Foreign reality dramas 'Zero Motivation', 'Lung Ta' enthrall Indian audience

Israeli filmmaker Talya Lavie's "Zero Motivation" and Japanese director Kaoru Ikeya's "Lung Ta", both based on real-life incidents, gave an insight into the various unavoidable circumstances that can shake up mankind, during their premiere at the fourth Dharamshala International Film Festival here on Saturday.

"Zero Motivation", which is based on Lavie's experience serving in the Israeli army, follows a band of bored young women serving out their mandatory military service on a remote army base in Israel's south where the primary distractions are computer games and interpersonal intrigue.

The film has received various honours at film festivals like 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and 5th Odessa International Film Festival.

Lavie, who was present during the screening of the film, said that despite being set against the backdrop of army life, "Zero Motivation" is not a "war movie" and is just her take upon what all she went through.

Meanwhile, "Lung Ta", which talks about Tibetan protests in terms of self-immolation against the Chinese government's suppression in Tibet, perfectly managed to put light upon the sensitive issue and reveal it to the audience present during the screening of the film.

Though the films are made in their respective languages, they didn't miss out on connecting the issues they deal with to the audience, which included critics, foreigners, movie enthusiasts, Indian tourists and local people.

DIFF, the four-day independent film festival which started on Thursday, has screened foreign films like "The Wolfpack" (US), "The Monk" (Myanmar) "The Tale of Iya" (Japan) and "The Act of

Killing" (Denmark, Norway, Britain) till now.

Some of the other foreign films that are yet to be screened include "The Look of Silence" (Denmark), "Tibetan Warrior" (Switzerland) and "Yallah! Underground" (Czech Republic).

This year's edition of DIFF will conclude on Sunday with the screening of Neeraj Ghaywan's "Masaan", which has made India feel proud at various international film festivals.