It feels good to see that
the Generation section continues to pick up films from India, which
is for sure one of the greatest and most underrated film nations in
the world. Directors of Indian cinema out of Bollywood, if
Independent cinema, the Parallel cinema or the films of the old
masters, they all face a lot of problems. Multiplexes - and even
worse - the disease of streaming channels endanger the diversity of
of cinema in India like in no other country. Despite all these
obstacles, I find each year some Indian films which would honour all
the big Film festivals which neglected this country for decades. That
includes not only the last great masters of Indian cinema like Aparna
Sen but as well talented young filmmaker like Pushpendra Singh or
Rima Das. Akshay Indikar´s second long feature Sthalpuran,
which is bravely selected for the children section, is already for me
one of the most exciting film discoveries of this year´s Berlinale.
It is at the first sight a
“Coming of Age”-story but as well the most daring and exciting
film I ever saw at the children film festival (Generation kplus).
At the beginning a
thunderstorm and city traffic under heavy rain. Later we see the 8
years old protagonist Dighu looking out from a window of a train. The
boy leaves with his mother and his elder sister the big city heading
towards the countryside to the house of the grandparents in the coast
region Konkan. He misses his father and the mother told him he is
“missed” without any trace. The kids questions about his
whereabouts of heir father are never really answered.
The film is structured by
Dighu´s diary records, small and simple sentences which appear like
chapter headings. And for now we have a classic initial situation for
a “Coming of Age”-drama: change, loss and loneliness in facing
one´s own growing up.
Indikar tells this story
elliptically in the way of the great minimalists Yasujiro Ozu or Hou
hsiao Hsien. The “drama” is hidden in every day rituals: school,
doing home works, strolling around in this breathtaking landscape.
There is a sentence from
Dighu while just warned by his sister not to hang behind on the way
to school: “I like the road to school much more than the school.”
The strange beauty of this film is here quite well described. And
strolling around through this film composed of poetic every day
observations is an encouragement to discover the film from the point
of view of Dighu – or even the 8 years old child we once were.
Dighu´s perspective
between dealing with loss and change and his dreamy strolling around
through the landscape is a movement, the film converts with a nearly
uncanny precision for the spectator. Despite – or probably even
because – the fact the film takes place in a part of the world
totally strange to me – it transfers me back in a far distant
childhood. Each shot, each landscape, each action appears as a
wonder.
The grandfather explains
Dighu how a clock is working and how time is measured. A seemingly
simple moment but with the poetry of an Ozu.
The “Coming of Age”
element is imbedded in landscapes and every day situations. Sometimes
there is only the weather. A mighty thunderstorm which darkens the
sky and emphasized the fleetingness of human life but also the light
which makes all things visible in the world but also on the big
screen.
Sthalpuran is a
film which moves between two extreme poles, a certain minimalism but
often moments of almost psychedelic beauty.
There are a lot of long
shots and the boy seems lost in the mighty landscape, the rice
fields, the forest or the beach of the sea. These images have
sometimes the power of the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich. When
we see Dighu walking on one of the roads or paths in one of the
extreme long shots, the camera records with patience his way in long
sequences. It seems literally as a piece of space time of a young
human life. Sometimes concrete forms and shapes turn into abstract
light and colour forms and the film turns into a Laterna Magica.
Sthalpuran is like
my last year´s attraction of an Indian film, Bulbul can sing
by Rima Das quite a cinematic journey. Indikar´s film is full of
breathtaking formal ideas. The images sometimes move amazing
landscape images which emphasize the illusion of spacial depth and
sometimes, like in a school scene where the sight is literally
blocked by a big blackboard, the film reveals the natural flatness of
the cinematic image. Sthalpuran is on one hand a very
sophisticated meditation about the possibilities of cinema (in this
case I mean the mighty big screen) and on the other hand it evokes in
me the amazement of a child which is just discovering the world
around. And by the way – Sthalpuran is as well with
Pushpendra Singh´s Ashwatthama and Anjan Dutta´s Dutta
Vs. Dutta one of the autobiographical inspired masterpieces of
the more recent Indian cinema.
Sthalpuran by young
director Akshay Indikar is not only an exciting discovery of a new
great talent of world cinema, it is also a beautiful and respectful
gift for the 125th. Anniversary of cinema.
Rüdiger Tomczak
Screenings:
Thurs, 27.Feb, 10.00
Urania
Fri, 28.Feb, 11.00, Cubix
8
Sat, 29.Feb, 9.30
Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
