In God's Land / KADAVULIN NILATHIL

HDV / 70 min / 2013 / Tamil / with English subtitles

Supported by AND fund, Korea
Produced by PSBT

Festival Screenings
Official Selection Competition--Busan Film Festival
Official Selection Competition--Signs Film Festival, Trivandrum
Official Selection Competition--CMS Vatavaran Festival, Delhi
Official Selection Competition--Zanzibar Film Festival
Official Selection Competition--Eco Tinai 
Official Selection--0110 International Digital Film Festival, New Delhi
Official Selection--Chennai Documentary Festival


Awards
Best Eco Documentary Feature Runner up Award at the Tinai Ecofilm Festival - TEFF 2014.
"For a human rights and environmental justice story that is relevant not only to contemporary India but also to many parts of the world, where communities struggle for the rights to their lands."

2015-- Indian Documentary Producers Association --- IDPA  Best Film in the category 'Food & Water Security'


Other screenings: (Chennai --- Periyar Thidal, MIDS, Madras University, Prasad Film Academy), (Bangalore --Alternate Law Forum, St Josephs College, Indian Institute of Science, Shristi School of Design), (Delhi -- Kriti Film Club, Sruti) & Alwan for the Arts (New York)

Synopsis
After taming a former wasteland through hard work and sweat and creating  a community, the settlers start living there. The mythical birth of their village God Sudalai Swami unfolds the village’s unique journey to fight the oppression of the ‘big’ Vanamamalai Temple. Now that the clergy owns the land, the settlers are reduced to being tenant farmers and must make way for redevelopment after the land is sold off for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). A dispute over god’s land begins. is not simply about the fight between the priests and the farmers. Using animation it recounts the history of the land and satirizes the exploitation perpetuated by religion and class distinction. The film looks at the land within the larger issue of development, forcing us to recognize the totalitarian attitude of the ideals of development, ostensibly to bring economic prosperity but rarely a benefit to real users. But the film’s most interesting element is the people living on this god’s land. Instead of fighting the temple or government, they accept this dire reality and try to find comfort in god’s will, perhaps because for them it is still the land of god. (CHO Young-jung, Busan Film Festival)

Reviews
http://www.ipg.vt.edu/Reviews/ingodsland.html 
http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/struggle-in-a-sacred-land/article4428226.ece
http://www.sunday-guardian.com/masala-art/gods-land-bought-and-sold-for-progress
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?pgNo=2&edcode=860004&eddate=2013-02-07
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/312116/exploring-sensitive-issue.html
   
Director, Camera, Sound Design and Editing --- Pankaj Rishi Kumar
Animation          --- Aditi Chitre
Location Sound --- Pankaj Rishi Kumar, Aravind Kumar, Tangella Madhavi
Sound Mix         --- Pritam das

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