Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) - Virginia Eufemi
Last night saw the world premiere of Western curry, is a Swiss, English and Indian film directed by Kamal Musale and entered in the NIFFF's «Amazing Switzerland» category. This comedy, to be released in French-speaking Switzerland this autumn, tells the story of a couple adrift in an Indian desert.
The film begins in England, where we meet the tender forty-something Sheela (Gia Sandhu), born of an English mother and an Indian father, an environmental activist and pacifist. She is married to a failed writer (Christopher Shyer), older than her and an alcoholic. After being fired, she learns that her father has died in India, eaten by a tiger. The couple decide to travel to Sheela's homeland to settle the sale of the deceased father's property.
There, they meet a strange character, a French-speaking Swiss called Bindu (Sylvain Reymond). Bindu, who claims to have been adopted by Sheela's father, is an anti-tourist eco-terrorist with a fetish for explosives, who makes his own cheese with his goat Maya and has a proverb for every occasion. For Sheela, this journey will be an opportunity to rediscover the meaning of her existence and reconnect with her origins and her father.
While there's no shortage of references to the classic Western in terms of setting and form, the narrative is more akin to a dramatic comedy. We find the theme of the journey, dear to the American western, the desert, the house in the middle of nowhere near a stream and the firearms in the foreground. However, in terms of content, it's mainly the story of a couple on the verge of crisis that we follow, with their arguments, intimate problems, differences and unspoken words.
The film lacks an ingredient to spice up the narrative, and the tension between the two men isn't enough to make this feature film gripping, as it's more about jealousy than a true war of all against all in Western style. Western curry still makes you smile, thanks to its gentle and sometimes british, This makes for an enjoyable film and a good time to be had.
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Write to the author : virginia.eufemi@leregardlibre.com
Photo credit: © NIFFF
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