Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka bags Best Film Award in Russia

Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka bags Best Film Award in Russia

Prasanna Vithanage’s seventh feature film Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You, Without You) won the Best Film Award presented by the jury at the 3rd Sakhalin International Film Festival in Russia held from August 23 to 26.

This is the fifth international award won by the movie starring Indian actress Anjali Patil, Shyam Fernando, Wasantha Moragoda and Maheshwari Ratnam. Nine films from Russia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Philippines, the Chez Republic, Kazakhstan, Germany and France were nominated for the festival’s ‘On the Edge’ competition. Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka is a bilingual film (Sinhala/Tamil).

Adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella Meek One, the movie is set in post-war Sri Lanka. The film has already won four international awards including the Cyclo D’Or and the NETPAC Jury Prize at the 19th edition of the International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (FICA) in Vesoul, France, and the SIGNIS Award for Best Film at the 23rd African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival of Milano, Italy.

It also won the Best Actress Award for lead actress Anjali Patil at the 43 International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa last year. A co-production between India and Sri Lanka, Lasantha Nawarathna and Mohamed Adamaly have produced Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka.

Rahul Roy, Iranthi Abeysinghe, Sunil Fonseka and Nadira Adamaly are the executive producers. M.D. Mahindapala (Cinematographer), A. Sreekar Prasad (Editor), Lakshman Joseph De Saram (Music Composer), Tapas Nayak (Sound Designer) and Rob Nevis (Production Designer) are part of the crew which handled Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka. Daminda D. Madawala is the assistant director and Ebert Wijesinghe handled the make-up department. Kalpana Ariyawansa and Vindana Ariyawansa are the line producers.

(Courtesy: Daily News)