E-Paper
Problematics | Einstein at a film festival
Five venues are screening five films from five countries; what are their genres and running times?
If you have ever been to a film festival, you know that two or three of the films you went to watch can sometimes be screened simultaneously. If you watch one of them now, you cannot also be watching the others. Luckily, the biggest draws are screened several times, so it’s a question of managing your schedule: watch film A at its first screening, film B at its third screening, and film C at its fourth, using the time in between to catch a couple of unplanned entries.
All this creates enough permutations and combinations for an Einstein puzzle. Since the HT Games section launched online, I have created one Einstein puzzle every Sunday, which has reduced the frequency of such puzzles in Problematics. Let’s go back to that format this week, with the largest Einstein puzzle I have created to date.
#Puzzle 178.1
A film festival is screening movies at five halls. With many of them being screened simultaneously, a group of cinephiles carefully works out the day’s watching schedule. They watch one film at each hall, a total of five films for the day. Each film is from a different country, belongs to a different genre, was released in a different year, and has a different running time.
There is also the routine disclaimer: if the cinephiles watched film A before film B, it does not necessarily mean “immediately before”. Before means any time before (and after means any time after) unless the clue explicitly states the two events happened consecutively.
Your clues begin now.
(1) The first film the cinephiles watched is Punch Me; another one is called The Maker
(2) The last film they watched is Italian; another one is Indonesian
(3) The German film is 120 minutes long; another one is 110 minutes
(4) The films were released in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025
(5) The 2023 film is a comedy; another one is an action film
(6) The comedy is either the first or last film they watched
(7) One of the halls is called the Silver Hall
(8) They watched a film in the Green Hall before the 2025 film
(9) They watched The Architect after the Purple Hall film
(10) They watched the Green Hall film after the comedy but before the 100-minute film
(11) They watched The Architect after the 90-minute film but before Run Away
(12) They watched Time & Time after the Green Hall film
(13) The watched the 100-minute film after the Purple Hall film
(14) They watched the Japanese film after the Green Hall film
(15) They watched the Golden Hall film immediately after the German film
(16) They watched the Green Hall film before the 120-minute film
(17) They watched the Japanese film and the Brown Hall film consecutively, in whichever order
(18) They watched the Green Hall film and the romance consecutively, in whichever order
(19) The 2024 film was either the first or last one they watched
(20) They watched Run Away and the biopic consecutively, in whichever order
(21) They watched the Austrian film and the horror film consecutively, in whichever order
(22) The film they watched immediately after the 2021 film is 150 minutes long
(23) The Purple Hall film they watched is a 2021 release
(24) They watched a 90-minute film and the horror film consecutively, in whichever order
Can you work out the entire watching schedule, first to last, mentioning all six details (title, country, year, running time, genre, hall) for each film? Please send your answers in tabular form.
#Puzzle 178.2
The film festival gives three kinds of special passes, with each kind allowing you to watch a different number of films. You have three blue passes and one red pass and I have two yellow passes; it turns out that you and I can watch an equal number of films. Someone else has one blue, two red and three yellow passes, which gives them access to a total of 25 films.
How many films can you watch with each kind of pass?
MAILBOX: LAST WEEK’S SOLVERS
#Puzzle 177.1
Dear Kabir,
Say, your friend takes d dollars and c cents while going to the US five years ago. He spent $5.35, so he brought back (d – 5) dollars and (c – 35) cents. It is given that,
d – 5 = c/2; and c – 35 = d/3
From the above, we get d = 27, c = 44.
So, five years ago ₹2000 was worth $27.44. Now he exchanges 44/2=22 dollars and 27/3=9 cents for ₹2000. So, the value of ₹2000 today is $22.09.
— Yadvendra Somra, Sonipat
#Puzzle 177.2
The three fairytale characters hidden in the anagram are CINDERELLA, THUMBELINA and PETER PAN. Together, the letters of the three names use every single letter from PURPLE ELEMENT IN TABLE AND CHAIR, with nothing left over.
— Vinod Mahajan, New Delhi
Solved both puzzles: Yadvendra Somra (Sonipat), Vinod Mahajan (Delhi), Professor Anshul Kumar (Delhi), Shishir Gupta (Indore), Ajay Ashok (Delhi), Aditya Krishnan (NMIMS, Mumbai), Shri Ram Aggarwal (Delhi), Sabornee Jana (Mumbai)
Solved #Puzzle 177.1: Anil Khanna (Ghaziabad)
Solved #Puzzle 177.2: Dr Nitin Trasi (Sydney)
Problematics will be back next week. Please send in your replies by Friday noon to problematics@hindustantimes.com.
