Films touching social issues screened at Shimla film fest

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 13

Screening of films ‘Sinjar’, based on terrorism, and ‘Nawal the Jewel’, depicting the life of a 13-year-old minor married to an old man from Iran, stole the limelight on the second day of the 4th International Film Festival of Shimla.

Directed by Sandeep Pampally, the 1.55-minute film ‘Sinjar’, screened in the competition category and shot on an island, is an attempt to bring out the impact on the life of a fisherman post-terrorism. “I read the news about Sinjar in Iran being captured by some terrorist outfit on August 3, 2014, after which the ISIS was formed and I decided to make the film,” said Pampally.

“We have made an attempt to show how terrorism impacts several lives. The film throws light on the plight of women, who were kept captive, tortured and sexually abused. How they managed to escape and shared their horror tales with their relatives and the media,” he said.

“It is the first movie to be made in Jasari language and has won two national awards — Indira Gandhi Award for best debut film of a director and best movie in this language. It took us three years to complete the film as the subject was controversial and we had to take a lot of communities into confidence before starting the shoot which took 16 days to complete,” Pampally told The Tribune.

Film ‘Nawal the Jewel’ (duration — two hours), directed by Renjilal Damodaran, is a story of struggle of a 13-year-old girl from Kerala, who was married to a 68-year-old man, already having four wives, for money and taken to Iran. The film is about the survival of the girl in a male-dominated society after she gave birth to a boy and her husband passed away.

“The girl goes to jail, makes sacrifices to raise her child and get him higher education in England. It tells how she lands behind bars and is to be hanged within 15 days,” said director Damodaran, adding that the film was shot in Omar and Kerala.

Another documentary (16 minutes) ‘I am Shreshta’ is an inspiring story of a woman in her late 40s living with HIV. The film talks about the journey of the woman from dejection, darkness and depression to becoming a community leader for those living with the deadly disease.

“The film is a first-person account of a matriculate HIV positive widow who is open to her identity. Her strong belief that acceptance is the only way to win over HIV is the real moving force behind her,” said director of the film Rajender Rajan.