Jyothi Venkatesh selects six foreign films and six Indian films showcased at the recently held 16th Bengaluru International film festival 2025.
This year’s Bangalore International Film Festival held from March 1 to March 8 set out to showcase a mix of intense dramas, historical narratives, gripping thrillers, and light-hearted comedies during the one-week long film festival held at PVR Orion in as many as thirteen screens. The best thing about the film festival was the way the Director Vidyasagar and Anand Kannan looked after the dignitaries and filmmakers who had congregated at the Bengaluru International Film Festival:
Anora (USA, 138 min) – This Oscar-winning film directed by Sean Baker follows a Brooklyn sex worker who unexpectedly gets the chance to marry into wealth. It is about how a young escort from Brooklyn meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairy tale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
Black Dog (China, 110 min) – A moving story about a former stunt motorcyclist and his bond with a stray dog in a decaying Chinese town, exploring the rash realities of rapid urban urbanisation.
The Girl with the Needle (Denmark, 115 min) – A true-crime-inspired drama about a young woman in post-WWI Denmark who unknowingly becomes entangled with a ruthless underworld figure linked to a series of murders.
Story of Suleiman (France, 93 min) – A compelling portrayal of an immigrant food delivery driver navigating life in Paris, exploring themes of identity, belonging and survival.
Dying (Germany, 180 min) – A dark comedy-drama about an aging couple confronting death, inspired by the styles of Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.
La Chimera is about how , just out of jail, a crumpled English archaeologist Arthur reconnects with his wayward crew of accomplices – a happy-go-lucky collective of grave-robbers who survive by looting Etruscan tombs and fencing the ancient treasures they dig up.
Malayalam film Level Cross won the Second Best Indian Film award at the 16th Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFes) 2025. Directed by Arfaz Ayub, the film received accolades for its psychological depth and technical brilliance, standing out in tough competition.
Feminichi Fathima is a Malayalam-language film directed by Fasil Muhammed. The film is a social drama that explores themes of gender equality, cultural traditions, and personal empowerment through the lens of its protagonist, Fathima. Feminichi Fathima is a sharp, satirical journey of one woman’s quiet resistance, navigating the path to self-reliance and breaking free from tradition. Fathima (Shamla Hamza), a housewife navigating life under the thumb of her conservative husband, Ashraf (Kumar Sunil). An Usthad by profession, he is highly respected in his community, yet his backward views on marital life and gender roles are laughable when set against Fathima’s growing realisation of her own agency.
Indu Lakshmi’s Malayalam film Appuram (The Other Side) is a tender yet unflinching portrayal of familial bonds tested by psychological fragility and societal oppression. Showcased at the International 16th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2025, this evocative film weaves an intense drama with a sharp critique of regressive traditions that still persist. Set against the backdrop of a middle-class family, Appuram unfolds through the eyes of Janaki (Anagha Ravi), a teenage girl caught in the crosscurrents of love, fear and societal constraints.
Starring Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi in lead roles, Amaran the Tamil film produced by Kamal Haasan, is based on the real-life story of Major Mukund Varadarajan, who was the head of Rashtriya Rifles. With the film being a biopic, it covers all aspects of Mukund’s life, and not only his years in the army. While it is public knowledge that Mukund lost his life, the director made sure to make the screenplay engaging, turning the biopic into a dramatic thriller.
Anand Madhusoodanan, who entered the industry as a music director through Ranjith Shankar’s Molly Aunty Rocks, has written the script and lyrics, composed the songs, and acted as the leading man Shiju Bhakthan in this film. Anand plays the role of Shiju Bhakthan, the hero who has a failed first marriage because the bride went with her lover on the day of marriage. Initially reluctant, Shiju eventually decides to try his luck again in the matrimonial world, and he finds Sajitha, a police constable who also had a failed first marriage. After marriage, the couple was not able to conceive a baby, and their journey to fulfil that wish is what we see in Sooraj Tom’s Vishesham.
Last but not the least in the recently concluded Bengaluru International Film Festival, based on Sonia S’s autobiography, the heart-warming Kannada film Mikka Bannada Hakki directed by Manohara. K, is a coming-of-age story about 12-year-old Sonia, a girl with albinism from a poor village near Bengaluru. Her alcoholic father resents her, while her well-meaning mother is helpless. When she joins 8th grade in a city school, she faces discrimination and hostility from classmates, with no support from her class teacher, Ashwini. Struggling with self-doubt and despair, Sonia is pushed to the brink. Over time, she transforms from a timid, self-pitying girl into a mature young woman who learns self-acceptance and inner peace.
