FINAL SOLUTION
Screening and Discussion with Rakesh Sharma

* Best Documentary & Critic's Choice,
Hong Kong International Film Festival
* Wolfgang Staudte Award & Special Jury Award, Berlin International Film Festival

Final Solution is a study of the politics of hate. Set in Gujarat, India between February 2002 and July 2003, the film examines the aftermath of the deadly violence that followed the burning of 58 Hindus on the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra on February 27 2002. In “reaction” to that incident, some 2,500 Muslims were brutally murdered, hundreds of women raped, and more than 200,000 families driven from their homes. (2004, India, 145 min)

About the Film

Part 1: Pride and Genocide deals with the genocidal violence against Muslims and its immediate aftermath. It probes the patterns of pre-planned violence by right-wing Hindu cadres which many claim was state-supported, if not state-sponsored.

Part 2: The Terror Trail reconstructs through eyewitness accounts the attack on Gulbarg (Ahmedabad) and acts of barbaric violence against Muslim women at Eral and Delol/Kalol (Panchmahals) even as Chief Minister Modi traverses the state on his Gaurav Yatra.

Part 3: The Hate Mandate documents the poll campaign during the Assembly elections in Gujarat in late 2002. It records in detail the exploitation of the Godhra incident (in which 58 Hindus were burnt alive) by the right-wing propaganda machinery for electoral gains.

Part 4: Hope and Despair studies the situation after the storm and its impact on Hindus and Muslims' ghettoisation, the call for economic boycott of Muslims and continuing acts of violence more than a year after the carnage.

About the Director

Rakesh Sharma began his film/TV career in 1986 as an assistant director on Shyam Benegal's Discovery of India. His broadcast industry experience includes the set up/ launch of 3 broadcast channels in India: Channel [V], Star Plus and Vijay TV and several production consultancy assignments. He has now gone back to independent documentary film-making.

His last film Aftershocks: The Rough Guide to Democracy won the Best documentary film award at Fribourg, Big Mini-DV and at Big Muddy and won 7 other awards (including the Robert Flaherty prize) at various festivals in USA and Europe during 2002-03. It has been screened at over 90 international film festivals.

Contact:
gujaratfilm@yahoo.com

Press

Interview with Rakesh Sharma
Berlinale Catalogue

"Post-Godhra, hate still threatens: Filmmaker"
Hindustan Times, Apr 15, 2004

"Indian movie shines at Hong Kong festival"
Times of India, Apr 15, 2004

"Polling strings"
Shanta Gokhale, Mid-Day, Feb 17, 2004

"A miss at MIFF, accolades at Berlinale"
Kalpana Sharma, The Hindu, Feb 17, 2004

"Mumbai reject finally shines in Berlin"
Times of India, Feb 17, 2004

"Rakesh Sharma's film wins accolades at Berlin film fest"
IndianTelevision, Feb 16, 2004

"Women from minority community still traumatised"
Piali Banerjee, Times of India, Dec 16, 2003

"The ride is less bumpy"
Shubhra Gupta, Sep 29, 2003, The Hindu Business Line


Festivals

Berlinale (International premiere), Hong Kong, Fribourg, Istanbul 1001fest, Singapore, Flanders (Belgium), World Social Forum (Mumbai; Indian premiere), Vikalp (Mumbai filmfest organised by Campaign against Censorship) and several other filmfests.