Rakoda Asian Film Festival honors Indian director Satyajit Rai

By Ashraf Aboul-Yazid
President, Asia Journalists Association

CAIRO: The management of the Rakoda Asian Film Festival announced the honoring of the late Indian director Satyajt Rai, whose centenary is celebrated by the Indian and international artistic community, which falls in 2021, and was postponed due to the Corona pandemic until this year.

Imad Al-Nuwairi, founder and president of the festival, declared that Rai was one of the 20 most important directors in Asia, and among the 100 greatest directors in the world of all time: “He is the most Indian artist to receive local, continental and international awards. His films have inspired many directors, such as Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, Kiarostami, Kazan, Tarantino, Nolan, and others, who have acknowledged the influence of his work on them. . .”

Ray directed 36 films both fiction and documentaries, and participated in some of his films as a photographer, a music composer, a scene designer and an executive producer, in addition to his literary practices with writing historical stories, and interested in children’s literature, and he reissued the children’s magazine “Sandish”, which was founded by his grandfather at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Among Rai’s films, there are the trilogy of Abu – The Enemy – The Music Salon – The Stranger – The Visitor. Rai is the only winner of the National Film Award in India 36 times, the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival, the Golden and Silver Bear twice in Berlin, and the State Prize “Bharat Ratna” of the first degree. As for the Oscar, he received it for the entirety of his career, while he was sick, and he passed away only 24 days later, 9 days before his 71st birthday.

The honoring will include holding an expanded virtual symposium prepared for it and supervised by the Iraqi critic, Dr. Firas Al-Sharout, in which a group of Arab critics and directors will participate, and a book will be published on the late director and his cinema as one of the most important directors in the Asian continent, and he deserves to be honored. It is worth mentioning that the festival is dedicated to the short fiction film. He dedicated his first session to the founding Egyptian director, Mohamed BayoumI.

The festival is held online with the support of Media Do in Kuwait, and media sponsorship from the Asian Journalist Association.