German film-maker Till Passow on why he keeps coming back to India,and more specifically,to Kolkata Its been almost a decade since German film-maker Till Passow visited Kolkata,as a student and delivered an award-wining film,Howrah Howrah in the process. The 26 minute short documentary,which captures the hustle-bustle and the daily movement of passengers at one of the busiest railway stations of the country,received four Best Short Documentary awards including a Jury Prize at different international festivals in 2002. I never intended to make a film on Kolkata. Initially,it was the idea of showcasing the colour and splendor of Rajasthan that lured me to India in 2001. But technical factors tied me down in Kolkata, recalls Passow,at the films first-ever screening in India at the Max Mueller Bhawan,Delhi,after its premiere at the German Film Festival of India in 2001 in Kolkata. The 42-year-old documentary filmmaker from Berlin also premiered his other award-winning short film,Mast Qalandar,based on the followers of sufi saint Mast Qalandar in the Sehan Sharif shrine in Sindh. Passow says his interest in film-making began early,and he imbibed a lot during his stint with acclaimed director Steven Spielberg. Passow had assisted Spielberg as a teenager in recording testimonials of Holocaust survivors for his project,Survivors of the Shoah. It was an extremely moving journey for me and something I still hold close to my heart, says Passow,who enrolled in the Hochshule fur Film und Fernsehen (HFF),Potsdam,for a course in film-making soon after. Intrigued by the vibrancy of Asiatic cultures,Passow says he always wanted to work in such countries. While working on post-production of Howrah Howrah at the Satyajit Ray Film Institute in Kolkata in 2001,Passow heard some students listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khans sufi songs and was curious to know more. I wanted to delve into the origins of Sufism,and learnt about a shrine in Sindh where followers from India and Afghanistan congregate annually to celebrate the life of saint Mast Qalandar, explains Passow. The 30-minute feature won the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco Film Festival in 2005. His latest film The Damned,about a jailhouse cemetery in Texas ,has just released and Passow is back to his old haunt,Kolkata. He is working on editing another short film based in Sindh called Mor Sahibs Wish. The film pays tribute to the reverence of the nomadic tribe,Shiris,to a 100-year old crocodile named Mor Sahib. My film editor lives in Kolkata and he is simply the best. This film marvels at the tribal peoples devotion to the crocodile, says Passow,not ruling out another film on Kolkata. I dont think revisiting Howrah station after a decade will make all that sense. I am still researching on a subject to film on, he signs off.
