iBFF [Screening] EPIC LOVE : A Series of Dance-based films

EPIC LOVE, an unique series comprising of four dance films by SIFAS.

Conceptualisation and Artistic Direction: Menaka Gopalan

Direction & Cinematography: Sunder Nagayah

LOST REFLECTIONS explores the embodiment of Love in Nature, and the intangible relationship between earth and water, and language and dance. Earth longs for Water, searches for him, and yet, he is elusive; so close in their reflections and yet so apart in reality, until the line blurs with one immersing into the other. The music interweaves a part of a famous Tamil poem from Kurunthokai, and The Reed, from Shijing (The Book of Songs), the oldest collection of Chinese poetry.

PRINCE(SS) - SIFAS, in collaboration with Malay Heritage Centre, presents, PRINCE(SS), – the 2nd film as part of the Epic Love series. Based on, The Panji Tales and the folklore, Chandra Kirana, which originated in East Java (Indonesia), this tragic love story revolves around Prince Panji Asmoro Bangun and Princess Chandra Kirana. Depicted in this film, is the final battle between the lovers.

CONCERTO, the third film of the Epic Love series. Based on the Butterfly Lovers, the story revolves around the tragic love story of Liang Shanbo, a scholar from an ordinary family, and Zhu Yingtai, the only daughter of a wealthy family. This story of star-crossed lovers is similar to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

TALK TO ME, the fourth and the final film of the Epic Love series. Based on Kalidasa’s Meghaduta (Cloud Messenger), the story revolves around how Yaksha, a Nature deity and a subject of King Kubera (God of Wealth), is exiled to parts of Northern India, as he falls from grace for neglecting his duties, and so convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his adored wife at Alaka, the fabled city on Mount Kailash, in the Himalayas. The Yaksha achieves it by describing the beautiful sights the cloud will see on its journey northward to Alaka, where his beloved wife awaits his return. Kalidasa weaves in the various moods of love traditional in classic Sanskrit poetry. Echoing feelings of love, separation and longing, Rabindranath Tagore's works were often in response to and inspired by Kalidasa's poetry.