Ilmaz Syed, Indian producer and filmmaker as well as founder of IMDC Box Office, is not unknown to attentive readers of AMP since we have reviewed his short film “Godhulibela” and “Aadhira“. In his documentary “Beginning of an End”, which will be released in August 2020, the filmmaker takes a look at the decreasing Jewish community in Kolkata. From what we can gather from the teaser that has been published recently, apart from presenting the current situation using archive footage and interviews, the film also discusses issues of identity and faith as well as how the clash of these two concepts has led to conflict within Indian society. Considering his the two aforementioned short film, we can expect a film taking a critical look at Indian society, politics and religion which may offer insightful facets into these topics.
Synopsis
This is a story that goes beyond Nahoums bakery, Jewish cakes and kosher bread. This is the story that shows how money, power and ego can make faith and religion take a backseat. This is the story of being one of the last eight survivors of your religion, left in a city that has long forgotten your identity. While the world fights over religion, lands and monuments, the last of the Calcutta Jews are fighting a war stranger than fiction. A war to prove their bonafide Jewish identity to themselves. 400 hundred years after they had set foot on Calcutta soil. And what exactly is Calcutta doing about it? What are we doing about it? Nothing.
