Latest news with #TheElysianField
New Indian Express
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Pradip Kurbah: We're losing our sense of community
For a filmmaker with a wacky sense of humour, reflected in his social media posts, Shillong-based Pradip Kurbah's The Elysian Field (Khasi title Ha Lyngkha Bneng) is a singularly sublime rumination on life through the medium of death and on relationships, most so, a sense of community, by dwelling on individual seclusion. The philosophical core is also richly suffused with a gentle humour. About the last six residents—Ms Helen, Complete, Maia, Friday, Promise and Livingstone—of a remote village in Meghalaya, the film captures their lives through meditative visuals, shot in each of the four seasons. The vast expanse of landscape is evocative of their isolation. Little profundities are strewn all over the dialogue—about how all good things seem to end too soon, how every exit is an entrance to something new, about looking for happiness not in what you have lost but what you still have. The Elysian Field is a film to be experienced and felt than explained. Kurbah's debut feature Ri: Homeland of Uncertainty (2013), dealt with militancy in Meghalaya; Onataah: Of the Earth (2016) was about a young woman coming to terms with rape and starting life afresh and Market (2019) focused on everyday life of people in Shillong's bustling Iewduh market. His fourth feature, The Elysian Field, is quite simply the most original and outstanding Indian film I have seen so far in 2025. It had its world premiere at the 47th Moscow International Film Festival where it won three major awards last week—Best Film, Best Director and the NETPAC award for Best Film. Excerpts from a conversation with Kurbah soon after his return from the festival.
Time of India
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
From NE to int'l acclaim: Kurbah's ‘Ha Lyngkha Bneng' shines at Moscow film fest
Kolkata: 's Khasi film ' Ha Lyngkha Bneng ' ('The Elysian Field') won the Best Film and Best Director award at the recent 47th Moscow International Film Festival . It also received the NETPAC Award for the Best Asian Film. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The festival had 13 films from 13 countries participating in the main competition. Spanish filmmaker Luis Miñarro gave out the Golden Saint George and said the film's title can be interpreted "as a place where superior souls meet." The film is co-written by Paulami Dutta with sound design and mixing engineering by Saptak Sarkar and Sayantan Ghosh. Cornel Gheorghita, one of the jury members said, "This is a very important film, which took me to a new level in world cinema when Sokurov, Kurosawa and Beckett came together." Aleksey German Jr, another jury member said, "It is an incredibly bold film by a courageous, smart, subtle and perfectly humane director who did exactly what one shouldn't do to win at a festival — he removed all powerful narratives and themes and took people's feelings and emotions instead." The 123-minute-long film was awarded for its philosophical expression of life and death through a "brilliant poetic visual language" enriched with "satire and humour," said Premendra Mazumder, the president of NETPAC jury. "It is a cinematic gem from India," he added. Kurbah, a self-taught director, said, "This is a small step forward for Indian independent cinema, which keeps trying to tell stories from the heart, even if they are not part of the mainstream. For films from the Northeast, it's a quiet but proud moment to see that even small, personal stories from our region can find their place and be accepted by audiences across the world." Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Kurbah's film is set in the Khasi Hills in 2047, also the year when India celebrates its centenary of independence. Six characters live in a village. "It has seen mass migration to cities and is not well connected by a motorable road, and faces intermittent power cuts. The geographical space amplifies their loneliness and loss, but the characters look for joy and embrace solitude. While one of them tries to get electricity to the village, another has found a family in a goat, and another decides to choose laughter at every place she has cried before," said writer Dutta. Kurbah and Dutta devoted four years intermittently to finalise the first draft. The film was written during the pandemic when both were stuck in Bengaluru.
Time of India
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Khasi film feted at Moscow film festival
1 2 3 4 Kolkata: ' Ha Lyngkha Bneng ' ('The Elysian Field'), Pradip Kurbah 's Khasi film , co-written by Kolkata's Paulami Dutta with sound design and mixing engineering by Saptak Sarkar and Sayantan Ghosh, won the Best Film and Best Director award at the 47th Moscow International Film Festival . At the same festival, it was also given the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film by a jury whose president was from Kolkata. The festival had 13 films from 13 countries participating in the main competition. Spanish filmmaker Luis Miñarro awarded the Golden Saint George for the Best Film, mentioning that its title can be interpreted "as a place where superior souls meet." Jury members - director and screenwriter Aleksey German Jr and director, screenwriter, producer Cornel Gheorghita – awarded Kurbah the prize for the best director. Gheorghita said, "This is a very important film, which took me to a new level in world cinema when Sokurov, Kurosawa and Beckett came together." German added, "This is an incredibly bold film by a courageous, smart, subtle and perfectly humane director who did exactly what one shouldn't do to win at a festival – he removed all powerful narratives and themes and took people's feelings and emotions instead." You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata Premendra Mazumder, the president of the NETPAC jury, said the 123-minute-long film was awarded for its philosophical expression of life and death through a "brilliant poetic visual language" enriched with "satire and humour." "The astounding poetic visuals where nature acts as a stimulant kept us engrossed from beginning to end. It is a cinematic gem from India," Mazumdar said. Kurbah, who is a self-taught director, said, "This is a small step forward for Indian independent cinema which keeps trying to tell stories from the heart, even if they are not part of the mainstream. For films from the Northeast, it's a quiet but proud moment to see that even small, personal stories from our region can find their place and be accepted by audiences across the world." The National awardee didn't follow any set technique while making the film. "Most of what I've learned has come from simply observing life — the little moments, the silences, the emotions that are often felt but not spoken. I've always believed that stories are all around us, in the everyday things we often overlook. I just tried to trust my instincts and stay true to the feelings I wanted to express. It was a very natural and organic process for me, guided more by emotion and intuition rather than anything planned," he added. Kurbah's film is set in 2047, also the year when India celebrates its centenary of independence. His Kolkata-based co-writer was born and brought up in Shillong. "We have been to movies and not to film schools. We devoted four years intermittently to finalising the first draft. This film was written during the pandemic when I was stuck in Bengaluru and Pradip-da was in Shillong," Dutta said. Set in the Khasi Hills in 2047, the six characters - Complete (Richard Kharpuri), Livingstone (Albert Mawrie), Maia (Baia Marbaniang), Friday (Jeetesh Sharma), Miss Helen (Helena Duiia) and Promise (Merlvin Mukhim) – live in a village in east Khasi Hills. "It has seen mass migration to cities and is not well connected by a motorable road, and faces intermittent power cuts. The geographical space amplifies their loneliness and loss, but the characters look for joy and embrace solitude. While one of them tries to get electricity to the village, another has found a family in a goat, and another decides to choose laughter at every place she has cried before," Dutta added. Sarkar, an alumnus of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute who designed the sound with Sumir Dewri and Sayantan Ghosh, said, "The film has four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter. It was challenging to subtly create the soundscape for each season. Dynamizing the sonic place with only six characters was equally difficult," Sarkar said.
