Birmingham Indian Film Festival is back - celebrating its fifth anniversary. The event, which is part of the UK and Europe’s largest South Asian Film Festival, presents a fabulously entertaining and eclectic programme of independent films.
Wolverhampton-born Antonio Aakeel , is best known for his leading film role in the award winning Eaten by Lions for which he was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow by Screen Daily.
He has also appeared in Tomb Raider and the BAFTA award-winning series Three Girls. He returns to the city as an ambassador for the festival.
Every year this festival gets bigger and better, offering a great selection of the finest independent projects. Here is Antonio's top MUST WATCH recommendations at this year's festival, which takes place at various venues around the city.
As a South Asian actor, we seldom see ourselves represented well in mainstream cinema and it is great to be part of something that’s pushing the boundaries of the way our communities are seen on screen.
It is wonderful to see a platform which celebrate depictions of ordinary lives through fiction and documentaries without the stereotyping and the sensationalism.
Birmingham is so diverse and BIFF reflects that diversity, not only on screen but via the audiences too. This festival is not just for the South Asian Community. It is a festival for everyone who enjoys seeing amazing films in some fantastic spaces, that tell wonderful stories, sometimes hard, sometimes feel-good, even comic but always compelling. There really is something for everyone.
Here are my 2019 festival highlights:-
Find full details here.
All screenings with English subtitles.
1) ARTICLE 15
June 21, 7pm, Cineworld
Proceeded by a special red carpet event from 6.30pm, and private reception at Varanasi, the opening film ARTICLE 15 premiers at Cine World, Broad Street.
India’s hottest male star Ayushmann Khurrana plays a police officer from a privileged urban, international, background, whose very first posting is to rural north India, where three teenage girls have gone missing. His honesty does not sit well with the existing, deeply entrenched corrupt system where, in 2019, a 1000-year-old practice where human beings are divided on the basis of caste continues. Beginning as a riveting police procedural that is a True Detective like deep-dive into the Indian bayou, Article 15 soon elevates to a gutsy exposé of a deeply flawed structure.
This will be followed by a live Q+A with director Anubhav Sinha.
2. Widow of Silence
June 22 6pm Cineworld
Popular at the Busan and Rotterdam Film Festivals, Praveen Morchdale’s drama tells of Aasia, a nurse who looks after her young daughter and her sick mother in law. A gripping and soulful film with breathtaking visuals of the Kashmir landscape.
3. Arishadvarga
June 23, 7pm, Cineworld Broad Street
Arishadvarga is a smart and tense neo-noir thriller that will have you guessing who did it till the very end.
4.My Home India
June 25, 6.30, Centrala
Towards the end of WW2 the Polish ambassadorial team in Bombay, dispatched a convoy of food relief thousands of miles to Soviet Siberian labour camps where Polish woman and children were starving. To the British Raj’s surprise they returned with 5,500 women and children who found refuge and welcome in India. Over 70 years later a number of now elderly, Polish people return to a town to the south of Bombay where they were able to find safety and discover the joys of childhood.
This inspirational documentary will have you in tears and have every Indian glowing with pride.
5. Too Desi Too Queer
June 30, 7pm, Medicine Bakery and Gallery
This event includes a dynamic range of recent LGBTQ+ shorts from South Asia and the UK, followed by a panel debate including community empowerment, with some great speakers and the chance to network.
6. Anurag Kashyap - Screen Talk
June 26, 7pm, The Mockingbird
The Martin Scorsese of Indian Film! A rare chance to hear the experiences of India’s most famed cult director. Anurag Kashyap is a unique talent and India’s best-known film maker on the global circuit. His Netflix series Sacred Games was a global smash hit. Known for his outspoken nature, Kashyap pulls no punches on stage and his deeps insights on cinema are valued around the world.
7. Sir
June 24, 6.30, MAC
Following its debut at Cannes this award-winning film features brilliant performances from Tillotama Shome and Vivek Gomber, whose on-screen chemistry sizzles in this charming romance.
8. Bul Bul Can Sing
June 27, 6pm, MAC
Assamese director Rima Das returns to BIFF with this ground-breaking coming of age tale that has swept up prestigious awards at the Berlin, Dublin, Singapore and Mumbai film festivals.
9. Chuskit
June 29, 4pm, The Mockingbird
Based in a true story Chuskit follows the journey of a young girl whose dreams of going to school are cut short following an accident. While her friends start school, she is confined indoors in the company of her strict grandfather. As her battle with her grandfather intensifies, Chuskit’s hopes are crushed but her family decide on a dramatic path of change.
10. Photograph
July 1. 7pm. MAC
The closing film of the festival is Photograph, a 2019 Indian coming-of-age romantic drama film written, co-produced and directed by Ritesh Batra. It stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra in the lead roles. The film follows a street photographer.
Birmingham Indian Film Festival runs from June 21 to July 1.
