Joseph's Son to enthral IFF, Melbourne
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 13 2024: Haobam Paban Kumar's third feature film-Joseph's Son will be screened in the Beyond Bollywood section of the 15th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2024 commencing from the coming August 15 to 25 .

Thirty-three Indian films including Paban Kumar's Joseph's Son, Dominic Sangma's Garo film - Rupture and Rajni Basumatary's Bodo film - Phakhri from North East India are selected in the section.

Joseph's Son, scheduled to screen on August 17, will be the Australian Premiere.

His 85-minute Manipuri feature film tells the story of a young teen David, a passionate footballer who has not returned home in Manipur, an area amidst the ethnic conflicts and insurgency.

His mother persuades Joseph, his father, to go and look for him.

After no luck with David's friends, Joseph goes to the police.

The body of a teenage boy lies in the morgue in Imphal, and they tell him the only way to know whether it is or isn't David, is to go there to see for himself.

Reluctantly he sets out on the long journey and as he travels, his fear grows deeper: a fear bom of constant conflict - past and present - to which a personal fear is added.

Joseph's Son has already participated in many major international film festivals like the Golden Globet Competition of the 25th Shanghai International Film Festival 2023; the Indian Competition of the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival 2023; Indian Cinema Now of the 28th International Film Festival of Kerala 2023; Nominated for 1st Alternative Awards Kazakhstan 2023; Indian Cinema Section of the 22nd Pune International Film Festival 2024; International Film Festival of Bhubaneshwar 2024 and Chitrabharati Competition of the 15th Bengaluru International Film Festival 2024.The film received the Special Jury Award at the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival 2023 and the Best Director Award at the 1st North East India Film Festival 2024.The main protagonist of the film is well-known Tangkhul folk singer Rewben Mashangva.

Sudhir Naoroibam and Paban Kumar wrote the screenplay from the short story penned by Sahitya Akademi winner Sudhir Naoroibam.

Cameraman is Joydeep Bose, Editing is done by Sankha and Sound is handled by Sukanta Majumdar.

The film is produced by NFDC and Oli Pictures.

Haobam Paban Kumar is a prominent voice emitting out of the restive north eastern state of Manipur, India dabbling in both non-fiction and fiction storytelling.

His film AFSPA 1958 was awarded the Golden Lotus for Best Documentary at the 56th National Film Awards 2008.A Cry In The Dark is another film screened at the 31st Toronto Film Festival 2006 and MOMA New York 2007 .

After nearly a decade of documentary filmmaking, he made his critically acclaimed feature film Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the Lake) which was featured at 67th Berlin Film Festival 2017 .

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