An
80-year-old
widow
wants
to
restart
her
acting
career
but
finds
the
odds
stacked
against
her.
She
then
burns
the
marital
bed
that
she'd
shared
with
her
late
husband
in
an
attempt
to
rid
herself
of
painful
memories
and
reclaim
her
life
from
her
patriarchal
past.
Titled
Mehrunsia,
this
film
won
filmmaker
Sandeep
Kumar
the
Best
Feature
Film
award
at
the
recently
concluded
Indian
Film
Festival
Stuttgart.
Called
the
"German
Star
of
India" award,
it
carries
a
cash
prize
of
€4,000
($4,092).
"Such
an
unheard-of
event
and
such
a
haunting
image
that
you
have
it
in
your
head
long
after
the
film
is
over," said
the
German
jury
members,
including
Maximilian
Hoehnle
of
the
media
organization
MFG,
director
Anja
Gurres
and
producer
Louis
Wick,
in
explaining
their
pick
for
best
film.
The
story,
"questions
hierarchies,
celebrates
self-determination
and
inspires
hope
beyond
the
cinema
screen,"
they
added.
As
expected,
the
Oscar-nominated
documentary
Writing
with
Fire
won
the
Best
Documentary
award.
The
film
tells
the
story
of
"Khabar
Lahariya”
("waves
of
news" in
Hindi),
a
rural
newspaper
in
northern
India
run
by
women,
many
of
whom
have
learned
to
read
and
write
only
recently.
The
jury
called
the
film
an
"exciting
contemporary
document”
that
showed
change
was
possible
with
willpower
and
support.
Writing
with
Fire
was
directed
by
Sushmit
Ghosh
and
Rintu
Thomas.
Highlights
of
the
Indian
Film
Festival
Stuttgart
2022
Consequences
of
COVID
The
Best
Short
Film
prize
was
awarded
to
Succulent,
directed
by
Amrita
Bagchi.
Succulent
is
a
dystopian
film
about
a
woman
called
"M" who
has
an
unusual
job:
she
works
for
a
company
that
aims
to
make
families
whole
again,
by
providing
'members'
who
are
no
longer
with
them.
M
play-acts
the
role
of
diverse
missing
loved
ones,
thus
enabling
people
to
feel
better,
even
if
for
a
short
while.
The
jury
justified
their
choice
by
saying,
"The
film
depicts
a
society
of
social
distance
—
bringing
to
mind
both
the
manifestations
of
a
perverted
hyper-capitalism
and
the
consequences
of
the
COVID
pandemic."
Finally,
the
jury
also
awarded
a
special
Director's
Vision
award
to
Nithin
Lukose's
Paka,
a
film
about
infighting
and
bloodshed
in
a
village.
Jury
members
said
the
film
"reminds
us
that
courageous
people
need
to
stand
up
and
break
the
cycle
of
mistrust,
violence,
and
aggression."
The
winners
for
best
documentary,
best
short
film
and
the
Director's
Vision
award
received
a
prize
of
€1,000
(
($1,092).
Showcasing
the
offbeat
Sponsored
almost
entirely
by
Baden-Württemberg-based
entrepreneur
Andreas
Lapp
and
with
support
from
the
state's
cultural
ministry,
the
film
festival
in
Stuttgart
has
been
an
annual
affair
since
its
inception
in
2003.
Previously
called
Bollywood
and
Beyond,
the
event
focuses
primarily
on
arthouse
cinema
in
Hindi
and
other
Indian
languages.
Speaking
to
DW
at
the
opening
ceremony,
Lapp
said
the
idea
for
the
film
event
in
Stuttgart
first
took
root
at
a
wine
festival
in
Mumbai
in
2003.
The
event
was
organized
under
the
theme
"Stuttgart
meets
Mumbai,"
Lapp
recalled,
explaining
that
the
two
metropolises
are
partner
cities.
Wolfgang
Schuster,
the
mayor
of
Stuttgart
at
the
time,
suggested
organizing
a
similar
event
in
Stuttgart.
Santoshee
Mishra's
film
Mumbai
400008
also
featured
in
the
documentary
section
"It
was
late
in
the
evening,
we
had
all
had
a
considerable
amount
of
wine,
and
on
this
evening,
at
that
table,
we
decided
we
would
hold
a
film
festival,"
Lapp
explained.
After
that,
Stuttgart
officials,
including
festival
director
Oliver
Mahn
realized
the
project
within
six
months,
enlisting
the
support
of
long-time
casting
director
Uma
da
Cunha,
who
was
awarded
Baden-Württemberg's
Staufer
Medal
for
curating
the
festival
for
nearly
two
decades.
Predicting
global
success
Besides
helping
found
several
film
festivals
in
India
and
abroad,
including
in
Montreal,
Los
Angeles
and
Busan,
Uma
da
Cunha
has
been
curating
films
in
Stuttgart
over
the
last
19
years.
The
festival
has
also
since
become
a
predictor
of
sorts
in
terms
of
a
film's
or
an
actor's
future
success.
Examples
include
actors
like
Nawazuddin
Siddiqui,
who
attended
the
festival
in
the
early
2010s
and
went
on
to
star
in
the
Netflix
hit,
Sacred
Games.
Actor
Nawazuddin
Siddiqui
(center)
has
since
made
inroads
in
the
film
industry
Similarly,
actor
Rajkummar
Rao,
who
attended
it
in
2013,
has
since
enjoyed
considerable
success
in
mainstream
Bollywood
movies.
Uma
da
Cunha
also
recalled
how
Anurag
Kashyap,
the
Mumbai-based
film
noir
director,
featured
in
the
early
years
of
the
Stuttgart
film
festival.
"This
is
my
favorite
festival
and
they
have
done
a
great
job
in
bringing
Indian
cinema
to
Stuttgart,
especially
since
Indian
cinema
does
not
travel
well,”
she
says,
explaining
that
Indian
films
did
not
promote
themselves
well
and
that
Indian
culture
was
very
difficult
to
understand.
Furthermore,
overall
support
for
Indian
cinema
to
promote
itself
abroad
isn't
really
there.
"That
is
why
an
Indian
film
festival
here
or
in
Los
Angeles
means
a
lot
to
us."