Finalist Films Season 4 – 2023

Argent Glass (feat. Char)

In November 1967, in Honmoku, Yokohama, a guy (Shinsuke Kato) is chasing his dream of becoming famous while performing live, but it is not coming true. One day, he breaks his cherished silver glass, and after gathering up the fragments, he drove off somewhere.

I’ll be There

R!X new music video from his album Baamaaz.

UKWATI // The Wedding

Across the globe, child marriages are still taking place. Girls as young as 10 years old are being stripped of their innocence and thrown into the responsibilities of marriage. Our film, “UKWATI”, which translates to “The Wedding”, sheds light on the lengths to which a mother must go when living in extreme poverty. With limited opportunity, scarce resources and lack of education, millions of families are faced with this sobering reality. “UKWATI” captures the relationship between a mother and her daughter as they both struggle to survive.

Watts of Love provides financial literacy training and a solar light which empowers people to raise themselves out of poverty and onto a path of prosperity.

Reviving Rivers

Can we revive our rivers and landscapes? Can we bring water back to regions that have been desertified? Yes we can, and this example shows us how.

Drought and water scarcity are now issues all around the world. Cities are running out of water, landscapes are engulfed in flames, and every year drought, flood and fire become more common and severe. Despite the huge amount of energy and money that has been put into developing elaborate water systems, the distribution and availability of water seems to continue getting worse. The engineered solutions that nations around the world have pursued, while solving our immediate needs, have made the long term outlook even more bleak. The best solutions we’ve found have come from people living close to their landscape, dependent on the health of their land for their own survival.

In the driest region of India, Doctor Rajendra Singh was up against these enormous challenges. The farmland in his region had turned to desert, water sources had gone dry, and all of the young people from the villages had migrated to the cities for work. While he was treating the remaining elderly villagers for night blindness (due to malnutrition), one village elder showed Rajendra a more powerful way to help the community. He told Rajendra that what the community needed to be healthy was not medicine, but water – Rajendra had to shift his focus to treating the Earth.

On/Off

An Afrikaans-speaking man helps his elderly German neighbour in a time of need, despite a language barrier. In the process, he learns volumes about himself.

B B Lal “Doyen” of Indian Archaeology

Indian culture is an invaluable possession of our society. Indian culture is the oldest of all the cultures of the world. In spite of facing many ups and downs, Indian culture is shining with all its glory and splendour. Culture is the soul of our Nation.

Through Epics and Legends, we know our History. The history is proved by Archaeologists. One such legendary Archaeologist Prof. BB Lal. His discovery of Harrapan sites in the newly formed Indian state post-partition lead to an entire new nomenclature of the ancient civilisation as Indus- Saraswati valley civilisation.

Prof B B Lal traced the towns and cities associated with Mahabharata and came out with irrefutable findings and excavated five Ramayana related sites including, Ayodhya, Bharadwaj Ashram, Nandigram, Chitrakoot and Shringaverapura.

Shri Shankar Lal Sundarbai Shasun Jain College for Women is honoured and privileged to film up the wonderful journey of the Padma Vibhushan awardee Prof. B B Lal ‘Doyen of Indian Archaeology’ as a documentary film to inculcate the Indian history and culture to the present generation.

In Which Loneliness Suffers a Loss

Played out through the eyes of a coastal town’s CCTV cameras, a refugee navigates her first few days on our shores. A story about how human connection makes all the difference.

ReMi

Remigio and Miguel Andrés go on their first date to see each other in person, get to know each other and try to develop a relationship, but the first disagreements immediately arise, as they are two antagonistic personalities.

Daari deepa

Beautiful Narrative short movie about man who is alcoholic and ignores his family. An stranger tells him a story which could change his destiny for ever.

Kolam

Kolam, a multinational film is India’s first experimental art film to be created by a South Asian female director. Get set to immerse yourself in a journey of the world’s first and only place that is an experiment on human unity and modest living. Be enchanted by the hidden pearls of Auroville and begin your journey of spiritual awakening through human unity. The organic movement and painted frames will captivate your senses to be hooked to the film.

Auroville is a Utopian township in Tamil Nadu, India, which is the vision of Shri Aurobindo’s spiritual collaborator Mira Alfassa, also known as ‘The Mother’. The film holds an original score created by contributions from 20+ international artists and stunning visuals designing a profound narrative for Auroville. It is a non-verbal narrative for the viewer to immerse in the Auroville experience through this film.

Kolam holds a nonverbal narrative with a strong audio composition that will enable the viewers to truly experience the place in its true form and have their own narrative drafted through the film. It’s an unusual treatment for a documentary format film, but the Director was clear on her vision of delivering the true Auroville experience to the viewers.

Sex Change

Election

India is the largest democratic country on earth. But everything here is controlled by power; The power of wealth, arms, and hands. Everything is in the hands of some people. The election process and the elected government are not for people by the people.The constitution is not serving the common people. Corruption has become a democratic country’s largest domestic ideology.

In Darkness

A little girl wakes up to her father’s aggressive voice and feels that her father is arguing with her mother

Dabur

Distributed by IRAN FILM PORT
Iranian Film Agency & Distribution Company
Under the supervision of “Alimohammad Eghbaldar”
www.iranfilmport.com

Synopsis:
In the midst of a couple’s dispute, the father of the family faces his daughter’s first experience of puberty (period) in the absence of his wife

Saeid Nejati-Mahdieh Gholam HosseiniProducer

Liberation

Distributed by IRAN FILM PORT co.
An Iranian Films Agency and Distribution
Under the supervision of “Alimohammad Eghbaldar”
www.iranfilmport.com

Synopsis:
The girls are playing with their children when an adult woman suddenly enters their childish sanctuary and takes the girl into real and bitter life.

Accolades:
1) Official Selection of 45th LUCAS International Film Festival / Germany 2022
2) Official Selection of FilmOneFest / USA 2022
3) Official Selection of Almeria FICAL / Spain 2022
4) Official Selection of Cineaste International Film Festival of India – CIFFI / 2022
5) Official Selection of Earls Film Festival
6) Official Selection of 52th Sehsüchte / Germany 2022
7) Official Selection of Triloka International Filmfare Awards

BOOMERANG

This film is an adaptation of a story called THE SHROUD written by India’s most famous and respected writer Munshi Premchand. It is the story of two poor characters Ghisu and Madhav who are very lazy. Ghisu is the father and Madhav is the son. Both just relax and rest all the time. They don’t go for work until they have nothing to eat. Wife of Madhav, Kamla is pregnant and is in labor pain. They both have no money for her treatment. Next morning, she dies due to the lack of treatment. After the death they have to arrange money for her funeral. They beg money from some landlords and neighbors and collect some amount. They go to buy a Shroud for her funeral in a city nearby but before purchasing the shroud they spend the money for drink and eat roasted chicken. Rest of the money is looted by some corrupt policemen. It’s late in the night. They both are drunk. Father becomes philosopher and tells his son insignificance of life and of course all the customs after death including putting a shroud on the corpse, which will ultimately burn with the body.
Next day when they wake up late in the morning, they both notice a baby girl left near them in the night. They both exchange looks and both are confused about this boomerang in their lives and the story ends.

Rajeev BhatiaProducer

My Right Foot

Distributed by IRAN FILM PORT co.
An Iranian Films Agency and Distribution
Under the supervision of “Alimohammad Eghbaldar”
www.iranfilmport.com
Synopsis: My Right Foot tells the story of the life of a boy who stands in front of the mirror of a shoe store to buy shoes, and the audience observes the different stages of his life, from adolescence to youth (marriage), having children, etc. in front of the mirror until One day the drum of war is played and the man is forced to leave his family. Finally, after years of waiting for his wife and child, the man returns home with one of his legs missing.

Mehdi IravaniWriter

Game

Distributed by IRAN FILM PORT co.
An Iranian Films Agency and Distribution
Under the supervision of “Alimohammad Eghbaldar”
www.iranfilmport.com
Synopsis: Two children playing together and betting during the game

Mohammad Moghimpour BijaniWriter

Wolves and Butterflies

Distributed by IRAN FILM PORT co.
An Iranian Films Agency and Distribution
Under the supervision of “Alimohammad Eghbaldar”
www.iranfilmport.com

Synopsis: Inside an empty, dark wardrobe, a 4-year-old girl with her mother thinks they are playing a game called Wolf and Butterfly, which her mother tells her they are waiting for wolves to arrive, and when the wolves arrive. When they arrive, they fly like butterflies. The mother tells the little girl that she is flying with a rope like a death ring and the mother herself is flying with a knife next to her, but as the story progresses, we see that they have hidden themselves for fear of ISIL and the wolves are ISIL. And because his daughter is not afraid, he said that they are playing. When the ISIS enters, the mother’s plan is not attacked and she is forced to strangle her daughter herself and attacks the ISIS with a knife, which is eventually killed and one of the ISIS is killed.

Chiya ElyasiWriter

Its a Gray, Gray World

Distributed by IRAN FILM PORT co.
An Iranian Films Agency and Distribution
Under the supervision of “Alimohammad Eghbaldar”
www.iranfilmport.com

Synopsis: In a completely gray world, the colorful identity of a conservative young man is accidentally revealed by a playful boy. People are terrified of this, calling the police to arrest the young man. But the young man managed to escape, returning the next day to defend his right to freedom.

Seyed Mohsen Pourmohseni ShakibWriter

The University of Death

Distributed by IRAN FILM PORT co.
An Iranian Films Agency and Distribution
Under the supervision of “Alimohammad Eghbaldar”
www.iranfilmport.com
Synopsis: At a university in the sky, a number of students, who are in fact symbols of death, learn how to take human lives. In the meantime, there is a war between human beings and people lose their lives due to war. This model of death is not popular with the students and it makes them angry and they are looking for the cause and cause of this war. All students think that the lazy student in the class, who was previously frustrated and angry about his failures, is the cause of this war.

I am not an Angel

A young Nurse Amy, unaware of the severity of the virus, going to work alone, while millions of people don masks as the infection travels through the population. The nurse comes to realize the patient she is tasked with taking care of, is not a run-of-the-mill case, but is a matter of life and death.

I want to make this film as a tribute to the sacrifices health care workers make for us. They are ordinary people, but they are extra-ordinary, too modest to call themselves heroes, not seeing themselves as life-saving angels. Completely altruistic, they put themselves in danger to take to care for us. They are in my eyes – Angels.

The nightmare of the pandemic continues, leaving a mark that will never be erased from our collective memory.

The Forgotten Soldier

Why would someone vandalise a war memorial? When veteran Aatma Singh witnesses The Lions of the Great War monument being vandalised, his family jump to their own conclusions and seek revenge. Their actions end in terrible consequences.

Neil PaulWriter

Faces of Climate Resilience

Faces of Climate Resilience is a short documentary series that captures the voices of people in some of India’s most climate-vulnerable regions. The project strives to make climate change more tangible through the lived experiences of people. The focus is on how individuals and communities are adapting to the climate crisis by embracing nature-based solutions and traditional wisdom.

The stories include a women’s collective in Odisha replanting trees along a cyclone-prone coast, a youth group in suburban Mumbai sensitising slum dwellers about climate change, a women-led group in Uttarakhand working with local forest officials in combating forest fires, a community radio station broadcasting early warning messages and programmes on disaster preparedness, an NGO helping pastoralists in Rajasthan adapt to harsh summers and winter through climate resilient infrastructure, and a Kerala town climate proofing its infrastructure after disastrous floods.

Distin Wilson,Christy SebastianEditors

Chateau Laurier -Season 2

Season 2 of the hugely successful award-winning series (3 million views).

Edwardian newlyweds Hattie and Vivian navigate their lives on the other side of happily ever after and learn that life as heirs to the grand Chateau Laurier hotel comes with slings, arrows, enemies, opportunities and strife.

When the grand hotel was opened in Ottawa in 1912 it represented all that was extravagant and privileged at the dawn of a new century. The surrounding town was little more than a frontier. This is Canada in the moment it blooms onto the world stage, growing pains and all. Chateau Laurier follows the struggle to control power of the hotel (and beyond) between Briar Hays (Tymika Tafari), the new owner of the hotel, her estranged brother Vivian (Luke Humphrey), his wide-eyed new wife Hattie (Kate Ross Leckie), her acerbic Aunt Esme (Fiona Reid)…and Gabriel Sabot, the Cajun-creole boss of Lowertown (Emmanuel Kabongo).

The show has a core cast of recurring characters vying for power in the family-run hotel in 1912 Ottawa. Uniquely Canadian, Chateau Laurier is told with a flair for the dramatic, with diverse, distinct, entertaining characters and a dose of humour.

New Season 2 cast include Tymika Tafari (Apple TV+ The Marijuana Conspiracy), Emmanuel Kobongo (21 Thunder), Joel Oulette (Trickster), Brittany Raymond (The Next Step), Katie Uhlmann (Nurses) and Jason Gray (Reign).

Retuning cast include series leads Kate Ross Leckie (Alias Grace), Luke Humphrey (Tiny Pretty Things), Fiona Reid (Harry Potter on Broadway), Kent Staines (Anne with an E) and Fraser Elsdon (Y: The Last Man).

A Few Steps Further

Being an author is the highlight of humanity. Even sometimes, a soldier guarding the borders, has endangered his very existence out of respect for the one whose only weapon is a pen.

Ardavan niknia,somayeh tajikWriter

ONE INDIA MY INDIA 2.0

Joyful

We live in a hectic and chaotic world that relentlessly stresses our planet, humans and animals alike. joyful is a unique audio-visual exploration of finding joy in all the turmoil that surrounds us. This short film uses videos, timelapses, hyperlapses, drone shots, slow motion, astrophotography and satellite images from around the world with dramatic sound design and music overlay to depict life as we know it and simple moments of joy and calm that provides us respite in all the chaos…

Life is short. Cherish every moment. Be joyful.

Simantini ChakrabortyProducer