Osian's Cinefan 2009

OSIAN'S CINEFAN 2009 Celebrating its eleventh birthday in New Delhi, Osian's Cinefan Film Festival (25-30 October 2009) started its second decade with a new direction, well-known independent filmmaker Mani Kaul as the director-general, and an eclectic program that stretched over several continents. Founded in 1999 as a small festival of Asian cinema by Aruna Vasudev, the president of Netpac (Network for Promotion of Asian cinema) and the founder and editor-in-chief of the now defunct Cinemaya Asian Film Quarterly, Cinefan gradually enlarged its scope to include Arab cinema as well and has become one of the largest festivals of contemporary Asian and Arab cinema in the world. This year, the thirteen first, second or third films 'InCompetition' from Asian and Arab world included two films from Turkey: a highly experimental film, Knot by Uigur Asan and There by Hakk Kurtulu and Melik Saraçolu, with overt influences of Ingmar Bergman. The..