Valley of Saints - A valley in Kashmir
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Valley of Saints - A valley in Kashmir |
| Original title | Valley of Saints |
| Country of production | India , USA |
| original language | Kashmiri |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 82 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Musa Syeed |
| script | Musa Syeed |
| production | Nicholas Bruckman |
| music | Mubashir Mohi-ud-Din |
| camera | Yoni Brook |
| cut | Musa Syeed, Mary Manhardt, Ray Hubley |
| occupation | |
| |
Valley of Saints - A Valley in Kashmir is a feature film by Musa Syeed from 2012. The focus of the film, which mixes fiction and documentary, is the idyllic Dal Lake in the "Valley of Spirits" in the Indian province of Kashmir . The film opened in theaters on January 17, 2013.
action
The young boatswain Gulzar lives in a simple stilt house on Lake Dal. Gulzar wants to go to Delhi with his best friend Afzal to escape poverty and war in the province of Kashmir. However, due to a five-day curfew that has been imposed across Kashmir, this does not materialize.
Gulzar meets the scientist Asifa, who is working on a dissertation on the lake's ecosystem. Together with her, Gulzar takes water samples from the lake for an environmental study. Now the extent of the pollution is slowly becoming clear to him. When he falls in love with Asifa, rivalries and jealousy endanger the friendship between Gulzar and Afzal, which has existed since childhood, and their escape plans. Gulzar finds himself in a conflict of conscience over the decision between the progressive life in the big city and his contribution to save the environment at home.
backgrounds
The parents of Musa Syeed, who was born in 1984, fled the province of Kashmir to the USA before he was born . Compared to their son they called their homeland “the most beautiful country in the world”, so that Kashmir became a mythical place of longing for him. The US-raised Syeed's first visit to Kashmir was disappointing for him. He later discovered Lake Dal, a tourist center and the setting for several Bollywood productions.
Since the lake is in a terrifying state in many places, Syeed decided to get to know Kashmir by making a film about the lake. He then spent a summer with the boatmen and their families who live right on the lake. Syeed based his film on the overwhelming impressions after this visit. Against the background of ecological and political upheavals, he designed a portrait of his parents' homeland.
Because there is neither a film industry nor actors in Kashmir, the film was only cast with amateur actors, including two of the leading roles. Gulzar Ahmad Bhat also works in his real life as a boatman on Lake Dal and is secretary of the boatmen's interest group. His self-written poems appear in the film. Mohammed Afzal Sofi, who was originally only employed as an interpreter, is a journalist in Kashmir. The only professional actress in the film is Neelofar Hamid. She starred in television series and commercials, and was trained in Indian classical music and dance.
Major political unrest and curfews broke out in Kashmir during the shooting. The producer and director decided to continue shooting and to improvise the current political situation in the modified script.
Produced by Peerwar Pictures and People's Television , the film was shot on HDCAM .
Awards
Valley of Saints has received several international awards. At the Sundance Film Festival he received the audience award for best foreign feature film and, together with Robot & Frank, the Alfred P. Sloan Prize , which was donated by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for outstanding films on the subject of science and technology.
He has also received awards for Best Feature at the Ashland Independent Film Festival and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival .
Reviews
“The film follows the classic conflict pattern of a male friendship that is unbalanced by a woman. In addition, he deals with the dilemma between social conditions and the ecologically necessary and embeds the view of the living conditions in Kashmir in the framework of a globalized world. "
"The film impresses with its carefully told story, the enchanting light and the expansive camera that immerses the viewer in the almost forgotten province of Kashmir."
“With 'Valley of Saints', Musa Syeed succeeds in creating a haunting portrait of his country in which he is able to mix the looming love story of two people with the ecological and political problems of Kashmir. Although the film will sometimes be extremely difficult to understand, especially for European viewers, the mixture of drama and documentary is a success across the board. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Approval for Valley of Saints - A Valley in Kashmir . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2013 (PDF; test number: 137 240 K).
- ↑ 2012 Sundance Film Festival Announces Awards . Sundance Film Festival. January 28, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2012.
- ^ Valley of Saints - A valley in Kashmir. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Hamburg Film Festival: Valley of Saints.
- ↑ cinetastic.de: Valley of Saints.
Web links
- Valley of Saints - A valley in Kashmir in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official Film Website (English)
- Press booklet (PDF; 2.2 MB) from KAIROS Film Göttingen