MUMBAI: After winning the Liv Ullman Peace prize at Chicago in 2009, Children‘s Film Society’s cross-border Gujarati film Harun-Arun, directed by Vinod Ganatra, recently bagged the Light of Asia award at the Buddhist Film Festival held at Colombo.
The festival had as many as 268 entries classified in the documentary, short film and feature film categories. Harun-Arun was chosen best film from among 18 films in the feature film category.
The film is now scheduled to travel to Munich Film Festival, Giffoni Film Festival, Italy, and Stuttgart Film Festival in the coming months.
Harun – Arun explores the story of Harun, a young boy who is extremely fond of Indian films and songs. The rough life in a hostile environment has taught young Harun a lot of survival skills. He proves to be an exception as he can do many things that normal children of his age would not even dream of doing. Harun has been hearing stories about his family in India and wants to visit them too. The visit excites him doubly but when the two are separated while crossing the border, Harun is compelled to undertake the rest of his journey to Lakhpat on his own.
On the Indian side, Harun comes across three Indian children who take him under their wings hiding and protecting him without the knowledge of their mother Valbai until he can find his new home. An exuberant game of hide-and-seek ensues in this heartwarming story of youthful courage and powerful friendship in a divided nation.
On the winning of the Light of Asia award, director Viinod Ganatra said, “This is not my first film that has won an award. Earlier, my film Heda-Hoda (Blind Camel) did the rounds of 58 film festivals the world over and has won as many as eight international awards. With this film I have tried to prove that the issues of the heart are the issues of the world, not limited to any community or clan or geographical boundaries.
