NRI bags top Venice film award

Anant Singh has won the inaugural Human Rights Film Award at the 61st Venice International Film Festival.

A film with the theme of HIV/AIDS produced by South African Indian filmmaker Anant Singh has won the inaugural Human Rights Film Award at the 61st Venice International Film Festival.

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"Yesterday", the first full-length feature in the indigenous South African Zulu language, received a 15-minute standing ovation from the audience in Venice.

All films selected for the Venetian Horizons section of the festival were eligible for the Human Rights Film Award. Among the criteria for the award was striking a balance between artistic quality and the theme of human rights as also focus on social issues normally marginalized.

"Yesterday" met all the criteria and, most importantly, dealt with the issues of the role of women in society and HIV/AIDS.

My faith in the film being able to move people into understanding the issues behind the HIV/AIDS epidemic through a feature film had been vindicated by the award, said Singh.

"'Yesterday' is a truly inspirational film that pays tribute to South African women, especially the rural women who take sole responsibility of entire households in the absence of men who are forced to go to work in the cities, leaving their wives and children to fend for themselves," he said.

"This and the issue of HIV/AIDS, which was subtly dealt with in 'Yesterday', set the film apart from others in the running for the award. This certainly is an achievement for the South African film industry, especially the talented creative and technical team of 'Yesterday'."

South Africa has the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases in the world.