CURTAINS came down on 7th Dhaka International Film Festival on January 28. A total of 99 films from 19 countries were exhibited at the auditoriums of Central Public Library, Goethe Institut and Indian High Commission Cultural Center. Sev-

eral public cinema halls were also included in the list of venues of the film festival that lasted for 7 days.

Rainbow Film Society had a special reason to celebrate this year's festival a little bit more than usual as The 7th Dhaka festival coincided with the 25th year of Rainbow's life.

At the end of the weeklong event, members of different Jury Boards who were designated for the film festival carried out judgement on the exhibited films. There were five awards for presentation from different sponsor groups both from the side of hosts as well as from foreign delegates.

The sponsored categories were of Rainbow Silver Jubilee Award, Audience Award, Don Quixote Award, International Film Critics Association FIPRESCI Award, and International Jury Award for the best film.

Rainbow Film Society introduced an award to highlight and commemorate its Silver Jubilee and the Rainbow Silver Jubilee Award went to an Indian film Monkalangal (Guardians of the Earth) directed by renowned filmmaker Subrah-manian Santa Kumar. Award included a crest and a certificate.

Co-ordinator of the Committee of Rainbow Silver Jubilee Award was Mohamed Mijarul Quayes.

The White Balloon, a film from

Iran earned a very important recognition in the festival by way of winning Audience Award. The film, directed by Jafar Panahi, was honoured with crest and certificate. Audience Survey was co-ordinated by Bangladesh Federation of the Film Societies and the Convenor of the survey committee was Mr. Sirazul Islam Khan.

International Federation of Film

Societies has introduced Don Quixote Award, and this year the award went to a Sri Lankan film, The Compensation. Director of the film was Bennett Rathnayake, a young filmmaker who made his debut through this festival. Ole Petter Bakken from Norway, Ebbe Preisler from Denmark and Morshedul Islam from Bangladesh were members of the Jury Board.

International Film Critics Association honoured a film from Iran, Unfinished Song with FIPRESCI Award. Seyed Maziar Miri directed the film. Prize included crest and certificate. Jury Board included three members, Derek Malcolm from UK as Chairman of the board, Probodh Mitra from India and Nasiruddin Yusuf from the host country.

International Jury Award for the best film was presented to a Japanese production, Future Diary The Movie. Sugimoto Toru directed the film that received crest, certificate and a financial amount of taka One hundred thousand. Members of the Jury Board included film personalities from Bangladesh and India like Masihuddin Shaker, Baby Islam and Sreelekha Mukherjee.

Guardians of the Earth, the Indian film that won Rainbow Silver Jubilee Award was a colour, 35 mm production with a serious type of plot, full of emotional stress in the

lives of the Kumbharas or the potters of Kerala. The film looked into the harsh and crude lifestyle of the poverty-stricken third world community bull-dozed by progress of industrialisation. The entire story is seen in the perspective of Alagiri, a maverick among the potters and the life of a family. The neighbouring families carried on with their daily

rituals and finally the Kumaran couple met a tragic end to their lives.

Plot of the film The White Balloon told the story of Razieye, a girl child who, before the start of a New Year, went out to buy a fancy gold fish. On way to the shop she lost her money. At this particular stage of the film, Panahi, the director tried to introduce the child to the audience as a serious human being who was worried about personal possession rather than being a mere child with careless thoughts and shuffling attention. In her search for the lost

money, Razieye met a lot of people who seemed uninterested in her thoughts and many simply were too busy with other works than to give attention to her requests and queries. Thus at a point, the girl's hopes and dreams were shattered like house of cards and there remained no joyful moments for the girl in the New Year's day.

The Compensation introduced a man whose wife had died the previous day and the man remained stationary beside the funeral pyre. After the completion of the final rituals he reached a police station and disclosed a shocking truth. He demanded his arrest for an earlier misdeed of a murder he said he committed some 52 years ago. The couple had a secret pact that the truth should be revealed by one of them after the death of the other spouse. The police now started looking into the murder story and gradually the gruesome tale turned

to be real. After the narration of the incidents, the old man seemed relieved of his duties and felt as if he had awakened from a spell of deep meditation.

Unfinished Song focussed upon a young musician who headed to the north-west province of an Iranian town, Khorasan. His intention was to collect some folk songs, sung by village girls, where he was born. It was also the birthplace of Iranian folk music. He only found traces of lullabies and sad mourning songs. There remained no one to sing the song of joy and happiness.

The Future Diary was a feature film based on a TV show. City girl Yuka spent a summer in the hills with city boy Taru and island boy Kuniyuki. The three fell for each other but again became worried by obeying the rules inscribed in the pages of a mysterious diary they were handed upon. The natural obstacles of the small group, their emotions and ideals received full attention in the plot of the film. A poignant, moving story of pure teenage love and friendship could be found in the scenes.