Rollicking in Rotterdam

The 47th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) continues at the Dutch city of South Holland, with a bevy of films and activities jam-packed into its 12-day (January 24-February 4) schedule.

The festival opened earlier on Wednesday night with the screening of “Jimmie”, an intense, impressionistic film from Sweden featuring a stunning performance by four-year old Hunter Ganslandt, under direction from his father Jesper Ganslandt. Festival director Bero Beyer delivered a poignant yet humorous opening address addressing the sexual misconduct incidents that have come out in some of the biggest film industries in the world and cinema's role in that conversation.

The entire city of Rotterdam buzzed in anticipation as nearly 2000 delegates - filmmakers, producers, distributors, actors, artists, film critics and journalists - joined a growing audience for the screenings of some 500 films and a host of master classes, talks, panels, industry activities of production and distribution, art installations and performances and networking events. De Doelen at the heart of the city remains the epicentre of the festival, but the venues of the festival are spread across the city.

On the second day, the festival hosted a talk by English actress Charlotte Rampling – a European arthouse legend, who also brought her latest film “Hannah” to the festival. Other big talks at the festival to come were by master Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul (whose “SLEEPCINEMAHOTEL” - blurring the line between cinema, installation and an actual operational hotel – is one of the highlights of the festival), “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull” scribe Paul Schrader and Czech animator-filmmaker Jan Švankmajer – whose swansong film “Insects” is having its world premiere at the festival.

The films, being screened in four main sections – Bright Future, Voices, Deep Focus and Perspectives (divided in numerous sub-sections) are a testament of IFFR's reputation of being one of the champions of independent cinema and taking the brave route of integrating visual art installations into the festival's programming. Aside from screenings of Greta Gerwig's “Lady Bird”, Margot Robbie-starrer “I, Tonya” and Paul-Thomas Anderson's “Phantom Thread” starring Daniel Day-Lewis (which will have a special screening at IFFR with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra playing the soundtrack live)--a host of films spanning the entire spectrum of visual storytelling and traveling in from across the globe are being screened.

For this correspondent, the first two days' highlights have included a taste of an eerie, existential French-language Canadian film, a gritty, engaging encounter about the hip-hop culture brewing in the slums of Philippines, tales of a healer of scorpion bites from the deserts of Rajasthan and a window into a bizarre Brazilian bar with complicated characters. And with another week and a half of full immersion into a veritable cinematic melting pot of epic proportions it is shaping up to be an unforgettable journey, glimpses of which will be brought to the readers of The Daily Star, both during and after the festival.

The Daily Star's Fahmim Ferdous is covering International Film Festival Rotterdam as a participant of its Young Film Critics Program.