Women's film festival in Mumbai from March 5

MUMBAI: Film-maker Aparna Sen will inaugurate a five-day festival of international films made by women on March 5 at the Y B Chavan Centre.
The film fest will showcase the award-winning work of four foreign directors along with Sen’s 36, Chowringee Lane. The films include The Apple by Samira Makhmalbaf of Iran, Sweetie by Jane Campion of Australia, Daisies by Vera Chytilova of the Czech Republic and La Cienaga — The Swamp by Lucrecia Martel of Argentina.
The films are being presented by a local women’s group, ‘Point of View’, to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8.They will show one film a day at 7 pm from March 5 to 9.
The Apple won a ‘special mention’ at the Locarno film festival. It tells the (true) story of how a father kept his two young daughters confined to their home since their birth and what happens when their neighbours report this to the welfare authorities in Teheran. Eighteen-year-old Makhmalbaf heard about the story on a Wednesday and began filming it just four days later. Filmed in 11 days, The Apple dances on the line separating fiction from documentary, refusing to to separate the art of cinema from the experiences of characters living their lives.
Sweetie (1989) is a black comedy about a young woman who is overweight and overemotional. It depicts how girls and women who are somehow separate from the mainstream relate to and function in society. It won a nomination at the Cannes Film Festival.
Daisies (1966) is a freewheeling, madcap feminist farce that features two uninhibited young women, both named Marie. This Czech new-wave flick was banned at the time by the government for its slapstick, destructive climax, but Chytilova went on to win the ‘Special Prize for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema’ at the Karlovy film fest some years later.
La Cienaga — The Swamp (2001), set in a sultry Argentinian summer, shows how two cousins Mecha, a 50-year-old woman with four accident-prone teenagers and a husband who dyes his hair, and Tali, who has four small noisy kids and a hubby who loves to hunt, attempt to survive a summer from hell at a languishing country estate.