If you're tired of French fries and manicures, how about some fab films, music, dance and circus to make you fall in love with the country of fantasies once again?

So what's Francophonie, you're wondering. The community is an international organisation of countries that speak French as their mother tongue or customary language, or where there is an outstanding attachment to the language and culture.



The ongoing Francophonie Week, being held all over Delhi, aims at winning Indian hearts and popularising French performing arts, cuisine and films. As if we aren't bowled already!

Roll(er) coaster
The line-up of events includes live performance by a DJ, a film festival, a circus and a mela, in true French andaaz. The film festival will showcase movies made across French-speaking nations. One can look forward to a host of films from countries like Canada, Switzerland, Egypt and Africa. There'll also be a bunch of animated films to choose from. The fete, on the other hand will bring together the embassies of eight countries and five institutions to present their respective cultures. It'll shed light on the rich traditions and culinary specialties of the French-speaking world through live games and more.u00a0

Jugglers' park
It ain't just the flicks that help you have fun. The fair that follows it is all about rich cultural indulgence. And those who want to extract their pound of long-forgotten thrill shouldn't miss the circus by The Baladeu'x company, which was born out of the desire to combine dance and juggling in a new form. Amuse yourself with acrobats, jugglers and musicians performing together. This apart, musical musings include a date with DJ Click on March 20, accompanied by master musicians of the gypsy order of Romania, and our very own Indian tunes, which will team up with one Italian singer and three Oriental dancers.u00a0

French fantasy
"There is a whole lot of diversity in France, both as a culture as well as a country. We have tried to inculcate each and every facet of French culture in the festival. Our aim is not really to spread French as a language, but to make people aware that French does not only pertain to France. In fact, the spread of French language and culture began over 200 years ago, when traders travelled far and wide in search of commerce," quips Myriam Kryger, director, Alliance Franu00e7aise de Delhi. Toe along.

Francophonie Week 2010
On till: March 21
At: Different venues

What is Franchophonie day?
The International Francophonie Day is traditionally celebrated on March 20. On this day in 1970, a treaty was signed in Niamey for the creation of the Agency for Cultural and Technological Cooperation, which is now know as the Francophone Agency. In its broadest meaning, Francophonie - first coined in 1880 by the French geographer Onesime Reclus (1837-1916) - encompasses all efforts to promote the French language and the values it conveys.


Shedule
Today, 7 pm
Film screening and debate with director Gael Metroz
Where: M.L Bhartia Auditorium, Alliance Franu00e7aise de Delhi
Young Swiss director Gau00ebl Mu00e9troz takes the road alone, without a team, camera in hand, in the footsteps of the author Nicolas Bouvier. He discovers that the East is no longer the almost-carefree land recounted by the writer in the fifties in his book 'L'Usage du Monde.'

Tomorrow, 7 pm
Circus show
Where: The Alliance Franu00e7aise de Delhi
The Les Baladeu'x, a circus company, was born out of the desire to combine dance and juggling into a new form. The show won in 2003, the first prizes in the street theatre competitions of Gent, Miramont de Guyenne. It also won the first place of the French Community Festival at Belgium and the street festival of Deltmold, Germany.u00a0

Saturday, March 20, 7 pm
Madame Tutli-Putli (film)
Madame Tutli-Putli boards the night train, weighed down with all her earthly possessions and the ghosts of her past. She travels alone, facing both the kindness and menace of strangers.u00a0

2.30 pm
NFB Animation Hothouse - DVD (Screening)
The NFB (National Film Board of Canada) Animation Hothouse - DVD brings together the first six Hothouse films created in Winter 2003. The six Hothouse filmmakers and their NFB collaborators offer candid and often pithy comments on the nature of amateur animation filmmaking, the place and role of the NFB in that world, and the excitement and fear of making a professional film for the first time.u00a0u00a0

3 pm
Ruzz and Ben/ Ruzz et Ben (Animation film)
Two inner-city kids attempt to fly a kite amid the skyscrapers and apartment blocks. One fateful day, their toy breaks free. In search for it, the youngsters stumble upon a fabulous realm whose existence no one would ever have suspected.
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3.30 pm
Nico la taupe (Animation film)
Nico is always losing his lunch box, screwing up in class and humiliating himself on the playground. He wants to be invincible like his comic book hero Captain Cosmo, but for a shy near-sighted kid, the humiliations of grade 1 know no bounds.

6 pm
Mon frere se marie / My brother is getting married (film)
Vinh, a Vietnamese refugee, was adopted 20 years earlier by a Swiss family and is now about to get married. His Vietnamese mother seizes this opportunity to finally meet the family that loved and raised her son, and to meet the people who write her postcards every Christmas telling her that the whole family is united and thinking of her.u00a0

8 pm
DJ Click live in concert
Where: Magique Amphitheatre, Garden of Five Senses
DJ Click wishes to continue the musical journey he started more than seven years ago. You can look forward to a show with music, vocals and dance by master musicians and gypsy dancers from France, Romania, Italy and India.

Sunday, March 21, 11 am
Ehky Ya Shahrazadu00a0 (film)
Hebba, the main character, is a talk show host who must choose between keeping her ratings high and jeopardizing her 2nd husband's journalism career. Despite her earnest efforts to depoliticize her show, personal stories emerge. They shock and stimulate the Egyptian audience more than her overly political shows ever did.

1 pm
Fawzeya's Secret Recipe (film)
Fawzeya is a woman who has been married four times and had children from each of her husbands. She manages to keep her independence in spite of poverty and enjoys a friendly relationship with all of her ex-husbands.

3 pm
Wahed Sefr / One zero (film)
Kamla Abu Zekry's delightful film is ostensibly about the excitement generated by the 2008 African Nations Cup Final. However, as the eight main protagonists, drawn from across all strata of Cairene society demonstrate, the football-crazy city exerts a pervasive effect on a kaleidoscopic array of characters.