19 April,2016 06:41 AM IST | | PTI
Indian actress Seema Biswas starrer Singapore film, 'A Yellow Bird', will be screened at the Critics' Week segment of the 69th Festival de Cannes
Seema Biswas
Indian actress Seema Biswas starrer Singapore film, 'A Yellow Bird', will be screened at the Critics' Week segment of the 69th Festival de Cannes.
Seema Biswas
Biswas, best known for her portrayal of Phoolan Devi in 'Bandit Queen', plays a dejected mother to an ex-convict in the 100-minute film by Singapore's Indian origin and award-winning director K Rajagopal.
It is his first feature film and will be show during May 11 to 22 festival.
This will be the world premiere of the movie where it will compete against six other first and second features for the section's top Nespresso Grand Prize, the France 4 Visionary Award and the Camera d'Or, the Channel News Asia reported.
Biswas is the main international actor in the film which has local Indian actor Siva Palakrishnan in the lead role, with Chinese independent film star Huang Lu.
In an interview with PTI in Singapore on September 3, 2015, Biswas said she agreed to act in the film on 'the first reading of the very well written script. I was very happy to act in this film.'
The film is about an unwelcome homecoming for Siva, a Singaporean-Indian ex-convict haunted by a tragedy in his past as a contraband smuggler, as he is released after eight years behind bars.
Dejected by his mother's silence, Siva leaves home in search of his ex-wife and daughter who do not want to be found.
'A Yellow Bird' is on 'social realism', said director Rajagopal, who has made a series of short film.
Rajagopa, 5l, has previously won the Singapore International Film Festival's Special Jury Prize three years in a row, with 'I Can't Sleep Tonight' (1995), 'The Glare' (1996) and 'Absence' (1997).
He has also won other awards and accolades for his other short films, including 'Timeless', 'The New World' and 'Brother'; as well as his contributions to the film anthologies '7 Letters' and 'Lucky 7'.
It was the only film from Asia, among 15 other projects by emerging directors from around the world, to be selected for the 10th Cinéfondation's L'Atelier last year, which provides films with access to international co-productions to accelerate their completion.
It is also the very first Singaporean film to be selected for this prestigious segment of Cannes.
