Coimbatore based filmmaker Arun Karthick‘s Nasir has won The Grand Prix at the 14th Andrei Tarkovsky Zerkalo International Film Festival in Russia. The festival is held every year at Ivanovo, Russia in honour of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky who is considered one of the most influential persons in the history of Russian cinema.
The director is seen attending the ceremony through video conference on the Tvzavr online cinema platform, in a photo he shared on Facebook. He also dedicated the award to the film’s late editor Arghya Basu.
The film earlier bagged the NETPAC Award for the best Asian film at Rotterdam 2020, the Netherlands Film Fund (NFF), and Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) Co-production Scheme. It also competed for the Hivos Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Of Rotterdam 2020, marking the first Tamil film to compete for the prestigious award which was founded in 1995.
Nasir is 28-year-old Arun’s second feature film after Sivapuranam/A Strange Case of Shiva. It is centered around a Muslim man working in a textile shop in Coimbatore. The film is based on writer Dilip Kumar’s short story Oru Gumasthavin Kathai (The Story of a Clerk), set against the backdrop of communal riots in the South Indian town.
It is jointly produced by Chennai-based Stray Factory, Amsterdam’s Rinkel Film, Jabalpur-based Uncombed Buddha, Magic Hour Films (Puducherry), Colored Pickle film and Harman Ventures (Chennai).
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Kumaran Valavan, a France-based theoretical physicist and the founder of India Nostrum Theatre, has played the titular protagonist along with Sudha Ranganathan, Yasmin Rahman, Sabari, and Bakkiyam Sarikar in important roles. The film features cinematography by Saumyananda Sahi and production design by Mausam Aggarwal.
The film was screened on June 6 at Jio MAMI‘s ‘We Are One: A Global Film Festival’, a 10-day online film festival, and received the appreciation of critics and audiences alike.
Read: Nasir Review: Portrait Of An Indian Muslim’s Quiet Struggle
Watch the trailer here: