From 15-25 March 2006, the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary in London with a programme of twenty-two intelligent, inspiring and indispensable feature films and documentaries from twenty countries, articulating many of the human, environmental and geo-political stories of our times. This year the festival continues its commitment to new features and showcases two of the boldest dramas to have come out of India in 2005.

An enlightening tale of personal development, Amu (India 2005) begins with the everyday dilemmas of a young Indian-American, Kaju, returning to the “foreignness” of her Indian homeland. Like an approaching thunderstorm, the film gathers a potent political charge as Kaju begins to question her past and realizes how her own privileged life in America was born out of communal violence in India. After Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards in 1984, carnage erupted in the streets of Delhi. More than four thousand Sikhs were killed in three days. In the film Kaju’s parents are among those affected by the violence. Kaju’s questions produce difficult answers that force her to face the truth of India’s history - and her own

Writer-director Shonali Bose worked in the relief camps set up after the massacre, writing down the stories of those who survived. The flashback scenes in Amu reflect the intense impact of first-hand experience. Bose exhibits a keen political awareness by casting Brinda Karat, better known as the leader of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association, as Kaju’s adoptive mother. Screenings are co-presented by the Toungues on Fire Film Festival. The director of Amu, Shonali Bose, will attend the screening on March 17, and is available for interviews from the 16 – 18 March.

The festival is delighted to hold the UK Premiere of Dreaming Lhasa (India/U.K 2005), a breathtakingly shot drama set amongst the exiled Tibetan diaspora and filmed on location in Dharamsala, Dehli and Rajasthan. The story follows Karma, a Tibetan filmmaker from New York, who goes to Dharamsala, home to the exiled Dalai Lama. Escaping from a deteriorating relationship back home, she is here to make a film about former political prisoners who have escaped from Tibet. Their harrowing stories of courage and suffering heighten her own sense of cultural alienation.

One of her interviewees is Dhondup, an enigmatic ex-monk who recently escaped from Tibet after being imprisoned for four years for his role in anti-Chinese activities. Dhondup confides that his real reason for coming to India is to fulfil his mother’s last wish, to deliver a gahu – a charm box that Tibetans use as a protection amulet – to a man named Loga. As the two set out to find Loga, Karma finds herself unwittingly falling in love with Dhondup even as she is sucked into the vortex of his quest, which becomes a journey into Tibet’s fractured past and a voyage of self-discovery.

For ten years audiences have cherished the rarity of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival experience: an opportunity to appreciate beautifully crafted films that deliver real stories, and join in substantive conversations with filmmakers and human rights experts.

SCREENINGS

Ritzy

Sat 17 9.00pm Amu

Sun 19 6.30pm Dreaming Lhasa

Greenwich Picture House

Sun 19 6.30pm Amu

Gate Cinema

Weds 22 6.30pm Dreaming Lhasa

Clapham Picture House

Sat 25 6.30pm Amu