LIFF 2011: Day 11 Video Highlights From BFI 55Th London Film Film Festival

BFI’s daily video highlights package of the London Film Festival’s best moments Vodcast has arrived.Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna, a adaptation of Tess of the d’Urbervilles starring Freida Pinto, had its European premiere on Day 11 of the 55th BFI London Film Festival.

Based on Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, ‘Trishna’ tells the story of one woman whose life is destroyed by a combination of love and circumstances. Set in contemporary Rajasthan, Trishna (Freida Pinto) meets a wealthy young British businessman Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed) who has come to India to work in his father’s hotel business. After an accident destroys her father’s Jeep, Trishna goes to work for Jay, and they fall in love. But despite their feelings for each other, they cannot escape the conflicting pressures of a rural society which is changing rapidly through industrialisation, urbanisation and, above all, education. Trishna’s tragedy is that she is torn between the traditions of her family life and the dreams and ambitions that her education has given her.

Andrea Arnold also presented her interpretation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. At BFI Southbank, Miranda July gave the final Masterclass, presented in partnership with Swarovski.

A poor young English boy named Heathcliff is taken in by the wealthy Earnshaw family where he develops an intense relationship with his young foster sister, Cathy. Based on the classic novel by Emily Bronte.