People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2016

20

Film

‘B’wood Oscars’

Spain luresBollywood MADRID, June 19, (AFP): Spain is coaxing Indian moviemakers to use its colourful fi estas and historic monuments as settings for their fi lms, in a move to grab a bigger share of India’s fast-growing over-seas tourism market.

As part of its bid to lure visitors from the world’s second most popu-lous country, Madrid will host next weekend the annual International Indian Film Academy awards, dubbed the “Bollywood Oscars”.

In global tourism, Spain ranks as the third most visited country, but

it now wants to diversify its tourism base beyond the tra-ditional north-ern European s u n s e e k e r s that account for the bulk of its visitors.

Among the B o l l y w o o d stars who will attend the

awards ceremony in Spain will be hunky Indian actor Hrithik Roshan, the green-eyed star of the 2011 coming-of-age movie “Zind-agi Na Milegi Dobara”, which was produced in close collaboration with the Spanish tourism promotion agency, Turespana.

HurlThe fi lm about three friends on a

pre-marriage road trip across Spain includes scenes at “La Tomatina” festival in the town of Bunol, where revellers hurl mushy tomatoes at each other, as well as at Pamplona’s San Fermin bull running festival.

With scenes also set in Barce-lona, Seville and the beaches of the Costa Brava, the movie was the fi rst major Indian production to shoot extensively in various locations in Spain.

It was also the highest grossing Bollywood fi lm of 2011.

“There was an immediate im-pact in the number of people re-questing entry visas to travel to Spain,” the director of the London office of Turespana, Enrique Ruiz de Lera, who led the agency’s talks with the producers of the movie, told AFP.

The year after its release, 60,444 Indians visited Spain, nearly dou-ble the 2011 fi gure, according to the industry and tourism ministry. Last year 85,000 Indians visited Spain.

Lonely Planet in 2013 launched a guide to Spain aimed specifi cal-ly at the Indian market and travel agencies still advertise tours to the locations featured in the “Zindagi” movie.

India’s ambassador to Spain, Vikram Misri, said the fi lm “was singlehandedly responsible for making Spain a household name in India and increasing tourism from India”.

AidTurespana suggested locations

for fi lming but gave no direct fi nan-cial aid to cover the cost of making the movie, Ruiz de Lera said.

Instead it helped secure permits to fi lm at key sites and negotiate deals on hotel rooms and transpor-tation for the crew to lower produc-tion costs.

“We helped a lot with contacts so fi lming in Spain was easy,” Ruiz de Lera said.

In return the producers of the fi lm agreed to include a short advertise-ment before the start of the movie promoting Spain by award-winning Spanish director Julio Medem.

Spain and India signed a fi lm co-production agreement the year after “Zindagi” was released.

Turespana regularly takes part in fi lm location fairs in India to pitch the tax breaks and other incentives available to movie producers who shoot in Spain.

Since “Zindagi”, another “fi ve or six” Indian fi lms have been shot in Spain although none was as popular at the box offi ce, the director of the Mumbai offi ce of Turespana, Igna-cio Ducasse, told AFP.

They include one by “Zinda-gi” director Zoya Akhtar — “Dil Dhadakne Do” featuring Bolly-wood star Anil Kapoor — which was fi lmed on a ship belonging to Pullmantur, Spain’s biggest cruise operator.

The comedy-drama about a dys-functional family on a 10-day Med-iterranean cruise was released last year and it includes scenes shot in Barcelona as well as in the various bars, restaurants and open decks of the ship.

Kapoor, 59, best known interna-tionally for his role in the 2008 fi lm “Slumdog Millionaire”, said during a visit to Madrid in March to pro-mote the Bollywood Oscars that he is “looking forward to coming back again and again to Spain”.

Tourism is crucial for the Span-ish economy, accounting for around 11 percent of gross domestic prod-uct and one in nine jobs, according to the tourism ministry.

Roshan

Welsh rock singer and songwriter Bonnie Tyler performs during her concert in Debrecen, 226 kms east of Budapest, Hungary, on June 18. (AP)

Indian Bollywood Actress Aditi Rao Hydari poses for a photograph during a promotional event in Mumbai. (AFP)

‘Tess’ helmer Rickards confronts diffi cult subject head-on

Cinema can help change ‘rape culture’LOS ANGELES, June 19, (RTRS): Meg Rickards is no stranger to the spotlight in Durban, where she won the documen-tary audience award two years ago for “1994: The Bloody Miracle.” This year she returns with “Tess,” a powerful ad-aptation of the award-winning South Af-rican novel “Whiplash,” about a 20-year-old prostitute in Cape Town whose life is torn apart by drug addiction, rape, and an unwanted pregnancy. Rickards spoke to Variety about the challenge of confronting a diffi cult subject head-on, and whether South Africa might be at a turning point in its fi ght against sexual violence.

Variety: Your movie is adapted from Tracey Farren’s award-winning novel “Whiplash,” about a 20-year-old prosti-tute and addict in Cape Town whose life is turned upside-down by an unexpected pregnancy. Had you read the book before you came onboard for the movie? How did that source material infl uence how you made “Tess”?

Rickards: I read “Whiplash” in 2009 and became besotted by the uncannily real main character, Tess, and by her journey. My pillow was sodden by the time I fi nished reading the book — it shook me to my core. I was desperate to adapt the novel for the screen, but learned that Tracey Farren was already writing the script, with a producer and director attached. Gutted, I tried to move on. A year later I still couldn’t get the project out of my head and found out that the option on the script was lapsing. We picked up the project and spent the next couple of years working with Tracey to develop it further.

The source material is riveting in con-veying Tess’ internal thoughts and memo-ries, and so the challenge was to fi nd cin-ematic ways of getting under Tess’ skin through performance, visuals and sound. The novel is gut-wrenchingly explicit, and likewise, I didn’t want the movie to sanitize Tess’ experience in any way. Of course the fi lm is condensed, and can’t

hope to be as detailed or nuanced as the book, but I hope it captures something of the Tess that so obsessed me.

Variety: Audiences might be remind-ed of Roman Polanski’s classic adapta-tion of “Tess of the D’Urbervilles,” with Nastassja Kinski in the leading role. Was there any infl uence there? Do you see a parallel with your own fi lm — a young woman who’s victimized by an unfair society, but who manages to discover her own inner strength at the worst of times?

RiskRickards: At the risk of exposing

myself as a literary and cinematic phil-istine, I have never read Hardy’s classic; nor had I watched Polanski’s adapta-tion — until two days ago. Our fi lm was originally called “Whiplash” in line with Tracey’s novel. But then in 2014 Dam-ien Chazelle’s smash-hit movie came out, bearing OUR name, blast it! Our fi lm would follow too hot on its heels, so we test-drove a couple of new ones, until during post-production the editor Linda Man and I decided the fi lm was so unrelentingly about the main charac-ter that it should be named “Tess” after her. Of course I knew about “Tess of the D’urbervilles” and Polanski’s adapta-tion, but didn’t imagine any confusion with the 1979 Oscar-winner!

Tracey and I joke about how “con-crete” I am compared to her more spiritual outlook, but having belatedly watched Polanksi’s brilliantly cinematic “Tess,” I concede that there is some kind of shared pulse. Our Tess is brutalized at a very early age — with devastating con-sequences as she keeps re-enacting her trauma, until she eventually turns round and says “No.” So yes, there is an unwit-ting parallel.

Variety: Polanski’s “Tess” got a no-toriously rough reception at Cannes. Do you worry about how South African au-diences will react to a story that bluntly confronts some uncomfortable truths about their society? Within the industry,

what sort of reaction did you get?Rickards: The industry is in some re-

spects a tolerant space. It is very differ-ent sending a fi lm out to the broad public: I am certain some viewers will fi nd the fi lm overly explicit. For this story, in this society, I was compelled to chuck the kid gloves away. I wanted watching “Tess” to be a visceral and emotional experi-ence. The cinematographer Bert Haitsma and I talked long and hard about how to fi lm the rape scene in particular, and we worked carefully with the actors, to en-sure that the audience remains very much “with Tess.”

Christia Visser so courageously em-bodies the character of Tess; her per-formance is so explosive — I think that many viewers will be drawn in. Brendon Daniels opposite her is also astoundingly brave. Still, no doubt some people will hate the fi lm and I’ll come under fi re for being so direct. So be it. Rather that than an insipid “it was OK” kind of reaction.

ViolenceVariety: South Africa has one of

the highest rates of sexual violence in the world, and I know you’ve worked to build awareness around a fi lm that, as you’ve put it, “expresses a refusal to keep abuse secret or take the blame.” Can you talk about the “Walk for Whiplash,” and how you think “Tess” can contribute to an ongoing dialogue in the country? How successful was your crowd-funding campaign, and what does that say about South Africans’ changing attitudes to-ward sexual violence?

Rickards: Yes, it’s famously said that a woman born in South Africa has more chance of being raped than of learning to read. Child abuse and rape are terri-fyingly ubiquitous. So much so that the stats are diffi cult to digest — and we remain numb. I wanted to make a fi lm that confronted the raw reality of sexual violence in a way that was in your face, impossible to ignore or intellectualize. It needed to be urgent and angering.

For a long time our fi lm was stuck in the funding doldrums. At our wits’ end we had begun a crowd-funding cam-paign but needed to extend our reach be-yond our own circles.... We decided on something in the spirit of performance art, to embody the fi lm’s premise — about “breaking the silence” and “shed-ding the shame.”...So I walked from the center of, 26 kilometers along the Main Road arterial to Muizenberg, the seaside suburb where our fi lm is set — dressed in a torn petticoat and painted-on bruises.

I didn’t know yet what a crucial part of my fi lmmaking journey the walk would become. Along the way, strangers stopped me. One woman fl ung her arms around me, saying: “You look like me before I left my husband”; others assured me they would leave “one day.” Yet an-other wept: I reminded her of her moth-er, and she’d felt so helpless as a child to help her. Schoolgirls snapped photos on their phones, amazed that whereas the women they knew covered their bruises with scarves and makeup, I showed mine. Of course my bruises were easy to display, precisely because they were fake — something I kept pointing out. When I reached Muizenberg and stepped into the sea to wash them away, I was more determined than ever to make the fi lm.

The money we raised via crowd-funding was a small portion of the fi nal budget, but it made it possible for us to carry on — and yes, I do think the sup-port points to the fact that South Africans have had enough of what is now being called a “rape culture,” and that that there is a groundswell to change things.... Of course none of us suppose the fi lm will solve issues of gender-based violence and child abuse. But I do believe that fi lms can be good at promoting empa-thy, sometimes even shifting cultural attitudes. Anthony Minghella said fi lms aren’t capable of changing the world, but can sometimes nudge it in better direc-tions. I’d be so grateful if “Tess” could do a bit of nudging.

Film

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn perform during 2016 Windy City LakeShake Country Music Festival – Day 2 at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at

Northerly Island on June 18, in Chicago, Illinois. (AFP)

Australian fi lmmakerPaul Cox ‘dies’ at 76BRISBANE, Australia, June 19, (AP): Award-winning Australian fi lmmaker Paul Cox has died, the Australian Directors Guild said Sun-day. He was 76.

The guild did not disclose the cause of death, but Cox said last year that his transplanted liver had cancer.

He wrote and directed the 2015 movie “Force of Destiny,” starring David Wenham, which follows the journey of a man who fi nds love while waiting for a life-saving liver transplant.

The fi lm was loosely based on Cox’s own cancer battle before a transplant in 2009 pulled him back from the brink.

His early features, “Lonely Hearts” in 1981, “Man of Flowers” in 1983 and “My First Wife” in 1984 were acclaimed in Australia and in-ternationally.

The documentary itself is also, as Variety critic Dennis Harvey wrote, “no laughing matter.” Its catchy hook — a

journalist investigates an online tickling-video ring — ends up resembling more of a psychological thriller as he uncovers a

world of conspiracy and ruined lives, run by an operation disguised by anonymity.

David Farrier, the fi lm’s other direc-

tor who is also the journalist at the center of the documentary, was not at the Los Angeles premiere, but posted a transcript of the live stream on his Facebook page. (RTRS)

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LOS ANGELES: A Dutch delegation was in Durban this week to meet with their South African counterparts, as the two countries look to build on the co-produc-tion treaty they signed in December.

At a gathering June 18 hosted by South Africa’s National Film & Video Founda-tion, industry professionals talked up the potential of a pact that could benefi t both nations in terms of accessing fi nanc-ing schemes, reaching wider audiences, boosting technical capacities, and telling exciting new stories.

“We need South Africa in expanding our views on the world, as they might need us in getting more technical or in-dustrial support,” said Frank Peijnenburg, head of Screen NL.

Filmmakers from the two countries have collaborated in the past on movies such as Paula van der Oest’s “Black Butterfl ies,” a biopic of the poet Ingrid Jonker; “The Price of Sugar,” Jean van de Velde’s period drama about slavery in the Dutch colony of Suriname; and Francois Verster’s “The Dream of Shah-razad,” an “Arabian Nights”-style spin on the Arab Spring. (RTRS)

Gervais Fallon

LOS ANGELES: Never one to show fear, Ricky Gervais attempted the most celebrity impressions in 30 seconds on last night’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

Also, never one to take things too seri-ously, Gervais did every single impres-sion in a high-pitched version of his own British accent.

Fallon raised the issue that, while many Hollywood actors change their accents depending on the role, Gervais tends to consistently sound exactly like himself.

“The reason I don’t do accents isn’t that I can’t, it’s that I can’t be bothered,” Gervais tries to explain. “I’m a brilliant impressionist.”

Apparently Gervais has been spend-ing a lot of time on the Internet, gaining inspiration from people who attempt a lot of impressions in a short amount of time. Jimmy Fallon, himself, has a regular seg-ment on his show where he asks singers to impersonate other artists.

“You see those things on YouTube of people doing 20 impressions in 20 sec-onds. I can do that,” Gervais said. “I can do it better than them.” (RTRS)

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LOS ANGELES: Two of the subjects of the documentary “Tickled” aren’t laugh-ing.

During the fi lm’s Los Angeles premiere Friday night, David D’Amato and Kevin Clarke accused the co-director Dylan Reeve of using recorded material that they had not agreed to.

Magnolia Pictures released video footage of the altercation on its Facebook page. In one video, D’Amato and Clarke question Reeve inside the Nuart Theatre, during the Q&A portion of the premiere. In another, they stand outside the theater surrounded by a group of people holding up cameras to capture the argument.

“The point is if you promise that something is off the record, it should be off the record,” Clarke tells Reeve during the Q&A.

Variety