FINAL
SOLUTION
Screening and Discussion with Rakesh Sharma
* Best Documentary & Critic's
Choice,
Hong Kong International Film Festival
* Wolfgang Staudte Award & Special Jury Award, Berlin International
Film Festival
Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate.
Set in Gujarat, India between February 2002 and July 2003, the film
examines
the aftermath of the deadly violence
that followed the burning of 58 Hindus on the Sabarmati Express train
at Godhra on February 27 2002. In “reaction” to that
incident, some 2,500 Muslims were brutally murdered, hundreds of
women raped, and more than 200,000 families driven from their homes. (2004,
India, 145 min)
About the Film
Part
1: Pride and Genocide deals with the genocidal violence
against Muslims and its immediate aftermath. It probes the patterns
of pre-planned violence by right-wing Hindu cadres which many claim
was state-supported, if not state-sponsored.
Part 2: The Terror Trail reconstructs
through eyewitness accounts the attack on Gulbarg (Ahmedabad) and
acts of barbaric violence against Muslim women at Eral and Delol/Kalol
(Panchmahals) even as Chief Minister Modi traverses the state on
his Gaurav Yatra.
Part
3: The Hate Mandate documents the poll campaign during
the Assembly elections in Gujarat in late 2002. It records in detail
the exploitation of the Godhra incident (in which 58 Hindus were
burnt alive) by the right-wing propaganda machinery for electoral
gains.
Part 4: Hope and Despair studies
the situation after the storm and its impact on Hindus and Muslims'
ghettoisation, the call for economic boycott of Muslims and continuing
acts of violence more than a year after the carnage.
About the Director
Rakesh
Sharma began his film/TV career in 1986 as an assistant director
on Shyam Benegal's Discovery of India. His broadcast industry experience
includes the set up/ launch of 3 broadcast channels in India: Channel
[V], Star Plus and Vijay TV and several production consultancy assignments.
He has now gone back to independent documentary film-making.
His last film Aftershocks:
The Rough Guide to Democracy won the Best documentary film
award at Fribourg, Big Mini-DV and at Big Muddy and won 7 other
awards (including the Robert Flaherty prize) at various festivals
in USA and Europe during 2002-03. It has been screened at over
90 international film festivals.
Contact:
gujaratfilm@yahoo.com
Press
Interview
with Rakesh Sharma
Berlinale Catalogue
"Post-Godhra,
hate still threatens: Filmmaker"
Hindustan Times, Apr 15, 2004
"Indian
movie shines at Hong Kong festival"
Times of India, Apr 15, 2004
"Polling
strings"
Shanta Gokhale, Mid-Day, Feb 17, 2004
"A
miss at MIFF, accolades at Berlinale"
Kalpana Sharma, The Hindu, Feb 17, 2004
"Mumbai
reject finally shines in Berlin"
Times of India, Feb 17, 2004
"Rakesh
Sharma's film wins accolades at Berlin film fest"
IndianTelevision, Feb 16, 2004
"Women
from minority community still traumatised"
Piali Banerjee, Times of India, Dec 16, 2003
"The
ride is less bumpy"
Shubhra Gupta, Sep 29, 2003, The Hindu Business
Line
Festivals
Berlinale (International
premiere), Hong
Kong, Fribourg, Istanbul 1001fest, Singapore, Flanders
(Belgium), World
Social Forum (Mumbai; Indian premiere), Vikalp (Mumbai
filmfest organised by Campaign against Censorship) and several
other filmfests.
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