West Meets East

British Film Festival begins amid an overwhelming response

By A CORRESPONDENT

United Kingdom is the first country to have diplomatic relations with Nepal. This relation has about two hundred years long history but only a few Nepalese are familiar with the British culture and films.

Because of the initiatives by the British Embassy and British Council, a large number of city dwellers have got the opportunity to see the British films at Gopi Krishna Theater in Kathmandu. The fifth British Film Festival began in Kathmandu on 21 November. It will last till November 25.

In the fifth year of its inception, British films find wider audience in the valley. Following months of running empty theaters in the evening, Gopi Krishna Cinema hall now finds house-full audience in its night show.

Inaugurated by British ambassador Keith Bloomfield, five recent British films will be shown in the Gopi Krishna. Funded by the British Embassy, the British Council is organizing the program.

“We have chosen five films which explores the diversity of modern British life and culture,” said ambassador Keith Bloomfield, inaugurating the festival. “All audiences will find them interesting.”

“The British Council is happy to organize fifth British Film Festival,” said John Fry, country manager, British Council.

The British Council has been doing important job in Nepal providing English Education to Nepalese children as well as library facilities to all kinds of Nepalese. The film festival is part of its program to show the cultural life as well as contemporary life of the United Kingdom.

The festival kicked off on November 21 with the premiere film “28 days later”. The film was about a virus, that locks those infected into a permanent state of killing rage, is accidentally released from a British Research facility carried by animals and humans, the virus is impossible to contain and spread across entire planet. This is struggle of a small survivors trapped in London to protect themselves from infection.

The second film Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason was also interesting. Selected very sincerely, all the films have important messages to Nepalese audiences particularly young.

The third film The Magic Roundabout lies in ruins; the evil ice sorcerer Zee Badee is on the loose and the fate of the enchanted land hangs in the balance. As a frosty mist sweeps the earth, four unlikely heroes Brian, Ermintrude, Dylan and Dougal step forward to challenge the chill. The Ae Fond Kiss is another interesting film, which is based on the story of a second generation Pakistani from Glasgow. This film showed the life of an immigrant in the British society.

“It is very good to watch British films. But they are not accessible. I have been waiting for one year to see the British film festival,” said Rajesh Shrestha, 21, an undergraduate student.