A three day festival is all set to showcase the best of contemporary cinema from India’s north-east states will be held in the Indian national capital starting from August 22 to August 24.

Named Fragrances from the North East, the festival is being organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting at the Siri Fort Auditorium complex, New Delhi.

The festival will open with the Mapuia Chawngthu-directed Mizo film Khawnlung Run (The Raid of Khawnlung), which was also the opening movie of the Focus on NE Cinema section at the 44th International Film Festival of India in Goa last year.

Pradip Kurbah’s RI: Homeland of Uncertainty, which won the National Award this year for Best Khasi Film, will be the closing movie of the festival, curated by critic Utpal Borpujari.

Bollywood singer Angaraag Papon Mahanta will perform with his East India Company band on the opening day while internationally-acclaimed Naga pianist Nise Meruno and choir group Nagaland Singing Ambassadors will take the stage on the closing day.

The other movies to be screened at the festival are Yarwng (a Kokborok film directed by Joseph Pulinthanath which opened the Indian Panorama at IFFI 2008), Phijigee Mani (directed by Oinam Gautam Singh and winner of the National Award for Best Manipuri Film), Sonam (in the Monpa dialect of Arunachal Pradesh and directed by Ahsan Muzid), Jahnu Barua’s Ajeyo (Assamese movie which won the National Award this year for Best Assamese Film), Nagamese films Going the Distance (Tiainla Jamir) and Bamboo Shoots (Steven Ao), and Gorkhali film Kathaa (Prashant Rasaily).

There will be a quiz session after the screening of each film. The festival will be attended, among others, by veteran filmmakers from the region like Barua and Abdul Majid (Chameli Memsaab), actors Adil Hussain, Seema Biswas and this year’s National Award winner for Best Actress, Geetanjali Thapa from Sikkim.

There will also be exhibition-cum-sale counters of traditional handicrafts and artifacts from the northeast organized by the Ministry of Culture in the auditorium’s main foyer and a painting exhibition organized by Lalit Kala Akademi in the back foyer, besides special food stalls representing cuisines from all the eight states of the region.