Francophone Film Festival trumpets linguistic diversity

By Shiran Illanperuma

The 11th edition of the Bonjour Cinema, a Francophone Film Festival kicked off on Thursday with a screening at the National Film Corporation Cinema in Colombo.

The festival which features a number of films from member states of the International Organisation of La Francophone – a collection of French speaking countries and territories – began day before yesterday with the screening of Timbuktu, an award winning French Mauritanian drama about a family coping with violence and racism in the titular city.

The festival continued yesterday with screenings of Swiss film A Bell For Ursi, Belgian film Scouting For Zebras and Canadian film Laurence Anyways. Saturday’s screenings will include Challat of Tunis from Tunisia, The Floating Lives from Vietnam and Vanity from Switzerland. Sunday, the last day of the festival, will feature the Romanian film I Am An Old Communist Hag and conclude with a Sri Lankan film called The Forsaken Land.

Deputy Head of Mission of the Switzerland Embassy Kurt Meier said that the theme of this year’s festival would be the “power of words”, in the reference to the importance of linguistic heritage and pluralism.

“We want to celebrate different cultures and transport audiences to member states of the Francophone. Its an opportunity for Sri Lankan audiences to see the world without leaving the island,” said Meier. 

Canadian High Commissioner Shelley Whiting expressed hope that the multicultural and multilingual aspect of the festival would appeal to Sri Lankan audiences and send a message on reconciliation. 

Speaking on Canada’s linguistic diversity and lessons for post-war Sri Lanka Whiting said, “This is not something we have achieved overnight. We would like to offer help and advice in implementing language policies and we are working on setting up programs to train translators.”

Meanwhile Cultural and Cooperation Counsellor at the French Embassy Michel Treutenaere expressed hope that the diverse array of films from the Francophone would send a strong message on linguistic diversity.

“Unlike the Commonwealth the Francophone is not so much about economics. It is about preserving culture and emphasising diversity. Not all the films playing at the film festival are in French though they are all from member states.”

Treutenaere added that the festival would be particularly relevant to Sri Lankans in the wake of Dheepan winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year. “This was a French film, winning the most prestigious French film award but it was almost entirely in Tamil, a Sri Lankan language – this represents the spirit of what we are trying to do with Bonjour Cinema.”