One of 15 films selected this year.
Bureau Report
NEW YORK: Indian filmmaker Manjeet Singh’s feature film project Chenu has been selected by the Cannes Film Festival’s L’Atelier’s for its 9th edition.
Chenu is one of 15 projects selected across the globe. It is Singh’s second film project, after his first film Mumbai Cha Raja had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, and then moved on to festivals like Abu Dhabi Film Festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival and won Special Jury award at Mumbai Film Festival.
“It’s an honor to be selected in the most powerful co-production event on planet, which will speed up the process of completion of funds and bring on-board reputed producers, sales agents and distributors. It’s a stamp of approval that Chenu belongs to best of world cinema, which unfortunately our selection committees were not able to gauge and had to face multiple rejections,” said Singh. “It also points out the faith Cannes authority have in my directorial abilities, after they saw Mumbai Cha Raja, that I will be able to do justice to this wild story I have conceived, which also happens to be my first feature screenplay and is very unconventional.”
Chenu is the story of a Dalit boy, living in rural North India, who is drawn into an ongoing war between extreme violent leftist forces, the ‘Naxals’, and fascist gangs of the landlords, when his younger sister Chano’s fingers are chopped by a landlord for plucking mustard leaves from his farm. When Chenu’s family is denied justice, they are drawn to the Naxals.
Since its creation in 2005, L’Atelier has been inspiring creative filmmaking and encouraging generations of new filmmakers around the world. By inviting directors and their producers to meet hundreds of potential partners during the Festival de Cannes, L’Atelier (May 17 to 23) offers its participants access to international co-production, and potential investors thereby exponentially increasing the possibilities of the scripts becoming films. So far, out of 126 projects presented over the last eight years, 83 have been completed and 29 are in pre-production.