CHENNAI: Director Vetrimaran’s Visaaranai, which has the distinction of being the first Tamil film to have ever been screened at the Venice International film Festival, has added another feather to its cap.
It is believed to have won an award under the Amnesty International’s Cinema for Human Rights section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.
Although the details of the award was not found on the official website of the Venice International Film Festival, a report on the Amnesty International’s Italian web site quoted Riccardo Noury, spokesman for Amnesty International, Italy, as saying, “Many other films in the festival have dealt with various aspects of human rights, with sensitivity and originality. But ‘Visaaranai’, taken from the experience of a survivor who is now an activist for human rights, has prevailed over others, for the powerful manner of denunciation of torture in the police stations of India.”
The film, which has been jointly produced by actor Dhanush’s Wunderbar Films and Grassroots Film Company, features Attakathi Dinesh, Anandhi, Saravana Subbiah and Kishore among others.
The film is based on Lock Up, a book by M Chandrakumar, an auto driver, who in his spare time, wrote about the torture he suffered at the hands of police after being illegally detained for a crime he did not commit.