Balekempa (Bangle Sellar Kempa), a Kannada film written and directed by Ere Gowda, bagged the prestigious International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The IFFR, which commenced on January 24, will conclude today.
Balekempa had received the Work-in-Progress Lab-2017 Award at the National Film Development Corporation Film Bazar at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa.
Incidentally, Balekempa is the only Indian film in the competition at IFFR under the Bright Future section. Mr. Gowda co-scripted and worked as a director of the second unit of the celebrated Thithi directed by Raam Reddy. The film is produced by Vivek Gombler, producer of Court, which has won several national and international awards. Balekempa was among 18 films that competed in the Bright Future section of the competition.
A narrative of 108 minutes, the film has its roots in rural milieu and revolves around Kempanna, a bangle seller (Balegara), who travels across countryside and sells beauty products, but has little time for his own wife Soubhagya. “Except Bhagyashree, who essayed role of Soubhagya, all the artistes are from a rural background and from neighbouring villages of Byadarahalli in Mandya district, where I shot the film,” said the filmmaker about his first independent venture, which was shot in straight 40 days in and around Byadarahalli.
When asked what he was inspired by, he said, “I might have been inspired by some of the characters of my childhood days. In a way I understood those characters in the process of knitting the narrative. Balekempa is my way of understanding those characters.”
