The story of Nasir, a middle-aged salesman in a small town, has won the prestigious Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) of International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR). Arun Karthick, the film’s director, is thrilled with the development. He says, “My film is an adaptation of a Tamil short story by Dileep Kumar whose work I follow closely. He has written over 25 short stories. The life of Nasir resonated with me when I read it.”
The story is set in Coimbatore and the protagonist, Nasir, works in a textile shop on the busy NH Road. “Though at the outset it’s a story of a small-town salesman, it also deals with something universal. I felt the need to say something about my city.” Karthick calls it a hard-hitting story that also resonated with the international jury. “They select eight from over 300 applications. My film was selected for the scripting and project development grant under the first-time and second-time director category. They read your previous film, the content, and the filmmaker’s artistic voice. They support cutting-edge cinema of the future that carries a distinct aesthetic stamp. What they look for is sophisticated narration, yet rooted in strong local connect. While Berlin, Cannes, and Venice also support such films, IFFR helps you make your next film too.”
Karthick’s first film, Sivapuranam/A Strange Case of Shiva , was screened at IFFR’s Bright Future category in 2016. “ Sivapuranam is a ‘one-person drama’ about a young designer obsessed with his world. There are no dialogues, song or dance. It’s an indie film. When we made it, we were not even thinking of releasing it in theatres as the scope for such films is bleak in Tamil Nadu.”
However, the film did the rounds at the Mumbai Film Festival and the Jaffna Film Festival to name a few. “We didn’t push it hard with post-distribution publicity. We completed the film with the financial award of ₹10 lakh from NFDC’s Film Bazaar. But, we failed in marketing it,” he regrets. But he is very particular that Nasir reaches a wider audience. “So many avenues have opened up. I want to collaborate with a producer who will take my film to a bigger audience,” he insists.
Karthick was drawn to films after he saw classics screened by the Konangal Film Society in Coimbatore. He remembers watching Federico Fellini’s film eight and a half at one of the screenings. “I was spellbound. At that point in time, I couldn’t understand the film. But the sheer magic of the visuals occupied my head. It made me go back to that space again and watch more films.”
For the last six years, Karthick has been savouring films and more films, and reading about them. Sometimes, it is four films a day, he laughs. The most recent film that blew his mind away was Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda’s After the Storm . “I am yet to recover from its impact,” he confesses.
He made his first short film, Backwaters , about a girl and a boat while still in college. He says films opened up his world. To learn more, he frequented film festival circuits across the country, mostly in Kerala, Pune and Kolkata. “It gave me an opportunity to meet and collaborate with talented technicians, cinematographers, and editors, who are aligned to artistic cinema,” he says. Sivapuranam ’s cinematographer was Saumyananda Sahi who has done films like Kamal Swaroop’s Rangbhoomi , and editor was Arghya Basu, a Bengali filmmaker. “They understand where you come from. I fell in love with their work and then collaborated with them. They brought value to my film,” he says.
He says independent filmmakers need the support of independent producers. “Though Nasir will be screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival, it has to reach the masses too. In Tamil, there’s a drought when it comes to indie cinema. But I’m hopeful and looking for miracle. It is challenging. I always look up to the classics to keep me going. Those visuals have inspired me so much and I feel compelled to give back something through my films.”
Aruk Karthick’s filmography
Short films: The Backwaters, Transcendence
Feature film: Sivapuranam / The Strange Case of Shiva
Documentary: AnimalFarm
(post-production 2017)
‘Documentaries are exciting’
Arun Karthick’s documentary Animal Farm, which is currently under post-production, is a visual essay that studies the hypocritical relationship of human beings with animals.
Konangal Film Society’s Alter Eye Forum will screen daring and thought-provoking documentaries made by Indian filmmakers. It will function as a platform to showcase exciting narratives from different parts of the country and explores the world of non-fiction filmmaking in India. The first programme begins this month with the screening of RV Ramani’s films.
Call: 99654-60361 or email konangalfilmsociety@gmail.com
More on HBF
The Hubert Bals Fund is designed to help remarkable feature films by innovative and talented film makers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe on their road to completion. It provides grants in various categories that helps these film makers to realise their projects.
Although the fund looks closely at the financial aspects of a project, the decisive factors to grant support remain the content and artistic value. Since the founding of the fund in 1989, more than a 1,000 projects of independent film makers from Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America have received support. The IFFR calls for applications to give grants in three sections — scripting and project development; production; and post-production. Visit: www.iffr.com/en/
