'''P A Backer (b. 1940-93) 1952: 
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Malayalam director born in Trichur, Kerala. Started as journalist for Kuttikal and Poomattukal; then assistant to [[Ramu Kariat]] (1960), the focus of a renovatory wave in Malayalam cinema; broke away to produce [[P.N. Menon]]’s [[Olavum Theeravum]] (1969), launching a second renewal. His first film, [[Kabani Nadi Chuvannappol]], upset the censors during the Emergency. Claiming explicitly political but unaffiliated avant- gardism, his work constitutes a precedent for an independent Left cinema, e.g. of the Odessa Collective (Est: 1984 by [[John Abraham]]), Raveendran, T.V. Chandran et al. Much of Backer’s cinema, like that of his successors, comes from an effort to elaborate the forms of discourse about ‘independent’ politics, seen as a transference of repression that is either sexual (Kabani Nadi Chuvannappol; Chuvanna Vithukal), or religious (Manimuzhakkum), or the displacement of an infantile desire for salvation (Sanghaganam).

'''Filmography:''' 1975: Kabani Nadi; Chuvannappol; 1976: [[Manimuzhakkum]]; [[Chuvanna Vithukal]]; 1979: [[Sanghaganam]]; Manninte Maril; Unarthupattu; 1981: Charam; 1982: Chappa; 1985: Prema Lekhanam; Shri Narayana Guru; 1987: Innaleyude Baaki.