2025 FESTIVALApril 2-12, 2025Lansing, MI
  • Kopfkino

Kopfkino

2021 / India / 16 Minutes / Veena Leela Bharati

Film Synopsis

Kopfkino is originally inspired by Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”. The movie is narrated through the journey of a woman and her reflections on life and freedom.

The movie begins with the depiction of a young girl and her imaginary surreal world. There the Goddess and the Theyam mirror herself and she is also the representation of a time loop of the present and the past of the main character and her deep, real self where hope and dreams are still alive.

In the narration, the woman is illustrated as a psychologically complex character who is awaiting her husband who is a representative of the system. The story takes an unexpected turn with the news of his sudden death and the shock that brings in her, but that immediately transforms into a sense of freedom. She realizes that finally freedom has arrived and then she gets ready as a beautiful bride and finally comes out to welcome her new life with the words ‘I am going to sea’.

The reality takes a twist there as well. When she walks out for her maiden voyage her husband who was supposed to be dead walks in. That was false news and he is all alive and breathing. The reality was too much for her to take, and there her heart is breaks and she dies out of pain for her unachievable freedom.

The narration of the film is multi-layered; generations of women come and go as a representation of the same dream and the journey continues. The story is been told through a flow of poetic imageries with very minimal conversations and dialogues. The style of the genre is magical realism.