Three films from Northeast have been selected for screening at the Indian Panorama at International Film Festival of India (IFFI). Pradip Kurbah’s Khasi language film Iewduh, Manju Borah’s Land of the Poisoned Women and Utpal Datta’s Bohubritta found the place in the list from Northeast this year.
IFFI, which was founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. This year’s IFFI starts from November 28 in Goa.
Indian Panorama is a flagship section of IFFI, which showcases the best of contemporary Indian Feature and non-feature films of the years. This year, the feature film jury was headed by acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter Priyadarshan. The jury has chosen the film Hellaro (Gujarati) directed by Abhishek Shah as the opening feature film of Indian Panorama 2019.
The non – feature jury was headed by well-known documentary filmmaker Rajendra Janglay. The non-feature film jury selected the film ‘Nooreh’ directed by Ashish Pandey as the opening non-feature film.
“I’m happy for this. It’s always great to be screened at the Indian Panorama. It’s an honour for me and my film,” Pradip Kurbah, maker of Iewduh, told The News Mill.
Iewduh had its world premiere at the 24th edition of Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in South Korea on Saturday.
Iewduh, also known as Barabazar, is one of the oldest and largest traditional markets and trade centres in Northeast India. The film narrates the daily lives of people involved with the market in Shillong, and their coexistence with different religions and communities.
Bohubritta is an experimental short film of nine minutes based on a poem of Swapna Dutta Deka. Director Utpal Datta said that the unabridged reading of a poem by the poet, or another, over a film that attempts to combine the poem with visual and audio elements is called a poetry-film. The film deals with the inner state of a woman.
“It’s recognition to our creative madness. We are honoured. We will get a wide variety of viewers at the IFFI. With this film noted sound designer Amrit Pritam has expressed himself as a music director,” said Datta.
While, ‘In the Land of Poison Women’ in Pangchenpa dialect by Manju Borah is based in Arunachal Pradesh near the border of China administered Tibet. It is about a blind belief in the Pangchenpa community that women have Poison in their nails and when they serve food to the males they die immediately or slowly. But the modern educated generation is trying to eradicate this belief from their society.
