National Award winning film from Tripura Yarwng (Roots), made in Kokborok language, to be screened in Paris.

Published Friday, Dec 02,2011:13:27
Place Agartala/ Agency PTI

National Award winning film from Tripura Yarwng (Roots), made in Kokborok language, will be screened in Paris.

Yarwng, the opening film of the Indian Panorama section at India international Film Festival of India (IFFI Goa) in 2008, had brought to Tripura its first National Film Award in 2010.

The film will be screened on December eight at the Maison Des cultures du Monde in Paris under the patronage of Program Sorosoro of the Chirac Foundation.

"Yarwng has been a typical instance of a film being a vehicle for the uplift of a language and culture," says the film's director, Salesian Father Josheph Pulinthanath.

The director hopes the Paris screening of the film with subtitles in French will 'further open up avenues for the development of Kokborok language'.

"It's wonderful to know that our film is doing its bit as an ambassador for Kokborok culture," says Pulinthanath who has embarked on making his third Kokborok feature film.

The 60-member Yarwng crew braved several odds to make the film happen, the second one from the director in the language, the first being 'Mathia' (Bangle) on the social evil of witch-hunt.

The story of the 95-minute feauture film revolves around large-scale displacement in Tripura when the newly-built Dumbur dam submerged huge tracts of arable land in the fertile Riama valley about 40 years ago.

Yarwng was shot on actual locations like Bolongbasa and adjoining areas and many of the people who act in the film are real life victims of displacement.

The lead actors of Yarwng are local talents, Meena Debbarma, Nirmal Jamatia and Sushil Debbarma.

Yarwng has been screened in over 40 international film festivals across the world, including those in USA, Germany, Australia, Moscow and Taiwan.

The screening of the acclaimed Kokborok film will mark the setting up a foundation in India which plans to document 100 unscheduled languages spoken in the country.