Assamese film Xhoihobote Dhemalite, which portrays children growing up in violent times and witnessing brutality around them, is set for commercial release in the US this Friday, said a news agency report.
Semi-autobiographical in nature, “Xhoihobote Dhemalite” (Rainbow Fields) is inspired by true incidents from director Bidyut Kotoky’s life and features among others actors like Victor Banerjee, Dipannita Sharma, Nakul Vaid, Naved Aslam, Nipon Goswami and Nikumoni Barua.
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The film will release at Cine Grand Cinema Fremont (California) on July 27 and at Cine Grand New Jersey on August 3.
“This is perhaps for the first time that an Assamese film is releasing commercially in US,” says Kotoky.
The movie has also bagged five nominations at the Treasure Coast International Film Festival (TCIFF), Florida – best film, best director and best screenplay, best editing (Pallavi Kotoky) and best cinematography (Satya Prakash Rath).
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Besides, it is also nominated in the best feature category at Australia’s World Film Festival – an event of independent films and in eight categories in the prestigious Love International Film Festival, the award ceremony for which is scheduled to be held on July 27 in Los Angeles.
According to Kotoky, though his film is based on the lives of children growing up in the Assam in the 1980s, the story can be of children in conflict zones from any part of the world.
“The subtle message of the futility of mindless violence that has crept into our mischievous political psyches is the understated theme of the film,” says Banerjee.
Last year, the film won the best foreign film award at the Hollywood International CineFest and was premiered in the Indian Panorama of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa.
The film is produced by ‘India Stories’, a Mumbai-based production house and co-produced by Kotoky’s Dhruv Creative Productions and US-based Kurmasana Kreates.
Kotoky says while he was struggling for funds for the film’s completion, Dubai-based philanthropist Jani Viswanath came on board as an executive producer and also pledged her earning from the film back to Assam via her NGO Healing Lives.