Portuguese touch returns to Goa

Exactly 50 years after the colonial Portuguese left the shores of Goa, a Portuguese film directed by Portuguese director Manuel Gonsalves ‘the Consul of Bordeaux’ will feature as the opening film of the 42nd International Film festival of India to be held in Goa later this month kicking off the 10 day long extravaganza.

However, director of the International Film Festival of India, Shankar Manohar said the film was chosen keeping in mind the theme of IFFI ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (The Whole World is One Family) and made no reference to the fact that it was the 50th year of Goa’s liberation.

“Our screening and the film programme committee thought that ‘The Consul of Bordeaux’ put across the theme of the festival in a most convincing manner,” Mohan said while speaking to reporters.

The 2011 award winning film is based on the life of Portuguese consul general Aristides de Sousa Mendes in Bordeaux, France, who helped thousands of Jewish refugees to extricate themselves from France, after Hitler’s armed forces invaded Belgium and the Netherlands in May 1940.

“Gonsaleves’ film which is about a diplomat’s efforts to salvage lives in Nazi occupied Europe during WWII, was thought to be the best. It is a story of person who saved thousands of lives in duress. It will set the ball rolling for the festival which has a theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’,” Mohan said.

“We chose this film from the 500 odd international films which were viewed by the IFFI’s preview committee,” he said. The IFFI gets underway in Goa on November 23 and ends on December 3.