A children’s film festival is underway at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan and Rabindra Tirtha. These are two out of the nine screens where the festival, organised by Shishu Kishore Akademi of the information and cultural affairs department, is underway till January 28.
The 11th edition of the festival was inaugurated on Wednesday at Nandan. Like at the Kolkata International Film Festival, there are no tickets. Free passes can be collected by those accompanying children from the venues from two hours ahead of the screening time.
Several Harry Potter films will be back, with the Prisoner of Azkaban being screened on Republic Day in both New Town and Salt Lake. The Order of Phoenix will be screened the day before at Rabindra Tirtha. Satyajit Ray’s Sonar Kella, which just completed its golden jubilee, is the only Indian film to be shown at the two east Calcutta theatres.
The fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, retold from the villainous Maleficent’s point of view, starring Angelina Jolie, will be on view at Rabindra Tirtha.
One can also revisit classics like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a 1968 musical fantasy in which an inventor turns a scrapped race car into a magical flying machine, and Lassie Comes Home, a 1943 film on a collie’s journey back from the Scotland home of her new owner to her Yorkshire home.
Though most are American films, there are films from Japan (The Adventures of Milo and Otis and Hachiko), Germany (The Pettercorns and the Secret of the Deep Sea and Too Far Away among several others), Iran (Selfie with Rostam), Bulgaria (The Tesla Case) and Ukraine (The Dragon Spell) as well.
The newest release to be screened will be Living Large, a 2024 production from the Czech Republic.