{Singapore Premiere}
SUN 23 SEP | 1:30pm
INDIA 2017
89 mins
PG
Pahari, Hindi & Tibetan with English subtitles
Directed by Bijukumar Damodaran (Dr. Biju)
Synopsis
Set in a beautiful Himalayan valley, it’s a journey of a neglected and abandoned mute boy, who loses his mother at birth and is furiously neglected by his father. When his father goes behind bars, the boy stares at a lonely and deserted life ahead. His relationship with an elderly Buddhist monk helps him to detach from his voiceless suffering and to explore the bond that each creation shares with nature. With nowhere to go, he joins a Buddhist monastery even as he fights an inner battle of unrequited love.
Director’s Bio
Dr. Biju (Bijukumar Damodaran) is an Indian filmmaker who has won India’s top film award, The National Film Award, three times. His films were widely screened at many international films festivals like Cannes, Montreal, Shanghai, Cairo, New York, Telluride, Tehran, Jeonju etc. Sound of Silence is his eighth film as writer director.
Director’s Statement
The film was shot in a beautiful Himalayan village in Himachal Pradesh – a remote place inaccessible by road. The story is about the inner conflicts of a boy who could not speak. The film is set in two backdrops. The first part is set in a beautiful rural Himalayan village, and the other, in a tranquil Buddhist monastery. Most of the characters in the film were selected from the village and they had no prior acting experience. The film is like a stream, in a calm meditative mood with stunning magical visuals of beautiful landscapes and haunting sounds of nature and
Buddhist chanting.
