Letter to Elza judged best film at IFFI

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">NEW DELHI: Igor Maslennikov''s Russian film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Letter to Elza</span> was adjudged the best film while Indian entry <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mitr</span> directed by Revathy shared the Special Jury award with Magdi Ahmed Ali''s Egyptian film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Girl''s Secret</span> in the Asian competition section of the 10-day International Film Festival of India which ended here today.<br />The award for Most Promising Director went to Iran''s Reza Mir Karimi for his <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Under the Moonlight</span>, which revolves around the conflict between religion and freedom and questions the system in his country. <br />While <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Letter to Elza</span>, which won the Golden Peacock, is an ethereal cinematic translation of innocence of a woman in an experimental form, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Mitr</span>, which had an all-woman crew, deals with the conflict between a woman steeped in Indian traditions and her daughter brought up in the United States.<br />Giving away the awards, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said as a cinema lover, he watched Hindi and English film from his student days and it was only when he saw Satyajit Ray''s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Pather Panchali</span> that he realised Hindi films were ''nothing'' in comparison to the classic.<br />Regretting that not many people in the country have seen films by directors from other regions like Ray and Buddhadeb Das Gupta, who is the chairman of the jury for the Asian Competition Section, he said the film festival was a good venue for opening up the windows of world cinema.<br />He congratulated information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj for the Film Bazaar in the festival, saying it helped other countries get acquainted with the Indian film industry. </div> </div>