Thiruvananthapuram, March 13 (Agency) A slew of hard-hitting films will be screened as part of the Jury Films category at the 26th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK 2022) to be held in Thiruvananthapuram from March 18 to 25. One of them, Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat’s 2017 film A Letter to the President, was Afghanistan’s official entry to the Academy Awards that year. The tragic tale of Soraya, the head of the Kabul Crime Division who has been arrested for murder committed in trying to save the life of a young woman accused of adultery from the village clan, is forced to write a letter to the Afghan President for a reprieve. The film daringly portrays the plight of women in the male-dominated, fundamentalist state of Afghanistan. Sadat was the first women filmmaker in Afghanistan to venture into filmmaking after post-Taliban regime took over.
IFFK 2022 will also allow viewers to revisit Girish Kasarvalli’s debut film Ghatashraddha, based on eminent writer U .R Ananthamurthy’s award-winning novella of the same name. The multiple award-winner realistically depicts the plight of a child window as seen through the eyes of a young boy, exposing the double standards of society as well as the religious sects. Also on the cards is Persian filmmaker Mania Akbari’s Dah Be Alaveh Chahar (10+4) (2007), which narrates the story of her battle with cancer. Akbari is one of the most controversial filmmakers from Iran who dares to discuss taboo themes such as women rights, sexual identity, marriage, and body images.