High Museum
May 9-10, 16-17, 2008

Special Spotlight Series Features Academy Award–Winner Javier Bardem

ATLANTA, April 9, 2008 – Summer films kick off at the High in May with two series: the seventh annual Film Festival of India and Starring Javier Bardem. Both series feature multiple critically acclaimed foreign films, including Indian festival opener The Voyeurs,whose director Buddhadev Dasgupta won seven international awards for his work. Javier Bardem, the featured actor of the second spotlight film series, has been nominated for nearly 80 awards and won over 50, including last year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar for No Country for Old Men.

Co-sponsored by the Georgia Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and the Indo-American Film Society, the Film Festival of India will run from May 9 through 31.

“The Film Festival of India brings outstanding alternative Indian cinema to Atlanta audiences. The films we’ll be presenting are not Bollywood spectaculars, but the Indian counterpart of American indie cinema—thoughtful, off-beat and provocative,” said Linda Dubler, the High’s Curator of Media Arts. “We have showcased Javier Bardem’s performances over the years, but with his recent Oscar win for ’No Country for Old Men,’ it seemed like an ideal time to create a festival around his brilliant work.”

Film Festival of India

This series begins on Friday, May 9, with The Voyeurs,a story about two country boys trying to make it in the city. Dilip and Yasim are surveillance-camera installers who take it too far when Dilip starts spying on his beautiful neighbor, a dancer named Rekha. Director Buddhadev Dasgupta tenderly tells Dilip’s story while also critiquing the modern culture of surveillance and fear.

On Saturday, May 10, the festival continues with Before the Rains. In 1937 India, Henry Moores has begun building a road to his spice plantation. With his right-hand man T.K. running construction, Henry begins romancing his married housekeeper Sajani. The relationship sparks a series of tragic events stemming from the community’s outrage and the arrival of Moores’ wife and son from England.

The Eclipse, showing on Friday, May 16, won director Mohan Krishna Indraganti top honors for a debut film at the 2005 Indian National Film Awards. Based on a story by Telugu writer G.V. Chalam, the film focuses on how superstition, mysticism and misogyny affect its central characters: Saradamba, the generous wife of a village landowner, and Kanakayya, the teenaged boy she has taken under her wing.

On Saturday, May 17, Josh Hamilton stars in Outsourced, a story focusing on Todd, whose Seattle-based company shuts down their call center and outsources the work to India. Culture shock ensues on both sides, and while Todd adjusts to village life outside Mumbai with the help of co-worker Asha, his new trainees contemplate the products they are meant to sell: ceramic American eagles and Wisconsin cheese-head hats.

The final film, Amal, will show on Saturday, May 31. This fable-like movie centers on a generous-hearted auto-rickshaw driver named Amal who fortuitously picks up a cranky, homeless old man. The man turns out to be anything but homeless and wills his estate to the humble driver. The events that follow come together in a morality tale about the best and worst of human nature. (photo credit: “Amal, 2007”)

Ticketing information:

To allow us to continue showing the best films from around the world, film ticket prices will increase beginning June 1, 2008. New prices will be $7 general admission, $6 students, seniors and Museum members. Free for patron-level members.

For more information, click here.