Umrika

DIRECTOR: Prashant Nair   COUNTRY: India  YEAR: 2015   LANGUAGE(S): Hindi   SUBTITLES: German   RUNNING TIME: 98 min  

SECTION: Previews at Cinecittà

SYNOPSIS

In this sometimes funny, sometimes sad film, Prashant Nair tells the story of an Indian village that falls apart because of the erroneous belief that there exists a perfect, Western world.

A poor Indian village. People talk enthusiastically about “Umrika” (America in Hindi). One day, young Udai goes off to find his luck there. He carries all his family’s hopes, especially those of his young brother Rama. But he never contacts them. The parents hope, worry, despair. Finally, regular letters about Udai’s wonderful encounters and life in the US start arriving. One day, however, appearances collapse: Rama notices that a related post official is faking the letters and he goes off to seek his brother.

This lovingly made film works because of the wonderful actors and its heartwarming story and ensures that at the end every viewer is smiling. UMRIKA won the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

PRASHANT NAIR
Prashant Nair was born in the Indian city of Chandigarh and has since lived in Switzerland, Sudan, Syria, Zambia, US, France, Germany and the Czech Republic. Until a few years ago, he was working as an engineer and entrepreneur in the social media industry and has only recently started working in film. DELHI IN A DAY acquainted him with filmmaking and turned out to be a surprising success, winning several awards and being shown at over 30 festivals. Nair’s second film UMRIKA was produced at the Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Institute after he received a grant from the Sundance Institute film program and premiered at Sundance in 2015.

FILMOGRAPHY

Max & Helena (2009), Delhi in a Day (2011), Umrika (2015)

SCRIPT: Prashant Nair   PRODUCER: Manish Mundra, Swati Shetty   CAMERA: Petra Korner   EDITOR: Xavier Box, Patricia Rommel   MUSIC: Dustin O’Halloran   CAST: Suraj Sharma, Tony Revolori, Smita Tambe

PRODUCTION: Samosa Stories    WORLD SALES: Beta Cinema