NEW DELHI, April 12: Scores who survived bumper-to-bumper traffic to reach Siri Fort auditorium to watch Roberto Benigni's Oscar-winning movie, Life is Beautiful, waited and went back disappointed this evening. The auditorium was packed and enough people to fill the hall waited outside when the screening was on. ``What's the point of letting you in? You can't even breathe inside,'' said an official to a person who waved the pass at him.The film which has won the Grand Jury prize at the Cannes and three Oscar awards, including the one for best actor, was screened by the Embassy of Israel in collaboration with Italian Embassy Cultural Centre and the Directorate of Film Festivals.
The gates were closed soon after the screening began and people were seen waiting outside the various gates of the auditorium complex, pleading with securitymen to let them in.
Even those who managed to get in through the gates found the doors shut. ``What can I do? When they ask me to shut the door, I shut. When they ask me to open, I open,'' said an official at the Siri Fort auditorium.
People -- among them Italians and Israelis -- argued with officials spotting embassy badges, who pleaded helplessness. ``I suspect both the embassies and the directorate distributed passes and they overlapped,'' said an official.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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