MUMBAI: Kannada film Rasarushi will open the fourth edition of Bengaluru International Film Festival that will be held here from 15-22 December.

This year‘s festival would also, for the first time, screen political dramas like The Battle of Algiers (Algeria), Z (France), Thaneer Thaneer (Tamil), Lemon Tree (Hebrew) amongst others, it is learnt.

As many as 20 Kannada films would be screened during the festival out of the total of 179 international and world films.

Renowned Iranian film director Dariush Mehrjui will take part in the inaugural ceremony when five of his films namely The Cow, The Lodgers, Sara, The Pear Tree and The Music Man would be screened.

Two Kannada films namely Sandhyaraaga and Vasantsena would be screened under the Indian film category.

The festival panel is also making all attempts to screen one of the films of late Bollywood legend Dev Anand to pay him a tribute.

The fourth edition of the festival would feature both competition and non-competition sections. The competition section has four categories namely World Cinema Award, Asian Cinema Award, Indian Cinema Award and Kannada Cinema Award.