Kazakh film wins Golden Peacock at India film festival

Panaji, Dec 2 (IANS) Celebrated Kazakh documentary film maker Sergei Dvortsevoy's film 'Tulpan' Tuesday won the Golden Peacock award and a cash prize of Rs.4 million on the concluding day of the 39th International Film Festival of India in Panaji.

'Tulpan', which has in the past won the best feature film and the Golden Eye awards at the Montreal Film Festival and Zurich Film Festival respectively, is also Kazakhstan's official entry for the forthcoming Oscar awards in the foreign film category.

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The film tells the story of a family which not only survives but also relishes the harsh life as sheep and goat herders on a barren steppe.

Dvortsevoy also bagged the most promising director's award.

The special jury award at the 39th IFFI - the Silver Peacock and a cash award of Rs.1.5 million - was awarded to Sri Lankan actress Malini Fonseca for her role in the Sinhalese movie 'Akasa Kusum' (Flowers In The Sky).

The jury considered 15 films from the Asia-Pacific, Asian, Latin American regions while selecting the winners. The panel comprised Marco Muller, South Asian film maker Lav Dias, noted Indian actress Tabu and Iranian director Nikki Karimi.

Some Indian films which vied for the award were Priyadarshan's 'Kanchivaram' (Tamil) and Ramesh More's 'Mahasatta'(Marathi).

The IFFI, which started Nov 22, screened over 200 films from 40 countries while nearly 6,000 delegates from around the world attended the proceedings. However, the terror strike in Mumbai Nov 26 cast a pall over the festival.