Eroticism Biggest Draw at the International Film Festival of India

By our guest blogger, Jonathan Wu

Organizers of the International Film Festival of India in Goa have found that theaters that have been consistently full have been the ones screening films with explicit erotism and nudity. Though having packed theaters is a good thing, the only issue the film festival is having is that those attending these films have not been cinema buffs, but rather those yearning for some X-rated action.

A delegate, who is pursuing a filmmaking course from a film institute in Mumbai stated with vehemence, "I was eagerly looking forward to watching 'Angels With Dirty Wings' not for the sexually explicit material it contains, but for the underlying message that the synopsis promises to convey.  However, perverts are absolutely one-track minded and hence incapable of appreciating the creations of directors like Ronald Reber. This dilemma absolutely defeats the purpose of holding a film festival."

A foreign participant of the film festival commented that, "For a movie that was borderline porn, I wasn't surprised that the screening house was full! Although it was dark inside, I gathered that most were chaps were brimming with lust. After all, the line between visual gratification and the intended message is very fine."

During a Q&A session after the screening of "Angels with Wings," organizers were impressed that part of the audience was able to decipher the message of the film. But the positive impression was soon soiled by a female audience member who spoke of her "unpleasant incident," in which a man seated next to her "succumbed to the unintended provocation of this graphic film."

The film's producer and actress, Marina Anna Eich, stated that, "I was sure the cinema hall would be packed owing to the picture of a naked lady with horns above the film synopsis," but didn't anticipate a "crude crowd."

In another screening of the Danish film, "Molly Cam," a female viewer, left the theater 30 minutes in the first scene.  She stated that "I wasn't perturbed by the non-stop erotic scenes but by the reactions it was eliciting from the predominant male portion of the audience."

An IFFI attendee, who has become a regular at the film festival in the past few years, stated, "Last year I was appalled to be interrupted by a bloke calling up his friend and coaxing him in loud Konkani to hurry for the feature film so that he wouldn't miss the sex scenes. It gets worse every year."

Source.