Best of Mumbai Film Festival 2011

Brad Pitt in 'Moneyball'.

This year, the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) will showcase more than 150 films from over 40 countries, at the 13th Mumbai Film Festival, which runs from Thursday, October 13 to Thursday, October 20. If you haven’t signed up for a delegate’s pass, you can still attend by registering at the venue on the day of the screenings (all details can be found at mumbaifilmfest.com). Our picks for films you shouldn’t miss:

MONEYBALL Dir: Bennett Miller (USA/2011/2 hours 13 minutes)
Written by screenwriting heavyweights Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bennett Miller who made the stunning Capote, this critically acclaimed film puts a spotlight on the business of baseball. It stars Brad Pitt as a manager who assembles a baseball team using computer-generated analysis. (Which is kind of like what Lisa Simpson did on this The Simpsons episode.) Friday, October 14, Metro Big Cinemas, Screen 2, 5.30pm. *For those with passes for the inauguration of the festival on Thursday, October 13, Moneyball is the opening film.

TURIN HORSE Dir: Béla Tarr (Hungary-France-Switzerland-Germany/2011/2 hours 26 minutes)
Hungarian filmmaker Belá Tarr’s minimalistic apocalyptic film has an interesting premise. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, while traveling to the Italian city of Turin, stopped a horse from getting whipped. Nietzsche was soon diagnosed with a mysterious mental illness. The film has just 30 long takes, and is purportedly even better than Tarr’s Satantango and Werckmeister Harmonies. This also happens to be Tarr’s last film. Friday, October 14, Cinemax Versova, Screen 3, 12.30pm.

THE ARTIST Dir: Michel Hazanavicius (France/2011/1 hour 40 minutes)
The Artist is an ode to the black and white silent film era, but don’t let the lack of audio put you off. It received rapturous plaudits when it was screened earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, particularly for Jean Dujardin, who won Best Actor for his portrayal of a silent film star distraught with the emergence of talking pictures. Saturday, October 15, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 5.45pm.

MICHAEL Dir: Markus Schleinzer (Austria/2011/1 hour 36 minutes)
Based on the real life abduction of Austrian television hostess Natascha Kampusch in 1998, Michael revolves around an unassuming 33-year-old average Joe with a big secret. He has locked away in his house a 10-year-old boy to keep him company. Michael promises to be a gripping drama with very disturbing subject matter. Saturday, October 15, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 8.15pm.

TABLOID Dir: Errol Morris (USA/2010/1 hour 27 minutes)
In Errol Morris’s mesmerising new documentary, a beauty queen with an IQ of 168 travels across the globe, gets embroiled in kidnapping, porn, jail and cloning laboratories—all because she falls in love. Sunday, October 16, Big Cinemas Metro, Screen 2, 12.30pm.

MARGIN CALL Dir: J. C. Chandor (USA/2011/1 hour 50 minutes)
Zachary Quinto plays an investment banker who uncovers explosive information that could shatter the finance industry and destroy the lives of his colleagues Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, and Paul Bettany. A tense thriller that chronicles the first few hours of the financial crisis, Margin Call visualises many people’s fantasy of the demise of the banking world.  Sunday, October 16, Metro Big Cinemas, Screen 2, 8pm.

THE IDES OF MARCH Dir: George Clooney (USA/2011/1 hour 41 minutes)
Smartly cut and intelligently written, the film deals with dirty politics, nationwide scandals and exposes the underbelly of the electoral process in the US. It doesn’t hurt that the cast—Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood—is strictly A-list. Sunday, October 16, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 8.15pm.

PINA Dir: Wim Wenders (Germany-France-UK/2011/1 hour 40 minutes)
A sensual, gorgeous 3D film that pays homage to Pina Bausch, the famous German choreographer who died last year. The film is Germany’s official submission to the 84th Academy Awards. Monday, October 17, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 5.45pm.

SLEEPING BEAUTY Dir: Julia Leigh (Australia/2011/1 hour 37 minutes)
In this twisted take on the classic fairy tale of the same name, Emily Browning plays a young college student who, in a desperate attempt to make some quick money, gets embroiled in a mysterious cult that involves dreamless sleep, clients and unspeakable perversion. Monday, October 17, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 8.15pm.

THE YELLOW SEA Dir: Na Hong-jin (South Korea/2010/2 hours 36 minutes)
The director and stars of the magnificent Korean film The Chaser dole out yet another masterpiece of staggering proportions. A cab driver from Yanji, a region between North Korea, China and Russia, whose wife has disappeared in South Korea travels to the country to carry out a hit. Things take a turn when the murder goes awry and he is hunted by two separate mobs and the cops. Director Na Hong-jin is on the jury at the Mumbai Film Festival. Tuesday, October 18, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 3.45pm.

EVEN THE RAIN (TAMBIEN LA LLUVIA) Dir: Icíar Bollaín (Spain-France-Mexico/2010/1 hour 43 minutes)
This Spanish film is a movie-within-a-movie and often blurs the line between fact and fiction. Gael Garcia Bernal stars as a filmmaker who travels to Bolivia to make a movie about Christopher Colombus. Tuesday, October 18, Cinemax Versova, Screen 2, 3.45pm.

ONE LIFE Dir: Mike Gunton, Martha Holmes (UK/2011/1 hour 25 minutes)
A spectacular BBC-produced film, with sweeping visuals (taken from David Attenborough documentaries) and absorbing, witty narration by Daniel Craig, One Life is in short, nature porn. From silverback gorillas in the Congo to lammergeier vultures in Ethiopia, the eye-popping footage unveils mostly in slow motion to capture every single glorious detail. Tuesday, October 18, Cinemax Versova, Screen 1, 5.30pm.

ADAMINTE MAKAN ABU (ABU, SON OF ADAM) Dir: Salim Ahamed (India/2011/1 hour 41 minutes)
An acclaimed Malayalam drama and India’s official entry to the Oscars. Salim Kumar plays Abu, a poverty stricken perfume seller who goes to great lengths to embark on the Hajj pilgrimage Tuesday, October 18, Cinemax Versova, Screen 2, 5.45pm.

MELANCHOLIA Dir: Lars Von Trier (Denmark/2011/2 hours 10 minutes)
Melancholia is a highly stylised apocalyptic drama from Lars Von Trier, and a follow up to his controversial Antichrist. The film chronicles the lives of two sisters (Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg) during the final three days of planet Earth’s existence. Tuesday, October 18, Cinemax Versova, Screen 2, 8.15pm.

ANOTHER EARTH Dir: Mike Cahill (USA/2011/1 hour 32 minutes)
Scientists spot a duplicate Earth in the solar system. At the same time brilliant MIT student Rhoda Williams, and a man suffer an accident on a moonlit highway. Another Earth garnered a lot of buzz at the Sundance film festival earlier this year. Much like Melancholia, it promises to be a psychological drama enameled with metaphysical layers. Tuesday, October 18, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 8.15pm.

A BETTER LIFE Dir: Chris Weitz (USA/2011/1 hour 38 minutes)
A heart-warming father-son story from director Chris Weitz (About A Boy), this film has been described as a modern rendition of the classic neorealist Italian movie The Bicycle Thief. Wednesday, October 19, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 3.45pm.

GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD Dir: Martin Scorsese (USA/2011/3 hours 28 minutes)
Martin Scorcese’s highly anticipated documentary on the life of legendary musician George Harrison and his tryst with spirituality. The film features some biggies of the music and film worlds, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Ravi Shankar, Tom Petty and Terry Gilliam. Wednesday, October 19, Cinemax Versova, Screen 1, 8pm.

RESTLESS Dir: Gus Van Sant (USA/2011/1 hour 31 minutes)
Gus Van Sant’s latest features the ethereal Mia Wasikowska (she played Alice in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland) as a girl battling cancer. She falls in love with a boy who frequents funerals and befriends a Japanese ghost. Thursday, October 20, Cinemax Versova, Screen 1, 10.15am.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey/2011/2 hours 37 minutes)
By far the most anticipated film of the festival, this Turkish drama won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The film is a slow burn police procedural thriller that has been described as Zodiac meets Police, Adjective. Thursday, October 20, Cinemax Versova, Screen 3, 3.30pm.

FAUST Dir: Alexander Sokurov (Russia/2011/2 hours 14 minutes)
This film beat Shame, The Ides of March, A Dangerous Method and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to nab the top prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The movie, about a professor who enters into a pact with the devil, charmed and stumped critics in equal measure, who found much to love and loathe about its dreamlike imagery and “opaque narrative“. Thursday, October 20, Cinemax Versova, Screen 4, 3.45pm.