Here in the United Online Premieres Too
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Image : Self- portrait by Chila Kumari Singh Burman Welcome back to the festival, which this Dive deep into our Extra-Ordinary Lives strand with amazing dramas and year has evolved into a hybrid festival. documentaries from across South Asia. Including the must-see Ahimsa: Gandhi, You can watch it in cinemas in London, The Power of The Powerless, a documentary on the incredible global impact of Birmingham, and Manchester, or on Gandhi’s non-violence ideas; Abhijaan, an inspiring biopic exploring the life of your own sofa at home, via our digital the late and great Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee; Black comedy Ashes On a site www.LoveLIFFatHome.com, that Road Trip; and Tiger Award winner at Rotterdam Pebbles. Look out for selected is accessible anywhere in the United online premieres too. Kingdom. Our talks and certain events We also introduce a new strand dedicated to ecology-related films, calledSave CARY RAJINDER SAWHNEY are also accessible worldwide. The Planet, with some stirring features about lives affected by deforestation and rising sea levels, and how people are meeting the challenge. A big personal thanks to all our audiences who stayed with the festival last We are expecting a host of special guests as usual and do check out our brilliant year and helped make it one of the few success stories in the film industry. This online In Conversations with Indian talent in June - where we will be joined year’s festival is dedicated to you with love. by Bollywood Director Karan Johar, and rapidly rising talented actors Shruti Highlights of this year’s festival include our inspiring Opening Night Gala Haasan and Janhvi Kapoor, as well as featuring some very informative online WOMB about one woman gender activist who incredibly walks the entire Q&As on all our films. length of India to explore the experiences of other women in its billion plus We are delighted to welcome back our many regular partners, including a population. See it at BFI Southbank and Ciné Lumière. thanks to our Title Sponsor Bagri Foundation who will be supporting us for Our themed strands in this brochure cover online and cinema-based movie the 7th Year in London. Thanks to BFI Audience Fund, Birmingham City premieres and events. They start with our Young Rebel strand (which literally University, and to our many friends and supporters. challenges all the stereotypes!) with UK premieres of a host of talented emerging To support the ongoing Covid pandemic in India and other South Asian filmmakers, showing young people’s real-life challenges and experiences. countries, we are asking our audiences to visit our donations page at Our special strand this year is on Great British Asian filmmakers, and we LoveLIFFatHome.com and kindly help out if you can. are delighted to honour Film Producers and Directors such as director Asif For cinemas, you can buy tickets via booking links on our website, or directly Kapadia (The Warrior, Amy, Senna), and writer Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful at partner cinemas. For online viewings, please follow the booking guidance Laundrette, The Buddha of Suburbia). At the Barbican, we co-host a special on www.LoveLIFFatHome.com retrospective of the films of activist filmmaker Pratibha Parmar. We will be celebrating the 20th production anniversary of feel-good hit Bend It Like Please remember that Covid safety regulations are strictly administered by all Beckham with an intro by director Gurinder Chadha, at Roof East Stratford. of our venue partners and you will be required to wear a mask throughout all UK director Sarah Gavron (Rocks), is expected to talk about her filmBrick cinema screenings. Lane. Alongside this will be a whole host of classic British Asian movies We look forward to seeing you in cinemas and online! and talks including the rarely seen British Asian all-star filmFlight - expect special guests for that one! Of course, we are also showcasing new British Asian talent in some amazing shorts packages. So it’s your chance to find out Warm regards, more about ‘our’ rich story and contribution to the UK. Cary Rajinder Sawhney Executive & Programming Director PAGE 2 TITLE SPONSOR FUNDED BY MAJOR SPONSOR SPONSOR RESTAURANT PARTNERS DABBA DROP PARTNERS CINEMAS Patrons: Shehkar Kapur, Tony Matharu, Lord David Puttnam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Festival Brand Ambassadors: Antonio Aakeel, Sunny & Shay Grewal, Feryna Wazheir. Thank you to all our valuable friends, supporters and volunteers. PAGE 3 OPENING NIGHT CLOSING NIGHT UK Premiere English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu FLIGHT English with English subtitles UK 1997 | 75 Mins WOMB India 2020 | 102 Mins Dir: Alex Pillai (WOMEN OF MY BILLION) Dir: Ajitesh Sharma With: Mina Anwar, Kulvinder Ghir, Roshan Seth, Meera Syal A young woman, Srishti Bakshi embarks on a monumental A talented British Asian star cast comes together in this journey, walking almost 4000km over 240 days, from Northern family drama, sensitively written by Tanika Gupta Kanyakumari in the south, to Kashmir, in the North, along the and directed by Alex Pillai. Shikha (Mina Anwar), a young Hindu way meeting and learning first hand about the experiences of school girl from Lancashire town Accrington, secretly falls in many women from all corners of India. WOMB is a poignant and love with a Muslim boy. As word gets out about their tryst, she heart warming documentary exploring the social and political is threatened and is forced to flee to London to escape the wrath issues faced by women of today’s India. It is a unique testament of her patriarch father (Roshan Seth). In the big city she finds to seemingly insurmountable challenges in these unprecedented refuge in a secret women’s shelter, where she discovers a new times and the everyday sheroes who are battling to overcome. found sense of freedom, but her past soon catches up with her. CINÉ LUMIÈRE SCREENING IN LIAISON WITH INTEGRITY INTERNATIONAL IN CINEMA Q&A WITH SRISHTI BAKSHI AND ANNA SMITH IN CINEMA Q&A WITH ALEX PILLAI + CAST AND CREW EXPECTED 17 June | 17:20 | BFI SOUTHBANK 2 July | 18:30 | CINÉ LUMIÈRE 22 June | 18:15 | CINÉ LUMIÈRE (EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES STRAND) PAGE 4 xmple.com BAGRI FOUNDATION PRESENTS 27 MAY - 24 JUNE Books that Changed My Life © xmple.com @BagriFoundation SPECIAL GUESTS IN CONVERSATIONS IMAGE CREDIT: KIER KUREISHI IN CONVERSATION WITH HANIF KUREISHI IN CONVERSATION WITH ASIF KAPADIA One of Britain’s best known screenwriters, Hanif Kureshi CBE Oscar, Grammy Award, BAFTA winning British filmmaker Asif is of mixed Pakistani and English origin. He earned his degree in Kapadia is one of the first British Asians to make huge waves in the Philosophy at King’s College London. He went on to write plays for world of cinema. His first feature film The Warrior was nominated the Hampstead Theatre, and by the age of 18, was with the Royal for three BAFTA awards, winning two, including Outstanding Court. He wrote My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985, a screenplay about British Film of the Year. The Warrior was the first international a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980s London for a cult role for the late, great Irrfan Khan. Kapadia won accolades for his film directed by Stephen Frears, which won him an Academy trilogy of documentaries Senna, Amy & Diego Maradona, showing an Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Kureishi’s drama uncanny ability to take archive footage and tell compelling cinematic The Mother was adapted into a movie by Roger Michell, which won stories about key figures and the price of fame. Kapadia directed a joint First Prize in the Director’s Fortnight section at Cannes Film episodes of the series Mindhunter for David Fincher & Netflix, he Festival. The television miniseries, based on the novel The Buddha of executive produced the music series 1971: ‘The year that music Suburbia, and filmMy Son the Fanatic based on his own short story of changed everything’ and he co directed & executive produced the the same title garnered him recognition as an astute story teller. See series The Me You Can’t See with Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry him in a live Q&A on stage at the BFI Southbank, with the screening focusing on mental health and well being, both for AppleTV+. Watch of My Beautiful Laundrette. him take a deep dive into his career on stage at The BFI Southbank, with acclaimed film critic Hanna Ines Flint. 18 June | 20:30 | BFI SOUTHBANK 19 June | 20:10 | BFI SOUTHBANK PAGE 6 SPECIAL GUESTS IN CONVERSATIONS IN CONVERSATION WITH GURINDER CHADHA IN CONVERSATION WITH KARAN JOHAR Celebrating the iconic British BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated The son of Bollywood producer Yash Johar of Dharma filmBend It Like Beckham at the 20th anniversary of it being in Productions, Karan Johar followed in his father’s illustrious production, British Punjabi director Gurinder Chadha OBE, returns footsteps without missing a beat, ably aided by his mother, Hiroo to the Festival to introduce this film at a unique open air screening at Johar. Starting his career as an actor, he went on to create what Rooftop East. Best known for her films like the BAFTA nominated is seen as the epitome of Bollywood cinema, working with lavish Bhaji on the Beach, Bride and Prejudice, Viceroy’s House, and Blinded by opulent sets, and working with the biggest names in the business. the Light, Kenya born Chadha started her media career in radio, and His foray into cinema came via his role as an assistant director on then TV as a BBC news reporter, going on to direct award-winning cousin Aditya Chopra’s super hit filmDilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, documentaries for the British Film Institute, BBC and Channel where he formed his close working relationship with Shah Rukh Four.