'Nine Hills One Valley' shines at Ottawa event
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 19 2022:
Haobam Paban Kumars second feature - Nine Hills One Valley (2020) which evokes the futility and barbarism of ethnic conflict through the journey of a Tangkhul man travelling to Imphal City bagged the Special Mention in Ottawa Indian Film Festival Awards 2022 held from June 14 to 18 in Ottawa, Canada.
In the 5th edition of Ottawa Festival, 'Nine Hills One Valley' was selected in the competition section with other 11 films.
The three member jury namely Mariam Hamdy (Egypt), Premendra Mazumder (India) and Carlos Coelho Costa (Portugal) selected the awards from the Festival's official competition.
Anam Ahum is the main protagonist of the 75-min ute long film - Nine Hills One Valley produced by Warepam Jhansirani and Haobam Paban Kumar for Oli Pictures.
National Film awardee Irom Maipak and Ranjan Palit are cameramen whereas sound is done by Sukanta Majumdar and editing by Sankha, story screenplay and direction by Haobam Paban Kumar.
An accomplished documentarian, a director of two non-fiction features and six shorts since 2005, Haobam Paban Kumar is a prominent voice coming out of the restive northeastern Indian state of Manipur, on the border of Burma (Myanmar).
He also dabbles in the art of fiction storytelling.
His debut fiction feature, Lady of the Lake (Loktak Lairembee), had featured at the 67th Berlin Film Festival in 2017.'Nine Hills One Valley' is his second narrative feature.
It is also the winner of the Special Jury Award at 14th Manipur State Film Awards, the film was selected for the Jogja NETPAC Asian Film Festival, the International Film Festival Trissur, the Kolkata International Film Festival and as part of the India Gold section of the Mumbai Film Festival.
Haobam Paban Kumar said, "Nine Hills One Valley is my personal journey about my intrinsic dilemma of being born in a place like Manipur, which is absorbed into the tapestry of diversity of indigenous people.
Here, people aspire to reach out for an elusive harmony while standing up each day for their forest and land and culture.
This film was made during the distressing solitude of Covid pandemic".
Tara Ramanujan's debut film 'Forbidden' (Nishiddho) which recounts the unlikely kinship between an ex-idol maker from Kolkata and a tough Tamil midwife bagged the Best Film in the Festival.
The award for Best Direction went to Bharat Mirle for 'The Road to Kuthriyar'; Best Actress to Gargi Roy Chowdhury for 'Mahananda'; Best Actor to Prabhakar Kunder for 'The Chicken Curry' (Koli Taal); and Best Screenplay to Deepankar Prakash for 'Naneera'.
The award for Best Short Film went to 'Together' by Azad Alam.