Mehta's 'Water' heads for Bangkok film fest

Deepa Mehta's film Water, which raised an outcry from Hindu nationalists when she attempted to film it in India, has been chosen to represent India at the Bangkok International Film Festival 2006.

The film, about the plight of widows in traditional Indian society, is listed in the international competition as being from India and Canada.

The film will compete against 11 other entries in the Bangkok festival to run Feb. 17-27.

Canadian director Mehta has been controversial in India since her film Fire depicted two Indian women in a lesbian relationship. She began filming Water in India, but was forced to move the shoot to Sri Lanka after several religious and political groups smashed sets and threatened her life, saying the film insults Hindu traditions.

The film, set in the 1930s,centres on a home where widows are sent by their families. Widows were considered bad luck under ancient Hindu tradition and were not allowed to remarry.

Water has had a special openingscreening in India, but has yet to have a general release. Vishwa Hindu Parisad, a hard-line organization, has warned against allowing the film into commercial cinemas.

In an interview with the India Express at the end of January, star Seema Biswas dismissed the controversy and said she hoped the film would soon be released in India.

The film, featuring John Abraham, Lisa Ray andBiswas, will be in the running for the Bangkok festival's Golden Kinnaree award. There are several other Indian films shown at the festival, but Water is the only entry from India in the main competition.

Mrs. Henderson Presents from the U.K., South African film Tsotsiand Transamerica, the U.S. film that earned Felicity Huffman an Oscar nomination, are also entered.

Also competing are New Zealand production River Queen, about a family coping with the British-Maori struggle, Brazil's House of Sand and Thailand's Invisible Waves, about a man seeking refuge in Thailand after killing his girlfriend. House of Sand, the story a woman left alone to cope in a desert area, showed at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The films in international competition will be judged by a jury headed by Australian director Fred Schepisi whose Empire Falls won two Golden Globes. The jury includes British actor-director Charles Dance, French star Julie Delpy and Hong Kong-born actor Nancy Kwan.

The festival will feature a special screening of Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies. It also includes documentary, ASEAN and new filmmakers' competitions.

One of the documentary entries isNice Hat! 5 Enigmas in the Life of Cambodia by CanadianDavid Brisbin, a journey into Cambodian history that focuses on the hats worn by Khmer people throughout history.

Ek Ajnabee, starring leading Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan, is one of the Indian films to be screened at the Bangkok festival. The New Voices competition includes Tibetan-language film Dreaming Lhasa, directed by the New Delhi-based wife and husband team of Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, Pradeep Sarkar's box office hit, Parineeta and Bengali-language film, Nisshabd Reaching Silence.