What’s It All About?
The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) is held every January and is one of the largest film festivals in North America. The Palm Springs International Film Society strives for a world in which enlightenment, knowledge and tolerance prevail. The festival will screen 190 films, with 58 premieres including 9 world premieres, 5 international, 20 North American, and 24 US premieres. PSIFF has also announced films in program sections including ‘Focus on Poland’.
Watch out for!
Opening Film
The Sense Of An Ending
The director of The Lunchbox, Ritesh Batra has adapted this film from Julian Barnes’s novel. The story revolves around a man who is haunted by his past. He is also presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him to re-think his current situation in life. The film stars Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Freya Mavor, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Dockery and Billy Howle.
Indian Connect
Half Ticket
Half Ticket is a simple and heartening fable of the ‘have nots’ struggling to keep pace with the world of ‘haves’. It is about how two slum-dwelling brothers go to the quirkiest of extents to achieve their dreams. An official remake of the award-winning Tamil film Kaaka Muttai, the film is directed by Samit Kakkad and features Priyanka Bose, Bhalchandra Kadam, Shubham More, Usha Naik and Vinayak Potdar.
A Billion Colour Story
The plot showcases a liberal, middle-class, irreligious Muslim-Hindu family who gets a rude awakening when they move into a poorer part of Mumbai and encounters religious fundamentalism for the first time. Shot in black-and-white and told through the idealistic eyes of the family’s smart, 11-year-old son, this is a heart-warmer. It is directed by N Padmakumar and stars Gaurav Sharma, Vauka Sunkavalli, Dhruva Padmakumar, Rashmi Somvanshi and Swapnil Ralkar.
Interrogation
Vetri Maaran’s directorial Interrogation is a crime drama about four Tamil migrants in Andhra Pradesh tortured by the police into making a false confession and trapped in a Kafkaeseque intrigue. The film stars Dinesh Ravi, Samuthirakani, Anandhi, Kishore Kumar and Murugadoss in the lead.
Pihu
The film is about a two-year-old charmer Pihu. She is home alone in a spacious modern apartment and confronted by myriad dangers she cannot comprehend. Directed by Vinod Kapri, the film features Myra Vishwakarma and Prerna Vishwakarma.
Poorna
Malavath Poorna, at 13-year-old, became the youngest woman to scale Everest on May 25, 2014. An adivasi (indigenous) teen, Poorna was selected as a champion of welfare schools, and director Rahul Bose puts her accomplishment in the context of female empowerment while delivering a spectacle you would expect. The film stars Aditi Inamdar, Rahul Bose, S. Mariya, Dhritiman Chaterji and Manoj Kumar.
World Premieres
The Beautiful Fantastic
Breakable You
Everybody Loves Somebody
Poorna
World Cinema Now
13 Minutes
24 Weeks
The 4th Company
‘76
Bad Influence
Half Ticket
Behind The Clouds
Pihu
Awards Buzz-Best Foreign Language Film
The Age Of Shadows
Clash
Fire At Sea
Death In Sarajevo
Interrogation
The King’s Choice
Land Of Mine
Closing Film
The Comedian
The Comedian is a film about an ageing comic icon, Jackie Burke. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the television character he once played. Already a strain on his younger brother and his wife, Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member. While there, he meets Harmony, the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul, and the two find inspiration in each other.