UNESCO jury has awarded the XXIIIrd prix “Enrico Fulchignoni” to Shubhashish Bhutiani for his movie HOTEL SALVATION (Mukti Bhawan).
Jury’s motivation : “For the values finely expressed on the importance of family, time passed together in respect and with love, and those values of human rights which we all share.
The maturity and depth of emotions and cinematic vocabulary used to display these belie the young age of the director, and we look forward to seeing many more of his films in the future.
HOTEL SALVATION is part of the Biennale College – Cinema program at the Venice Film Festival which gives support since 2012 to the young filmmakers to bring their vision to the big screen and in this case the effort has borne marvelous fruit. ”
CICT-Unesco Jury was composed by : Jasmina Boijc (founder and director UNAFF, Stanford University), Pierpaolo Saporito (President of OCCAM, the UN Observatory on Cultural Communication and v.president of CICT-UNESCO, Gabriel Griffin-Hall (Author and Poet), Eliana Bantchev (CICT-UNESCO General Secretary Delegate).
Three years ago, Shubhashish Bhutiani’s short film KUSH had won the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film.
Starring Adil Hussain (Life of Pi), Mukti Bhawan is a joyful tale of love and leave-taking. It takes place in a hotel where people check in to spend the last days of their lives. However, the story is not that much about death but much more about a special father/son relationship and their capacity to let go.
It seems the audience in Venice was carried away by this universal story of love, redemption and mourning. When Daya, a 77 year old man, wakes up from a strange nightmare, he knows his time is up and he must get to Varanasi immediately in hope of dying there to attain salvation. His dutiful son, Rajiv, is left with no other choice but to drop everything and make the journey with his stubborn father, leaving behind his wife and daughter. The two of them check into Mukti Bhawan/Hotel Salvation, a hotel devoted to people hoping to spend their last days there. Rajiv finds himself having to live and take care of his father for the first time in his life.
The Award will be granted at a ceremony in Paris by UNESCO where they will also screen the film for a select group of invited guests.
Last year’s winner of this Award at Venice was Beasts of No Nations.
