Pradip Kurbah’s Iewduh to go international; Meghalaya filmmaker gets nominated for Kim Jiseok Award

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By Ibankyntiew Mawrie

SHILLONG | Oct 1, 2019:

Renowned filmmaker, Pradip Kurbah from Meghalaya has been nominated for the Kim Jiseok Award for his much-awaited movie — "Iewduh", at the 24th Busan International Film Festival to be held from October 3-12.

Kurbah is among the 8 other directors from across Asia who have nominated for this award. Directors from Iran, Pakistan, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand are included in this list. From India, only directors have been selected — Pradip Kurbah for Iewduh and Gurvinder Singh for his film – Bitter Chestnut.

Meanwhile, Cinematographer, Pradip Daimary of Iewduh has been officially selected for the Asian Cinematography Awards to be held in Manila Philippines 22-23 February 2020.

PC: Iewduh official FB page

Iewduh will also be screened during the two days festival and will compete for the Golden Eagle Award.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE BUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The Busan International Film Festival held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The focus of the BIFF is introducing new films and first-time directors, especially those from Asian countries. Another notable feature is the appeal of the festival to young people, both in terms of the large youthful audience it attracts and through its efforts to develop and promote young talent. 

WORLD PREMIERE/OFFICIAL RELEASE OF IEWDUH

Iewduh is all set for its World Premiere at 24th Busan International Film Festival. It will be screened at this festival on October 5, 8 and 9. The event will be attended by the Kurbah and the lead actor, Albert Mawrie.

Iewduh will have its India Premiere at JioMAMI 21 Mumbai Film Festival 2019 and will be attended by the producer and director of the film. Iewduh is being produced by Shanka rLall Goenka and the co-produced by Siddharth Goenka.

Iewduh will be released on the 15th of November 2019 in Shillong and in the North Eastern states of Asaam, Arunachal, Nagaland and Manipur and in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Kolkata.

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WHAT IS THE MOVIE ALL ABOUT?

"Iewduh" is a story of everyday people at this busiest market in the state; a human and emotion-driven story which talks about the relationship among these people, their problems and challenges.

"In these two years that I have worked on the script, I realised that we usually ignore these people in Iewduh; every lane of Iewduh has a story to tell, so how about telling their stories this time; because all these people are heroes to someone or the other," Director, Pradip Kurbah told TNT-The Northeast Today.

PC: Iewduh official FB page

Kurbah further asserted that Iewduh is not only about the bad and the ugly (negative aspect) — "There's good too, you know!", he said. "There are some negative elements in the film which I have kept it very subtly. I don't want to highlight more on the negative side because, everywhere you see, it is all negative– depression, loneliness; So this time, the highlight and focus was more on the feel good factor," added the Director.

FILM INDUSTRY IN MEGHALAYA AND NORTHEAST INDIA

In as far as film making is concerned, there are no dearth of brilliant and creative people. During the past few years, the Northeast has seen many award winning directors, who, through their movies, have managed to share the unheard stories of the people of the region.

Meghalaya has seen filmmakers like Pradip Kurbah, Dominic Sangma, Nicholas Kharkongor, Wanphrang Diengdoh and many more who have taken the industry to new heights.

It is important for us to expand our market, said Kurbah adding that it is imperative for filmmakers to look beyond Meghalaya and not to remain stagnant and blame the government for everything, for lack of facilities and the likes.

PC: Iewduh official FB page

"When you make films, you should look at various factors relating to post production — how you release the movie, how you recover form it because at the end of the day, film making is also a business," he said.

He also stated that it is important for film makers to understand the fact that cinema plays an important role in bridging the gap between the region and the rest of India.