11th EUROPEAN UNION FILM FESTIVAL IN INDIA (3rd March - 11th April 2006)
BY Vijay Kumar

The Ambassador of Austria, H.E. Dr. Jutta Stefan-Bastl, representing the Presidency of the European Union, Dr. Alexander Spachis, Chargé d'affaires of the European Commission in India and Mr. Shankar Mohan of the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India today launched the eleventh edition of the European Union Film Festival.

The festival will be held in New Delhi from 3rd to 10th March, in Kolkata from 17th to 24th March, in Chennai from 24th to 31st March and in Thiruvananthapuram from 4th to 11th April and will showcase 19 movies, each one from a different EU country, highlighting the best cinema from Europe. The entry will be free of cost, on a first come first serve basis for all movies and all the movies will be subtitled in English.

The opening ceremony will be held on Friday 3rd March in New Delhi at Siri Fort Auditorium II in New Delhi with the screening of the Austrian movie "MY RUSSIA" by Mrs. Barbara Gräftner, awarded in 2002 Max Ophüls Prize for Best Film. The ceremony will be attended by H.E. Shri Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting and by H.E. Ms. Ambika Soni, Union Minister for Tourism and Culture along with the Austrian director, Mrs. Barbara Gräftner.

The EU Film Festival is composed of a bouquet of films that gave vivid reflections of the cultural streams of Europe and stories that describe the European life in a certain socio-economic and cultural environment. Mainly all the movies have been awarded prestigious prizes in recent years such as Platinum Award (The Kiss; 2004); Oscar for best foreign language film (Kolya, 1996), CICAE award Venice Film festival (Gille's Wife, 2004) and Best movie and Best Actress Festival of Malaga (Hector, 2004).

By presenting a selection of modern European cinema to the Indian public the Festival aims at projecting the excellence of the European film art, contributing to the understanding and appreciation of film cultures and to the promotion of mutual understanding, friendship and co- operation among Indian and European citizens. The event symbolizes an important facet of the growing cultural relations between the EU and India reinvigorated in the last six years with the organisation of the EU-India Summits and by the recent Action Plan launched at the 6th EU-India Summit in September 2005.

The films that will be screened are: My Russia (Austria), The Kiss (Belgium), Kolja (Czech Republic), Under the stars (Cyprus), Dog Nail Clipper (Finland), Viper in the Fist (France), Kebab Connection (Germany), The Cistern (Greece), Guarded Secrets (Hungary), Mystics (Ireland), The Soul's Haven (Italy), Gille's wife (Luxembourg), Zus & Zo (Netherlands), Squint your eyes (Poland), The Murmuring Coast (Portugal), Escape to Budin (Slovakia), Cheese and Jam (Slovenia), Hector (Spain) and Topsy-Turvy (U.K).