Concluding a week of over 220 films from 67 countries, the Malayalam hit ‘Ee Ma Yau’ and the rare Ladakhi-language film ‘Walking with the Wind’ won awards at The International Film Festival of India (IFFI)
Picking up double honours was the award-winning dark satire Ee Ma Yau, for its director-actor combination of Lijo Jose Pellisery and Chemban Vinod. Winning the Silver Peacock awards for Best Director and Best Actor (Male), the film recreates Malayalam cinema’s twin win at IFFI 2017 when Mahesh Narayanan’s ‘Take Off’ won the Special Jury Award and Best Actor (Female), for Parvathy Menon's performance.
Short of Eeso Mariyam Ouseppe – which stands for RIP – ‘Ee Ma Yau’ journeys into a complex web of human relationships, customs, rituals and beliefs that express and mark life as well as death. Set in Chellanam in Kochi and shot in 18 days, the story stems from the death of Vavachan Mesthiri and his devastated son running helter-skelter to get his father a decent funeral. Pellisery, of ‘Angamaly Diaries’ fame, won the Kerala State Award for Best Director for ‘Ee Ma Yau’.
Praveen Morchhale, whose third and latest film ‘Widow of Silence’ premiered at Busan International Film Festival, is still bagging honours for his sophomore feature. After winning the National Award for Best Ladakhi film, Best Sound Design and Recordist in April this year, Walking with the Wind won the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal at IFFI 2018. Presented by the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT) Paris, the Medal is awarded to a film that reflects the ideals of peace, tolerance, and non-violence, promoted by UNESCO.
Morchhale’s Ladakhi-language film competed with 11 others in this category, after a successful run on the festival circuit in over the past year. The film tells the simple story of a 10-year-old boy in Himachal, who mistakenly breaks his friend’s school chair. His daily 7 km long journey to school on a donkey through the mountainous terrain turns mammoth and challenging when he decides to bring the chair back to his village. Set in the uncomplicated, harsh lifestyle of Ladakh, the film stars locals with no acting backgrounds.
Veteran actor-producer Salim Khan was honoured with the Indian Film Personality of the Year Award for his outstanding contribution to cinema. His son Arbaaz Khan accepted the award on his behalf.
Other accolades to international films included the coveted Golden Peacock Award, which went to Sergei Loznitsa's Donbass, Ukraine's official submission in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2019 Oscars. Centered around a hybrid war in the Eastern Ukraine region, ‘Donbass’ opened Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and also won its Best Director Award.
The Silver Peacock Award for Best Actor (Female) went to Anastasiia Pustovit for her role as Larysa, a teenage girl in the Ukrainian film When the Trees Fall. Milko Lazarov’s Aga won the Special Jury Award for his film on the challenges faced by an elderly couple in the midst of a frigid landscape. Winning the festival’s Centenary Award for Best Debut Feature Film was Alberto Monteras II for his film, starring Filipino hip-hop artist Abra, ‘Respeto’.