International film festival begins

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">thiruvananthapuram: the seventh edition of the international film festival of kerala (iffk-2002) that promises to display a vibrant and comprehensive cross-section of the present day world cinema, got off to a colourful start with noted actress aranmula ponnamma lighting the traditional lamp, at the nisagandhi auditorium here on friday evening.kerala culture minister g karthikeyan presided. international jury chairperson marta meszaros also addressed the gathering. a thayambaka (percussion ensemble with the ''chenda'') by a kalamandalam team added musical flavour to the evening. to mark the seventh year of the festival, seven noted musicians played the veena together. about 5,000 delegates from 35 countries are participating in the week-long festival. the opening film of the festival, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">baran,</span> tells a love story set against the afghan refugee crisis in the middle east. its iranian director, majid majidi, is familiar to the malayali audience for his roles in mohsen makhmalbaf''s movies. renowned film-maker and festival director adoor gopalakrishnan, also the chairman of the kerala state chalachitra academy, said 148 films would be screened in the festival. the retrospective section of the world cinema would feature 50 movies from various countries. film directors to compete include gabriela david (argentina), andhre koltzel, louis fernando (brazil), akihito shiota (japan), sadh chrayib (morocco), gai ramaka (senegal), wang chao (china). </div> </div>