Gems in a sea of mediocrity

The Cinema of the World section of the IFFI isn't completely bereft of merit, comments Saibal Chatterjee.

The Cinema of the World section of the ongoing 35th International Film Festival of India isn't attracting much attention and deservedly so. But, to be fair, it isn't exactly completely bereft of merit. No section that has a film like Walter Salles' s The Motorcycle Diaries can be written off as a no-hoper.

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The Motorcycle Diaries, based on the writings of Che Guevara and his pal Alberto Granado, is probably the film of this festival, but it certainly isn't all there is to the Cinema of the World section. Jeremy Peter Allen's film from Canada, Manners of Dying, adapted from a Yann Martel short story, Chilean director Matias Bize's experiment with cinema verite, Sabado (Saturday), Branko Ivanda's Croatian entry, The Horseman and first-time Argentine director Jorge Dyszel's Finally, The Sea have added some sparkle to an otherwise lackluster show.

The Motorcycle Diaries is a five-nation co-production involving financial participation from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and the US and it comes from the maker of such acclaimed films as Foreign Land and Central Station, a Golden Bear-winner in Berlin. Drawn from the actual words put on paper by Guevara and Granado, the film follows their 10,000-km road trip across the length and breadth of South America in their younger days.

The Motorcycle Diaries is, of course, a fascinating personal journey of discovery for the two boys. For the filmmaker and his audience, it is more than just that - it is essentially a voyage into the very heart of the culture, society and politics of the Latin American continent.

Manners of Dying, written and directed by debutant Jeremy Peter Allen, is a virtuoso effort that explores all the emotional complexities inherent in the film's central situation - a man on death row responds to the last 12 hours before his impending. The director of the execution facility plans everything down to the last detail, but as the prisoner is led up to the death chamber where a lethal injection awaits him, the film pans out in eight different ways.