White Sun continues to impress on the int’l circuit

Dec 1, 2017-Nepali feature film White Sun has been nominated for the 22nd Satellite Awards. The film, which has won widespread acclaim at the international film circuits this year, received a nod under the Best Foreign Langauge Film category, the organisers announced on Wednesday.

White Sun has been pitted against seven other films for the honour: Beats Per Minute (France), The Square (Sweden), Loveless (Russia), The Divine Order (Switzerland), In the Fade (Germany), First They Killed My Father (Cambodia), and Foxtrot (Israel).

Organised by International Press Academy, the umbrella body of entertainment journalists around the world, Satellite Awards recognises and awards notable achievements in the fields of cinema, television, and new media.

The 2018 iteration of Satellite Awards will take place at InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles, on February 10.

A surprise name among the nominees, White Sun, tells the story of two brothers (played by Dayahang Rai and Rabindra Singh Baniya), who fought on opposing sides during the ten-year long Maoist insurgency and find themselves in a moral battle of sorts in the aftermath of the war. In doing so, White Sun, as one reviewer put it, “manages the difficult balance of blending the individual with the universal—intensely intimate in focus, but ultimately going beyond the specific circumstances of its depiction to reveal broader truths and insight.”

Speaking to the Post about the inspiration behind the film, director Rauniyar has said, “I was 17 when the Maoist-led war started. 22 years later, for good or bad, the country is still going through a political process as a result of the same war. How could I ignore it? Still, one thing I did not want to do is make another sad, hopeless film about a bloody war... The situation and arguments in White Sun represent our mindset. The characters in the film were designed to represent the past, present, and future generations and how children, even before understanding the complexities of caste and class, suffer from archaic beliefs thrust upon them.”

After premiering in Nepal at the KIMFF 2016, the film has been received with positive reviews at home and abroad, making it the most venerated film of the year. Rauniyar also received the Best Director Award at the recently-held Critics’ Film Awards, which is presented annually by Film Critics’ Society of Nepal, the umbrella organisation of Nepali film critics. Internationally, the film has won accolades over platforms such as the Inter-film Award at the Venice Film Festival and Best Film Award at the Singapore International Film Festival, among others. White Sun will also be representing Nepal in the upcoming Academy Awards, where it will compete for the Best Foreign Language Film. White Sun is slated for a second theatrical release in Kathmandu on December 8.