We continue with our recommendations for the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival which will take place from October 27 – November 5, 2023 in Mumbai, India.

To see the first part of this article please go HERE

Monster by Hirokazu Kore-eda – Japan | 2023 – 126 minutes
When her young son Minato starts to behave strangely, his mother feels that there is something wrong. Discovering that a teacher is responsible, she storms into the school demanding to know what’s going on. But as the story unfolds through the eyes of mother, teacher, and child, the truth gradually emerges. (Mumbai 2023)

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Oasis of Now by Chee Sum Chia – Malaysia, Singapore, France | 2023 – 90 minutes
In an old apartment complex in Kuala Lumpur, we see lives in unseen corners. The stairwell of a near-abandoned floor is one of these corners where a woman and her daughter have their secret meetings. They play games and attempt to interact in this stolen time and place.The mother thinks she knows what is best for the daughter; the daughter longs for a promise from the mother. Later, they’ll have to return separately to their own homes in the same complex. The woman will continue to live her life in between the familiar spaces, but nothing is quite what it seems.

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Raging Grace by Paris Zarcilla – UK | 2023 – 100 minutes | South Asia Premiere
Raging Grace centres the Filipino experience using brushstrokes of horror and drama, rendered through the prism of race and power. It tells the story of Joy, an undocumented immigrant who lands a job as a care worker for a terminal old man and secures a better life for her and her daughter, Grace. But an unexpected discovery threatens to destroy everything she’s worked for and holds dear. This bold coming-of-rage transports audiences beyond terror to deliver us to the joy and peace we find when we transgress our masters.

Sara by Ismail Basbeth – Indonesia | 2023 – 99 minutes
Sara (35), a transwoman, has to return to her village to attend the funeral of her father. She then discovers that her mother is severely traumatised by her father’s death, has no memory left of her, and treats her like a complete stranger. Sara decides to create new memories for her mother by play-acting as her late father, the person she despises the most and the reason she escaped her family a long time ago.

The Golden Thread by Nishtha Jain – India, Netherlands, Norway, UK | 2022 – 86 minutes | South Asia Premiere
In beautifully composed shots, the director captures the last vestiges of the jute industry in Bengal. She follows the entire production chain, from cutting and drying the reed along the river to weaving in two of the biggest mills in the area. Along endless rows of antique looms the air thick with dusty fibres, the workers carry out their routine work. Accidents and jammed machines are commonplace; workers’ faces reveal the exhaustion of a lifetime of labour. The union is fighting for minimum wages. Not long afterwards, one of the mills closes its doors after more than a hundred years.

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The Monk and the Gun by Pawo Choyning Dorji – Bhutan, France, Taiwan, USA | 2023 – 107 minutes | India Premiere
Kingdom of Bhutan, 2006. Modernisation has finally arrived. It is the last country in the world to connect to the internet and television, and now the biggest change of all awaits: democracy. To teach people how to vote, the authorities organise a mock election, but the locals appear unconvinced. Travelling to rural Bhutan, where religion is more popular than politics, the election supervisor discovers that a monk is planning a mysterious ceremony for election day.

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The Red Suitcase by Fidel Devkota – Nepal, Sri Lanka | 2023 – 87 minutes | Asia Premiere
A pick-up truck driver leaves Kathmandu airport for a two-day drive with a delivery arriving from abroad to a remote mountain village. Climbing the serpentine road into the mountains, the driver listens to old popular songs and callers who tell of true-life strange experiences on the radio. When he stops to check on his truck, he meets a man who convinces him to rest the night and avoid the long drive in the night. The two men share a drink. Outside on the dark mountain road a migrant worker passes, calmly rolling his red suitcase uphill.

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Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu – Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Qatar | 2023 – 95 minutes | South Asia Premiere
Zaffan (12) is a rebellious and carefree girl until she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body. She struggles to remain normal and cover herself. But her friends at school attack her, and then all hysteria breaks loose. When the Medical Officer identifies her as the root of the problem, like a tiger dragged out of its habitat and poked, Zaffan is driven to reveal her true self to everyone.

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While We Watched by Vinay Shukla – India, UK | 2022 – 94 minutes | South Asia Premiere
The Prime Time Indian TV journalist Ravish Kumar is in trouble. Famous for his unflinching takedowns of the ruling establishment during his long-running primetime news hour, his nerves have begun to fray from carrying the torch of ‘good journalism’ for too long.

As press freedom continues to disintegrate and self-censorship becomes the new normal, Kumar struggles to stay afloat in the rising tide of his own network’s financial hardships, sinking TRP ratings, and the strain of continuous downsizing. He is at the receiving end of harassment, intimidation, morphed images, threats to his life, and even violence against his family. With a growing target on his back, and the looming threat of his network’s imminent closure, Kumar transforms from a spunky troublemaker into a deeply troubled man, worried for himself, his family, and the soul of his nation.

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Youth (Spring) by Wang Bing – France, Luxembourg, Netherlands | 2023 – 212 minutes | India Premiere
One of the great contemporary chroniclers of life, Wang Bing spent five years, from 2014 to 2019, in the city of Zhili, one of the main hubs of China’s textile industry, chronicling young workers and the unseen realities of China’s transforming economy. They come from all the rural regions crossed by the Yangtze River. They are in their early twenties, share dormitories, and snack in the corridors. They work tirelessly to be able one day to raise a child, buy a house or set up their own workshop. Between them, friendships and love affairs are made and unmade according to the seasons, bankruptcies, and family pressures.

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To see the first part of this article please go HERE

For more information, please visit: https://www.mumbaifilmfestival.com/