta whose film Sunrise opened to great reviews at Film Festivals talks about his film, working with Bijon Das Gupta, studying at Paris film institute, being tongue-tied at…

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Review: SUNRISE, Breathless Film Noir, Burning With Anger and Bursting With Style

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Review: SUNRISE, Breathless Film Noir, Burning With Anger and Bursting With Style

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Indian cinema provides another jolt of electricity to the thriller genre with Sunrise, a tight, punchy neo-noir about child trafficking in Mumbai. Taking place at night, frequently under heavy rain and driven forward by a pulsating minimalist electro score, the sophomore feature of Partho Sen-Gupta comes fully stocked in the style department yet never loses sight of its narrative core, that of a detective haunted by the abduction of his daughter.

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Review: SUNRISE, Breathless Film Noir, Burning With Anger and Bursting With Style

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Indian cinema provides another jolt of electricity to the thriller genre with Sunrise, a tight, punchy neo-noir about child trafficking in Mumbai. Taking place at night, frequently under heavy rain and driven forward by a pulsating minimalist electro score, the…

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RACISM AND RESISTANCE IN PARTHO SEN-GUPTA’S SLAM

Ostensibly a film about a missing female poet, Slam unfolds into a saga about duty, grief and the need to stand up for one’s culture, religion and sense of self. Writer/director Partho Sen-Gupta speaks to Stephen A Russell about deconstructing preconceived notions about Muslim women and masculinity, and dismantling systems that uphold prejudice and disadvantage.

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Founded in 1964, Metro is Australia’s oldest film and media periodical. The magazine embraces the tradition of the essay, immersing the reader in well-informed, analytical and thought-provoking discussion.

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A key question for me from Partho Sen-Gupta’s second feature film, Sunrise, which played as part of the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival, is how does one make a gripping crime film out of a pervasive social problem like child trafficking? If this was indeed Sen-Gupta’s intention, I’m not sure he has entirely succeeded. That said, there is a lot to recommend it.

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A key question for me from Partho Sen-Gupta's second feature film, Sunrise, which played as part of the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival, is how does one make a gripping crime film out of a pervasive social problem like child trafficking? If this was indeed Sen-Gupta's intention, I'm not sure he has entirely succeeded. That said, there is a lot to recommend it.

The narrative spine of Sunrise is fairly straightforward. Joshi is middle aged Inspector working in a poorly resourced unit of the Mumbai police. His life has been in tatters ever since a person or persons unknown kidnapped his young daughter, Aruna, in front of her school years ago. The crime has destroyed his wife's sanity and threatens to do the same to him. Compounding his trauma is the fact that the unit he works in deals with other parents who have had similar experiences. Joshi and his colleagues are largely unable to help these people, usually because their resources and methods are no match for those of the criminals responsible for the disappearances.

Joshi spends his nights obsessively searching for Aruna. He thinks he sees her everywhere. One night he stumbles out of the torrential monsoon rain into a nightclub called Paradise. Through the crowd Joshi spies Aruna amongst a group of young girls dancing on stage. Is it Aruna or have Joshi's reality and his dreams merged until he can't tell the difference?

Interspersed with Joshi's story are scenes told from the perspective of the girls from the Paradise club. They live as prisoners in a small apartment and are allowed out only to work at the club where they are frequently sexually and physically abused. The older girl who may or may not be Joshi's daughter is a leader of sorts and befriends the newest arrival, a very young girl.

The only trace of a sunrise in this entire film is in Joshi's imagination. Virtually the entire story takes place at night amid continuous rain. This was not the director's original intent but occurred when delays pushed the shooting schedule back into the monsoon season. Whatever the case, it works in creating a hellishly bleak noir atmosphere.

The central narrative, a man looking for a child that for whatever reason has disappeared, is a powerful if not especially original trope. It has featured in numerous films, including John Ford's 1956 classic, The Searchers, Paul Schrader's Hardcore (1979) and more recently Taken (2008), just to name a few that spring to mind.

While the basic plot of Sunrise may feel predictable, it also mirrors aspects of reality. According to a statement on the screen at the end of the film, a hundred thousand children go missing in India each year. As a young child in India, the now Sydney based director nearly became one of them when he was the victim of unsuccessful kidnap attempt.

Indeed, the film could have been set in a number of countries in Asia and other parts of the world, something Sen-Gupta emphasises by making Mumbai anonymous and not sign posting any of its major sites. The performances of the young girls from the Paradise club feel a bit wooden but their interactions in their apartment cum prison reek of authenticity. The Paradise club is a cliché but places like it exist.

Sunrise is a terrifically atmospheric film with a somewhat obvious plot that does not entirely work. But, as I started this review by asking, is it possible to make an entertaining neo noir crime film that is both engaging and entertaining, if such a topic can be, as well as a serious story? How does a genre film make sense of this reality and depict on the screen in a way that avoids being either didactic or sensationalist?

I don't know what the answers are. The best compliment I can pay to Sunrise, and a reason why it is worth seeing, is that it is still very much on my mind the day after and, I suspect, will be for some time.

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A key question for me from Partho Sen-Gupta's second feature film, Sunrise, which played as part of the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival, is how does one make a gripping crime film out of a pervasive social problem like child trafficking? If this was indeed Sen-Gupta's intention, I'm not sure he has entirely succeeded.

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Sunrise / Arunoday (Dir. Partho Sen-Gupta, 2014, France/India) - Review

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Sunrise / Arunoday (Dir. Partho Sen-Gupta, 2014, France/India) - Review

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Director Partho Sen-Gupta talks about the oneirophrenic space, a space that is both hallucinatory and metaphysical, realised in his latest film Sunrise with an audio-visual clarity, hauntingly rendering grief as eternal. I can’t remember the last time I saw a film that used rain with such cinematic dexterity, enveloping the screen as not only an elemental motif, but also articulating apocryphal convulsions, pointing to a depravity with which no one can contest.

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Sunrise / Arunoday (Dir. Partho Sen-Gupta, 2014, France/India)

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Director Partho Sen-Gupta talks about the oneirophrenic space, a space that is both hallucinatory and metaphysical, realised in his latest film Sunrise with an audio-visual clarity, hauntingly rend…

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Feature Film Screening: "Let the Wind Blow" Directed by Partho Sen Gupta in NYC

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Feature Film Screening: "Let the Wind Blow" Directed by Partho Sen Gupta in NYC

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Wed 04 Mar 2009

2 - 3:45 p.m.

725 Park Avenue, New York, NY

At the height of nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan, Arjun and his best friend, Chabia, weigh their options for the future against the reality of life on the streets of Mumbai. Enticed by the promise of wealth and opportunity in the Persian Gulf, Chabia is eager to leave his job as a mechanic. But for Arjun, who must finish college and care for his mother, the decision is not so easy in director Partho Sen-Gupta's gritty, apocalyptic interpretation of Krishna's counsel to Arjuna, from the Bhagavad Gita. Cosponsored by Global Film Initiative

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Feature Film Screening: “Let the Wind Blow” Directed by Partho Sen Gupta/India/2004/93 min.

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At the height of nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan, Arjun and his best friend, Chabia, weigh their options for the future against the reality of life on the streets of Mumbai.

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Partho Sen-Gupta, Film Director: Bombay mix

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Partho Sen-Gupta, Film Director: Bombay mix

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Partho Sen-Gupta, Film Director: Bombay mix - News & insight - Cambridge Judge Business School

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Partho Sen-Gupta, Director of Hava Aney Dey (“Let the Wind Blow”), talks about the new frontiers facing the Indian film industry as …

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Partho Sen Gupta I Sunrise / Arunoday I Filmmakers Speak I MFF 2014

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Partho Sen Gupta I Sunrise / Arunoday I Filmmakers Speak I MFF 2014

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Partho Sen Gupta I Sunrise / Arunoday I Filmmakers Speak I MFF 2014

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Sunrise (2016) - Partho Sen-Gupta - Rowe Reviews

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Sunrise (2016) - Partho Sen-Gupta - Rowe Reviews

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Partho Sen-Gupta's Sunrise is a nightmarish, psychological thriller centered around officer Lakshman Joshi, a man who sees his dark past converge with his current reality over the dark, rain-soaked urban streets of Mumbai.  Challenging the viewer from the onset, Partho Sen-Gupta's Sunrise takes on a minimalist storytelling approach, being intentional vague on what exactly is going on around this Inspector Joshi, forcing the viewer to soak in this dark, noir-tinged environment.

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Partho Sen-Gupta’s Sunrise is a nightmarish, psychological thriller centered around officer Lakshman Joshi, a man who sees his dark past converge with his current reality over the dark, rain-soaked…

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Selected at the 2015 Tribeca film Festival | Check out ‘SUNRISE - Arunoday’ on Indiegogo.

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Review: ‘Sunrise,’ a gritty tour through the mind of a grief-stricken Mumbai cop

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Review: ‘Sunrise,’ a gritty tour through the mind of a grief-stricken Mumbai cop

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“Sunrise,” the portrait of a grief-shattered Mumbai cop, takes place almost entirely at night, on streets drenched in monsoon rains. Fantasy and reality bleed into each other, the lurid cityscape inseparable from anguish in a story that revolves around the horror of child trafficking.

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Review: ‘Sunrise,’ a gritty tour through the mind of a grief-stricken Mumbai cop

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“Sunrise,” the portrait of a grief-shattered Mumbai cop, takes place almost entirely at night, on streets drenched in monsoon rains.

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Et si Adil Hussain est parfait en policier perdu dans un labyrinthe abstrait, la réalisation de Partho Sen-Gupta est la vraie révélation de ce film sombre et oppressant, qui nous prouve qu’on peut encore trouver des manières de filmer une longue nuit pluvieuse au cinéma.

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Benoît Delépine et Gustave...

Ickerman, de la S.F. qui...

Comment évoquer au cinéma les violences faites aux mineurs et notamment l'exploitation sexuelle sans rapidement sombrer dans le racolage ? On se souvient par exemple d'un choix de mise en scène discutable opéré par Anurag Kashyap, dans le par ailleurs intéressant Ugly. Pour son deuxième film, Partho Sen-Gupta choisit les voies de l'onirisme et de la suggestion. Soit Joshi, inspecteur de police à Bombay, qui ne parvient pas à se remettre de la disparition de sa fille, Aruna, enlevée dix ans plus tôt. Une nuit, aiguillé par une ombre, il se rend dans le Paradise, un bar où des enfants dansent devant un public d'adultes. Et c'est l'ombre déformée, motif du cinéma expressionniste ou du film noir, qui devient l'image récurrente du film et l'insaisissable ennemi de Joshi. C'est une des belles idées de mise en scène de ce film construit comme un cauchemar. Car la quête du policier, déconstruite et répétitive, a tout du mauvais rêve, lent et suffoquant, dont il semble impossible de s'échapper. Et si Adil Hussain est parfait en policier perdu dans un labyrinthe abstrait, la réalisation de Partho Sen-Gupta est la vraie révélation de ce film sombre et oppressant, qui nous prouve qu'on peut encore trouver des manières de filmer une longue nuit pluvieuse au cinéma.

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Critique : Sunrise - BANDE A PART, magazine de cinéma

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Sunrise : comment évoquer au cinéma les violences faites aux mineurs et notamment l'exploitation sexuelle sans rapidement sombrer dans le racolage ?

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Chasing shadows - Sunrise REVIEW BFI LONDON

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Chasing shadows - Sunrise REVIEW BFI LONDON

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A police detective investigating the abduction of a number of local girls is still tortured by the loss of his own daughter ten years earlier in director Partho Sen-Gupta's gripping neo-noir SUNRISE, which had its first UK screening at this year's London Film Festival. Slarek takes a walk in the rain-drenched streets of Mumbai.

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Sunrise London Film Festival review | Cine Outsider

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In a rain-drenched corner of Mumbai, a man wakes and surveys his surroundings. It quickly becomes evident that he’s in a provincial police station, but it takes a little longer to establish that he is not a suspect but Inspector Joshi, one of the station’s resident officers. Has he been dreaming or recalling a past case? Maybe both. The opening shot showed him playing with a baby, but it is later revealed that the six-year-old daughter that this child grew into was kidnapped in front of her school ten years earlier and Joshi has had no news of her since. The loss continues to haunt him and has driven his wife to the edge of madness, locking her in a past time when she was able to boast that her daughter was the smartest girl in class. It emerges that this was not an isolated case and that girls are continuing to disappear and occasionally turn up dead. When one desperate mother pleads with Joshi and hands him a photo of her missing daughter, her desperation strikes a nerve. But the investigation is going nowhere, save for a possible link to a sleazy nightclub named Paradise that Joshi may or may not have at one time visited.

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Freitag, 16.10.2015 – 19 Uhr, Breitwand Herrsching, Luitpoldstr. 5 (5 Min. vom S-Bahnhof)

Sunrise – Arunoday

Indien/Frankreich, 2014, 85 Min., Regie: Partho Sen-Gupta

Der titelgebende Sonnenaufgang bleibt aus. „Sunrise“ ist ein waschechter Nachtfilm, mehr noch: einer der ersten indischen Neo-Noirs. Finsternis, Schatten und Low-Key-Beleuchtung schaffen dabei aber nicht nur eine atmosphärische Grundierung. Sie sind der mentale Stoff einer Erzählung, die sich tief in die verschiedenen Wahrnehmungsschichten einer beschädigten Seele eingräbt.

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Film: Sunrise – Arunoday | Indienhilfe e.V. Herrsching

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Freitag, 16.10.2015 – 19 Uhr, Breitwand Herrsching, Luitpoldstr. 5 (5 Min. vom S-Bahnhof)

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Es gibt Dinge im Leben, die verwindet der Mensch nicht. Der Verlust eines Kindes gehört dazu. In Indien verschwinden nach offiziellen Angaben über 100.000 Kinder pro Jahr. Sie werden von Kriminellen verschleppt oder aus Geldmangel von den eigenen Eltern verkauft. Die meisten landen in der Prostitution oder enden als Arbeitssklaven. Nur ein Bruchteil von ihnen taucht jemals wieder auf. Der indische Regisseur Partho Sen-Gupta wurde in seiner Kindheit selbst Opfer eines gescheiterten Entführungsversuches. Sein so brillianter wie düsterer Film SUNRISE ist eine eindringliche Anklage gegen die Brutalität und Gleichgültigkeit der indischen Gesellschaft.

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PLAYERWEB Filmkritik zu SUNRISE: Ein Vater auf der Suche in den Abgründen eines Molochs.

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‘Sunrise’ Movie Review – tackles the issue of India’s missing children

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‘Sunrise’ Movie Review – tackles the issue of India’s missing children

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Partho Sen-Gupta is part of a rising movement within India of independent, politically minded filmmakers. More than anything else, Sunrise shows the promise of an artist with a great eye and a strong sense of the now. The politics of Sunrise don’t outweigh the story, and perhaps most importantly, don’t condescend to the audience.

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‘Sunrise’ Movie Review - tackles the issue of India’s missing children

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The despair of loss weighs down Joshi in Sunrise. Joshi works as an agent in the social services of a Mumbai police station. He handles reports of lost and trafficked children, rarely able to effect any meaningful change. After fruitless days at work, he returns to his dark apartment and his heartbroken wife, who cannot accept the loss of their grade school daughter. A strange shadow figure haunts Joshi, leading him night after night to a strange club called ‘Paradise’.

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Critics Pick the Best Movies at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

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Critics Pick the Best Movies at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

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Critics Pick the Best Movies at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

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Critics Pick the Best Movies at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

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Critics Pick the Best Movies at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival

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Sunrise is a bravura work of auteurist cinema. Sen-Gupta and cinematographer Jean-Marc Ferriere give the film a striking look, using the lurid Giallo color palate and the traditional nocturnal neons of film noir. Highly recommended for fans of high-end mind-benders with a social purpose, Sunrise screens again tonight (4/22) and tomorrow (4/23), as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

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If Andrew Vachss made a Giallo in Mumbai, you would have to give it your full attention. Arguably, India could use a child protection adv…

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Though it’s not a documentary, Sunrise is a strong, memorable film. The film sounds a like a typical thriller or police procedural: a police inspector, Joshi (Adil Hussain), is haunted by the kidnapping of his young daughter years ago but realizes he may be close to finding her when he stumbles upon a strange nightclub where young girls, barely in their teens, if that, dance for money. However, viewers who take the plunge will find themselves in a world that’s less an Indian Cold Case or Law & Order and more David Lynch.

There are eerie sequences where director Partho Sen-Gupta blurs the line between reality and dream—or, more accurately, nightmare. And that’s what makes Sunrise so compelling: it’s never precisely clear what is and isn’t real. There are scenes involving the girls who work at this nightclub and the harsh older woman who pimps them out, which have a realistic, almost gritty flavor. Yet many other moments, especially where Joshi finds himself stalking an unseen shadowy figure, where viewers will wonder what’s what, much like Lynch’s cult classic Mulholland Drive.

As with a dream, what’s most important here are less the events and the plot—they’re nebulous—and more the emotions, the feelings of loss and remorse, of wanting to relive and redo the past, that Sunrise evokes. It’s an odd film but a potent one.

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For many documentaries, a strong subject matter is the main draw. Granted, directorial choices are crucial, but compelling interviewees or a topic that resonates with the public can help a film truly soar. The best of these films do just that, from a film about a father working to exonerate his son to a work

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Sunrise (2014) – An Intensely Real Story That Veers Into Fantasy

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Sunrise (2014) – An Intensely Real Story That Veers Into Fantasy

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Sunrise (2014) – An Intensely Real Story That Veers Into Fantasy

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This is a little treasure of a movie I found on Netflix (Nordic). I am so glad that I watched it because it was worth it. I should say that this is a Marathi film, for those who think it is Hindi o…

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Global Lens film series continues with Indian drama Let the Wind Blow

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Global Lens film series continues with Indian drama Let the Wind Blow

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Global Lens film series continues with Indian drama Let the Wind Blow

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This week’s installment in the Global Lens Film Series is “Let the Wind Blow” (2004), director Partho Sen-Gupta’s gritty, apocalyptic interpretation of a story from the Bhagavad Gita.

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Global Film Initiative announced films for 2008 Global Lens series

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Global Film Initiative announced films for 2008 Global Lens series

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Global Film Initiative announced films for 2008 Global Lens series

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Award-winning films from Argentina, China, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Philippines and South Africa will headline the Global Film Initiative’s Global Lens 2008 film series.‘The films selected for Global Lens 2008 are beautiful, powerful stories that represent the best of cinema from around the world,’ Global Film Initiative chair of…

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Ten Titles Mark Global Film Initiative’s ’08 Roster

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Ten Titles Mark Global Film Initiative’s ’08 Roster

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iW NEWS | Ten Titles Mark Global Film Initiative’s ’08 Roster

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iW NEWS | Ten Titles Mark Global Film Initiative’s ’08 Roster

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MoMA PRESENTS GLOBAL LENS, 2008, THE FIFTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION

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MoMA PRESENTS GLOBAL LENS, 2008, THE FIFTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION

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OF CINEMA FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

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Feature Film Screening: “Let the Wind Blow” Directed by Partho Sen Gupta/India/2004/93 min.

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Feature Film Screening: “Let the Wind Blow” Directed by Partho Sen Gupta/India/2004/93 min.

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Feature Film Screening: “Let the Wind Blow” Directed by Partho Sen Gupta/India/2004/93 min.

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At the height of nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan, Arjun and his best friend, Chabia, weigh their options for the future against the reality of life on the streets of Mumbai.

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Let the Wind Blow (Hava Aney Dey) screening at the Walker Centre 2008

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Let the Wind Blow (Hava Aney Dey) screening at the Walker Centre 2008

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At the height of nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan, two friends weigh their options for the future against the reality of life on the streets of Mumbai. Enticed by the promise of wealth and opportunity in the Persian Gulf, one boy is eager to leave his job as a mechanic. But for the other, who must finish college and care for his mother, the decision is not so easy in director Partho Sen-Gupta’s gritty, apocalyptic interpretation of Krishna’s counsel to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. 2004, India, in Hindi and English with English subtitles, 93 minutes.

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Let The Wind Blow, directed by Partho Sen Gupta, received a special mention.

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Let The Wind Blow, directed by Partho Sen Gupta, received a special mention.

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Zhu’s Clouds scoops Hong Kong festival prizes

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Chinese director Zhu Wen’s South Of The Clouds scooped two prizes at the awards gala of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 6-21) on Thursday night - the Golden Firebird Award and the award of the FIPRESCI jury.The film, about a retired factory worker who takes off for one…

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Slam Review (first published by EyeforFilm)

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Slam Review (first published by EyeforFilm)

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After once more venting her feminist, anti-colonialist, anti-racist anger onstage in an elegantly constructed tirade of words (in fact penned by spoken-word artist/activist Candy Royalle, who has since passed away), Syrian-Australian slam poet Ameena Nasser (Danielle Horvat) vanishes.

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In Partho Sen-Gupta’s inflammatory SLAM, the disappearance of a second-generation Australian raises questions of identity and assimilation for her brother

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The London Australian Film Society is proud to present – direct from the Sydney Film Festival – the UK premiere of Partho Sen-Gupta’s Slam (2018), an extraordinary mystery drama about family, identity, and Islamophobia in Australia.

The comfortable life of Sydney café owner and Muslim refugee Ricky (Adam Bakri) is thrown into chaos when his estranged sister Ameena (Danielle Horvat) – a highly politicised, hijab-wearing slam poet – goes missing after a performance. As the search for Ameena intensifies, Ricky is forced to re-evaluate his own identity, whilst doing battle with a right-wing media intent on framing his family as extremists.

Stunningly shot, this complex examination of race and identity in contemporary Australia is aided by a superb ensemble cast led by Rachael Blake (Lantana, Sleeping Beauty). A tough but honest look at the harsh realities of a ‘multicultural’ nation, this gripping drama invests a necessary complexity in its depiction of Australia’s own ‘hostile environment’.

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Menzies screening: SLAM | King’s College London

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We invite you to the screening of SLAM – an extraordinary mystery drama about family, identity, and Islamophobia in Australia.

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Moving Politics. Cinemas from India - Goldsmiths Research Online

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On the occasion of the exhibition, “Being Singular Plural: Moving Images from India” at the Deutsche Guggenheim, we will present the film and discussion series, “Moving Politics – Cinemas from India”, curated by Dorothee Wenner and Nicole Wolf. Three program blocks with a selection of recent feature and documentary films as well as several classics of Indian film history will give an impression of the diversity with which (film) policies are made in India. At issue are the visual vocabularies of power, the subtle forms with which traditional conditions are on the one hand reinforced and on the other called in question in cinema. Not only ostensibly political films unfold a large scope in this respect. At least from a Western point of view, politics in Indian mainstream cinema at times appears in a quite exotic guise. Independent feature film and documentaries also reflect their time of origin, the production conditions and habits of reception, and come up with peculiar forms of politics and cinematography. The first program block (June 27 to 30)—“Action/Bewegungen”—questions how a sense of belonging is negotiated. How do political collectives become established beyond the state and political parties? Are they a response to draconic interventions into civil rights or a part of them? The state of emergency under Indira Gandhi not only contributed to the urgency of the emerging student and workers movements, and a bit later a varied women’s liberation movement, it also counted as the dawn of independent political documentary film. At the same time, the capability of filmic-political constellations was continuously revised, newly conceived and translated into the most diverse genres and narrative modes.
At the opening of “Being Singular Plural: Moving Images from India” and in the presence of the artists of the exhibition at the Deutsche Guggenheim—Desire Machine Collective, Shumona Goel, Amar Kanwar, and Kabir Mohanty—we will take up the question posed by Jean Luc Nancy as to “being-in-a-community.” Also present are the filmmakers Paromita Vohra and Partho Sen Gupta, as well as the curator Kaushik Bhaumik. The second part of the film and discussion series under the title “Practices of Belief/Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung,” is dedicated to the influence of religion(s) on Indian cinematography, which can hardly be overrated.
Hinduism is probably the most cinema-compatible of all religions. Bollywood owes its most beautiful scripts to the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and Indian stars may be closer to their gods than any other religion would ever allow. And yet this creative proximity is precisely what also bears enormous dangers, for India is not a Hindu country, even if Hindu fundamentalists vociferously claim so. The third part is dedicated to the theme of “Family Ties” and focuses on the varied relationships between actual family ties and their fictive counterparts in film. For example, the arranged marriage in India, usually oriented toward collective family interests, is by no means a thing of the past — and therefore a constantly ticking, political time bomb posing a threat to individual desires of the heart. At the same time, family relations are being newly conceived — in, with, and outside of cinema.

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Partho Sen-Gupta delivers an intense, must-see neo-noir thriller, featuring towering performances by Adil Hussain and Tannishtha Chatterjee.

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RMA 2015 interview Partho Sen-Gupta on Sunrise - Roffa Mon Amour

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RMA 2015 interview Partho Sen-Gupta on Sunrise - Roffa Mon Amour

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Friday July 24th we screen Sunrise, the psychedelic second feature film of Partho Sen-Gupta. Patho grew up in Mumbai, where he started working in the Bollywood studio’s at the age of sixteen. He received a scholarship to study at the prestigious film school La Fémis. Ever since, he has been living all around the world. In April Sunrise won the prestigious The Black Tulip Award at Imagine Film Festival. We interviewed Patho about the making of his second feature film, his struggles and ideals.

This interview is a collaboration between Roffa Mon Amour and film magazine Schokkend Nieuws

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RMA 2015 interview Partho Sen-Gupta on Sunrise - Roffa Mon Amour

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Friday July 24th we screen Sunrise, the psychedelic second feature film of Partho Sen-Gupta. Patho grew up in Mumbai, where he started working in the Bollywood studio’s at the age of sixteen. He received a scholarship to study at the prestigious film school La Fémis. Ever since, he has been living all around the world. […]

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Partho Sen-Gupta: "I want to offer resistance to Bollywood"

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Partho Sen-Gupta: "I want to offer resistance to Bollywood"

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MARCH 2008 -

Four friends in the Bombay suburbs want another life. Their aim is work, love, money and freedom. Their search ends with a big bang: Bombay is struck by a nuclear attack. The screen turns bright white, the story is over. Let the Wind Blow (original title: Hava Aney Dey) played at the Rotterdam film festival in the Hinglish film programme. Hinglish is a mix of English and Hindi, and is often being spoken by Indian youth.

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Four friends in the Bombay suburbs want another life. Their aim is work, love, money and freedom. Their search ends with a big bang: Bombay is struck by a nuclear attack. The screen turns bright white, the story is over. Let the Wind Blow (original title: Hava Aney Dey) played at the Rotterdam film festival in the Hinglish film programme.

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MoMA PRESENTS GLOBAL LENS, 2008, THE FIFTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION

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MoMA PRESENTS GLOBAL LENS, 2008, THE FIFTH ANNUAL EXHIBITION

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OF CINEMA FROM DEVELOPING COUNTRIES