MUMBAI: After winning seven international awards, the Children‘s Film Society-sponsored Gujarati film Harun-Arun has won the best costume
award at the 29TH Augsburo Children’s Film Festival, Germany.
The festival was held from 31 March to 10 April and was featured in three categories - Feature Films, Short Films and Documentary Films.
Harun-Arun is a cross over film, related to the Indo-Pak Border, fully shot at Kutch border. The partition of India in 1947 divided not only the country but so many hearts and families too. Thousands of people migrated from one side of the border to the other. One such case is Rashid Suleman from Kutch who is now living in Pakistan with his only surviving grandson Harun.
The film explores the story of young boy Harun, who is extremely fond of Indian film songs. The rough life in a hostile environment has taught Harun lot of survival skills. On hearing stories about his family in India, Harun is excited and keen to visit them, but on separation while crossing the border, Harun is compelled to undertake 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 finds a new home. An exuberant game of hide-and-seek ensues in this heartwarming story of youthful courage and powerful friendship in a divided nation. This proves a point that the issues of the heart are the issues of the world, not limited to any community or clan or geographical boundaries.
Harun-Arun started its awards journey by winning the prestigious ‘Liv Ullmann Peace Prize’ at Chicago in November, 2009 where it was conferred with ‘Best Juvenile Audience Award’, at Dhaka International Film Festival in January laswt year and Transmedia ‘Critics Jury Award’ in March, 2010. It won ‘Light of Asia Award’ at the hands of the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksha in June last year followed by ‘CIFEJ Jury Prize and Special Mention for Humanity award by a Children Jury at Rimouski International Film Festival, It also won Audience Award at the Freeze Frame Film Festival, Canada.
The film seems to be following the path of Ganatra’s internationally acclaimed Hindi children film Heda-Hoda that had earlier won several
international awards.
