Indian film ‘Vimukt’ wins prestigious award at Toronto festival

Toronto: Describing it as a “ really main(a) achievement”, a panel presented a prestigious grant to the amerindic production Vimukt or In Search of the Sky, at the conclusion of the 50th anniversary edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sunday.

Set in a rural community in Madhya Pradesh and directed by Jitank Singh Gurjar, Vimukt won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema (NETPAC). In its statement, the jury said it was selected for “offering an indelible tale of tolerance, desperation and faith, conveyed through a unique lens of realism and poetics, elevated by striking performances”.

“The film transports the audience to rural central India, where an impoverished elderly couple contends with their cognitively challenged adult son and the villagers who threaten their existence. A beacon of hope comes in the form of the Maha Kumbh Mela, a pilgrimage to the world’s largest spiritual gathering where they seek renewal and new possibilities of life,” the statement added.

Earlier, TIFF’s director of programming Robyn Citizen told the Hindustan Times that Vimukt was “about somebody with a cognitive disability and their parents as caretakers living in a community that wants to exclude this young man because he’s different and it’s beautifully shot. It’s also about dignity, how we treat people with disabilities in communities and families, and how there’s maybe a lack of a social safety net for families that have to be caretakers.”

In his director’s statement, Gurjar said, “Through this film we wanted the audience to feel the weight of misfortune, the strength in belief, and the quiet suffering of people who love deeply, but don’t know how to save their loved ones.”

Other than Vimukt, another Indian production, Homebound, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, bagged the second runner-up slot in for the International People’s Choice Award, which was captured by the Korean film No Other Choice directed by Park Chan-wook, with the Sentimental Value directed by Joachim Trier the first runner-up.

The coveted People’s Choice Award, considered a tastemaker for the Oscars was won by Hamnet directed by Chloe Zhao. Zhao’s 2020 film Nomadland won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director after being feted at its world premiere at TIFF earlier.

The People’s Choice Documentary Award was won by The Road Between Us from director Barry Avrich. Set in the milieu of the October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel, TIFF attracted controversy after festival organisers first selected it and then dropped it and then restored it to the programme following an uproar. It had a single screening at the festival, but even that world premiere attracted protesters who gathered outside the venue amid a strong police presence prior to the beginning of the screening.

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