IFFI 50, IV: 17 films in specially curated Master Frames section 2019 marks the 50th year of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). The 50th International Film Festival of India, 2019, will witness over 200 selected films from 76 countries, 26 feature films and 15 non feature films in Indian panorama section, and more than 10,000 people and film lovers are expected to participate in the golden jubilee edition. On the occasion, a special section has been curated, called Master Frame...

(Chicuarotes World Premiere, Fatih Akin © Lindsay Bellinger 2019)  By LINDSAY R. BELLINGER I had the pleasure of chatting with Fatih Akin for a moment after the glorious world premiere of Gael García Bernal's film Chicuarotes, which screened in the Un Certain Regard section.  Although I wasn't fortunate enough to snag an interview with Akin at Berlinale 2019 to discuss his film Der Goldenen Handschuhe (The Golden Glove) I did let him know...

  (© Boris Laewen / 2018 bombero int./Warner Bros. Ent.)   By LINDSAY R. BELLINGER Honestly speaking, I had heard negative reviews from many journalists before heading into the extra press screening for Der goldene Handschuh (The Golden Glove). The first two press screenings at Cinemaxx Potsdamer Platz were already to the max 20 minutes before the screening even started. I've never seen that happen before. There were so many of us standing there, a bit stunned and sur...

Meager, for the most part, is the attempt by Fatih Akin to recreate the unambitious life of Fritz Honka, a schizophrenic killer who, in the seventies of Hamburg, brutally murders and dismembers four prostitutes in his hideous attic.    Unquestionably crowned the most abominable film of 2019, Akin&...

(Jonas Dassler and Fatih Akin, © Lindsay Bellinger 2019)   By LINDSAY R. BELLINGER   Many journalists were grumbling as they chatted with one another about their first impressions of Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin's Der Goldene Handschuh (The Golden Glove), which runs in competition this year at the Berlin International Film Festival. It seems that some felt that there was unnecessary gore and violence with a plot that was not that substantial. That makes me wo...