Rough Cut

German filmmaker Caroline Link has the rare distinction of being among the few film-makers whose first film gets nominated for an Oscar. Her 1996 debut film,Beyond Silence,was nominated for Best Foreign Language but the Munich-based Link says she doesn’t set much store by it. “I was touched that the German audience responded so well to it,” says Link,in Delhi to inaugurate a six-day German Film Festival organized by the Max Mueller Bhawan to commemorate their 50th anniversary in India.

The festival being held at PVR Select Citywalk,is screening a retrospective of four of her films including Nowhere In Africa,for which she won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003. “I did become a little complacent with my work after receiving this award and with all the other honours the film received,” says Link,who graduated in Film Studies from the Munich film Institute and also received the Kodak Promotional Award for her graduation film,Sommertage at the 1990 Hof International Film Festival.

Nowadays though,she’s back at work,researching and putting together the screenplay for a film on the legendary psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. “The film is set in the 1800’s in Austria and I am yet to finalise the cast. Though my producers want to make the film in English,I feel the demand of the script suggests it should be in German,” smiles Link. Among Indian works,she’s familiar with filmmakers of the 50s and 60s like Bimal Roy,Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen,whom she studied in film school. “Current Bollywood doesn’t make sense to me,” says Link.

The festival is on till November 19 at PVR Select Citywalk.

For passes and schedule contact: 23329506