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NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 | The Indian Eye 30

toRoNto iNteRNatioNal film festival

paka - a tale of revenge between two warring families

reNu mehta ily feuds and started writing the

Toronto story for my first film, and that’s
how ‘PAKA (River of Blood)’
AKA, the debut film of shaped into a feature film.”
Nithin Lukos, is a tale set The majority of the cast in
Pin Kerala, a story of two the films have had no previous
feuding families and a young acting experience.
couple that tries to overcome “We shot it and treated it as
this animosity with their love. an independent film in which
The river is witness to the gen- 90% of the actors are non-ac-
erations old bloody cycle of ven- tors from the village and we
geance between the two feuding had a film school crew mostly
families. The young couple land and wealth which resulted dangerous river near my place, from my alma mater Film and
from the warring families, John- in the family feud while a large notorious for its deep trench- TV Institute of India. I aspire to
ny and Anna, try their best to number of the population mi- es. Floods, accidents and mur- tell stories that not only repre-
patch up the two families with grated from the south to the ders have pushed people and sent and reflect the culture and
their love saga, but the hatred north of Kerala in the 1950s. In dead-bodies into the river which space I belong to and are also
within their families is never this film, a family feud resurges only one man in the village can universal.”
ending. The return of Johnny’s from the past when someone retrieve. He is a middle-aged Co-produced by Anurag
uncle Kocheppu from jail and comes back from jail after life man named Jose, an outstand- Kashyap, the film was presented
his subsequent disappearance imprisonment.” ing swimmer who knows the riv- at the 46th edition of the Toron-
becomes a hurdle in their path With each generation thirst- er in and out. He is the one who to International Film Festival
of love and forces them onto ing for revenge, writer-director takes out the dead bodies from (TIFF) that features ten days
the path of blood, murder, and Lukose infuses his feature debut the river. I grew up seeing this of international and Canadian
revenge. with rich Keralite oral tradition and I shaped the story of the film cinema with close to 200 films
“I grew up listening to stories from his own childhood. from my memories. I connect- in its Official Selection, events
told by my grandmother”, says “I always wanted to make my ed such unique aspects of my featuring acclaimed industry
Lukose. “These were stories of first Film in Wayanad where I hometown to the stories which guests, and TIFF’s Industry
migration, survival, fights for grew up,” he says. “There is a my grandmother told about fam- Conference.

Comala – a true tale told by Gian Cassini

reNu mehta search of clues, the filmmaker uncovers a
Toronto complex system, where men stuck within
deeply-rooted patterns of machismo, are
omala is the true story of Director stuck. The documentary offers unprece-
Gian Cassini who sets out to find dented access into the personal ramifica-
Cthe truth of his own family. Grow- tions of Mexico’s War on Drugs.
ing up as the only child of a single mother The story is a quest for personal truth,
in Monterrey in Mexico, Cassini sets out to says Cassini.
uncover the truth of his own father and in “Comala is the catharsis I had been
the process uncovers a lot of truths about the conviction that by way of my own fam- looking for in order to find my own iden-
his own broken family. , As he journeys ily history — still reeling from my father’s tity,” he says. “Through the unique access
across the country, he uncovers the tale of death— I could portray the root problems to the assembly of fascinating characters
his absent father as a failed hitman who that affect many Mexicans as we endure that are the men and women of my family,
was murdered in a Mexican border town. the devastation brought on by our country’s I am able to lift the veil on a micro universe
Cassini was inspired by Mexican writer war against drug trafficking,” says Cassini. that represents the thousands of Mexican
Juan Rulfo’s famous book - Pedro Paramo One family member at a time, Cassini households of different socioeconomic sta-
– and identified with many of the characters puts together the puzzle pieces that form tuses linked by and to criminal activity. I do
in the book. an image of his late father — El Jimmy, a this without glamor or sensationalism, but
“I recognized myself and each of my small-time hitman and drug trafficker in with empathy and strong emotional energy.”
own relatives as characters of the novel. Tijuana — allowing him, and the rest of his Comala is presented at the 46th Toron-
Inspired by this encounter, I decided to family, to make sense of the man that made to International Film Festival (TIFF) that
embark on what today is my debut feature: them who they are. As he travels through takes place in Toronto in September every
the documentary Comala. I worked from Mexico, Cuba and San Antonio in Texas in year.

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