Film showing hurdles of NE kids screened at IFFI

GUWAHATI: A film highlighting the challenges and hurdles faced by children of the northeast in realizing their dreams is being screened at the 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
Directed by Prithviraj Das Gupta, the film titled “Green Blackberries” is inspired by real life characters who have to travel six hours every day to get education. The movie has been selected under the Indian panorama non-feature films category.
“It’s because of the International Film Festival of India, a story from the mountains of northeast has been able to reach the Arabian Sea and now being premiered at the IFFI,” Gupta said on Wednesday at the screening of the film.
The Mumbai-based filmmaker said despite the challenges faced by children of remote villages of the northeast, the kids haven’t lost their hopes and dreams and their story is the substance and splendor of his film.
“Our crew went to shoot an independent documentary in the remote villages of the northeast in March 2018 and found that there are areas with just one government primary school for 20 villages, often with a single teacher who has bare minimum education,” Gupta added.
He further said, “The terrain in these areas is relentlessly hilly. Some children walk up to 20 km in this unforgiving land, while others row up or down the river for 3 hours, then walk up to 10 km to get to school. These are 3 to 13-year olds we are talking about.”
Askeb about resources, the filmmaker said,“If you want to make a film, just make it. If you do a thorough research, everything is possible. We went to the northeast with meagre resources.”
The 63-minute film in depicts the life of Nishu, a village girl. “Simple is difficult when you are a village girl who wants education. Just the journey to school is a huge task. A river stands in her way.
Her teacher’s political aspirations, too, may come in the way, So it’s not just the tests in school that she has to pass. How will she fare?,” the synopsis read.