Namita Lal is on cloud nine. After the first look launch of her film “Country of Blind” at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, the movie was selected for a screening at the DESIblitz Film Fusion festival on June 3. That’s not it, her second film “My Goal Football” too premiered at the film festival in Birmingham, UK on June 4. An excited Namita revealed that it was quite special for her.
She said, “‘Country of Blind’ and ‘My Goal Football’ were selected for DESIblitz Film Fusion festival. It’s a huge a South Asian Film Community in Birmingham, UK. For me, it’s very special as I used to work as a banker in London and so it’s a special thing for my films to be premiered at a very special festival on the weekend of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which is such a big affair in the UK. ‘My Goal Football’ is in the sports section of the film to celebrate the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 55 days. So feel good about it.”
Talking about her role in “Country of Blind”, which also features Hina Khan, Namita said, “It is based on the iconic story of H.G.Wells’ book of the same name. It’s about a valley of sightless people who live without vision, for 600 and more years. They don’t know what sight is until a mountaineer, who can see, falls. He feels he’s superior to them, but soon realizes that the people of the community with their other senses and intuitions can do much more than him even without sight.”
“My character is of the strongest person in the community. In the book, it was a man’s character, but Rahat Kazmi is a big believer in women’s empowerment and he converted this character into a woman’s. She’s the strongest person in the village and has two daughters. There is an affair between the daughter and the mountaineer, and how she reacts to it and how she convinces the community to accept it. But otherwise, the character is extremely strong, she’s a hunter, and a farmer and she provides food for the entire community. It was a very prestigious and lovely role for me,” she added.
Though it was her third visit to the French Riviera, Namita confessed that launching the film at Cannes is very special. She added, “It was even more special this year as India was the country of honour. Launching it with Hina Khan, Rahat Kazmi, and the whole team of ‘Country of Blind’ among a group of very established filmmakers from India, UK, Europe and America, was a very satisfying experience. The first look in itself was amazing because it is based in 1870s India.”
While “Country of Blind” is still making rounds at the film festivals, the actress-producer doesn’t believe in the tag “festival films”. She said, “I do not go by these definitions. I think films like ‘Gully Boy’ and ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ managed to go to festivals, so there are no boundaries here.”
“I think the audiences have started appreciating the kind of content that independent filmmakers are making as they are making good authentic stories with authentic actors. I think that is more important, and I believe such films do land up in festivals and they get a good international audience. The content has to be exceptional, and it has to be different. There are many film festivals, and it’s always very prestigious to be selected by them because they do select exceptional content, so I am very grateful for our film to be selected,” she concluded.
