Filmmaker Arun Karthick’s Nasir has been awarded the prestigious Grand Prix at the 14th Andrei Tarkovsky Zerkalo (Mirror in Russian) International film festival, Russia. Arun Karthick whose first film Sivapuranam came out in 2016, shared the news on his social media account.
“This is indeed a special recognition for the entire team of NASIR and I would personally like to dedicate this award to the memory of our late editor Arghya Basu,” wrote the Coimbatore-based filmmaker.
The cash award was announced by jury head Fred Kelemen, noted cinematographer who has worked in Bela Tarr's The Man from London and The Turin Horse. In India, Nasir, starring Koumarane Valavane in the pivotal role, streamed on June 6 as part of MAMI’s online 'We Are One: A Global Film Festival’.
Nasir places the story of a saree salesman within the larger canvas of Islamophobia, and has received wide praise and critical acclaim. The indie film is an Indo-Dutch co-production venture between Chennai-based Stray Factory, Amsterdam’s Rinkel Film, Jabalpur-based Uncombed Buddha, Magic Hour Films (Puducherry), Colored Pickle film and Harman Ventures (Chennai). The film has already won the NETPAC award for Best Asian Film premiering at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam’s Tiger Competition.
The other films to have won awards at the festival include Best Direction for Mexican filmmaker Fernanda Valadez’s Identifying Features, Professional Achievement Award for Argentinian filmmaker Alejandro Telemaco Tarraf’s Piedra Sola, Young Film Critics Award and the Audience Award for Cat in the Wall. The special award for contributing to Andrei Tarkovsky's cinema was given to Michal Leszczylowski who had edited the documentary, Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer.
The festival is held every year at Ivanovo in Russia, Tarkovsky’s homeland. This year, due to the pandemic, the festival was held online, on Tvzavr online cinema platform.