Deep Impact

We are towards the end of the second month of the year. I might have been rather early into introspecting about the past year. However, one cannot help those little grey cells from going into an overdrive, can, we? So I was ruminating about how the year almost flown by has been. There were a number of hits as well as misses. But mostly, there were hits. The events or experiences in isolation apart, I felt that there was common thread which ran through them. That was of having understood myself better and learning about life in general. The following things I realized, made my year, what it was – full of new connections, experiences, a bit of travel and so much more!  Letting Go!  As clichéd as it sounds, this is one thing has been one of the prominent narratives for me in the past year. Simply let go. Well, by this I don’t mean that you let go of your dreams, people you love or the likes. By this, I meant, let go of things we can’t control. Now, yes, it is easier said th

One of the entries at the 17 th Pune International Film Festival (10 th January - 17 th January 2019), in the Global Cinema Section, was the Turkish drama, Sibel. Set in a secluded village in Turkey’s Black Sea region, this is the story of Sibel. A 25-year old mute girl, she communicates through an ancestral whistle language. Rejected by the villagers, she is driven by a single motive, to hunt down a wolf on the prowl. Its existence has sparked rumours and fear among the villagers. Killing the wolf is important for her as she believes it will make the villagers accept her. Things happen rapidly when she is ambushed by a fugitive while trying to hunt down the wolf. Sibel takes care of the man, who is hurt and has nowhere to go. She is oblivious to the fact that he is a wanted fugitive. He sees her in a completely different light than others. For the first time perhaps in her life, she feels wanted and cared for and becomes aware of her sexuality. Things take a downturn when suspi

It had been a while since I loved a film with all my heart. That’s the 2015 film, ‘Woman in Gold’. Based on true story, this film tackles the complicated issue of art restitution. In simple terms, it refers to restoration of something to its rightful owner. This is mostly in context of art looted during World War II. So here, Maria Altman (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish refugee living in Los Angeles, discovers letters in her sister's possession dating to the late 1940s, after her sister’s death. To her surprise and dismay, the letters reveal an attempt to recover the artwork owned by the Bloch-Bauer family, left behind when they had to leave the country for their life and freedom. The artwork is subsequently stolen by the Nazis. Of particular significance is a portrait of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, made by one of Gustav Klimt, one of the most renowned painters of his time. The portrait later came to be known in Austria as the "Woman in Gold". From h