LITTLE TERRORIST 2004
Ashvin Kumar (INDIA/UK)

SYNOPSIS


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The movie revolves around Jamal (played by Salim),a 12 year old Muslim Pakistani. While playing cricket near the Indo Pakistani border, the cricket ball is tossed over to the Indian side of the border separated by a fence and he mistakenly crosses the border between India and Pakistan, finding an unusual ally in a Hindu Brahmin, Bhola. Indian soldiers descend on Bhola's village searching for the 'terrorist' who crossed over. His neice Rani, insists they can't let a Muslim into their Hindu home. With Bhola and Rani grappling with the consequences of harboring a Pakistani and their deep-set prejudice against Muslims, Jamal's only hope is the humanity of a people separated by artificial boundaries a long time ago.

The plot is based on a true story: In early 2003, a twelve year old Pakistani boy crossed the Indo Pak border by mistake. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Bajpayee, restored the boy to his family in Pakistan, kicking off the thaw in tensions between these two nuclear countries who came so close to war less than a year earlier.

TECHNICAL DATA




Director: Ashvin Kumar
Producer: Ashvin Kumar
 Cast: Julfuqar Ali (Jamal), Sushil Sharma (Bhola), Megnaa Mehtta (Rani) Script: Ashvin Kumar Cinematography: Markus Hürsch Music: Nainita Desai Runtime: 15 min. Color. Language: Hindi.Spanish Subtitles.

DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR
Ashwin Kumar

Ashvin Kumar took a degree in Media and Communicacions from the University of London. Since this moment, he began working like an actor and director in theatre. Thus, during 6 years, he was editor, producer, actor and director. He directed short films, commercials and music videos as well as set up and ran a digital editing studio in Delhi.

In 2001 he moved to London where he attended the London Film School. Over there he wrote, directed and produced short films like First Day Out and Sam, a ten minutes short about a young couple coming to terms with the loss of their only child. Also, he wrote two feature films called Cricket and Samir. Ashvin will be travelling to film festivals worldwide to promote Road to Ladakh, his first hour-long feature.

However, his great success was Little Terrorist, a shortfilm that was nominated for the Best Short Film at the 2005 Oscars and it get several awards in Film Festivals as Flanders International Film Festival or Montreal World Film Festival.