“Indian cinema is like disco”
The Indian film I AM KALAM (by Nila Madhab Panda) manages easily to get round the European festival audiences. The film won several awards and got a warm welcome in London, Giffoni, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Vienna, Oulu, Copenhagen… The story about little Chhotu (common name for an Indian child laborer) who wants to go to school but ends up as a worker in a dhaba (an open roadside restaurant) sparkles and sputters in a million colors, as it is set in photogenic Rajasthan. Continue reading “Interview with Nila Madhab Panda (I AM KALAM)”
THE RACE tells about an Irish farming family collapsing while 11 year old daughter Mary is trying to make her dream come true: driving a go-kart and winning a race. Something she can only do with the support of her father, a grumpy farmer with enough problems of his own: agricultural crisis, his wife applying for a divorce and the sudden decline of fatherly authority. The film by André F. Nebe, starring debuting Niamh McGirr and Hollywood star Colm Meany as her father, is a true European co-production. 
With an appealing story concept and a series of special effects tickling the youngsters’ senses, THE MAGIC TREE is successfully touring the festival circuit, received enthusiastically by every young audience. 
In 1977 the book ‘Vorstadtkrokodile’ by Max von der Grün was adapted into a popular TV-film. Now Christian Ditter did a remake for the big screen. THE CROCODILES still carries along the heritage of the late seventies: the film’s perspective on ethnic minorities, disabled children, parenthood, etc. needed to be updated. THE CROCODILES can be considered an interesting case study in group’s dynamics: a bunch of children with different social backgrounds brought together in one gang in the suburbs of a German town. 
As editor of the Internet magazine ‘Films & Festivals’ Rose Chamberlain knows about festivals. But what does she think about the recently discovered circuit of children’s film festivals? “They raise tomorrows’ festival audiences. I find them so very inspiring.”