Hands across the Osian

Annemarie Jaci, director of ‘Salt of the Sea’.

LEKHA J SHANKAR

Special to The Nation

 The Osian-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab cinema has just marked its 10th anniversary with an outstanding range of films from Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel.

Israeli director Amos Ghitai was in in New Delhi for the event, alongside Palestinian actor Salem Bakri, who he's thinking of casting in his next picture.

 Bakri, who lives in Israel, is one of the few actors appearing in movies from both sides of the age-old conflict. He was in Israel's "The Band's Visit" and Palestine's "Salt of the Sea", both screened last year at  Cannes.

 At the Osian too was Lebanon's Nada Abu Farhat, one of the stars of the award-winning "Under the Bombs".

 The documentaries "War, Love, God and Madness" from Iraq and "Arabs and Terrorism" - shot in 11 countries - created waves.

 This year's festival had six categories, keeping the six-member jury busy, and also offered seminars and workshops like the Talent Campus for young filmmakers.

Among the discussions was one on co-productions that featured Fortissimo Films chairman Wouter Barendrecht, another on archive management with Robert Gitt of UCLA, and a third on screenwriting at which Paul Schrader, one of the best in the business, conducted a master class.

 One of the highlights of this year's festival was a seminar on "The Novel in Adaptation", which included a retrospective of movies based on the books of Egyptian Nobel-winner Naguib Mahfouz.

 Three expatriate Indian writers whose books have been adapted for film were there to talk about it. The movie made from US-based Chitra Devakuni's "The Mistress of Spices" starred Aishwarya Rai; Britain-based Kunal Basu's "The Japanese Wife" is being brought to the screen by India's Aparna Sen; and  Bollywood is transforming Jaishree Mishra's "Rani".

 The three authors allowed that the cinematic version of a book needn't be absolutely faithful to the original, as long as it retains the spirit.

 Screenwriter and academic Aruna Vasudev launched the Osian festival a decade ago with just 30 films. Today, guided by Lathika Padgaonkar and Indu Shrikent, it's a phenomenal, multicultural event.

 The future is bright, with the Osian Foundation planning a cultural complex called "Osianama" for Mumbai later this year.

 The foundation was begun by Oxford University economist Neville Tuli, a dynamic arts entrepreneur who believes idealism and materialism can go hand in hand.

His art auctions are the main funding source for the film festival, and one took place during it, featuring a painting by Raja Ravi Verma that Tuli had acquired from a London museum.

 " We've never had an official budget for the film festival," he said. "If we need more money we sell more art!"

 With a well-endowed Art Fund in place, Tuli has announced the establishment of a Film Fund for talented Asian directors. His Osianama complex being set up in the historic Minerva cinema will have archives, a library, galleries and studios as well as screening halls. Its design and publishing arm debuted last month with a book on the great Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan.