The 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) got off to a colourful start

The 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)was inagurated at the Nisagandhi auditorium ,Thruvananthapuram,Kerala on Friday evening. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated by lighting the traditional lamp with Actor Jaya Bachan ,the guest of honor . Inaugurating the week-long event, Mr. Chandy said that apart from providing a global platform, this festival would help Malayalam cinema to a new height. The inaugural function was presided over by Minister for Sports and Cinema K.B. Ganesh Kumar. Cultural Affairs Minister K.C. Joseph, Minister for Transport and Devaswom V.S. Sivakumar, Sasi Tharoor, MP, Culture Secretary Sajan Peter, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy chairman and festival director S. Priyadarshan, vice-chairman Gandhimathi Balan, festival deputy director Bina Paul Venugopal, Kerala Film Chamber president B. Sasikumar, FEFCA president B. Unnikrishnan and MACTA chairman Harikumar ,Actor Om Puri, veteran Malayalam actor Sukumari, and jury chairman Bruce Beresford (Australian film-maker) were also present. An array of film personalities from different parts of the world, including jury members wThe festival catalogue and festival bulletin were released at the inaugural function followed by a cultural programme, ‘Destiny's Dice,' based on the epic Mahabharata and directed by film-maker T.K. Rajeev Kumar. Under the Hawthorn Tree `', directed by Zhang Yimou, was the inaugural film of the festival., Under the Hawthorn Tree is adapted from Ai Mi's popular 2007 novel of the same name, which is based on the real-life stories of the book's heroine, Jingqiu, who shared her diary with the author. The story is of an unfulfilled romance between Jingqiu and a young man named Laosan during their "zhiqing" days towards the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).