Rakesh Sharma screens his 2004 movie Final Solution on Wednesday, Nov. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Athena Cinema.
This movie screening is sponsored by the Making and Breaking the Law theme; the Global Affairs; Political Science; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and Classics & World Religions.
About Rakesh Sharma
Rakesh Sharma
Sharma began his film/TV career in 1986 as an assistant director on Shyam Benegal’s Discovery of India. His broadcast industry experience includes the set up/ launch of 3 broadcast channels in India: Channel [V], Star Plus & Vijay TV (Tamil) and several production consultancy assignments. He returned to independent documentary film-making in 2001. His first independent film Aftershocks: The Rough Guide to Democracy has been screened at over 100 international film festivals. It got the Best documentary award at Fribourg, Big Mini-DV and at Jeevika (India) and won 8 other awards (including the Robert Flaherty prize).
His most well-known work Final Solution, probing politics of hate, has been screened at over 120 filmfests. Upon its completion, Final Solution was banned by the Indian Censor Board for a few months in 2004; widespread protests led to the film being cleared by the censors without a single cut! Ironically, the President of India presented this film a National Film Award in 2007, citing “its powerful, hard-hitting documentation with a brutally honest approach lending incisive insights”. Both films had the honor of being rejected by the government-run Mumbai International film festival (MIFF) in 2002 & 2004 respectively.
About Final Solution
Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat during the period February-March 2002 thorugh July 2003, the film graphically documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the 2002 carnage in Gujarat in Western India. It specifically examines political tendencies reminiscent of the Nazi Germany of early 1930s. Final Solution is anti-hate/violence as “those who forget history are condemned to relive it.”
Part 1: Pride and Genocide deals with the pogrom and its immediate aftermath. It examines patterns of pre-planned genocidal violence against Moslems (by right-wing Hindutva cadres), which many claim was state-supported, if not state-sponsored. Even as Chief Minister Modi traverses the state on his Gaurav Yatra, the film reconstructs through eyewitness accounts the attack on Gulbarg and Patiya (Ahmedabad) and acts of sexual violence at Eral and Delol .
Part 2: The Hate Mandate documents the Assembly election campaign in Gujarat in late 2002. It focuses on the exploitation of the Godhra incident by right-wing propaganda machinery for electoral gains. The film studies the situation months after the elections to find shocking fault lines – voluntary ghettoisation, segregation in schools, formal calls for economic boycott of Muslims and continuing acts of violence.
Awards:
Special Jury award, National Film Awards, India (2006-7)
Wolfgang Staudte award (now rechristened the Golden Bear for Best Debut), Berlinale (2004)
Special Jury Award (Netpac), Berlin International film festival (2004)
Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Documentary, HongKong International film festival (2004)
Montgolfiere d’Or (Best Documentary) & Le Prix Fip/Pil’ du Public (Audience award), Festival des 3 Continents at Nantes (France; 2004)
Best Documentary, Apsara Awards (India;2006 – Indian Film industry awards)
Best Film, Freedom of Expression awards by Index on Censorship (UK; 2005)
Silver Dhow, Zanzibar International film festival (2004)
Special Jury Award, Mar Del Plata Independent film festival (Argentina; 2005)
Special Jury Award, Karafest (Karachi; 2004)
Special Jury Award, Film South Asia (Kathmandu; 2005)
Human Rights Award, Docupolis (Barcelona; 2005)
Special Jury Mention, Munich Dokfest (2004)
Special Jury Mention, Bangkok International filmfest (2005)
Nominee, Best Foreign Film, Grierson Awards (UK; 2004)
Special Award by NRIs for a Secular and Harmonious India (NRI-SAHI), NY-NJ, USA (2004)
Special Award by AFMI, USA-Canada (2004)
Special Jury Award, Worldfest (Houston; 2005)
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