Krakow-born filmmaker Borys Lankosz has been anointed best director at the 9th Pune International Film Festival in India (PIFF).

Lankosz won the award for his debut feature Rewers (The Reverse), a film which has already won over juries in America, Russia and his native Poland.

The film, which is shot in black and white, takes a novel approach to a traumatic era in Polish history, the so-called Stalinist period of 1948-1956.

Lankosz, together with his scriptwriter Andrzej Bart, created a work rich in black humour about a young lady’s attempt to find a husband in downtrodden Warsaw. Unexpected entanglements with the secret police add a smack of spice to the plot.

PIFF was set up as an event in 2002, partly as a counterbalance to the hugely popular Bollywood films. The festival is held in Pune, the capital of the Maharashtra state, which in recent years has gained critical acclaim for a more serious variety of filmmaking than that of the Bollywood blockbusters. 70 million Indians speak the Marathi language.

This year’s festival presented over 200 films from 42 countries, with Lankosz beating off competition from French, German, Columbian, Argentine and Danish directors amongst others.  (nh)