Asem Bhakta Singh, Special Correspondent North East
Imphal:(Waari Singbul Network ) Noted documentarian Meena Longjam’s acclaimed flick “Andro Dreams” has once again come into the limelight as the film has been selected for the 8th edition of “Aswan International Women Film Festival” scheduled to be held between April 20 and 26 in Aswan city, Egypt.
Coincidently, Meena’s daughter Aira Thoudam has also recently been selected for the prestigious US- based AFS Global Stem Academy scholarship program in the same Arabian country for the current year, bestowing the mother-daughter duo to get the rare opportunity to move there for their respective feats though different dates.
Andro Dreams depicts the journey of an all-girls football club from Andro, a remote corner in Imphal East district.
The 63-minute documentary flick is among 10 movies and only film from India selected for all competitions and other programs of the festival, says festival president Mohamed Abdel-Khalik and director Hassan Abou Elela in a letter sent from Cairo to Meena on Friday.
“We received around 300 Feature Films to participate in the official Competition and we selected only 10 films to participate in the Competition. Your film is one among those films and the only film represents India in all the competitions and other programs we have,” they added.
The festival focuses on contemporary films either by female filmmakers from around the world or revolving around women’s issues, as an overjoyed Meena reacts “I’m extremely elated to know that my documentary film Andro Dreams has been selected.”
“Egypt loves India through Bollywood movies, but I feel stories like this from a peripheral village in the northeastern corner of India will definitely serve the purpose to more diverse sections of cinema across mainstreams,” added Meena, a resident of Lamboi-khongnang-khong in Imphal West district.
“The story of Andro Dreams is a dear one and I feel, Egyptian cinema lovers will be truly touched. I am grateful to my entire team of Andro Dreams that have persevered to make this happened,” she added.
Andro Dreams stood tall when it opened the non-feature section film of the Indian Panorama at 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa in November last year.
A month later, the film was also among eleven movies selected for the 5th Korean International Ethnographic Film Festival (KIEFF) in Seoul with Koren sub-title.
