The Seventh Walk (Saatvin Sair) by Amit Dutta will be the closing film of CinemaXXI, the programme section which the Rome Film Festival (November 8-17, 2013, Auditorium Parco della Musica) dedicates to new trends in international cinema. The latest film by the Indian director, who has won many awards at the major international film festivals and is considered one of the most innovative authors in experimental cinema (Special Jury Prize at the 66^th Venice International Film Festival for The Man’s Woman and Other Stories / Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniya, 2009), will be screened Out of Competition Saturday November 16^th at the MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts, the complex designed by architect Zaha Hadid.

Dutta, who graduated with a degree in film directing in 2004, captured the attention of international critics early on, winning important acknowledgments for his short films, starting with the FIPRESCI award which he won in 2007 in Oberhausen for To Be Continued (Kramasha). Several of his works have also been screened in the most important museums in the world, including the Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In Saatvin Sair, the Indian director continues to explore a theme that has distinguished his production since the very beginning, the relationship between film, painting and music. In the film, Dutta tells the story of a wandering painter who heads into a forest after noticing a strange footprint and hearing a strange melody. This walk into the depths of nature will lead him to face his most intimate self.

SYNOPSIS

THE SEVENTH WALK / SAATVIN SAIR by Amit Dutta, India, 2013, 70’

The extraordinary landscape of the Kangra valley, which Amit Dutta had already filmed in Nainsukh (2010), is the setting once again for the latest film by the Indian director. But whereas Nainsukh was based on the artistic history of an XVIII^th century painter, whose work was figurative Saatvin Sair is inspired by the works of a contemporary Indian artist who paints abstract landscapes, giving free rein to the imagination, as is customary in the modern Western tradition (oil on canvas). In the film, wandering through a forest a painter sees a mysterious footprint and hears the strains of music, which lead him deeper into nature in pursuit of its source, hoping that it might lead to his innermost seeking. As he wanders, he rests under a tree; in his sleep he sees himself walking, painting, stones defying gravity, a small girl taking the sky-route to deliver his daily fruit and milk, seasons changing and years passing. He wakes up and walks into the landscape made-up of his own paintings where the object of his quest might await him. 

Amit Dutta

Born in Jammu (India) in 1977, he graduated in 2004 with a degree in film directing from the Film&Television Institute of India. Since the earliest days of his career, his films – in which he associates the painterly image with the cinematic image – have been acclaimed by critics and won many awards: four national prizes, including a “Rajat Kamal” and the National “John Abraham” Prize (Federation of Film Societies of India), the FIPRESCI (International Film Critics Award) at the Oberhausen Film Festival, the Golden Mikaldi in Bilbao, the Golden Conch at the Mumbai Festival. His first feature-length film, composed of three episodes, The Man’s Woman and Other Stories (Aadmi Ki Aurat Aur Anya Kahaniya, 2009), won the Special Jury Mention at the 66^th Venice International Film Festival. In 2010 he made his second feature-length film, Nainsukh (2010), and in 2011 he filmed The Golden Bird (Sonchidi), all presented in Venice in the Orizzonti section. Dutta teaches at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad and at the Film&Television Institute of India. The Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou have held screenings of several of his short films.