Kolkata International Film Festival 2023, hosted by the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal, was inaugurated by the honourable CM, Sri Mamata Banerjee along with a host of stars including Bollywood heartthrob Salman Khan, Sonakshi and Shatrughna Sinha with Sourav Ganguly, former India Cricket Captain, with Sandip Ray, Anjan Dutta and other Tollywood big names including, Prosenjit Chatterjee and others, is meant to stimulate minds of filmmakers and cinema goers over a period of 8 days from 5th Dec to 12th Dec 2023. Such an event, is meant to get all eye balls with many films screened in the international and national level with some special masterclasses arranged by Filmmakers.

French filmaker Aurelia Mengin’s movie Scarlet Blue is screened in the international section, a movie 🎥 that takes out a hidden reality within the mundane and re-unfolds the narrative in a dramatic way. To understand and fully appreciate the film, we have to go back to a major event in 2022, when French Physicist Alain Aspect was given Noble Prize in Physics for his pioneering research in areas of quantum physics (quantum technology), a historical moment which brought the scientific community much closer to the daily weirdness of existence where synchronicities, paranormal and psychological aspects are probed with a scientific rigour and with a touch of creative intuition. So, gone are the days when events like clairvoyance or distant healing or past life regression are treated as anomalies or spooky and kept aside for lack of understanding. The understanding of quantum physics directly proves that minds can communicate faster than light with thought-waves which have both dual nature (wave/particle) and reality is not classical in the sense we perceive it. Now a whole new mystical world and its corresponding events are within our grasp of scientific understanding, no more a taboo or magic. While speaking Aurelia Mengin, the filmmaker, she made it specific that her films are about the phantastik which is a broader genre and cultivated with passion over the ages. Scarlet Blue, the film has protagonist who suffers from mental depression and schizophrenia, and, visits a healer who knows hipnosis to cure patients. We are already in the strange world of quantum entanglement, parapsychology. The protagonist comes to know after going through several sessions that her own mother has kept away some secret from her, a truth she needs to understand. While speaking with Aurelia Mengin, about the movie and her interests, it came out that she was fascinated herself by strange processes of healing that exists in French Reunion islands in the Indian Ocean like Madagascar and others. The practice is traditional and sometimes, some liquid is given to patients to heal, or, clear some blockage in the energy bodies, perhaps. Her film Adam and Even which will be shown on 9th Dec, 2023 at Alliance Francise du Bengale, is one such movie that brings a new evocative symbolic style of diving into reality, strangeness added to beauty. Her 2018 film, Fornacis won the first prize in Girona Film Festival, and, she was motivated to start her own festival titled ‘Even not Fear’, which is now one of top ten festivals on film in Europe, a significant achievement by Aurelia, who was her vibrant best in the festival, looked like some character from the beautiful strange world; her father who lived in Paris and also in the islands, probably let her experience both Champs-Élysées lifestyle, and, the quaint faroff flora fauna of the islands where she grew up, with its strange practises and charming beauty bordering on the esoteric, hidden corners of mind and reality. “To grow, one has to come out from their comfort zone and get exposed to different traditions, folk and culture, to be one filmmaker who could tell new narratives in a new style, I have always followed my passion and intuition, and, here I am learning all the time”. She was very engaging in her talk and open with her ideas and influences. I am very fortunate to interact with her, and, hope to play some future role in her own festival. A video interview will be shared soon.

D