The 69th Cannes Film Festival, which is just 10 days away is of special interest to a lot of movie buffs but for the 24-year-old Lubdhak Chaterjee, this festival has a lot more in store this time. His first independent short film 'In A Free State' has been shortlisted for screening in the non-competition Short Films Corner.
Starring Nihal Parashar and Sunder Pal, this film has been shot, edited and created on a shoe-string budget. The 28-minute film delineates the notion of freedom and its price through the journey of two protagonists; a young aspiring filmmaker and a painter. While the former character has left his job to pursue a career in film making, the painter has earned fame by painting figures with amputated arms. Self discovery and the journey to realise one’s dreams, passions and the true essence of freedom are the main pegs of his film.
According to Chatterjee, who is currently pursuing Masters in Electronics and Communication engineering at the Delhi Technological University, the ‘mind’ is too fascinating as it has the potential to dissolve the barriers between the binaries of physical and non physical, real and surreal. While talking to us about what triggered him to explore the abstract idea of freedom, he said, “To some extent there lie a personal context to it, although I strongly believe with conviction that this issue of freedom and free will is deeply universal. We succumb to social pressure, expectations and at times there lies an abyss between desire and destiny. It's difficult to point out a single event. You integrate different events that you witness around you, which consequently drive you to work on the subject.”
Expressing his views on the boundaries between commercial cinema and real cinema, he said, “I wish the division was between good cinema and bad cinema, unfortunately mostly in our country we see how honest creative pursuits take a backseat when we contemplate about status of regular commercial Indian films.”
“I am not much intrigued by that discipline, although I do not detest the notion of commercial cinema, which to me is imperative for a sustainable ecosystem in the industry”, he added.
While he plans to send his film to other festivals too, he’s elated over his first endeavour getting a platform amidst 32 Indian films that have been selected for Cannes this year. Talking about his future plans, he said, “As of now, I am only planning to send it to different film festivals. I am also preparing to work on a non-fiction project on Indian art forms."
The festival will open with the screening of Woody Allen’s ‘Cafe Society’. The International jury of four men and four women has also been set up to decide between 21 films to choose the winners for the competition category.
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