There was a little bit of Kashmir in Chemnitz this week. At the 31st SCHLiNGEL International Film Festival for Children and Young Audiences in Germany, guests were treated to an Indian evening where Kashmiri kahwa was poured, soulful music from the Valley filled the room and conversations around Indian cinema continued long after the formal festival proceedings had ended.It was an unusual sight in a German film festival – and one that left the guests wanting more. At the centre of it were two people who had brought a slice of Kashmir to Germany: Jitendra Mishra, the multiple National Award-winning filmmaker and producer who co-produced the film and has been associated with Schlingel for more than a decade and filmmaker Raja Shabir Khan, whose Kashmiri-language film The Sledge was part of the festival’s International Competition.For Jitendra Mishra, the evening was about much more than showcasing a film. It was about creating a space where Indian cinema could be experienced through its sounds, flavours, languages and stories.It is really a proud moment for India in Germany: Jitendra MishraA familiar cup of kahwa became an unexpected cultural introduction; the music offered another way into Kashmir; and The Sledge brought the landscape and lives of the Valley to an audience thousands of kilometres away. Jitendra Mishra, who has made international festival circuits an important part of his work, has increasingly championed cinema from India’s regions, taking stories that might otherwise remain local and helping them find audiences beyond India. His collaboration with Khan on The Sledge is part of that larger effort.Jitendra Mishra shares,“Regional is new global. Our regional cinema is powerful. It was really a proud moment for India in Germany. This year, we screened Little Big Dreams, a Ladakh film that was screened at the film festival. I have collaborated with The Sledge as a co-producer.”
Michael Harbauer, Founder and Festival Director, 31st Schlingel International film festival with Jitendra Mishra
We are very happy to cooperate with Jitendra Mishra and SIFFCY: Michael Harbauer, Founder and Festival Director, 31st Schlingel International film festivalMichael Harbauer, Founder and Festival Director, 31st Schlingel International film festival, Germany shares,“We are very happy to cooperate with Jitendra Mishra and SIFFCY in bringing Indian cinema to German audiences. For the past six years, he has been consistently presenting remarkable regional Indian films here, helping build a meaningful bridge between Indian and German audiences.”
Indian evening in Schlingel
Jitendra Mishra’s presence at Schlingel is itself part of a long relationshipThe response, Jitendra Mishra says, made the effort worthwhile. For a film festival audience accustomed to discovering cinema from different parts of the world, the evening offered something that a screening alone cannot always provide – the opportunity to encounter the culture behind the film.Jitendra Mishra’s presence at Schlingel is itself part of a long relationship. He has been coming to the festival for over a decade and this year also served as a jury member. For Mishra, that local specificity is precisely what gives regional cinema its international potential. The idea is not to make films less regional in order to make them more accessible abroad, but to allow audiences to travel into a culture through its own language, rhythms and stories.“Regional is new global. Our regional cinema is powerful.It is a diversified film festival. We have films from across the film festival. There are a lot of good films at the film festival.I have been coming here for over a decade,” Mishra says of Schlingel. He adds,”We have been presenting several Indian regional films in this children film festival – Dosto ji, Gandhi & Company, Soaring Wings, F for Frock.”
Schlingel film festival
Schlingel film festival