What To Watch At MAMI 2017 – Day 2, October 13th

MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAND – A striking and harrowing take on that most topical of issues – the immigrant experience, this is Spanish TV actress Ana Asensio's directorial debut, a film with inspirations from her own life which she also wrote, produced and acted in. Alternatively, you could attend THE WORKSHOP from French writer-director Laurent Cantet whose The Class won the Palme d'Or in 2008. A group of students attend a novel-writing workshop conducted by a successful mystery writer and are assigned the task of jointly authoring a novel. In the process, personalities clash and tensions arise.

Rima Das's much-appreciated VILLAGE ROCKSTARS which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is an endearing and uplifting story about a young girl from a village in Assam who nurtures hopes of starting a rock band. Shot by Das herself, the film is full of beautifully composed visuals of village life.

LOVELESS could be your third film of the day. A dark and terrifying thriller about a failing marriage and a child gone missing, the film comes from Leviathan director Andrey Zvyagintsev, and received the Jury Prize at Cannes this year. Or, you could watch LAST FLAG FLYING, the latest Linklater offering about war veterans – an unofficial sequel to Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973) – replete with a star-studded cast featuring the likes of Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston and Laurence Fishburne.

For the day's closing film, choose between Devashish Makhija's shocking and brutal rape revenge thriller GRANNY which will have its India premiere at MAMI and 24 FRAMES, Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami's profoundly experimental final film. Book early!

ALSO READ: 8 HIDDEN GEMS AT MUMBAI FILM FESTIVAL 2017

I AM NOT A WITCH Start your day with this distinctive and self-assured first film from Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni about witchcraft, prejudice and corruption set in the country of the filmmaker's birth.

Stick around at Phoenix for THE THIRD MURDER, a courtroom thriller from Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu whose family drama After the Storm wowed audiences at MAMI last year.

Then, catch THE PARTY, written and directed by British director Sally Potter. As illustrious guests gather to celebrate a political promotion at a swanky London house, secrets start to tumble out slowly and soon the party mutates into chaos and ultimately farce. Shot in black and white, this is a short sharp political comedy which boasts of a stellar cast.

And finally, head to Regal for 29-year-old Trey Edward Shults's second feature-length venture IT COMES AT NIGHT, a tense even paranoid post-apocalyptic psychological thriller that is sure to drive all that end-of-day weariness away.