IFFI

NEW DELHI, Jan 18: At the Tokyo International Film Festival last year, there was this romantic comedy, Blue Moon, that was impossible to syn...

NEW DELHI, Jan 18: At the Tokyo International Film Festival last year, there was this romantic comedy, Blue Moon, that was impossible to synopsize 8217;cause its five reels were meant to be interchangeable. The storyline shifted through 120 different variations, and believe it or not, those who saw the Taiwanese new wave trail-blazer by Ko I-chen said it worked.

Call it whacky or plain pretentious, film festivals do dish out these crazy ideas that irrespective of their effectiveness add to the overall experience. And even though the film mela at Siri Fort venue hasn8217;t thrown up anything quite like the Tokyo surprise, it has had its share of the good, the weird and the unusual.

Based on Nostradamus8217;s prophesies, An Ambiguous Report On The End Of The World from the Czech Republic achieves the impossible by signing off with a happy ending, Israel8217;s Marco Polo resurrects the last missing chapter of the Venetian traveller8217;s love exploits in the Middle East, and Canada8217;s Cosmos uses six directors and seven script-writers to give us a delightful black-and-white collage of the urban jungle through disjointed stories anchored by a taxi driver.

In New Zealand, Topless Women Talk About Their Lives and come up with a hip, MTV-inspired look at the 8220;don8217;t-worry-be-happy8221; generation of today, while a homeless kleptomaniac does a Somersault In A Coffin made in Turkey. But the idea to beat all film ideas is the simple story of a missing pair of shoes that Iran8217;s Majid Majidi latches onto while spinning his fascinating yet touching yarn about nine-year-old Ali and his younger sister Zahra in Children Of Heaven.

Between Marx and A Naked Women lies the 8217;60s Left wing activism of Ecuador, and amid all the turmoil is the film8217;s protagonist, an author who is writing a book about himself, his friends, and his platonic love for Osana. Ninety minutes later, we hear the author admitting to Marx that he is 8220;confused8221;.

Weird? You8217;ve see nothing yet. The Bachelor from Greece is about how a happily marriedman becomes single after his wife is convinced by a total stranger to take up the oldest profession. And talking of professions, there8217;s the elderly Mr Wagner 8212; an 8220;ethical8221; hit-man for over 40 years 8212; looking for a worthy successor in the dying to-be-taken-seriously Assassins.