A still from ‘Lovers in the Blue Night’
Kolkata: Purulia-born filmmaker Anuparna Roy won the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at Venice International Film Festival for her Hindi-Sylheti Bengali-Marathi feature film ‘Lovers in the Blue Night’.
Speaking to TOI from Italy, Roy, who also wrote the script for the film, said, “I am just so happy. I have watched her first film and am keen to watch this one too,” her mother said. The film was chosen “For its delicately sensitive vision of the intersecting lives of migrant workers: a closeted husband and his unhappy wife who works in a bar, a lonely man who trades in sex work, and a petty criminal with fleeting desires — forming a mosaic of marginalized lives amidst Mumbai’s restless underbelly, according to the citation. Dey, who is in Venice with Roy, described the festival experience as “surreal”. Narrating how he created the film’s “pulsation sound” that was lauded in the citation, the Howrah-born FTII alumnus said, “The idea was to let the outer world’s sounds subtly portray the inner emotions of the characters, without being overpowering.”
The NETPAC Award is an independent collateral prize presented by an external pan-Asian cultural organisation to promote exceptional Asian cinema. It feels like a dream. I am dedicating this win to my team and all the indie filmmakers out there. We can make films! Parents Brahmananda and Manisha, who live in West Burdwan’s Kulti, are delighted. “She came to Kulti during her birthday in May and spent a week with us. She broke this news over a WhatsApp call from Italy in the morning. We are extremely happy with this recognition.
The recognition establishes her as a leading fixture in contemporary world cinema following her Orizzonti Best Director win for ‘Songs of Forgotten Trees’ at the Venice festival last year.