During last year Chennai International Film festival I saw quite a number of films – The Delay, Mushrooming, After the battle, Chittagong, Mystery, Pather Panchali, Departures & O Delfim. This year (11th Chennai International Film Festival) I managed to see only 3 movies and I found this year event to be more crowded for each screening than last year. The 3 movies I saw this year are “The WhirlPool”, “Mystery Road” and “In Bloom“.
The Whirlpool
This Serbian film “The Whirlpool” is directed by Bojan Vuk Kosovcevic. The story happens in Belgrade in the second half of the 1990s just after the former Yugoslavia fell apart. The story is told in 3 parts, each part from the angle of one individual. The 3 individuals had done their schooling a few years back, but war & their individual lives have taken them in different directions. One is a mafia group leader connected to the powerful, the other is a local gang member and the third a retired hurt soldier. Through the first two characters, the Director depicts how the war and prevailing conditions in Serbia have destroyed lives of youngsters. I felt stronger about the third character, a hallucinating artist who as a former soldier experienced horrors during the war. The title Whirlpool symbolising on how all the 3 individuals life and people around them all are caught in the whirlpool, all sinking to the bottom. A fine film.