Isola Cinema: Festival opening - Kummatty
Location: Manzioli square
Time: 9.00 pm
Free entry
A vivid tale of a travelling magician and his extraordinary encounter with children. A work of art brimming with song, dance, and children’s laughter.
A colorful adaptation of a folk motif from Kerala about a legendary traveling singer and magician who entertains people in the villages. Once he transforms children into animals and a boy in the form of a puppy misses breaking the spell… The stunning photography of this unprecedented piece of cinematic art, filled with song, dance and children’s laughter, was created by Shaji N. Karun, whom Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Festival hosted multiple times.
Managing to balance the real and the ethereal, this has many charming moments that are a slice of life from Kerala. Yet the film also effortlessly slips into the mystical, with moments of the ecstatic and fantastic studded throughout the film. Able to focus on minute moments – droplets on water, the fluttering of grass – it nonetheless has a grand sweep, shot on beautiful Kodak colour stock. Kummatty’s narrative is carried forward by folk songs, with minimal dialogue; it is a musical. The onus, therefore, lies on the cinematographer, Shaji N. Karun, and the music director, M. G. Radhakrishnan, to use image and music to convey the narrative. Karun uses cinematography which blends in the movement of wind, rain, and sunlight, along with that of the characters, reminiscent of the style of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. A hymn to nature and to the transforming effects of ritual, Kummatty is a film for all ages from one of India’s New Wave masters who has been unjustly overlooked in Europe.
Screened with: ‘Sto Scoio, Remigio Grižonič, Slovenija/Slovenia, 2019, 2’
Dedicated to the festival’s long-standing programme contributor, friend, and cofounder, Helmut Groschup. Long live Cooperative!
In cooperation with the International Film Festival Innsbruck.
