Entertainment
Bham’s A Year of Cold shortlisted for Sørfond Award
Director Min Bahadur Bham’s upcoming film, A Year of Cold, has been shortlisted for the SøRFOND Award, a grant established by Norwegian South Film Fest.Director Min Bahadur Bham’s upcoming film, A Year of Cold, has been shortlisted for the SøRFOND Award, a grant established by Norwegian South Film Fest. The script of A Year of Cold was selected out of 148 applications for this year’s grant. Also making it to the shortlist are films such as The Bridge (from Egypt), Irene (from Argentina), The Erection of Toribio Bardelli (from Peru), The Invisible Border (Colombia), Uasi (Kenya), Venice (from Georgia), and Girl Made of Dust (Palestine/Lebanon).
A Year of Cold is now eligible to apply for the next round of the grant, Sørfond Pitching Forum 2017, with the winners set to be announced in March, 2018.
“The purpose is to provide producers from developing countries with the opportunity to present their film projects to Norwegian producers, with the aim of establishing co-production agreements so that the projects may apply for support through the next round of SøRFOND in March 2018,” the organisers of the Forum mention in a statement.
A Year of Cold is Bham’s second feature directorial. His debut film, Kalo Pothi, was acclaimed worldwide, winning several accolades—notably, the Best Film award at Venice International Film Festival, Critics Week, 2015. The film was Nepal’s official entry for the Academy Awards, in 2015.
While Kalo Pothi told the story of a war-torn Karnali, set at the peak of the Maoist insurgency, A Year of Cold is slated to bring to screen the story of an innocent, pregnant young girl forcefully married to two brothers at once (the film is shot in Nepal’s northern Himalayas where polygamy is still in practice), and the journey she takes along with her second husband to find the missing one. The journey teaches her lessons about love and loss and ultimately strengthens her, making her independent and self-reliant.
The film, the producers have said, will be about the connection the characters make between the materialistic and the spiritual worlds, finding the meaning of love and sacrifice. Director Bham has said that the filming of A Year of Cold will start 2019 onwards.