Kerala, last week, was rattled by yet another tumultuous affair, after the local body elections and the verdict in the nearly nine-year-old actor assault case. Film cancellations and protests marked the 30th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), which ran from December 12 to 19.
It began with a string of messages alerting the delegates about the cancellations of a number of films, two days into the festival. Rescheduling is not uncommon at IFFK, but cancellations without further notice baffled the festival patrons. The directive, it was understood, came straight from the Union government, with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) refusing to grant censorship exemption to 19 films.
The IFFK is conducted by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, an autonomous body that comes under the government of Kerala. As per convention, films which are screened at the IFFK do not require a censor certificate but must have a censor exemption from the Union government.
Days ahead of the festival this year, letters were exchanged between the state and Union governments for permission to screen 206 films from 82 countries. However, on the eve of the opening day, the Union government sent a notice, disallowing the screening of 19 films.
Random selection of 19 films
To many, the selection seemed random. What was a hundred-year-old silent Soviet classic, Battleship Potemkin, doing on the list? And why were two films of the Mauritian filmmaker Sissako, Bamako and Timbuktu — chosen for the IFFK’s Lifetime Achievement Award — cancelled?
Palestinian and Egyptian films, including those that had won awards at previous editions of the IFFK, like Clash and Wajib, were also cancelled. Could it be that films from strife-torn countries were discouraged? But an Israeli film called Yes was also cancelled.
Some amusement rose over the cancellation of Beef, a Spanish film about Barcelona’s rappers. The confusion seemed obvious, and whoever chose the film appears to have thought it was about beef, the meat of a cow, an animal that the Hindutva forces in the country consider to be divine. The film had nothing to do with beef meat but referred to the term ‘having a beef with someone’ – meaning a conflict.
Exchange between state and Union governments
After a day of confused murmurs, Kerala’s Minister of Culture Saji Cherian declared on December 16 that there shall be no cancellations and all 19 films shall be screened. It triggered another heated exchange between the Bharatiya Janata Party-run Union government and the CPI(M)-led Kerala government.
Among circles of artists and activists, Minister Saji’s response was greeted with a lot of cheer and applause. Word about the cancellations had got around and a number of filmmakers, including Anand Patwardhan and Rakesh Sharma, posted their strong condemnation of the Union government’s intolerance towards artistic freedom.
Following this, there was some quick reprieve from the I&B ministry. Thirteen of the original 19 films were immediately granted approval for screening. Beef, Battleship Potemkin, Wajib, and Sissoko’s films found their way back into the festival. So did most of the Palestinian films.
However, six films remained excluded. The response this time was far from friendly. The Union government notified the state that defying their directive would invite prosecution.
Resul Pookutty’s response
With his historic Oscar award in 2009, Resul Pookutty has been a respected sound designer in Kerala, who was appointed to the post of Chalachitra Academy chairperson only this October, hardly two months before IFFK.
Stating that his absence did not mean that he was not involved in running the festival, Pookutty took a stance strikingly different from the state’s initial defiance.
On the evening of December 18, he said he was giving in to the cancellation of the six remaining films, as he had decided not to take a “defiant stand”.
Pookutty claimed that the reason for the cancellation had to do with India’s external affairs policy and that as a cultural organisation, the academy had to comply. He blamed the confusion on the “overzealousness” of bureaucracy and asked not to mix politics with administration.
The state government’s apparent backtracking gave rise to collective disappointment. Filmmakers and activists who had condemned the Union government’s interference opined that the state should have stood firm.
On the closing day of the festival, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made a strong statement, condemning the Union government’s intervention as an attack on freedom of expression and calling the move the Sangh Parivar’s latest attempt to suppress dissent.
The six films
The six films which were denied censor exemption were Yes (Israel, 2025), All that's left of you (Palestine, 2025), Clash (Egypt, 2016), A poet (Columbia, 2025), Eagles of the Republic (Egypt, 2025) and Flames (India, 2025).
Among these, the Israeli film Yes was made by Nadav Lapid, who, in 2022, called the inclusion of The Kashmir Files at the International Film Festival of India “inappropriate”.
The film was about a Kashmiri Pandit (dominant caste) finding out that his parents were killed by Islamic militants. Lapid’s remarks that the film was vulgar and propaganda-driven had invited controversy. The Israeli ambassador even apologised for Lapid’s comments.
The only Indian film to be cancelled, Flames, also touches on caste. The film tells the tale of a migrant farmworker in Haryana trying to save his ten-year-old son from allegations of murder.
Except for A poet, the other cancelled films revolve around real-life crises such as the generations of turmoil in Palestine in All that’s left of you.
Clash deals with the 2013 uprising in Egypt and Eagles of the Republic reflects on the dictatorship and propaganda films in the country.
It remains unclear why the Columbian film A poet, about a failed middle-aged writer, was also cancelled.