The second day of the Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES) on Friday saw sparse attendance overall, yet many crowded in to watch the Oscar-winning South Korean film Parasite. The film was being screened for the first time at the festival at Bengaluru’s Orion Mall in Rajajinagar.
The festival also screened some lesser-known films, including director Mamadou Dia’s Nafi’s Father, a movie from Senegal, West Africa in the Contemporary World Cinema category. The film’s story centres around a wedding that keeps getting postponed due to financial issues and disagreements, and a rural community’s fight against extremism. However, the 393-seat auditorium saw as few as 50 people.
Organisers say higher footfall is expected over the weekend, based on experience from previous year’s festivals.
On the other hand, crowds lined up early to watch director Bong Joon-ho’s internationally-acclaimed hit Parasite, a dark comedy that offers a searing perspective on class warfare in South Korea, but has resonated with viewers around the world.
Parasite was the first international feature to win Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, as well as Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature. Besides the Oscars, the film has won more than 160 awards at film festivals around the world and was recently criticised by US President Donald Trump.
Queues began swelling all around PVR’s premises as people wanted to watch the film and knew there would be high demand. People began queuing up from 3.30 pm onwards, more than two hours ahead of schedule, to watch the film at screen 7, which has a capacity of 387 seats. Some even went to watch the previously film, The Painted Bird, and refused to leave the theatre.
Soon, volunteers keeping a track of the lines had to tell people joining the queue at 4.30 pm that there would be no place for them in the theatre. The film was screened only at 5.45 pm.
Parasite will be screened again at BIFFES on Sunday at 5.30 pm and Tuesday at 5.45 pm.