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India's Labour of Love wins a prize at Abu Dhabi film fest
The Indian film, Labour of Love, won the Special Mention Award in the New Horizons Section of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which closed its eighth edition in Abu Dhabi on October 31 after a 10-day run.
The Indian film,
, won the Special Mention Award in the New Horizons Section of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, which closed its eighth edition in Abu Dhabi on October 31 after a 10-day run.
The work, from Bengal, premiered at the recent
- where too it got a prize. It then screened at the London Film Festival, winning an award there as well.
Vikram Aditya Sengupta's debut feature, Labour of Love, is truly cinema. It tells a beautiful love story -- set in the crumbling environs of Kolkata in the throes of a recession - without any dialogue. A young couple goes about their daily grind hardly without meeting each. He works the night shift in a printing press, and her job in a handbag factory keeps her engaged during the day. Yet, there is a wonderful bond between them exemplified through small but touching gestures.
The festival's most prestigious prize, Black Pearl, in the Narrative Feature Category (whose jury was led by Irrfan Khan) went to the Russian entry, Leviathan, directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev. The movie, also Russia's official entry for the Foreign Language Oscars, is a powerful look at the way land sharks operate.
The film, carrying a prize money of $100,000, also clinched the Best Actor Award for Alexey Serebryakov - who essays the protagonist.
Marie Bonnevie walked away with the Best Actress honour for her role in Denmark's A Second Chance (helmed by Susanne Bier) - a tale of a cop who comes across a pair of junkies.
A quick look at some of the other awards:
